The Cold Face of Reality

Cheers to Tristan76 for giving me the idea about the tenketsu points, anyway enjoy. I kind of rushed this as I want to get to cannon as soon as I can so expect some time-skips over the next few chapters.

Naruto sat at his desk in his apartment, looking at the scrolls that were all he had left of his clan. He paused and looked at the single sealing scroll that he had been given. "Showtime I guess." He said to the empty room, the words breaking the hushed silence that seemed to have developed in the wake of returning from the Hokage's offices with this awesome gift. Unsealing the scroll he gasped as he quickly read the chart that documented what was contained within the scroll. Slightly dazed at the amount of knowledge that was contained within his hands he opened the first one which he assumed would detail what was contained, quickly reading it, Naruto quickly worked out what the purpose of the Jutsu scrolls were. The Suiton was mainly concerned with generating water molecules to work with, as well as slowing down opponents by manipulating the surrounding area and causing damage via blunt force. The Futon he was surprised to see was not really focused on causing damage but rather on speeding up the Hyoton techniques and was used to manipulate the ice's shape. Finally the Hyoton itself was used in a number of ways from obscuring vision to being used as a basis to make ninja tools, at that he smiled no more buying shuriken! Other than that it was mainly used to create solid objects that were used to cause damage. Naruto smiled when he had finished reading the basic guide to the clan techniques, he would be able to go far with these.

XXX

The sound of flesh hitting metal echoed in the relatively silent Konoha morning air. Suppressing a groan, Naruto once again thanked his past self for having the foresight to buy the bracers that had come in handy so many times over the last two weeks. Twisting he lashed out with his own kick, catching Yamatchi off-guard and he smirked at the satisfying THUNK that signified a hit. Glancing over to where Rin and their sensei were. He saw Rin, with her Tanto swinging; pressing whatever advantage she had attempting to prevent Juken from being utilized. Turning back to his own fight, Naruto was rewarded for his inattention by taking a fist to his face. Spluttering he fell back just as Hanuba called time for their respective spars. Groaning he accepted Yamatchi's offer of a hand up and as he rose to his feet, Hanuba said, "Good work, you're all improving, Now Rin and Yamatchi go and practice tree climbing to build your reserves so you can last longer, while Naruto you need to focus on widening your tenketsu." Looking at his red headed charge, the Hyuga nodded before continuing, "The best thing to do would be to meditate and expel Chakra from your tenketsu points, you have the reserves it's getting your body to the point where it can utilize them that's the issue." The three Genin nodded before they set about their respective tasks, all three absolute faith in their teacher's methods.

Naruto sat on the ground of training field eleven, and closed his eyes. Concentrating he felt for the familiar cold feeling within his body that signified his Chakra reserves, He had large reserves for his age, something of an anomaly considering his control, the Hokage suspected that Orochimaru had made a number of 'upgrades' to Naruto prior to the Snake Sannin's departure from the village of his birth. However, due to the fact that none of the Chakra techniques used at the academy required utilizing large amounts of chakra, Naruto's Chakra system had not developed to the point where he could access all of the chakra that he had locked away. He concentrated and then felt the rush as he felt the Chakra circulating his system, and the strange feeling of it flowing out of his via the Tenketsu points in his body.

It was around half an hour later that an idea occurred to Naruto, Because of the nature of his Kekkei Genkai, manipulating elemental chakra came naturally to him and as a result he would never need to complete exercises such as the leaf cutting or leaf soaking. Wondering if he could expel the Hyoton chakra from his body, Naruto concentrated and felt as the chakra became colder and harder, the flow became more sluggish and opening his eyes, he gasped when he saw the grass around him freeze. Running a hand over the ground he watched as ice began to form wherever his hand moved.

"I was wondering if you would think of that." Hanuba said. Naruto hadn't realised that his sensei was so close and stopped what he was doing before he turned back to his teacher and asked the question that had come to his mind when he attempted to think of a practical application for his discovery.

"Sensei," he began, "Could I use this and add it to my Taijutsu?" a questioning quality that was not usually there was the only thing that suggested the importance of the question and Hanuba paused before answering.

"Yes, the current Raikage does something similar with the Raiton element, you would have to experiment to see what it could do, but I would guess that if you pumped enough out, you could freeze limbs in some cases. It would work well with the style you are developing as well, grabs that freeze the part of the body that it's holding would be most effective I believe." He finished with a smile, Naruto smiled back and after thanking the pupil less man set about thinking how this new discovery could be incorporated into his fighting style effectively.

At midday, they stopped what they were doing and sat together for lunch, something that had become a tradition, before traveling to the Hokage's offices and claiming a D rank mission. Naruto hated the D ranks with a passion, they never made him feel as though he had accomplished anything, and although he had never said anything, he couldn't wait until they got a harder mission. Although it was unvoiced he knew the others felt the same way, and Hanuba knew, even if he had yet to do anything about it. Unwrapping his sandwich he looked at his teammates. Although he hadn't known her well before hand, he knew that Rin was excelling in the use of the Tanto and was being groomed to become their Kenjutsu specialist. However that was nothing compared to the changes in Yamatchi, once the boy had acted much like his uncle, lazy but focused when he needed to be. Now he trained like a man possessed, if Naruto had to guess, he assumed it would be because he finally had a teacher who kept pushing at him until he accomplished what he wanted him to, nether the less, the new work ethic combined with his already brilliant mind made a dangerous combination, his friends growing prowess at Taijutsu just an example.

Then there was himself. Naruto knew he had made huge strides in his learning, a large part from the scrolls, the Jutsu coming much easier than they did when they came from elsewhere. It was strange but the fact that he now had a couple of fairly decent Genjutsu and some more water as well as one or two Hyoton meant that Naruto was quickly establishing himself as the Ninjutsu and assault specialist on the team to Rin's more specialized role and Yama's preference to stay back and provide support unless he really needed to intervene. Yes Naruto decided he was growing at a remarkable rate under Hanuba-sensei.

Chewing absently he never noticed the eyes of his sensei as they watched the boy who was quickly becoming his favorite student. Naruto's development was phenomenal and although he needed relatively little from him as a teacher most of his learning coming from his clan scrolls; he was pleased when he could help like he did today. He was content that the boy would stay in the leaf as well, he had nothing but intense hate for Orochimaru and Kiri was hardly a place that was suited to people of his ancestry, no Hanuba Hyuga was sure that this team may become his greatest contribution to the hidden leaf. Breaking out of his thoughts and checking the time he was somewhat surprised to see that it was time to go and get a mission from the Hokage, he was well aware that his students were getting inpatient with the missions, but they built up teamwork skills and he wanted to wait awhile until he took his students out to kill for the first time, they deserved some last opportunity to enjoy their innocence. Rising he made a gesture and his students fell in behind him, out of habit rather than anything else, the walk to the Hokage tower was something that they had gotten very good at over the last couple of weeks.

XXX

Hiruzen Sarutobi was an old man, and had been Hokage for most of his life, as a result he had seen countless Genin teams arrive and he had issued hundreds if not thousands of missions to said teams. Still he made a point to speak with them all at some point, if only to ensure that the Will of Fire was passing into the next generation. Smiling at the children who stood before him, two showing the immense respect that had could claim from his villagers and one not so much although it was still there, the fact that it wasn't obvious possibly owing more to the fact that that individual had had more to do with him than any other child in Konoha, with the exception of two others. Smiling broadly he looked at that one, and said in a dry tone "Here's a good mission, Capture Tora the cat." He had to suppress a chuckle as the young girl let out a groan and the Nara tensed, Naruto didn't let anything show, although if you were looking at him intently you would have seen the narrowing of his eyes. But it was gone as soon as it appeared and did little other than make Hiruzen smile. Turning around Naruto stalked out of the room, his team mates following, leaving a smiling Hanuba alone with the aged dictator of the village.

"They seem to be doing well." Hiruzen stated, eager to gather some information on the red headed boy.

"Yes, they're all doing very well, admittedly, Naruto needs to learn some more advanced Genjutsu to cover up the more obvious weaknesses in the team, but their teamwork is great, if only because the other two accept that Naruto's the leader."

"There was no conflict over that at all?" Hiruzen asked, such a concept somewhat alien to him as his team and all the students who had studied under that line were famous for the fact that there were always two who fought over who would 'lead' among the children.

"No," Hanuba said with a smile, "Rin's not a confrontational person at all, Yamatchi's happy guarding his back and Naruto accepts the position because he believes that it makes him a useful tool for the village." The smile slipped at the last part and was replaced with a frown, Hiruzen too was frowning.

"You need to address that with him, he needs to see himself as someone of value not a tool to be thrown away."

"You do know that it's partly your fault he thinks like that?" Hanuba stated, his eyes looking into the Hokage's own.

"How?" Hiruzen spluttered, confused as to how he was the cause of such an attitude.

"You rescue the boy from a terrible life as a living experiment and then when he attempts to thank you, you say that he should thank Konoha and that you were only acting as an extension of the village." Hanuba started and upon seeing his leaders nod he continued, "As a result he begins to feel that he owes the people who saved him, you claim it is the village who saved him, so he comes to believe that the best way to serve the village is to become a tool for its survival, it's a simple line of reasoning if you work along the philosophy he's following."

"I see." Hiruzen said with a sigh, that wasn't what he had wanted the boy to take away from that conversation, and now he had a child who saw himself as having little value, when in fact he was in all likelihood the most important of this year's Genin, the others were if he was brutally honest replaceable, a boy carrying an almost extinct Kekkei Genkai was the complete opposite however.

"See what you can do to convince him otherwise, there's not much we can do, the best thing that can be hoped for is he will find someone who can convince him to believe that he has some value, no amount of us arguing that fact will work, he needs emotional ties to this side of the grave. Leave it for now, we'll have to wait and see what happens over the next couple of years." Hanuba nodded and with a salute he disappeared after his Genin, the Hokage who was regarded as the most capable Nin in his prime could only sit at his desk and think 'Kami what a mess.'

XXX

Naruto hated cats, it was a recent discover y but one which he had quickly come to with the aid of Tora. Currently he and his team were stalking the demon through the thick forests that were the Shodai's gift to the village he had created along with the Uchiha patriarch Madara. Cursing the fact that he couldn't use Jutsu on the cat, he would have happily turned it into a Popsicle at this point, Naruto crept forward, seeing the target he whispered into his headset, "Maelstrom in position." There was a pause and then he heard, "Shadow in position." Quickly followed by Rin who muttered

"Pig here, I'm in position." There was silence once again until their sensei finally said,

"Pale in position, mission is a go."

Naruto rushed forward, and Tora startled ran directly away from him, right into Yama's waiting hands while Rin stood nearby ready to act should the cat escape. Securing the animal, Naruto and his companions made ready to return to the village, it had taken them nearly three hours to track down the blasted animal and there was no point bothering with another mission at this point, no doubt they would begin practice with some of the Jutsu that Hanuba wanted the others to learn, Naruto had an exemption of sorts as the Clan scrolls they had would prepare him in a way that played to his bodies strengths rather than spending time trying to develop a style on his own. It was one of the benefits of coming from a clan which focused on the individual rather than the collective like the Nara and Yamanaka, after all until this year the thinking had been, if you have a pig a deer and a butterfly, then there shouldn't be anything they can't deal with, that thinking persisted even now and Naruto personally believed it would continue until his own team could prove otherwise, 'Konoha's problem,' he decided as they walked towards the Hokage tower, 'is that they believe if it isn't broke then don't fix it. The problem is though people learn what to expect.' It was ridiculous; there was even a scroll in his possession that detailed how a single Yuki could take out an Ino-Shika-Cho trio with minimal effort. Arriving back at the Hokage tower, Naruto just went through the motions accepting his pay check without looking at it, as well as deriving a vague sense of satisfaction from the cat that looked to be suffocating in the arms of its owner. Naruto left immediately, barely staying for Hanuba-sensei to say they were meeting at 8 at their training ground the following morning. He aimlessly headed back to his apartment, the D ranks seemingly causing him to loose brain power; the effort needed was so minimal.

XXX

The weeks passed by and before Naruto knew it nearly six months had passed, he and his teammates had progressed at a stupendous rate, they were miles ahead of where they had been when they had graduated, with nearly no Jutsu and on the whole, completely unprepared for the life style of a Nin. Now they were a force to be reckoned with, if they ever got to go on a mission that required them to enter into an actual combat situation that is. They had done almost everything that it was possible to do a D rank mission in, they had walked the Inuzuka Nin dogs countless times and following the initial hunt, they had tracked Tora another seven times. To be frank Naruto was close to murdering someone if the missions didn't become more challenging, Yamatchi didn't seem too bothered but that was probably because he was a Nara. Rin on the other hand was far more vocal in her disappointment, even going so far as to attempt to kill the cat once. Finally dissent in the ranks had reached a critical point; even Yama had agreed that something needed to be done. So it was because of this that Hanuba Hyuga's three students cornered him one day after the latest D rank, which was grocery shopping for an old lady.

"Sensei?" Rin asked sweetly, the tone warning the guys that she was close to murdering someone. Hanuba oblivious to the intricacies of the auburn haired girls voice tones, responded with a casual, (or at least what passed for casual among the famously uptight Hyuga's), "Yes student."

"When are we going to get a proper mission?" the voice became slightly dangerous and even Hanuba was able to pick up on the fact that he should tread carefully here.

"When you are ready." Was the taciturn reply.

"And we're not ready now?" she exploded, her voice reaching a crescendo that would have done a certain pink haired academy student proud. The noise still ringing in his ears, Hanuba glanced around at his other students who responded with a vigorous nod from Yamatchi and a small one followed by an intense glare from Naruto, which in itself was telling as Naruto usually kept things more bottled up than any Hyuga.

Sighing Hanuba nodded and said, "I was waiting for this, in truth you've been ready for a couple of weeks, still what were about to do is not something that should be rushed into, it's a necessary part of becoming a true Shinobi but it's not something to be proud of." By the end of his short speech he noticed that he had everyone's attention, which made him smile slightly, they really are respectful, he mused to himself.

"Ne, Sensei, what is it?" Rin asked, all the anger gone at this point and replaced with nervous trepidation.

"Your first kill, and the next step into the world of the Shinobi." He replied shortly. Everyone filched at that, it was a major milestone that had to be dealt with at some point they knew, but it remained a frightening prospect to the three thirteen year olds.

"Meet me at the Hokage tower at ten tomorrow," Hanuba continued, "We'll find a mission suited to this task and accomplish it. Pack light for a couple of days, I'll make sure to take an easy one." He continued in an attempt to get rid of the green tint that had appeared on Rin's face. Nodding he stood up and walked off, without a backwards glance, he knew it was something that the children needed to get their heads around by themselves, and his presence would not be beneficial in this situation. Smiling slightly as he walked away, he couldn't help but look forward to tomorrow, he too was more than ready to give up on the D ranks himself, having had enough of Tora cat hunts back when he was a Genin himself, admittedly it was different Tora but they all behaved the same way, maybe they were conditioned? He mused as he made his way to the clan compound, the branch family was meeting which meant he would have to return to the place he hated more than anywhere else in the world, rather than returning to the apartment he had lived in for nearly a decade.

XXX

Naruto sat alone eating a bowl of Miso Ramen in Ichiraku, the place that Mito never shut up about. Absently he poked at his food, thinking about what was to come tomorrow, he had thought he was ready, but the fact that he was less than twenty four hours away from killing someone had thrown his mind into a confused loop. He stood up to go, leaving his food uneaten and began walking away, just as he was about to walk out he heard a voice call out, "Naruto." Turning he was surprised to see that it was his old Sensei from the academy, Iruka.

"Hey Iruka-sensei," the red head said as he turned around and joined the scar faced Chunin at his table, "How have you been?"

"Not bad, I've taken on a new class for their last year," he said, "There's one girl that won't shut up about you." He finished with a smile and Naruto instantly knew who he was referring to.

"So your teaching Mito huh?" he asked, a slight smile crossing his pale face, surprising the man sitting across from him as it was an alien feature on the boy's face, at least in his limited experience with the boy.

"You must care for her a lot?" Iruka asked attempting to draw the usually reserved boy into a conversation, something that he had failed at constantly when he was teaching him at the Academy.

"Like a sister I suppose, although I wouldn't know what that was." The boy responded, attempting to further express how he felt by waving his arms around. Iruka had to laugh at the sight of the usually reserved Naruto Yuki being so flustered.

"It doesn't matter," he said attempting to reassure the boy, who was becoming more and more flustered the longer the conversation continued, "Bonds are important and it's good that you too have each other, it's that which gives the Leaf its strength." Seeing that the boy had something on his mind, but not being close enough to him to be able to talk to him about it comfortably, Iruka rose and bid the young Shinobi good night. Naruto sat there by himself for a while listening to Teuchi make a racket in the back, before he too walked out and disappeared into the night, Kakashi-Niisan wouldn't be the right person to talk about this sort of thing, but there was another… Walking with a new sense of purpose Naruto turned and headed towards another series of apartments, that were where a lot of the Shinobi who were a bit younger than Kakashi tended to live, he could only hope that the person he wanted was there, He sighed and breaking the silence that surrounded him he spoke "Come on Tenzo, you had better be home."

XXX

Seemingly Tenzo was in fact home, as Naruto was soon to discover as he came upon the apartment that his pseudo-brother owned. However it was the sight of Tenzo saying goodbye to the purple haired ANBU that Naruto only knew as Neko, as he had never seen her without her mask on and there were far too many people with purple hair in the village to make a judgement based on something that basic. Naruto was surprised and a little shocked that Tenzo the orphan boy whose break came in the form of a snake obsessed maniac attempting to recreate a mutation that was unique to its original wielder in him. As a result of the less than pleasant life that Tenzo had led, first as a nameless orphan from a Shinobi family, of whom there were many wandering the street, to the fact that he had been turned into little more than a complicated clone of the Shodai, there had been little to make Tenzo more than socially inept, hence the strangeness of Tenzo having a girl at his place.

Naruto didn't really know why he and Tenzo had as close a relationship as they did, possibly because they were both victims of said snake maniac, but it was the belief of many that while Tenzo's gifts were the product of experimentation, Naruto was a naturally born user of his own Kekkei Genkai. A belief that privately within his heart of hearts, Naruto was now questioning, there was no evidence of any Yuki being anywhere near fire country around the time he was supposedly born, and in truth, Naruto suspected himself of being little more than a more advanced version of Tenzo with different skills, as cruel as that concept sounded.

Still it was even more likely, at least for Tenzo that the reason their relationship existed was the fact that they were both the students of Kakashi, the only two the man had ever taken. Whereas Tenzo had been groomed and entered into ANBU under Kakashi, Naruto's lessons had been more along the lines of life lessons and survival skills rather than Jutsu or any major aspect of the Shinobi arts. And while it may have been more appropriate to go to Kakashi about what was troubling him, Naruto got the feeling that it would be better to talk to Tenzo about this, the fact that Kakashi was more than likely to read his porn while discussing what was a very serious matter, would be somewhat detrimental to the whole situation. Approaching the door without being noticed, something that was the result, in no small part of Tenzo staring at the point at which Neko had vanished from his sight. Naruto finally spoke and caught the man who had experienced the same horrors he had in his youth by surprise.

"Hey Tenzo, never really figured you as one for a girl you know?" Naruto said wryly, the boy that was hidden behind his usual cold facade emerging for one of its few appearances.

"Naruto," Tenzo replied, he spoke slowly, still after all these years, unused to talking, "what brings you here."

"A major milestone that I must face tomorrow that you would have significant experience with due to your position in our society, can I come in?" Naruto said, his voice taking on a darker quality towards the end. Tenzo's eyes widened in understanding and wordlessly he opened his door and ushered one of his few friends inside.

"You are going to take a life tomorrow." He stated once they were seated in an apartment that was, Naruto noticed, completely devoid of any personal items, something that had bothered him for as long as he had been coming to this particular apartment, which he had been doing since he had first began to live with Kakashi-Niisan.

"Yes," Naruto ground out, still somewhat surprised at how much the concept was bothering him, "It's strange, I always knew that I would be doing it at some point and I knew when I met Hanuba-sensei for the first time that it would likely occur in a situation that he engineered himself, but it still bothers me." He finished with a frown, upset that despite his oath and the knowledge that he was oath bound to serve his Hokage, he was getting worked up over killing some no name bandit.

"It's natural," Tenzo replied, speaking normally, now that they were discussing 'business' as the older man was wont to call it. "The fact of the matter is, there is every chance that should you kill that man, you may well have saved a woman or a girl from a fate worse than death in some ways, you may save the life of a civilian who had the misfortune to be traveling the day that that bandit decides to raid the highway." Seeing Naruto beginning to accept this line of reasoning he continued.

"There is no way for me or anyone else to help you come to terms with what you will be faced with, but the truth of the matter is, you are a Shinobi and you will be faced with this almost every time you take a higher level mission for the village, the fact is you and I were attempts at a perfect Shinobi, Orochimaru made sure of it, and we both know that giving us Kekkei Genkai was not all he did." Naruto's eyes widened at the last comment and Tenzo smiled at the response,

"Yes I know you have suspected and the fact that you don't look like the usual Yuki clansman has thrown most people off, but I remember watching you grow and the chances were not instantaneous, and the snake always did call you his greatest success." That caused Naruto to wince, unbidden memories from the times when they were trapped underneath the Hokage monument, completely at the mercy of a man who was more than willing to sacrifice people to his summons should they have outlived their usefulness rising up from the dark recesses of his mind that Naruto had managed to banish them to after many years.

There was silence in the room as each of its occupants struggled with the demons of their pasts, which were in some ways, many more times fierce than the Biju, if only in the fact that they would never truly leave them alone.

"So have you seen Kakashi-sempai recently?" Tenzo asked breaking them out of their dark thoughts and the convocation turned to more pleasant topics.

XXX

It was a content Naruto that left Tenzo's apartment later that night, the man's words while awkward, set his mind at ease. He quickly walked back to his apartment and swiftly fell asleep, despite the occasional sound of a muffled "Hokage!" and "Ramen!" the later occurring more often than the former managing to penetrate the walls that divided his apartment from Mito's. Before sleep claimed him, Naruto smiled, he was ready to face tomorrow, that he knew, it was just a matter of finding out why he was prepared now.

XXX

The crisp morning air was cold and the three Genin with the exception of Naruto himself were shivering as they waited for Hanuba to arrive. Ten minutes later he did and with a hand gesture they fell in behind him, fully focused on facing what was to come head on.

A.N Apologies for the late update, this took me far longer than i thought it would and I ended up putting it off for a good while. Anyway tell me what you liked didn't like ect. Update will definitly be next week around this time.