Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto only the things I use in here is what I own. Nothing more.
Chapter Four – Study
Two blurs raced along the streets of Konoha towards the Academy. Although neither were even Genin, they were moving at a speed that most Chunin and even a few Jonin would have been envious of, leaving two almost-parallel lines of dust behind them as they dashed through the main gate of the Academy and skidded to a stop.
"So..." panted Naruto as his grinned at his brother-in-all-but-blood. "Who won? I... I kind of lost track there."
"I do not know myself." Lee grinned as he pulled out a small scroll and held it out. Naruto channeled some Chakra into it and a pair of weights materialized from it. Placing them on his legs, Lee adjusted his legwarmers to hide them and then took a few experimental paces. "I know that if I had been wearing my weights, you would have beaten me."
"You're getting better way faster than me, though." Naruto laughed. "If we'd done this last month, I would probably have won."
"I cannot disagree with that statement, Naruto-nii-kun." Lee grinned, doing a few stretches to cool down. "I have been improving very fast since we first met, I am glad that my hard work in fanning my flames of youth to match your conflagration of youthfulness is starting to pay off."
Naruto grunted as he stretched, then he turned back to face Lee.
"You may be unable to do the rest, but in a straight Taijutsu spar, I think you'd flatten any Chunin. And once we get through the academy, you'll be unstoppable, nii-san." Naruto said.
"We will be unstoppable." Lee corrected with a wide grin as they started to stroll towards the main entrance where several children and their parents had already assembled waiting for the academy to open. "I will prove that a lack of chakra does not prevent one from being a great ninja."
"And I'll cheer you on and spar with you to fan your flames of youth." Naruto finished, lightly throwing one arm across the taller boy's shoulders and giving him a gentle one-armed hug. Well, gentle for him. Lee laughed as Naruto released him.
"Your control is improving, Naruto-nii-chan. That was only five times as strong as someone your size could do." Lee said.
"I thank Kami every day that you and Guy-sensei are tough." Naruto admitted with a wry grin. "I'm still scared to actually touch anyone else, but you two have the best chance of surviving if my control slips."
"Speaking of control, I saw you sending out Kage Bunshins again this morning." Lee noted. "How many, and what for?"
"My chakra control's still shaky. Shaky, heck. It's still terrible. I sent out three hundred, a hundred each on tree-climbing and water-walking and the rest are practicing hand-signs and the three jutsus."
"Ah, my best friend and eternal rival, there are times that I feel my youthful flames are dim beside yours. I sometimes wonder how things would be had I been gifted with the ability to use Chakra even a quarter as powerful as yours. But I am not depressed; I see it as a challenge!" Lee sighed.
Inside the Academy Classroom
Naruto sat down gingerly on the chair that had been specially reinforced for him at the Hokage's request, and placed his steel-encased notebook on the steel-and-oak desk. Around him, the rest of the students were filtering in and seeking out spaces to sit. Naruto glanced left to see Lee give him a grin and a thumbs-up.
"Do not worry, my most-youthful friend, our flames of youth shall let us overcome all obstacles so that we may become great ninja!" Lee exclaimed.
"Does he always speak like that?" A feminine voice said.
Naruto jolted at the unexpected voice, causing his chair to creak in protest, and then he turned and looked to where the voice had come from. A girl clad in a wrapped-top and loose trousers were looking at him, her expression quizzical.
"Ahhh, yeah. But you get used to it. He's Rock Lee, I'm Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto said.
" I'm Tenten Higurashi." the girl said, staring at him intently. "Um, why is your chair reinforced like that?"
"Naruto-nii-kun's flames of youth are a veritable conflagration, granting him incredible strength." Rock Lee exclaimed and Naruto had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. "His youthfulness also grants him great speed and superior senses, but..."
"But I have some control issues with them." Naruto interrupted. "I've got my usable strength down to under ten times normal, but it's hard to not accidently damage anything around me."
Tenten's eyes widened in suprise.
"It's a Kekkai Genkai." Naruto explained almost sheepishly. "Trouble is; it activated wrong when I got hit by a stone. It was meant to make me stronger as I aged, but it went from off to full without warning."
"Wow." Tenten whispered. "I wonder how you'd do with kunai and shuriken, if you're that strong."
"Alright brats, listen up!" came a strong voice from the front of the classroom. "My name is Akema Akamichi and I'm your teacher. Now, time for register. Raise your hand when I call your name."
Academy Training Grounds
"Hehehe, oops?" Naruto sheepishly said.
Everyone was staring at the training dummy which had a hole punched straight through it. Behind the dummy, a tree had an almost identical hole, as did the tree on the other side of the path, the stone wall behind the tree, the wall of the house behind that wall and, judging from the cursing going on, several items of furniture inside the house in question.
"Umm, you did say to throw it hard, sensei." Naruto said.
Akema tore his gaze away from the path of destruction and sighed deeply.
"Okay, until further notice, you are to throw shuriken and kunai as lightly as you can without sacrificing accuracy. I heard you were strong, but... hmmm... come over here. Now, punch the training log." Akema said.
Naruto nodded, took a deep breath and settled into one of the stances that Gai had taught him. Ducking slightly, he unleashed a powerful uppercut.
The airborne log dwindled as it arced towards the horizon, a trail of splinters marking its path, the rapidly fading thwip thwip of its passage the only noise in the practice field.
"...okay... Naruto, you are excused from sparring..." Akema sighed.
"I'll spar with him, sensei!" Rock Lee exclaimed excitedly. "Naruto-nii-kun has been my sparring partner for over a year and it helps us fan our flames of youth to unmatched levels!"
Akema stared at Lee, obviously unable to form a coherent thought.
"Excuse me; did I hear you say you sparred with him?" Akema asked flabbergasted.
Naruto turned to look at the speaker, who turned out to be a boy with long black hair and pale eyes that lacked pupils.
"You... you're Neji Hyuuga, right?" Lee asked.
The correctly-identified boy nodded, his gaze fixated on Lee who spoke in his usual excited tone.
"Regarding sparring with Naruto-kun, I do indeed, and it helps my speed and strength to reach heights unsurpassed by any but my beautiful sensei, Might Guy, and my most youthful friend Naruto!" Lee said.
"You spar with the boy who just punched a training log out of Konoha?" Neji asked.
"I hold back." Naruto protested. The silence of the onlookers told him that his protest hadn't helped his situation in the slightest.
"Well, if you're certain, Lee. You two get the first spar. Try not to kill each other…" Akema said.
Lee grinned widely and Naruto replied with his normal foxy grin as they entered the ring. Naruto settled into his Gentle River stance while Lee straightened into a classic Goken stance.
"Hajime!" Akema said.
Both figures seemed to blur as the sound of rock-hard flesh hitting rock-hard flesh echoed through the academy grounds. Clouds of dust obscured the blurred figures from the onlookers gaze as they exchanged blurring combinations of punches and kicks, and then one of the figures was launched out of the circle and straight through a tree. All the watchers gasped.
"My youthful friend, are you alright? I did not hurt you, did I?" Lee asked.
"I'm fine, Lee." Naruto laughed as he pulled himself upright, absently breaking the branches that had landed on top of him as he did so. "That was quite a move you pulled at the end. I wasn't expecting that one. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen it before. What was it?"
"A most youthful variation of the Rising Leaf Fist taught to me by our wonderful sensei." Lee grinned. "I was unsure that it would work against you, but when you did that mid-air attack, I realized that you would be unable to resist it."
Naruto laughed and bowed to Lee, who returned it.
"It worked. It would have been a KO against anyone apart from me. Get the strength up, and it'll probably take me out as well." Naruto said.
"I shall practice it most diligently!" Lee laughed with pleasure. "And I shall use it to enhance our flames of youth to levels unmatched by anyone else!"
The shocked students watched the two walk off, then one of them spoke in a trembling voice.
"Are… are they… even human?" A student asked in shock. Nobody answered him.
In the Academy lunchroom
Tenten sat down and pulled out her bento box, then glanced over at the two boys that the class had almost unanimously designated as the Dangerous Duo, when they weren't being called the Twin Dragons of Destruction or the growing-in-popularity Oh Kami, It's Them, Run Away, Run Away!
Her eyebrows rose at the sight.
Naruto was carefully eating ramen, using metal chopsticks. Despite the obvious care he was taking, the chopsticks had slight dents from where he had obviously squeezed too hard, while the metal bowl containing the ramen was almost an inch thick, and was likewise boasting a number of small pressure-induced dents. And she recognized them. Her father had made several sets like that a year or two back, and he occasionally had to make replacements.
Lee's choice of utensils was also surprising. Like Naruto, he was using chopsticks, but his chopsticks were made of lacquered paper and a small box by the side of his meal held several more of the thin paper tubes. The box in which his sushi was placed was obviously made out of very thin paper with a thin layer of lacquer preventing it from collapsing. She had to ask.
"Pardon the intrusion, but why are the two of you using such… odd chopsticks." Tenten asked.
"Metal ones are the only sort of things that don't break for me at the moment." Naruto said. "And Lee is working on enhancing his control by using chopsticks that are as fragile for him as these ones are for me."
Tenten's eyes widened. She had helped to make some of those metal chopsticks, high-grade rolled steel with a strength rating better-suited to a club or sword. And they were as fragile as paper tubes to Naruto? Just how strong was he?
"That is indeed the case, my youthful friend has great difficulties with fragile items, or even items that people like you would not consider fragile, so he needs those metal chopsticks to aid him in practicing his control while he eats. And since it is such a youthful training method with many advantages, I use these paper chopsticks to train myself in the art of… oh bother." Lee said.
Lee sighed as he put down the broken chopstick that he had, in his excitement, accidently tapped against the table, causing it to bend out of shape, and took a new chopstick out of the box.
"Don't worry, Lee." Naruto laughed. "I blame the table for that one."
"Yes!" Lee shouted. "I shall buy the most delicate table I can and use it to help me train my control!"
"It might be cheaper for you to make a table, rather than buy one." Naruto warned quickly, then he face palmed. "I can't believe I just let myself get sucked in like that. Fragile tables. I'm not sure that that's a good idea, Lee."
Tenten tried to hide her giggles, and then her gaze slid to the knife which was seemingly glued to Naruto's leg.
"Naruto-san… where did you get that knife from? It's… amazing!" Tenten exclaimed.
Naruto paused, and then pulled at the knife. To Tenten's astonishment, it was not held in place by a hidden strap or anything like that.
"How did it do that?" Tenten asked.
"It's a… mystical knife that was a gift to me by someone who believed in my potential." Naruto said as Lee picked up a leaf and gently lowered it onto the blade. The blade cut through the leaf without any resistance at all, and Naruto placed the knife on the table and motioned for her to examine it. Tenten eagerly reached out… and her hand passed straight through the handle as if it wasn't there.
"What the..?" Tenten asked.
Naruto and Lee both smiled at the shock on her face.
"Only I can use that knife. And I can call it back to me at will." Naruto said, holding his hand up and curling his fingers, whispering the word "come" as he did so. An instant later, the knife had appeared in his hand. "It is only solid in my grasp, although the blade remains sharp if I throw it at something. No-one except me can use it and I have been told that as I grow older and gain more control over my chakra, I'll be able to make it change shape."
Tenten's eyes widened and she stared almost reverently at the blades Naruto returned it to his thigh, where once again it affixed itself without any noticeable support.
"That… that is… I've heard of the Raijin, a sword made out of lightning, but that knife… what is it?" Tenten said.
"My youthful friends' most incredible knife is called the Kitsune's Fang." Lee said before popping another bit of sushi into his mouth. Swallowing, he continued. "It is a most incredible blade, able to slice through anything and will surely be part of Naruto's most youthful legend when he becomes a fully-fledged ninja!"
"Ummmm… yeah. What Lee said. Kitsune's fang, wonderful knife. Sharp." Naruto said.
Tenten giggled again.
At the bunker
"Hello, my cute and youthful students! Does the Academy continue to fan the flames of your youthfulness?" Guy shouted.
"Yosh, Guy-sensei! I am learning new things every day and I shall prove that being a Genius of Hard Work allows even one who cannot use Chakra to become a truly great Shinobi!" Lee said. Naruto smiled at Lee's enthusiasm.
"It went great, Guy-sensei. Today, most of the class started to learn the leaf exercise. After I caused it to explode for the fourth time, they agreed to let me practice by doing the tree-walking and water-walking." Naruto said.
"Naruto-nii-kun and I had a most youthful spar today!" Lee added. "We fought each other to a standstill, showing that our Flames of Youth were undiminished!"
"Excellent! I have prepared another meal to provide fuel for your Flames of Youth." Guy said expansively as he waved them in. From where he was sitting at the steel-braced table, Kakashi gave a lazy wave, sliding an orange book into his pocket as he did so.
"You need to eat well so your Flames of Youth remain undimmed! Is that not so, my eternal rival?" Guy asked.
"Hmmm? You say something, Guy?" Kakashi said.
"Arrrgh! Once again with that hip and too cool attitude, Kakashi!" Guy exclaimed.
Naruto managed to stifle his snickers as he sat down and looked at the food before him. Guy-sensei, for all his eccentricities, was undoubtedly the best chef he had ever met. A knock sounded at the bunker's door. Lee got up and answered it. It was the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.
"Good afternoon." Hiruzen said.
"Ah, Hokage-sama. Please, come in, be seated. We were just about to eat." Guy exclaimed and Naruto looked across.
"Hi, Jiji!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Hello, Naruto, Lee, Kakashi." Hiruzen smiled, removing his hat and sitting down as Gai started to serve the meal. "I hope you don't mind me joining you, but I wanted to check on how you were doing. You are half-way through the first year, is everything going well?"
"Sure is!" Naruto grinned. "I've made several new friends and… thanks, Guy-sensei, this looks wonderful, as always. Ummmm, where was I, ah yes. Several new friends and I've learned loads. Some of it is a bit boring, but Kakashi-sensei and Gai-sensei said that if I wanted to be one of the best ninja ever, I should learn it, so I did."
"That's good to hear." Hiruzen said, and then he shifted his attention across. "And Lee how is your studying going?"
"My flames of youth are truly being fanned to a veritable inferno of youthful energy and passion with the studying at the academy and the spars I have with my most youthful friend Naruto here!" Lee said eagerly. "I am making progress despite my handicap and I hope to join the ranks of the Shinobi under our command, where I shall prove that being a genius of hard work is superior to being a genius of simple skill!" Lee exclaimed.
Naruto hid a smirk at Hiruzen's blank and slightly dazed expression.
"I… see. That is… good to hear. Oh, thanks, Guy. Mmmm, this smells wonderful!" Hiruzen said.
"Thank you Hokage-sama. Everyone dig in." Guy said. Everyone dug into the delicious meal that Guy prepared.
