Rated M for Depiction of violent scenes and suicidal tendencies.
"Words"- Quotes or speech.
'Words' - Thoughts.
"Words"- Kyuubi's voice.
Disclaimer- I Do Not own Naruto, because if I did I would be able to die in peace. Everything you read from now on may not be canon. Credit goes to Mashahi Kishimoto for his amazing manga.
Please review the story if you have the time, because your feedback helps me improve my story line somewhat. It's fine if you have something negative to say about the story, since I am really bad at writing and am bound to make mistakes. Flame me if you want, but do it so I could identify my mistakes.
Lawrencedj: Glad you found the story unique. I plan on updating it every 3-4 weeks. I know it is pretty slow, but I have to plan many things in advance and I have school to go to. So I have to do most of my work on the train, hence the delay.
Facebreaker17: Thank you so much for the compliment! I plan on using a lot of strategic fighting in this story, and I am relieved to get a positive response about it. The official pairing is Naruto/ Ino. Naruto will mainly focus on wind, but due to specific enemies (hint* his so called 'best' friend) he will eventually develop a little of lightning. Also his lightning isn't too strong, so he is limited from using heavy lightning jutsu like chidori, but he will use it in an efficient and unique way . His father had wind and lightning affinities which is why I made Naruto have it. But I do appreciate your suggestion, but if I do that my whole story would have to be changed.
Elder Sibling: Which one would you think would hurt someone more? A rejection from normal teams or seeing your teacher killed for your incompetence? Answer is the latter one. Also Naruto would be assigned to be support, which is darn close to official teams. Sorry that I am not a psychological expert like you tho.
Guest: Sorry you thought my story was cliched.
Thanks to all the others who reviewed. Your reviews make my day, positive or negative.
Anyway we are at Reviews:17, Favs:57, Follows:87. Let's increase that number fast!
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Sorry if you felt the chapter was rushed, I will be fixing mistakes whenever I get the time. Let me know about the mistakes.
Hope you guys like the story!
Main events in this chapter: Naruto's test finishes and he gets the results. Kurenai's hate for Naruto is explained a bit more in details.
Chapter 3: All Or Nothing!
The whistle blew, indicating it was time for Naruto to run his ass off from the ground before getting caught or injured. The jounins would definitely not hold back if the person to be injured had the ability to heal quicker than anyone else in the village. Now Naruto's biggest problem was that there were too many directions off the field that he could follow. He started off in the direction of the trees to his back, as soon as he smelled the presence of Kurenai, and Kakashi closing in extremely fast from in front of him.
At a distance Asuma saw Naruto running towards the open fields and sharply changing his direction of motion to enter the dark forest. Asuma felt almost bad for Naruto. Even though he was extremely smart to avoid traps, he fell for this one. Call it a jounin's intuition, Asuma instinctively knew that the forest was a trap for Naruto.
Naruto had been touching the barks of the trees to gain some sense of direction while walking through the innumerous vines, shrubs and trees. The stagnant air flow inside the forest was almost suffocating and quite frustrating for him. The strong smell of the vines overpowered every other traces of smell, and with no wind Naruto's nose became as useless as his eyes in the dark forest. By now Naruto could feel the danger dawning upon him, and no sooner he felt that, he was hanging upside down from a tree. Squinting really hard he managed to see the rope that attached to his leg to the branch, was being held in Kakashi's hands, who was at the moment sighing in disappointment. "This was the simplest trap in this forest, and you fell for it. Well the whole forest was a trap and you fell for it, quite disappointing indeed."
After grumbling for a while, Naruto spoke up,"How was the whole forest a trap?"
Kakashi made a hand sign, and a clone formed next to him. "This was the trap." Naruto's face showed not a single sign of being convinced, so Kakashi continued, "When you ran after Asuma-san even though he was miles away, I knew it was your sense of smell that helped you. So I decided to use your smell against you. I created this solid clone to run in from the direction opposite to the forest, so that you start heading towards the forest."
"That was cool, but how does it help you in any way?"
Kakashi's eyebrows started twitching in annoyance, "Since there's no wind in this woods, you cannot smell me, and it's too dark for you to even see me. Entering into an unknown territory without caution is proof enough that you are not ready to be a ninja."
Kakashi then dispelled both of his shadow clones, and his eyes went straight to look at the hanging Naruto that turned into smoke exactly after seeing Kakashi's reaction.
The clone that lured Naruto into the forest had long thought his job was done, and continued in his indulgence in reading Icha Icha novels. But a while later he saw a speck of blonde running out of the forest, which he immediately started chasing until. His chase would have definitely ended he was dispelled by the original Kakashi.
Kakashi ran out of the forest where his clone was chasing Naruto, and as expected Naruto didn't make it too far from that place given the time interval was extremely small. 'Well one shunshin shouldn't be too much for testing a jinchuuriki.' With that self-consoling thought he teleported his existence hundreds of meters away right in front of Naruto who received a solid kick to his guts to be sent flying for several meters.
To Kakashi it was just another kick that he delivered to a ninja, but to someone like Naruto it was like getting hit by a burning hammer in the stomach. All the air was knocked out of him in a single moment. He tried kneeling for a while to stabilize his breathing, but Kakashi pulled him up by his ears and his intention which was to bind Naruto's hands with ropes was left unfulfilled as Naruto formed the seal for Kage Bunshin Jutsu. Five clones formed around him that started to attack Kakashi from all sides to create distance between him and Naruto. Kakashi just looked at the wobbling figure with shock. Naruto couldn't even stand up properly, let alone think well enough. 'He has no control over his body and mind, and he is still able to form solid clones at ease. He must have practiced making tens, no, hundreds of clones everyday last week!' However to a seasoned ninja, a group of five clones with no amazing Tai-jutsu was ages away from being a challenge. As soon as Kakashi popped through the clones one by one, Naruto steadied himself. His amazing healing factor kicked in to allow him to gain control over his body again.
He started running again and deciding it's time to use his tools he distributed loads of Kunai and Shuriken to the clones he created immediately afterwards. Spreading out around Kakashi the clones started a barrage , throwing sharp blades aimed Kakashi's head, most of which missed the target or got deflected by the kunai in Kakashi's hand. Bunch of Naruto's clones started to attack Kakashi to allow the real one to escape. Once again Kakashi simply flew past each of the clones, not before cutting parts of them using his kunai. Once he caught up to Naruto he tripped Naruto to the ground with a kick to the ankle. The pathetic mess that Naruto seemed compared to Kakashi, was then kicked around by Kakashi. "So you wanted to be a ninja but you can neither fight nor run? What a waste of all that chakra." The lazy laid back tone in Kakashi's voice made it sound a hundred times more annoying to Naruto. Naruto started forming clones around Kakashi again. Kakashi punched one of the clones into a smoke of cloud and instantly another clone formed right behind Kakashi that was reaching for his face with his fist. Kakashi didn't even look back, as he tilted his head to the side to dodge the incoming fist and punched through the cloud that was once a shadow clone. Naruto stood there shocked as he watched all of his clones getting beaten up without kakashi breaking a sweat. Naruto formed clones to his side, behind him or above him. Nothing worked in Kakashi, he had but only one eye to view his surrounding, but his fighting made it look like he had eyes everywhere. Naruto stood there, quiet as a rock. All of his tricks rendered ineffective, any chance of him passing reduced to mere imagination. Kakashi decided to enlighten the boy who looked like he had seen a ghost. "You know, I too can create shadow clones. I know more than well how and where you could create clones to best me. Every time I destroyed your Clone, I left some portion of my body unguarded to draw you into attacking there. You weren't making clones in different places to attack me, I was forcing your clones to be created in different places to be destroyed by me."
Understanding washed over Naruto. Fighting with clones wouldn't bring him any closer to an escape route. 'I see, so he knows all about my clones. I have to do something that no clone user would ever do, and only then can I get even any hopes of escaping from him.' Naruto started going through any and everything that happened today. Most clearly he remembered how Kakashi had destroyed every one of his clones without breaking a sweat. 'I don't think I can escape him without taking a risk. It's the only option I have left to pass this test. I don't care what happens to me, but I have to pass the test.' Naruto formed 15 clones around him. Now 15 Naruto charged towards Kakashi and the other Naruto made for one last escape attempt. The 15 Naruto that was going to attack Kakashi started running in a zigzag formation.
'I see, so you made the clones run in a zigzag so that I cannot kill them all in a single line of attack. I would have to change my direction of running and also waste more time behind them.' Then Kakashi took out his kunai knives in his hands. 'But still, what a waste.' Kakashi took 8 Kunais and threw them at the clones on the right of the zigzag formation. The Kunais hit their target head on, literally, in the middle of their head.
As soon as the clones on the right dispersed, the clones on the left got their warning sign. Having no time to think about a plan. They once again divided themselves in the zigzag formation. 'This is not going to help you this time Naruto. All 7 of you are in range of both of my hands.' Kakashi took out two more Kunais in both of hands, and in one straight line he charged forward, both arms extended and blades sticking out. He sliced through them like butter, and nothing more was even needed since a single strike was enough to dispel clones. He headed straight forward towards the other Naruto that escaped. He started running really fast. But this movement was much slower than his movements in a fight. This time the chase would come down to stamina, who ever lasts longer will be the winner. In a fight all kakashi had to do was create bursts of extremely fast motions for a small amount of time. Of those bursts of fast movements were held throughout the chase his body would be exhausted. On the other hand hand Naruto had an extremely strong body and great stamina due to the Kyuubi being in him. Even if Naruto couldn't move extremely fast, he could still run for hours without being exhausted to the core. The chase however continued for a short period of time, about 5 minutes at most. As soon as Kakashi stopped him with a tackle, Naruto burst into a cloud of smoke. 'Not this again. How many clones does he have to make before he can face me by himself." Kakashi started looking around to find any trace of the blonde boy. Kakashi went back the path he followed in his chase, and there he saw it on the ground the proof of his own failure. 'So he tricked me using my own experience of shadow clones.' Blood, red as the petals of a rose, leading a straight path forward on the ground. 'Well there was no escaping it I guess, after all he put his life on the line to make that trap work.'
Flashback
Kakashi just disclosed his secret to how he was able to defeat all of Naruto's clones without a single hitch. Naruto thought of so many scenarios at once, it was almost like those days in class when he would try to prank Iruka and fail. He would have to think of hundreds of counter measures within a few seconds unless he wanted to stay and clean up whole building. But unlike a few minutes earlier, now it was easier for him to think of any ideas, because any plan without a risk was out of the question. He had seen just how little a dot his abilities in comparison to Kakashi's abilities. Now all he could do was rely on the element of surprise, and hope his luck would favor him for once.
He started off by making 15 clones which started to divide in a zigzag. He himself went into the group of clones charging towards Kakashi while a clone took the honor of running away from the battleground. Kakashi would try to chase the clone thinking him to be the real, since no clone user would put their own life at risk when they can make clones. The two sides with the clones would divide Kakashi's attention. If Kakashi tried to take on the clones on the right side of the line, the the real Naruto who was on the left would throw a Kunai far away to do a Kawarimi (Body-replacement) jutsu to create some distance. But if Kakashi decides to attack the clones on the left first, then Naruto is screwed. He was only hoping that Kakashi would pick the group with the larger number of clones first, which was the line on the right.
Naruto saw the events unfold before his eyes, all of his calculations were proven once again by the display of Kakashi's skills. Kakashi didn't even spare a moment to see if the Kunais hit the target, as he started heading towards the clones on the left. As expected the Kunais pierced through the heads of the clones on the right. At that moment time almost slowed down for Naruto. He ran to create a zigzag like before with no motive, only an instinctive action to offer any form of consolation to his mine that he was trying to save himself. He actually had the option to admit defeat right there and live for another day, but he would choose death over being useless for a year as a ninja. He chose to stand his ground, Kunai held high in his hand, putting his full concentration on what was happening in front of him.
Kakashi moved closer and closer and with every step his heartbeat for faster and faster. One then two then three then four then five then six, all six clones were sliced cleanly within moments. Now he was closing in with both his blades and hands positioned to one side of his body as he zoomed past. Naruto saw the blade slice cleanly through his biceps. The bones were saved thanks to Naruto's extremely reaction of jumping sideways the moment the blade sliced his muscle. Naruto fell down to the side, not letting his eyes leave Kakashi's feet to predict his next move. But to his surprise, Kakashi kept running forward, extremely fast. Naruto's confusion was solved once he realized that Kakashi in the great of the moment must have confused slicing his muscle to be the same as slicing through a shadow clone. Naruto saw him fade into the horizon chasing after his clone, while he got off the ground.
Flashback End
Naruto didn't have time to take a breather, since the pain in his hand didn't let him calm down, and to his despair good nose picked up a familiar scene. The smell that instantly let him know that he isn't going to be able to rest in the near future. The intense smell of Kurenai's lipstick blew in with the cool air that was blowing over the field. Naruto took one look at the women that was standing afar, her hair blowing in the wind. The front of her body covered in shade. But even through the shadow, her scarlet red irises met Naruto's blue irises. A jolt of fear ran through his body as he started running away from her. He knew she wouldn't kill him in a test, but his body and mind wouldn't listen to logic anymore.
He ran and ran,his left arm swinging back and forth, blood dripping down his fingers. He has already lost enough blood to make a normal person faint, but he kept on running. He couldn't move his hand anymore. Even though the pain was unbearable, he had a better ability to cope with it than anyone else in the village. Considering he was a jinchuuriki, it was normal for him to be kicked or often punched out of stores by adults, and rarely even beaten by a mob. He got that similar taste of pain today, after a long time infact, considering no civilian wanted to lay hands on him after his admission into the ninja academy. But one thing was different today, while his past injuries healed really fast, his muscle injury today didn't seem to heal at all. He carried his limp hand in his other hand running towards the end of the ground. He couldn't believe it, he was somehow approaching closer and closer to the gate until everything went to hell. Vines and thorns wrapped around his body, while flower petals flew past him. The thorns crushed down on his limp arm, while the other parts of his body started bleeding and rupturing. The flower petals circled each other until they built layers upon layers which gave rise to the woman that he least wanted to see at the moment.
Kurenai looked at him and said two words, "You failed."
Naruto got kicked, punched around, sliced by Kunais, ripped apart by thorns but he fainted right after hearing the word of him failing.
It was faint but a few voices finally reached his mind through the strong state of dizziness.
"Naruto wake up."
"Kurenai, we weren't supposed to use any high level techniques on him."
"It was just a simple Genjutsu, nothing extra ordinary. Even academy students could repel it."
"But that's not the point, you could have broken off the genjutsu after he went unconscious at least."
"I apologize, because I forgot."
Naruto opened his eyes after a large struggle and he saw Kakashi and Gai sitting next to him, while Kurenai and Asuma were standing up, facing their backs to each other. He looked around to remember what was going on, and then he saw the gate of the ground nearby and remember his loss. He failed the test, all the hard work and he still couldn't do it. He knew he was facing three jounins, but none of them even used a fraction of their strength and he still couldn't run away. His face told it all, today was definitely not a day he enjoyed.
"No need to look all sad. You didn't fail, yet." said Kakashi, emphasizing on the last word. Naruto looked up first on hope, and then confusion. "The test you took was made to test your skills and abilities. Whether or not you managed to escape the ground isn't the only factor we are going to consider while deciding to take you in as support for our teams."
Seeing Naruto still confused, Asuma joined in, "Each of our teams have weaknesses and strengths. So the test was to show us whether we can make use of your skills in our teams, not to see of you could escape the ground from 3 elite-jounins."
Naruto understood what he meant, "So did I pass or not?"
Kurenai opened her mouth again, and Naruto instinctively expected a grim response. "I do not think you are necessary for my team. I have a tai-jutsu specialist, and strong mid-ranged fighter and a smart long ranged fighter. All three of them are great trackers. You on the other hand failed to show any potential in gen-jutsu which was the only thing we lack. Plus I can not take the risk of taking a Jinchuuriki in my team."
As harsh as it was, Naruto understood all her points. She wasn't wrong, Naruto sucked at genjutsu and he didn't even know if he has any control over his monster, the nine tail. However Kakashi then spoke up, "I apologize for what I said during the test. You do have immense potential as a ninja. Even though I think my team is self sufficient, you might be a good addition to the team as a support sometimes. I will definitely train you with your shadow clones, since I am one of the few shadow clone users in Konoha. It's just that my team has some issues in teamwork, so I am going to spend a lot of time to fix their teamwork by completing missions with just the three genins in my team. However I definitely take you on missions I feel it is necessary to have extra help."
Naruto couldn't contain the smile in his face. But things only got better when Asuma decided to speak, "Well I am definitely taking you as support for my team. My team has extremely unique jutsus and high intelligence, but they lack the manpower to utilize their strengths. Plus I am only wind user that can train you in manipulating wind nature chakra, so I will definitely be taking you as support."
Gai was the last man to speak, "My team of genins is extremely strong, and to take you as support would show my lack of trust in them. But you remind me of one of my students. Even though he had the lowest score in academy, his youthful spirit and hard work has made him one of the strongest in his age. You have the spirit my Boy, and I wouldn't dare to waste it. I shall train you to reach your goals, I swear that upon my youthfulness!" The shine from his teeth blinded the spectators around him. But Naruto was definitely one happy man at that moment.
Kakashi, Asuma and Gai started discussing between themselves as to how and when they would train Naruto. "I will train him to properly use his clones. My team doesn't need much help in small missions, so I would leave the missions mostly to you Asuma."
"Alright, I can't teach him to use his wind nature right now anyway. So I guess I could get him some experience with missions, and fighting strategies."
" Gai, his taijutsu form seems to be horrible, I guess you should start teaching him from the basics of Taijutsu."
"Since you entrusted me with the duty of teaching him Tai-jutsu I shall not disappoint you my Eternal Rival!"
"Well,then that's settled. Asuma how about you train him for four days, I will train him once a week, and Gai will teach him once a week, so he will have one day free."
"Now, now Kakashi, just because I was most interested to take him doesn't mean I should do the most work, right?"
"He could reduce the time it takes for you to finish missions everyday you know. Especially when you have to do D-rank missions, you could use his clones." Jounin or not, no one wanted to spend hours after hours looking for cats and cleaning yards. Asuma at that moment thanked God for bestowing upon him the gift called Naruto.
After telling Naruto when to meet up, everyone left the ground. Kurenai planned to go home by herself, but Asuma joined in her voyage to her home. "So mind explaining what your problem is with Naruto?"
"Not much, I just believe he is dangerous."
"By dangerous you mean like killing someone with his pranks?"
"Real funny Asuma, you know exactly what I am talking about. He can not control the beast inside him."
"If he had no control, Konoha would be in ashes by now."
"Let me rephrase it then, he is losing control of the beast. It was Iruka last time, next time it might be someone else."
"You know, it only happened because of Mizuki's betrayal and Naruto's anger at him. It wasn't his fault."
"Exactly, it wasn't his fault. But someone still died, and next time the same thing could happen."
"I guess there is no point in trying to convince you. But one day you will see how wrong you were."
Kurenai kept walking absentmindedly. She had the least bit of intelligence to know that Naruto was the vessel, not the beast itself. But she knew one thing from her experience, a beast whether caged or not, can grab even the slightest opportunity to escape. She learned it from mistakes in her life, the one person she wished she could have saved. Yakumo Kurama, the heiress to the genjutsu specialist Kurama clan, had an extremely strong genjutsu Kekkei-Genkai that not even she could control. Kurenai wanted to train her feeble body to stand toe to toe against the might of other ninjas simply through her genjutsu. But she failed. The monster inside Yakumo had no restraint, and even after Kurenai sealed the monster she failed to stop it. The monster killed Yakumo's parents. Yakumo was left to survive in the world, without her parents, without even knowing who killed her parents. She didn't want the same thing to repeat with Naruto, he had suffered too much already. She saw the lifeless eyes of Naruto. Kurenai couldn't even tell Yakumo that she killed her parents herself in fear that Yakumo would fall in an endless feeling of guilt. But Naruto on the other hand saw it happen with his own eyes, he saw his teacher dying because of him right in his arms. If something like that were to happen again, Naruto wouldn't be able to live with his guilt, and the people around would never be safe again. No matter how bad Naruto would have felt not being a ninja, it would have been a lot better than hating himself so much. She couldn't make him understand, she just didn't have the words or the courage to tell him that after what she did to her own student. At this point her only hope was that she was wrong, and Asuma was right. Asuma would change Naruto, he would not let Naruto fall down the same road that she let her student Yakumo do.
Not even noticing how time passed by, she was in front of her door, and Asuma looked around to see if anyone was looking. And in a blink they entered the house, closing the door and the world behind them as they started engaging in a 'stress-relieving' activity.
The sun was setting in the horizon, while Naruto walked through the marketplace. The people around him glared at him, whispered at him, but Naruto didn't care. It definitely hurt, since now he knew why they hate him. Now he knew that they hate him for something he didn't even do, but it mattered not. He had already resolved himself never to trust anyone, and so it wouldn't even hurt if he was betrayed, or hated by them. All that mattered for now was that he could fight as a ninja, hone his skills as a ninja and show to everyone that Iruka didn't just waste his life away. He touched the headband on his head as he closed his eyes and imagined the silhouette of Iruka walking side by side with him. 'I am finally an official genin. I will definitely become strong like I told you sensei. So keep watching over me as I fulfill my promise.'