Path of the Shinobi

Path of the Shinobi

Author's Note: I really need more reviews. Thanks to KyuubiWindscar and Hotshot45 for reviewing, but if I'm going to continue this story, I'll need more feedback.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 3: The Road to Genin

Naruto awoke the next morning and reluctantly opened his eyes. He slowly got out of bed, got dressed, and grabbed a cup of Ramen. Once he finished, he strapped on his kunai holster and SeikaKage, and took a quick look in the mirror. His blonde hair had grown out past his ears. His bangs framed his face as unruly spikes topped off his head. He took one last look and headed out the door early for his first day at the Ninja Academy.

As he walked down the streets, Naruto wondered what the Ninja Academy would be like. The only training he had ever done was with Abrame, and that was one-on-one. While he walked he noticed that he was getting a lot of glares from everyone.

"I guess the old man was right, they do recognize me," he thought. "I bet it's the whiskers."

He decided to stop by a clothing shop so he could get out of the torn rags he was wearing after his battle with Mizuki. The first shopkeeper he went took one look at him and waved him away. "We don't serve your kind here," the man glared.

"Damn, the old man wasn't kidding when he said they didn't like me. Well, there's got to be plenty of other clothing stores in a village this big." Naruto thought optimistically.

But his hope soon dwindled as he was rejected by shop after shop. "Now this is just ridiculous, there has to be someone that runs a shop in this village that doesn't hate me!" Naruto shouted out as he walked through a rather poor part of Konoha.

Suddenly, two girls dashed past him. One was blond and the other had pink hair. They seemed to be racing, but Naruto couldn't determine what they were saying through all the shouting. They blew past him, spinning him around and around. However, the girls soon disappeared as suddenly as they had come.

"What the hell?" Naruto scratched his head as he finally stopped spinning. Then he noticed something. "Alright! I never thought to look here!" He had found another clothing store, probably the only one he hadn't checked in all of Konoha.

He walked into the store, only to fine the shopkeeper shiver and tremble like many of the others before him. "Wh-What do y-you want he-here?" the man stuttered.

"I'm just here to buy some clothes. What do you got?"

"Well, t-to tell the tr-truth…" the shopkeeper began nervously.

"Oh, I get it," Naruto said angrily. "You don't want to serve the demon boy."

"I-It's not that…"

"Oh, so you don't want my money," Naruto said with a smirk.

The man's eyes instantly lit up. "Money did you say?"

"That's right. I'm here to buy something, and if you want my money, you better sell me whatever I want," Naruto accented by waving a few bills.

The shopkeeper seemed to harbor an intense internal struggle as he began to fidget from the choice.

"Well, business has been rather slow lately, and my wife is always complaining…" the man pondered as he twiddled his fingers. "Very well, I'll do it. But…whatever you buy here, you didn't get it from me."

Naruto nodded in agreement as the shopkeeper showed him around the shop, giving him plenty of suggestions. Naruto thanked the man and began to look around on his own. In the end, he decided to pick out the faded black pants and blue sandals that all the shinobi in his village seemed to wear. Then after much thought, Naruto decided to go with a dark blue undershirt. On the outside, he chose a black short-sleeved shirt with a red spiral design on the back and his right sleeve. The sleeves ran to his elbows loosely, while he slipped on two thin, black, fingerless gloves that covered his forearms.

Strapping SeikaKage onto his back and two long metal forearm protectors on, he looked at himself in the mirror. Satisfied with his appearance, he paid and thanked the shopkeeper, which seemed to shock the man, considering Naruto's earlier display of bribery. He realized it was about time to get to school, so he quickly turned around and headed for the shinobi sector of the village.

He kept walking, made another turn, and abruptly ran into a lavender-haired girl. When they both opened their eyes, the girl blushed furiously once she realized that he was on top of her. "He's kind of cute," she thought.

"Sorry," Naruto apologized as he helped her up. "I guess I wasn't looking at where I was going." But the girl just stood and blushed even harder.

"Okkkk, well, my name's Naruto Uzumaki. I'm on my way to the Ninja Academy, but I sort of got lost. Do you know which way it is?"

"H-hi, I-I'm H-hinata Hyuga. I'm o-on m-my way t-to the a-academy t-too."

Just then a tall figure in white robes came up behind Hinata.

"Hinata," he spoke, "don't talk to strangers. You need to get to the academy now."

"Well, I'll see you at the academy Hinata," Naruto said as he waved goodbye.

Naruto continued to walk around until he finally found the academy. He went inside and found the door. Naruto opened the door and was about to walk inside, when suddenly two girls dashed in first. He realized it was the two girls from before.

"Yeah! I beat you Ino!" the pink-haired girl shouted.

"No way, Sakura, I definitely got through that door first!" yelled the blond one. "Sasuke is mine!" she shouted as she pointed to an emo looking boy with raven hair.

"Oh great," Naruto realized. "They're fangirls."

"Hn," Sasuke smirked. "Took you long enough, you dobe."

"Who do you think you are to call me a dobe?" Naruto asked.

"Hn."

"That ignorant bastard," he thought.

Naruto looked around and saw Hinata. He walked over and picked a seat between her and a guy with a dog on his head.

"Hey Hinata."

"H-hello N-naruto."

At that moment, the teacher walked. "Alright everyone, no more talking. You will all call me Iruka-sensei, got that?"

"Yes Iruka-sensei," the class chanted.

Iruka began to call the names of everyone is the class.

"Chouji Akimichi," he called as a fat kid eating chips raised his hand.

"Shikamaru Nara," as a bored looking boy lazily raised his hands.

"Kiba Inuzuka." The boy with the dog on his head next to him raised his hand.

"Shino Aburame." A boy with a sunglasses and a big neckband coldly raised his hand.

Iruka continued to see if everyone was present until he covered everyone in the class.

"Ok, today we will be covering the Transformation Jutsu, but first, we have a new student today," Iruka announced. "His name is Naruto Uzumaki.

"Wait," Kiba shouted. "Do you mean tell me that he's the demon brat my father told-."

"Moving on," Iruka said quickly. "Naruto, why don't you come up here and try the Transformation Jutsu. Why don't you try transforming into our Hokage?"

Unfortunately, Abrame had never taught Naruto such a jutsu. Abrame had only focused his efforts on jutsu that he thought would help Naruto on the battlefield. He performed the hand seal, focused his chakra, and hoped for the best.

The transformation was going fine until Naruto accidentally tapped into Kyuubi's chakra. His entire body emitted red chakra as is started to intensify. The result was an enormous explosion that completely blew apart the classroom.

When Naruto opened his eyes, he saw that he had blown open the roof and two of the walls. The inside of the classroom was covered in debris and dust. Everyone had taken cover so they were all ok but the classroom had been destroyed. A few of the other kids started to come out of the dust.

"I knew it!" Kiba shouted. "He is the demon kid that my father told me about. He's got the Kyuubi sealed in him. He's the Nine-Tailed Fox!"

The other children began to look at him nervously as they started to back away. They edged towards the destroyed door and most of them abruptly turned and ran.

Only Hinata, Shino, Sasuke, Sakura, and Ino stayed. Hinata looked worried while Sasuke acted like nothing had happened. As for Sakura and Ino, they stayed only because Sasuke did. Shino was curiously studying the Naruto; even he couldn't help but look interested behind those glasses.

"I knew this would happen someday," Iruka sighed. "Hey Naruto, why don't' we get some Ramen. We need to talk."

Both of them headed towards the Ramen Stand. They both ordered and Iruka turned towards Naruto. "

"Naruto, what happened in the classroom was dangerous," Iruka said sadly. "If you can't control the Kyuubi's charka, you could seriously injure someone."

"I know," Naruto replied. "I don't know what happened. I was focusing my chakra and then suddenly, I felt something really powerful come over me. I just lost control."

"That's exactly the problem. You don't know how to control the Fox's power. We need to find someone that can help you control it."

After Naruto had finished his ramen, he was about to pay when Iruka stopped him. "The ramen was my treat," he explained.

"ALRIGHT! Thanks Iruka-sensei!" Naruto said happily.

"No problem," he said with a smile. "Just try not to get into anymore trouble."

He was walking home when Hinata suddenly walked up to him.

"Are you ok Naruto-kun?" she asked.

"I'm fine Hinata," he turned to walked away.

"Wait! Naruto-kun, I know what you're going through, and it's nothing to ashamed of."

Naruto whirled around. "It doesn't matter," he said bitterly.

"Naruto-kun, you aren't the Kyuubi, you're its container. If anything we should be thanking you for stopping that monster from killing us all."

Naruto looked up and Hinata saw that he had a warm smile on his face. "Thanks Hinata." He gave Hinata a reassuring look as turned to leave and gave her a wave to say goodbye.

(Two years later)

For two years Naruto mastered the different types of jutsu that Iruka-sensei taught them. Besides the Transformation Jutsu, there was the Clone Jutsu, the Substitution Jutsu, many others. He also learned basic shinobi strategy, rudimentary medical treatment, weapons use and care, and even some new taijutsu techniques. These were all things Abrame had never taught him, probably out of his rush to give Naruto protection.

Even though at first, the others had been reluctant to accept him, the other students at the academy learned to like Naruto. Yes, they thought he was somewhat of an idiot, but he was a likeable idiot. The whole matter involving the Kyuubi was tossed aside as Naruto made friends with everyone.

Today was the Graduation Exam. Everyone was tested on different types of techniques until it was finally Naruto's turn.

Naruto did fine on his exam. His perform every technique perfectly except the Clone Jutsu, in which he had only managed to make two good clones; the third had been shorter the rest. Mizuki didn't think it was good enough, but Iruka thought other wise.

"Good job Naruto," Iruka congratulated. "Even though your Clone Jutsu could use some work, but we'll pass you anyway. Here's your headband."

"Yeah!" Naruto exclaimed happily.

"Tomorrow, we'll announce the teams and you'll also meet your teacher."

However, later that night, as Naruto was walking home, he saw Mizuki dashing into the forest with a giant scroll. Naruto instantly thought it was sort of suspicious, so he decided to follow Mizuki.

Shortly after Naruto headed into the forest after Mizuki, he saw a few Chunin near by. "Mizuki's stolen the Scroll of Forbidden Seals. We are in pursuit and moving to intercept," Naruto overheard them say.

"So he's stolen the scroll," Naruto thought. "I'll have to stop him."

Mizuki soon stopped at a clearing and was prepared to open the scroll when he saw the Chunin arrive. Quickly, Mizuki disappeared in a puff of smoke. When he reappeared, he slit the throat of one of them and showered the other two with kunai and shuriken. Then, he threw a giant windmill shuriken, which promptly sliced through the last two Chunin. The shuriken spiraled in an arc and returned to Mizuki's waiting hand.

Meanwhile, Naruto jumped into the clearing. "Return the scroll," Naruto said determinedly.

"And what are you going to do to make me," Mizuki retorted.

Naruto rapidly perform a series of complex hand signs that Abrame had taught him. "Demonic Arts: Shadow Fire Torrent Jutsu," Naruto shouted. An enormous vortex of black fire erupted from the ground and began to make its way toward Mizuki.

"Where did he learn such a devastating technique," Mizuki wondered as he quickly dashed around to avoid get hit.

Unfortunately, the jutsu consumed too much chakra, and Naruto was forced to end it.

Taking advantage of the pause, Mizuki charged forward and threw one of the windmill shuriken. Naruto dodged it, pulled out SeikaKage, and focused some of his remaining chakra into it. The sword glowed white and burst into flame as he easily sliced straight through the shuriken once it had turned around.

"It's time to end this," Naruto yelled. "Fire Sword Release: Blazing Dragon!" He stabbed his sword into the ground, which caused fire to spread across the ground in eight directions. The flames then spiraled into the air and combined, forming a giant dragon. It shot towards Mizuki and when the flames cleared, he was covered in third-degree burns and unconscious.

Moments later, a squad of Anbu arrived and were amazed to see that Naruto had defeated Mizuki. But they were also shocked to see Mizuki burned so badly. Naruto was immediately brought to Hokage tower before Sarutobi.

"Naruto, we are all curious about what kind of jutsu Abrame taught you," Sandaime said curiously. "After the Chunin pursuing Mizuki didn't return, we about to send the Anbu when a massive black vortex appeared and burned half the forest."

"And then, following the Anbu's departure, we saw a flaming dragon rise into the air, and crash back down, sending a fire shockwave throughout the village," he continued. "Such techniques are Anbu level, if not higher. What kind of training did Abrame put you through?"

"We trained on almost a daily basis whenever Abrame didn't have a mission," Naruto answered. "Abrame was an Anbu, so when I was eight or nine, he taught me some pretty powerful techniques. Some of my strongest jutsus also come from my sword, SeikaKage."

"Interesting," replied Sarutobi. "Well, we must ask you not to use those techniques too often. They too are dangerous and you could end up killing innocent people. Now go home and get a good night's sleep. You'll me be meeting your team members tomorrow."

And with that, Naruto left for home, praying that his team members wouldn't be a bunch of morons.

That's all for now! Please Read and Review!