Hey y'all! How are my favorite anonymous internet viewers? Good? Good! Here is my next installment of Naruto of the Acid Rain! I had some issues getting in time to work on it, but the weekend helped a lot!
Note: New and Improved!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. But I am sitting on the couch, warm blanket covering me, with my feet up on a bean-bag chair... Fuck Yeah!
Enjoy!
⸎—⸎
"Okay, since everyone is here, we can start with class. My name is Iruka Umino and this is my assistant Mizuki. First, let me say welcome and congratulations on making it to your final year of the academy! If you pass this year you will go on to become full-fledged ninja of the leaf!" This instructor was average height, had brown hair tied back into a ponytail, and had a dark scar across his nose. He smiled good-naturedly at the assortment of students sitting before him.
Naruto and his classmates had grown over the years. They were now 11 or 12 years old, and most were full of life and vigor. Some of the students had changed dramatically since their first year, while others had not. Naruto was now 5 foot 5 inches, which meant he could stand eye to eye with Anko, much to her ire. He wore the same gas-mask and the same style of camo jacket and pants. As time went by, especially after the traumatic events of his last year, his prankster side seemed to wane, though he still had his warped sense of humor. He no longer possessed many of the qualities that identified him as a child. While he could still be warm and pleasant to those he liked, he was often cold and calculative.
Naruto's drive to master his techniques never changed, and he used as much time as he could practicing his jutsu. He now had two iterations of the Demented Illusions: Infestation, and Experiment X. He kept his genjutsu to himself, as his paranoia convinced him someone would reverse engineer them and use that knowledge against him.
His was nearing mastery of his nature manipulation, as he could now almost cut a waterfall completely with his wind chakra and was able to cover an enormously large area in mist purely from his chakra. This level of manipulation enabled him to create his own style of fighting which he dubbed 'Malevolent Spirit.' His first test of this style had been against the "rogue ANBU", and it had been a resounding success in his mind.
In order to begin his Malevolent Spirit, Naruto would throw down a series of chakra-infused smoke pellets around himself and his enemy. The initial smoke pellets would afford him enough time to create an enormous cloud of chakra-infused mist. Once he was sure the area was enshrouded, he would create a series of Mist Servants and Poison Cloud Clones and have them stalk around in the fog. His mist would allow him to feel movement and using his wind manipulation, the camo-clad boy could keep it from dissipating. This meant that even though visibility would be around 0, he would still know where his opponent was, and their general movements. With liberal use of Kawarimi he could constantly switch with his clones, making it seem as though he was simply a spirit. His goal was to frustrate and scare his victim, eventually they would make mistakes, at which point he would take them down.
His knowledge of poisons had become more comprehensive now, and he had started to mix his own concoctions together. Naruto had begun experimenting on mixing toxins with specific effects. He spent many an hour roaming around the Forest of Death searching for particular animals and plants that utilized poisons.
Finally, his mastery of his jutsu was nearing completion. He was able to perform most of his arsenal with minimal hand signs. At this time, he had mastered Poison Cloud Clone, Water Release: Gunshot, Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, and Fire Release: Grand Fireball.
Back in the classroom, Naruto was listening to his final Academy instructor.
"This year we will be adding in taijutsu spars so that you can practice fighting against a target that will actually retaliate. We will also be putting the final touches on your basic three jutsu; Kawarimi, Henge, and Transformation. Your target practice will continue from where you left of from last year." Iruka explained to his students.
Naruto scoffed under his mask. 'This whole Academy is a joke. They are making ninja that know almost nothing practical at all. I wouldn't be surprised is Pinky over there dies within the first year.' He shot a side-long glance at a pink-haired girl sitting a few rows away.
"Okay guys, today we will be talking about..." Naruto's eyes slowly closed as he began to nod off.
Early on he found out one of the major perks of having the gas mask: if he remained sitting in the same position, no one could tell if he was awake or not. Although the glass for the eye-holes was transparent, a quick glance in his direction wasn't long enough to discern his state. He used this fact to its fullest potential in class.
"Naruto." Iruka called.
"Hmm?" he replied as he opened his eyes to see the teacher staring at him.
"Naruto, could you explain the uses of the Kawarimi to the class?"
Sighing, the academy student began. "The Kawarimi is a very versatile and practical jutsu. Its list of uses is practically endless." He then switched seats with a student on the other side of the room. The class gasped, as they hadn't seen him use any hand signs, and there had been no smoke. "As you can see, it can be used to switch places with people if the user can quickly overpower the victim's chakra." He Kawarimied with the same student again, back to his own seat. "It can also be used to swap places with objects. This allows the user to confuse their opponent, avoid projectiles and jutsu, and make quick getaways when needed."
Iruka nodded. "Very good Naruto, but please refrain from using techniques in class unless we ask you to." Turning to the rest of the class, he continued his lecture.
⸎—⸎
The rest of the year was a bit more interesting for the young blue-eyed boy.
Behind the scenes the Hokage was working through Shikaku, who had been encouraging his son to interact with his classmate. Finally, after many inquiries and offerings, Naruto relented and agreed to a Shogi match with Shikamaru. It turns out that the blonde-haired boy enjoyed the battle of wits. After some time learning how the game worked, Naruto was able to prove a formidable challenger for his lazy classmate. Even though Shikamaru didn't like some things about Naruto, he still sought him out to play his favorite game.
Another somewhat thrilling area was the taijutsu sparing. Naruto considered most of the matches rather boring. His regular spars with Anko meant he could easily outpace most of the other students, but he still enjoyed trying new moves against different opponents. The only people that even remotely posed a challenge for the young lad were the Uchiha and the Inuzuka. The three were evenly matched. Kiba was strong for his age and wild enough to force Naruto on the defensive. Sasuke on the other hand had the refined Interceptor Fist and could rapidly break through Naruto's strikes. Most of the time Naruto's rather unorthodox taijutsu won him his matches, but his sparring rivals were quick to catch on each time he did something new.
Naruto found it especially humorous when he fought and beat Sasuke, as his fan girls were always stuck between wanting to cheer as loudly as possible for their 'love' and doing their best to avoid Naruto's ire. The last time a few of them started screaming for Sasuke during the match, Naruto had dodged around his opponent and proceeded to spray the girls with his 'Sleeping Neurotoxin' just to shut them up. He got a detention for that stunt but had decided to do it again if necessary.
In fact, quite a few interactions with the raven-haired boy made Naruto chuckle darkly in remembrance. One such incident happened about midway through the year, after Naruto had won a taijutsu tournament at school. Since the Uchiha could not believe that someone was better than him, he took it upon himself to investigate his classmate. At first, Sasuke simply asked how Naruto was so powerful, and the gas-masked boy simply chuckled and replied.
"I train every day and night to get better."
That irked Sasuke, as he did the same thing. So, he figured that the other boy had to have some sort of secret. One day after school he stalked Naruto and followed him into the Forest of Death. The poor boy got lost soon after and ended up stumbling into an area filled with giant fire ants. By the time he got out, the academy student was covered in cuts, welts and bruises, and was thoroughly exhausted.
Now, Sasuke's quest to revenge his clan might have left him a tad bit power hungry, but that didn't mean that the Uchiha was a moron. He was able to recognize living in that forest probably helped Naruto gain a lot of strength and smarts. However, replicating that style of living was unappealing for him, so he refused to go back into it ever again if he could help it.
Another humorous incident was when Sasuke was running from a group of crazed girls. Naruto had been having a rather crappy day, and so he decided he needed something to cheer him up. As the Uchiha ran past him, he put a subtle Sly Mind Affect Technique on him which made the boy take a turn down a dead-end alley. Naruto saw two things that day that still can make him bust out laughing today. One being: the look on Sasuke's face when he realized he was at a dead end and turned around to see the mass of girls. And the other was what Sasuke was reduced to after the girls were done with him: covered in kiss marks, shirt-less, and a haunted look on his face.
Not long after that, Naruto was given a taste of what Sasuke was forced to deal with daily, and he respected the Uchiha a little more afterwards.
Flashback
It was a few days after the senior-class wide taijutsu tournament that Naruto had narrowly won. Gossip was still spreading around about how he could perform jutsu without hand signs. Shino was absent that day, so he was sitting outside alone waiting for lunch to end. After a moment he heard some giggling and noticed a group of girls were staring at him and whispering to each other. Every time he would look over, they would all turn away, or look down and blush. Confused, he just continued to wait and tried to ignore them.
After the bell rang, he got up and walked towards the door, and heard one of them sigh and say, "He's so cool!"
'Cool?... The fuck?' Naruto thought to himself. 'What strange world have I stepped into? I'm supposed to strike fear into their hearts, why else did I write the damn word on my mask?' He shook his head. 'I thought I was considered weird, creepy even, not... cool.'
Later that day, when he explained what happened to Anko and how none of it made sense to him, her face split into a huge grin.
"I think someone has some fan girls!" Naruto's eye twitched. "Oh, this will be good!" the chūnin clapped her hands together and cackled evilly.
"Are you fucking kidding me?! I don't want fan girls! I've seen what they can do!" he shuddered as he thought of himself in place of Sasuke. "It's... horrifying!" Anko just cackled more and ambled away.
'I won't hold back if they try to do any of that to me…' he shuddered.
Flashback end
For the remaining year, Naruto was followed around by a small group of girls. It unnerved him, as being watched wherever he went made the boy even more paranoid. He did have to consider himself lucky, since his fan girls were much subtler than the Uchiha's, much to that boy's ire. They never chased him or tackled him in crazed mobs, but simply sat absorbed when he sparred, or whispered to each other as they watched him eat or go about his day at school.
There were a few fights broken up, which were apparently started over arguments about which boy was stronger. He never understood those girls but the jinchūriki had mulled over their presence and decided to let them be as long as they didn't do anything to him. He even felt a little proud that he was able to develop a small "cult" within the school, without any effort on his part. One day, the blue-eyed boy noted his fangirls were wearing armbands with kanji for FEAR written on them. For him, the whole experience was weird, but strangely satisfying.
⸎—⸎
It was the day of the final exam. Most of the students were buzzing with excitement, talking animatedly with each other. Naruto turned to someone he considered a friend at this point.
"Want to take guesses whether or not people will pass?" he suggested.
Shino looked puzzled and slightly raised his eyebrow. "Why would we do that?"
Naruto shrugged. "Entertainment."
The bug user turned to observe the rest of the class then sighed. Taking that as a yes, Naruto began to scrutinize each of his classmates. Not too long after, Iruka and Mizuki walked in, with a clipboard for each of them.
"Okay class, settle down. Class!" a tick mark appeared on Iruka's forehead. He then used his famous Giant Head Technique. "SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!" Instantly everyone got to their seats and turned to face him. "Okay then, we will be taking the final exam today! The exam consists of performing the basic three jutsu we have been teaching you. Keep in mind: while the grades you have had in class effect your placement, if you fail this exam, no matter how well you have been doing in class, you will fail."
"We will be going in reverse alphabetical order. First up: Ichiei Wada."
Naruto muttered out. "Fail, this kid is utterly terrible at the Kawarimi." Shino nodded at his assessment. After a minute of testing, and a failed Kawarimi attempt, the student trudged away downcast.
"Ino Yamanaka."
"I believe she will pass." Shino stated. Naruto tilted his head.
"You think so? She's one of Sasuke's top fangirls, I'm not sure she even knows what chakra is." he chuckled at his own joke.
His friend shook his head. "She is a clan heir; her family would not let her fail the academy."
"Fine." Naruto mumbled.
A minute later, Ino walked back to her seat with a shiny new headband in hand. Impressed by the prediction, Naruto nodded at his friend.
Iruka called the next name on his list. "Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto stood up and turned to look at the bug user.
They seemed to stare at each other for a moment, before Shino said, "Pass." It seemed beneath that coat and those dark glasses, there was a sense of humor.
Naruto snorted and walked down to the front of the class.
"Please perform a Kawarimi with the chair next to you." Naruto and the chair instantly switched places. "Okay, very nice. Now Henge yourself into either myself or Mizuki." Once again, without any hand seals Naruto performed the technique flawlessly. "Now for the last technique, the Clone."
Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto caught Mizuki trying to subtly go through some hand signs. Using his wind manipulation, Naruto created a very soft breeze that blew some dust into Mizuki's face. Right before he made the clones, he managed to get Mizuki to sneeze and break his sequence of signs. Three clones puffed into existence and he heard a quiet curse come from Iruka's assistant.
"Very good Naruto, here is your headband." Iruka congratulated him. Naruto took the headband, tied it around his bicep, and walked back up to his seat.
'That bastard was going to make me fail.' he grumbled to himself. 'Or... maybe I'm just being paranoid. Nope! I've seen the way he's looked at me when he thinks I'm not paying attention. He was trying to make me fail. First, I'm going to find out why, and then I'll make him pay!'
"Sasuke Uchiha." Iruka called out.
Naruto and Shino stayed silent, knowing that the raven-haired boy would pass without a doubt.
⸎—⸎
After a relatively short class period Iruka took a moment to make an announcement to the group. "I just wanted to say to those that didn't pass, you can still try again next year. Practice hard and I'm sure that you will get your headband. To those that did pass, well done! Please come back next week for your team assignments." The pre-teens got up from their chairs and went about their business. Some went to go get congratulated by their parents, while others tried to hide the fact that they didn't pass.
Naruto though, was on a mission. He noticed that after class was over, the chūnin assistant seemed to rush off somewhere. The camo-clad boy wanted to find out what Mizuki was up to, and then probably put him in the hospital. He followed him out of the building and continued to pursue him through the city. After a few blocks it became obvious that they were nearing the Hokage Tower. Sure enough, Naruto turned a corner and watched as the man stood off to the side of the doorway. He seemed to wait until he was sure there was no one watching him, and then he quickly opened the door and went inside. Naruto was not too keen on following the chūnin into the tower, but he was aware of the fact that this was the only entrance and exit available to anyone other than the Hokage or ANBU.
'I think I'll wait until that prick comes back out.'
Finally, after what felt like hours waiting the chūnin reappeared with a giant scroll on his back and took off in a sprint towards the nearest gate. Naruto un-Henged himself and took off in pursuit.
'That looked important. How did he not get caught?' He pondered as he ran.
Naruto had finally caught up to the ex-instructor just outside the walls of the city.
"Come out!" Mizuki called. "I know someone's there!" Then a mist descended into the area and a laugh reverberated around him. A thick fog was soon covering the area.
"I knew something was off about you Mizuki. I'm guessing you were going to use my 'failure' of the exam to get me to steal that scroll for you, so you could use me as a scapegoat and then get away scot-free." the boy reduced the mist intensity and made himself known.
"You got me!" he mocked. "That was my plan, but I guess I didn't need you after all. Since you decided to show your face, I'll get to kill you anyways. Now die demon!"
Naruto laughed as Mizuki threw a kunai at his head. It passed right through him and then his body warped and split into two. Naruto then switched places with one and he and his other visible clone both threw poisoned senbon. The boy switched with another clone he had made in the fog and circled his previous instructor. Mizuki dodged all the senbon, both real and fake, and retaliated by pulling multiple shuriken out and launching them at the pair of visible clones. The Naruto on his right morphed and split into two more, and the one on the left became hazy and dissipated into a purple gas cloud.
"Come out and face me you coward!" Mizuki screamed as he whirled around to look for the camo-clad boy. "You want to know why everyone hates your guts!? You are the demon! That's right! The Kyūbi no Kitsune! You are the one that killed thousands of people twelve years ago! And now, I will be praised as a hero for killing you!" He laughed as he pictured Naruto's devastated visage. Though when he thought about it, he had never seen his face in class, so it was a little difficult.
"I contain the Kyūbi you imbecile, I am not the demon myself. And I highly doubt you will even get close to injuring me," he heard a voice echo off the trees. Mizuki snarled. He haphazardly threw some shuriken around hoping to get a lucky hit, and in return he got a hail of senbon. The veritable storm of real and fake senbon was too much to dodge, so he got a few scratches on his arms.
"And that is the end of this battle. Those senbon were coated in the venom of the Giant Yellow-Jacket Wasp, native to the Forest of Death. Tell me, do you feel dizziness? Light headed perhaps?" Naruto's voice called out from the chakra-mist. Sure enough, Mizuki's vision started to spin, and his head felt like it was being pumped full of helium.
"Hehehe. Now for the fun part." He heard from somewhere. His body began to shudder as new cuts appeared all over his body. He couldn't see straight enough to dodge the flying metal, and Naruto exploited that as much as he could. Gash after gash opened, releasing his lifeblood onto the ground. Mizuki screamed out in agony and fear as he dropped to his knees, covered in lacerations.
"Yes! Scream out to the heavens! Cry out for salvation and DIE IN FEAR!" Naruto roared as he appeared in front of the chūnin and stabbed him in the throat. His eyes, glowing bright red behind his mask, were the last thing that the chūnin saw as his life slipped away.
The corpse dropped, and the pre-teen snatched up the giant scroll that had been attached to his back. "You know, I wonder why this is forbidden." Unrolling the scroll, he skipped through a few jutsu until he saw two techniques that made him grin with delight: Shadow Clone and Explosive Shadow Clone. After quickly pulling out his own scroll and copying down all the information on each technique, he rolled the scroll back up and waited for the inevitable ANBU to show up. Sure enough, a minute later five masked ninja dropped into the clearing. Naruto's mind rushed to the ambush from last year, so he had to resist immediately attacking them.
"Naruto Uzumaki, please hand over the Forbidden Scroll," the woman grabbed the scroll as it was tossed to him. "Thank you for retrieving it for us and defeating the traitor, though we would have preferred to capture him alive. He would have been useful to interrogate."
The gas masked boy merely looked at the woman "He deserved to die." The ANBU sweat dropped.
After being let go by the shinobi, Naruto quickly made his way home, so that he could begin his study on his two new techniques.
⸎—⸎
A few days later an assortment of jōnin, along with Iruka and the Hokage were gathered around a table inside the Hokage Tower. Dossiers on the recent graduates had been scattered across its surface as if they were trying to blanket the entire surface.
"Hokage-sama, I'm concerned about having Naruto on my team. I've heard he's... unstable. And unnecessarily violent."
"I've thought this out pretty well, Kurenai." The old man smiled at the jōnin. "Allow me to explain. First, I've put Shino on the team. As Iruka has informed me, those two have a good relationship. I believe the Aburame's friendship will be able to help keep Naruto in line." He chuckled to himself. "Despite my age and what you might think, I like to believe I know what I'm doing. I chose you specifically as well Kurenai. You are level-headed, calm, and caring for those under your leadership. Naruto needs an instructor with those traits.
"I, myself, believe that he is unstable due to the fact that he lacks friendship and comradery among his peers and superiors. His social interaction consists almost purely of Anko, Shino, and some Shogi matches with Shikamaru. While they are very good people, I believe he will require more close bonds with those in the village moving forward. If you and Hinata could at least converse with him regularly, I believe it will help mellow him out. I also trust that you will be a fair and honest teacher towards all three genin." At which Kurenai nodded slowly, not sure why he pointed that out. "Allow Iruka to explain."
The academy instructor cleared his throat and smiled awkwardly. "Well, Naruto has developed a sort of extreme... dislike for teachers that are biased towards some students and give special attention to others."
Kurenai raised a delicate eyebrow.
One of the other jōnin snickered. "Dislike is a bit of an understatement, isn't it? I heard he poisoned three different instructors on separate occasions. They never could pin anything on the kid." The red-eyed jōnin's eyebrows rose so high they were hidden behind her bangs.
Iruka cleared his throat again. "Yes, as I was saying. Last year there were a total of three different instructors poisoned and sent to the hospital. Each had been teaching Naruto's class at the time. When they were found, they all had a note somewhere on their clothing that said, 'Those that cannot teach fairly, don't deserve to teach at all.' After waking up they would immediately, as if fearing the wrath of God, resign from their position for reasons they wouldn't explain."
He held up two fingers. "After the second time, the school board started to secretly watch the class, as they noticed both teachers had that class period. They noticed the current teacher was giving Naruto harder tests and quizzes. And he had also been giving him weighted kunai and shuriken so that his throwing was off. Sure enough, he was sent to urgent care a few days later with the same note, and he resigned from his position as soon as he was awake. Now, we could never officially prove that Naruto had anything to do with the poisonings," No one noticed the Hokage's mouth curve into a smile, ever so slightly. "But it is extremely likely that it was him. After that last incident, the board made sure to interview the next instructor very thoroughly beforehand, so they wouldn't have any more instructors sent to the hospital."
"Thank you Iruka. It is my belief that Naruto cannot work with an instructor that he thinks is biased against him, and that led me to pick you Miss Kurenai. I would also like to point out that Naruto is already extremely talented at genjutsu. I'm assuming you heard what happened to Gorou back a few years ago?" the Third asked.
"Of course, how could I not have? A chūnin put into the mental hospital permanently after being subjected to a non-Uchiha genjutsu?" she replied.
The aged Hokage nodded. "Though it's not widely known, Naruto was the one that created that jutsu, and put the man under it. I witnessed the scene myself." Kurenai gasped, not only had an academy student been able to create his own illusion, but the illusion was far and above what most users could produce.
She gathered herself for one last question. "So where does this leave Hinata? She's terrified of the boy."
He smiled back knowingly. "Well, I know that you care for the girl, so I took that into consideration. Also, even though she may fear him now, she will learn that both boys are can be friendly once you get to know them. Neither boy has shown any aversion towards the girl, so I think she will be a great teammate for him and Shino." The jōnin sighed, and then nodded.
⸎—⸎
The following week, the graduates were back sitting in their classroom for the last time. As they waited for Iruka to come in and announce the teams, they conversed with each other.
Naruto was sitting next to Shino thinking to himself. 'I really hope I don't get morons for teammates. I swear, if I got teamed up with the emo-king Sasukeover there, and one of his fan girls I will probably kill myself.'
Iruka walked in and went behind the desk. His good-natured smile broadened as he looked around at his graduating students. Soon though he stopped observing them and glanced down at the clipboard in his hand. "Okay class, please quiet down. Now, the teams will be as follows:
"Team 1 will be..." he droned on. Some students cheered in delight, and others groaned in disappointment. "Team 7 will be Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno" followed by a squeal from the pink-haired girl and a thud as Sasuke's face hit his desk. "Calm down Sakura! And Kiba Inuzuka. You jōnin instructor will be Kakashi Hatake. Team 8 will be Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyūga, and Naruto Uzumaki. Kurenai Yūhi will be your jōnin instructor."
The camo-clad boy sighed in relief. 'Probably the best team I could have gotten, honestly. Looks like this won't be as bad as I thought. Don't know much about our jōnin though, besides the fact that Anko is friends with her. Hopefully she's nice, or she won't last long,' he chuckled to himself. After a few minutes of waiting, a woman came into the room. She had long, black, unkempt hair. A strange outfit adorned her figure, and she carried herself in a dignified way. Most striking about her though were her red eyes, although her bandage-like clothes came in a close second.
"Team eight, please come with me." she said.
⸎—⸎
The newly formed Team 8 was sitting at a table together in a local restaurant. Kurenai was situated on one side of the table, with Hinata next to her. The two boys were on the other side, both content in the silence.
The jōnin sighed. 'Getting each one of them to talk, especially to each other, is going to be difficult. Hinata is already timid,' she glanced at said girl, who was trying to make herself as small as possible under Naruto's gaze. 'and Naruto's reputation doesn't help that. Shino is an Aburame so he's naturally quiet. And then there's Naruto...' she sighed again and rubbed her temples.
"Okay guys, let's try and get to know each other. I'll start; my name is Kurenai Yūhi. I like my friends, reading, and studying genjutsu. My dislikes are those that are perverts and those that believe women cannot be great leaders. My hobbies include hanging out with friends and visiting various shops around town. My dream is to become known as one of the greatest genjutsu users in the world, and then settle down and have a small family. Shino, why don't you go next?"
Shino adjusted his glasses. "My name is Shino Aburame. I like my friend, Naruto, and my insects. My dislikes are those that judge someone before they get to know them, and bug-spray. My hobbies are studying insects, and walking in forests. My dream is to become a great leader for my clan."
Kurenai smiled at the boy and turned to her right, "Hinata?"
The girl looked anxious. Her brow was creased, and her eyes looked fearful. She was poking her fingers together in what seemed to be a nervous habit. Being called out forced her to glance at her instructor, then nod slowly. "M-my n-n-name is Hinata H-h-hyu-uga. I-I l-like my f-fa-amily. I d-disl-l-like d-d-dissapp-pointing p-p-people. My h-hobby is p-press-sing f-flowers. M-my d-dream is to u-u-unite the Hyuu-uga f-family."
Naruto couldn't stop staring at the girl. 'Good God it's difficult to listen to her speak. I'm amazed I can't see any smoke coming out of her ears. I hope she can stop that obnoxious stuttering soon, or I may go even more crazy...'
'Going to have to really work on her confidence some more.' Kurenai turned to her last student and nodded.
"Naruto Uzumaki," he stated.
She frowned. "Okay, how about you tell us a little more about yourself than just your name? What do you like?"
He shook his head, "Those are personal facts." Refusing to answer her question.
Exasperated, the woman shook her head. This was going to be just as difficult as she had imagined. "Alright, tomorrow you will all be taking my genin examination. In order to officially become Team 8, you must pass it. It will start at training ground eight, please show up at 7:00 am. That is all." She smiled at her students. "Naruto, please stay for a moment."
"Yes?" he asked after the other two left.
She peered into the gas mask that the boy wore, finding his eyes staring back at her with apathy. "Naruto... for this team to function, you are going to have to be a teammate. Meaning that you are willing to talk with us, share some personal facts, and be around us. I know this may seem a little weird for you, but I really do want to get to know you, the real you. But I can't if you do not let me."
"Kurenai-sensei, this is me. I cannot be someone that I am not." With that he turned around and left an exasperated jōnin behind.
"That's it, I'm going to go talk to Anko some more later… and get a drink or two. That boy is going to drive me nuts," she mumbled to herself.
⸎—⸎
Later that day, Naruto was getting the itching feeling in the back of his mind. As he was preparing to go out again he felt a pair of arms wrap around him and squeeze him extremely tight. He tried to resist the urge to flinch violently, and only succeeded in reducing the shudder. The arms released him, and he turned around to look upon the face of Anko.
She frowned at him. "I can't even give you surprise hugs anymore without this kind of reaction?" He didn't feel that he could say anything to placate her, so he simply shrugged and turned back around to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything. "Hey, how about you and I go get some dango tonight!" she grinned at him.
"Sorry Anko," he tried his best to sound apologetic. "I can't, I have some training I have to work on." He told her.
She looked a little incredulous on what his training entailed but didn't press it. She didn't want him to think she didn't trust him "You training at the one for your genin team?" He nodded. "Try not to push yourself too hard. Just remember; you're my cutsey-wootsey Naruto-kun and I don't want you to get hurt." She tried her best to sound like she was talking to a dog, smirking when he rolled his eyes.
He finished checking over his gear. "I'll be fine." He walked past her and opened the door. "See you later." He waved and leapt out the door.
While Naruto was out "not" disobeying the Hokage's direct orders, Anko, Kurenai, Hana, and Yūgao were all at a local bar. They had just sat down and ordered their drinks. Once the drinks were all distributed, Anko's friends noticed she lacked all the energy she normally had.
"Anko, what's wrong?" Yūgao asked.
Anko took a swig of her sake. "It's just Naruto… again." After spending so much time and seeing the boy she rescued grow, she couldn't help but love him. Lately though the stress was getting to her. Before, she tried to be relatively carefree. She didn't have to worry about anyone but herself. But now that she had someone she was really close to, someone she was concerned about.
"He seriously needs some more friends or something. All he does is train and fight, and his social life is practically non-existent." She looked over to her red-eyed friend. "Please tell me he had a positive reaction to the team assignments."
Kurenai smiled awkwardly at her friend. "Well I'm not entirely sure of his reaction. Today at introductions he said a total of... his name. After I pulled him aside afterwards he said another few sentences before walking away. Is that normal for him?"
"Yup, that sounds like Naruto alright," she sighed and ran her hand down her cheek.
"So how do I get him to think of Hinata and myself as friends? Or at least talk more? Could you give me some insight into what he likes?" Kurenai questioned.
"Getting him to think of you as friends will take a lot of time. Even before everything that has happened he was slow to trust most people. But, at least getting him integrated into working with a team shouldn't be too hard. I know he loves a challenge. He will always throw himself at a task and work until he's mastered it, though sometimes he has a lack of patience," she hummed. "So, if you can present him with challenges that he has no way to succeed but through working with his team that will make him learn to trust them. From there I think continued interaction will be all that it takes.
"Oh yeah!" She snapped her fingers. "If he starts to get twitchy, try and catch him before he leaves. If you can distract him in some way until he goes back to normal I think that will help."
Hana looked curious. "What do you mean by twitchy?"
"I won't go into the details but suffice to say he developed a rather extreme coping mechanism after some pretty traumatic events. If he starts to seem anxious or shifty he will want to go back to his coping. I think if we can break him of that habit and keep him in good company his brain will rewire."
Her friends all nodded, thinking of their various friends and family that had detrimental coping mechanisms to deal with the life of a ninja. Many simply drank heavily when off duty, but there were more strange ninjas than normal ones.
"Naruto will be better with his new team, I'm sure of it. Then you'll get your friend back." Yūgao stated with conviction.
⸎—⸎
The next day, the genin of Team 8 were all waiting at the designated training ground. Hinata was sitting as close to the boys as she could bear, about 5 feet away. Shino was currently relaxing next to Naruto, watching an ant crawl across his finger. The last member of the team was sitting with his back against a tree, twirling a kunai on his finger.
Secretly, Naruto was practicing keeping a semi-permanent Henge up, and had used a clone to take his place. At that moment he was physically Henged to be the kunai, while it was a Shadow Clone sitting in plain view. Suddenly smoke exploded a few feet away and dissipated to reveal their teacher.
"Good, you're all here." Her smile was relaxed and pleasant. "Today is the day that you will become true genin… or go back to the Academy." Taking a moment to let that sink in, she continued. "So here is the challenge that you have to pass today. All you three must do, is touch me. You have two hours."
"…"
Naruto turned to Shino. "She serious?"
"I can sense no deception."
Naruto turned back to their sensei and stared. 'Wait a second... she said yesterday she likes genjutsu...' He pulsed his chakra and the Kurenai in front of him faded. 'Shit... I didn't even notice!' His teammates found it odd that their jōnin wasn't reacting and Naruto had jumped up and seemed to be frantically searching the landscape. After a moment they too pulsed their chakra and found the area devoid of their instructor.
"Hey Shino, think your bugs could find her?" The blue-eyed boy suggested.
"It will take time for my kikai to locate her. When she first arrived I placed a female on her, as I do with any teammate. 'Why' you ask? That way I can always find allies in case something goes wrong," the stoic genin stated. "Unfortunately, I cannot seem to locate it."
The two boys turned to look at their female teammate, certain she had mumbled something.
"What?" Naruto asked. She ducked her head and mumbled some more.
"I-I s-see a n-n-note." she pointed a shaky finger over to a nearby tree. Naruto pulsed his chakra again to reveal a note that had been hidden under a genjutsu. Striding over, he read it.
"It says, 'Crushing Depths.' Okay, what the hell does that mean?" Naruto asked.
Shino walked over and confirmed the simple message. "It sounds like a simple riddle." They all pondered it for a minute. "I noted a lake at the end of this training ground when I entered earlier. I suggest we look there first." Naruto nodded at his friend's assessment. He started to jog over towards the body of water, but then stopped when he noticed that he wasn't being followed by Hinata. He rolled his eyes behind his mask.
"Hinata!" he received an 'eep' in return. "Come on!"
She rushed to catch up and the three ran over to the lake and stopped at the edge. His teammates couldn't hide their surprise as he walked out onto the lake, and then dropped down. Utilizing his chakra bubble technique to make sure his clothes didn't get soaked, he began to search around on the bottom of the lake bed. After a good ten minutes of searching, he resurfaced. "Nothing."
"Our sensei used genjutsu on the last note, did you try pulsing your chakra while down there?" Shino inquired.
Naruto sighed, then shook his head and dove back down. At the bottom again, he pulsed his chakra. This had the unfortunate consequence of breaking his bubble and soaking his clothes instantly. He did happen to see another note and after he was done cursing he read it. He swam back up and trudged back to his teammates. "Well I'm soaked now, so thanks a lot Shino." He shook his arm in a vain attempt to dry it. "But I did find the note. This one said, 'Hidden Leaf.' So that could mean" He made an exaggerated gesture, "anywhere in the village. Or it could mean literal leaves."
The trio stood for a minute thinking, then it was decided that the first place to look was the forested area of the training ground. After haphazardly searching around for 20 minutes, Naruto was getting frustrated. His patience was wearing thin when he finally snapped and threw a kunai at the nearest living being. Luckily for his teammates, that happened to be a squirrel. Shino adjusted his glasses slightly and Hinata became white as a ghost.
Walking over and pulling his kunai out of the now deceased squirrel, he shook his head. "We don't even know what we are looking for."
Shino spoke up. "Hinata," She almost jumped and ran away right then, but restrained herself. "Can you use your Byakugan again to search for us?" She nodded and activated her blood line. After a few seconds she pointed up and to her left. Naruto wanted to smack his head at how easy that was, and how none of them had thought of that sooner. Shino took the initiative and sent his kikai to collect the note.
"Good job Hinata. This one reads, 'Back to the Basics.'"
They pondered this new riddle. Naruto suggested it could mean that they must use one of the 'Academy Three' for something, but then realized that still didn't give them anything useful to work with. Shino couldn't come up with anything, but finally the boys noticed that Hinata seemed to have an idea, as she was nervously poking her fingers together.
"I t-think that m-m-means w-we have to s-search at the A-a-academy." she spoke softly.
"That sounds logical." Shino agreed, while Naruto tried his best to ignore her stuttering.
The genin took off towards the school, and after jumping down in the front lawn, walked inside. Shino began to walk off so the other two followed, assuming he found something. They walked along the corridors and then through the backdoor that led to the sparring rings. Shino strode towards a seemingly random chūnin instructor that was leaning against a fence, appearing to mind his own business.
"My kikai can still find you even under your genjutsu, sensei." The chūnin smirked and then morphed to reveal Kurenai.
She smiled at Hinata as the girl walked over and touched her arm. After a moment, Shino stepped forward and did the same thing. A moment later she raised an eyebrow when Naruto seemed to refuse to move any more.
"Very good you three, you found me. But Naruto you still need to touch me to pass." Kurenai then blinked and nearly smacked her forehead in realization. 'Anko did tell me that he had issues with physical contact. But given that he will fail if he doesn't move, I'm curious if he can overcome his hesitance.'
Inside Naruto's head, an intense back-and-forth battle was being waged. 'Come on man! Just go up and poke her in the arm! It's not like it can be a trap, the other two just did it! What the fuck?! Just do it! GAH!' He stopped arguing as the jōnin began to walk towards him. She stood a couple feet in front of him and smiled.
"If you don't pass you will be sent back to the academy." She reminded him.
As fast as he could he thrust his arm out and poked her arm. After that she stepped forward put a hand on his shoulder and ignored his apparent discomfort. She could tell it would take awhile for him to normalize being touched by his team.
"Congratulations team, you all pass."
He didn't seem to outwardly react besides a slight stiffening of his back, so she removed her hand and walked back so she could look at her students. "Alright, so now you are officially Team 8! I'm curious if any of you know why I tested you like I did?" They either shook their head or stayed silent. "I created this test to see if you all met the basic requirements of being a ninja. First, I wanted to see if you could work together. More often than not, an assignment requires a team to complete, and not one of you, by yourself, could have found me within the time-limit. But since you all were willing to work together, you found me with time to spare. Secondly, the riddles were basic puzzles. It may surprise you that a lot of ninja work is solving puzzles. They might not be so straightforward but broken down into its basic elements much of our work is simply finding solutions to puzzles. Finally, it tested your tracking skills. The Hokage believes that your team's strengths could lead to a very successful tracking and scouting team." Her students seemed to absorb the information and she continued. "Now then, we will be meeting together every day except Sunday at training ground 8, 7:00 am sharp. The days will alternate between training and missions. Now I could let you go, but how about we all go hang out together at the park for a little while and relax?"
Naruto shook his head. "I've got some training to do."
Kurenai gave him a hard look and put her hands on her hips. "A team needs to learn to bond and relax with each other to be effective. And it's such a beautiful day outside. Right Shino? Hinata?"
Hinata nervously nodded her head.
"It could be beneficial to team cohesion. There are many species of insects that I could study as well." Shino concluded, at which point Naruto through up his hands in defeat.
They all walked to the park in awkward silence. It was occasionally penetrated by Kurenai asking one of the genin and question, but the result was mostly one- or two-word answers from the boys. As soon as they arrived Naruto walked over to a nearby tree, walked up it, and then sat down on one of the limbs. Kurenai was not surprised to see that, as Anko had kept her up to date on Naruto's progress.
She looked up at him. "You don't want to sit down here with us?"
"No thanks. I prefer a better vantage point in an unknown environment."
"We're in a park in the middle of Konoha." She attempted to rebuttal, but he just shook his head and refused to budge. 'He's here with us, that's a start. Kitten steps.' She reminded herself and simply sat next to the tree with Hinata and Shino.
Hinata and Kurenai talked between each other for the most part, while Naruto would add in every now and again when directly questioned. About 30 minutes later, Naruto had apparently fallen asleep laying down on his branch.
Kurenai smiled. 'If he's comfortable enough to nap up there we are definitely making progress already.'
After another 10 minutes, a small group of girls made their way over to the jōnin. They looked to be around Academy age and were nondescript except for the matching wristbands.
'Black wristbands with fear written on them, looks like the fan girls Anko was telling me about.' "How can I help you girls?" The jōnin inquired.
One looked to the others for confirmation before turning back to the woman. "Are you Kurenai, the jōnin of Naruto's team?" She nodded. "Would you tell us where he is?" She raised an eyebrow and pointed almost directly above them, to the sleeping form of Naruto. The girls gasped and then quietly squealed to each other. Whispering amongst each other for a moment, one of the taller girls boosted another up onto Naruto's branch.
"May I ask what you are going to do to my genin?"
"We've always wanted to see what Naruto was like under his mask, it's been our goal for over a month now, but he's always managed to avoid us."
Kurenai seemed to think it over. This was somewhat intrusive, but she had to admit she was curious as well. "Girls, I'm not sure if I'm ok with you invading my student's privacy like that."
"Aw please?" One girl quietly begged. "We don't want to hurt him! We just want to see what he looks like. I bet he's so handsome." She appeared to almost swoon at the thought.
The red-eyed woman couldn't help but see the harmless fun in that. "Ok, but I'm not responsible if he wakes up."
Given the confirmation, the girl on the branch began to reach forward.
Slowly.
Closer.
Almost there.
A cloud of smoke erupted from Naruto's prone position.
"IIEE!" she squealed and fell off the branch, landing in a heap on one of the other girls.
The jōnin was stuck between astonishment that she herself had been fooled by Naruto's clone, amazement at the fact that he could even make solid clones, or disappointment that he decided to leave without telling them.
"Sorry girls, seems like he managed to sneak away earlier." Kurenai apologized. "Maybe next time."
The students collectively moaned in sadness and trudged away. The jōnin sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time today. 'I need to go speak with the Hokage. Last time I checked a genin shouldn't have access to forbidden techniques.'
⸎—⸎
Done and Done! Hope you liked my new chapter. It was difficult to get the flow right, and I kept cutting different parts out, and putting other parts in. But overall, I think it turned out well. I realize that I'm probably not the best at writing action scenes, but hopefully I'll get better.
Note for Upcoming Chapters:
Thanks for reading! Please REVIEW for me and tell me all about how you loved/hated it and WHY! I know some of you think,
"I'm not really qualified to comment on his work. It's not like I have a degree in English or (insert other lame excuse here)."
Well you're RIGHT! You can't comment on my work, because you don't know where I work! BUT my writing is totally something you can comment on. If I'm qualified to write… which I might not be but who cares, you are totally qualified to critique my chapters.
Here's a list of descriptions for the new jutsu listed in this chapter.
Shadow Clone (B-rank): (Taken from a Naruto Wiki, you get the point) Similar to the Clone Technique, this technique creates clones of the user. However, these clones are actual copies, not illusions. The user's chakra is evenly distributed among every clone, giving each clone an equal fraction of the user's overall power. The clones are capable of performing techniques on their own and can even bleed but will usually disperse after one or two solid blows, though even then it may not be enough.
Explosive Shadow Clone (A-rank): (Taken from a Naruto Wiki) This technique is used to create a shadow clone that can be detonated. The clone looks like a normal shadow clone, which allows the user to get it close to the target without them expecting anything besides a normal attack, or the target might even close in willingly to try to attack the clone.
Giant Head Technique (E-rank): (My own explanation/technique) Invented by Iruka to scare his students into quieting down. He simply uses a Henge on his head to make it appear larger and more menacing. Along with the illusion, the instructor projects his voice to make it louder in order to get his students' attention.
Thanks again! Farewell!
