"All right team! Let's begin the training!" An over enthusiastic Jounin exclaimed to the three children standing in front of him.
"What's up with him?" Sotan asked slightly confused.
"He's probably trying to forget the humiliation of yesterday," Rintaro answered casually, while grinding a tiny twig with his sharp teeth.
"Huh, you mean when he was caught with those kunai?"
Mako nodded her head innocently as she stared at the poor expression on her teachers face, causing him to drop his head down in mortification and allowing cobalt gloom lines to appear over his depressed head.
Mako giggled gently at the expression of the Jounin while Rintaro stood motionlessly by her side.
The day was warm as the sun rose from its peaceful slumber and its rays stretched across the mysterious world. A world filled with many contradicted feelings such as love and hate, jealousy and admiration, chastity and lust as well as many other emotions felt by the millions maybe even billions of living creatures on a single planet, a planet that went by the name of Earth.
"So what should we do first?" Sotan asked as Yoichi raised his head up.
The Jounin's face instantly lit up as he exclaimed excitedly "Ummm, let's see first we'll do a treasure hunt!"
"What!" The three kids all shouted at the same time as they stared open-mouthed at the Jounin.
"Sensei, how will a treasure hunt help us improve our skills, and prepare us for the exam?" Sotan asked.
"You'll see," Yoichi commented before adding quickly so that none of the children could drop out "There is only one rule and that's that you mustn't exit the village or at least not alone, now I'll leave you too it good-luck!" With that said the Jounin disappeared.
"Wait where do we start," Sotan questioned the smoke of cloud where their sensei stood moments ago.
Mako simply sighed as she looked around to check if their sensei left any clues behind.
"You won't find anything here now let's go," Rintaro said as he turned around, about to leave.
"Where do we go?" Sotan asked as he stared at the dark haired boy in confusion.
Rintaro turned his head to look at him and stated "We have to search for the starting point,"
Sotan and Mako exchanged glances before eyeing their teammate.
"The village is large, how are we supposed to find a starting point?" Mako voice was gentle and questioning as she kept her eyes on the slightly older boy.
"We'll have to split up," Was the simple answer that the girl received from her comrade.
After trading glances once again Mako and Sotan agreed.
"Alright I'll take the north side, Sotan you take the East and Mako take the south,"
Once again the two younger children nodded before they set the time and place to return to and wished each other good luck before running towards their designated areas.
Sotan raced through the streets as fast as he could, he wanted to become stronger and if that meant doing a stupid quest like this then be it. As he darted through the crowds of people he noticed a familiar hooded figure going into the ramen store. Sotan managed to stop himself from following the mysterious stranger and kept his pace up as he ran East to where the main gate of the village was.
It didn't take the boy long to get there and when he finally reached the endpoint he searched around for a few minutes however found nothing. It didn't take him long to realise that it was almost time to meet his teammates, and so he dashed off back in the direction of the split up point.
As the silver haired closed in on the spot he could see Rintaro already waiting with a piece of paper in his left hand.
Sotan finally skidded to a halt as both he and Mako reached Rintaro in the identical instance.
"What's that?" Sotan didn't waste his time before asking the older boy about the diminutive card.
"It's our first clue, I found it in the maze," Sotan immediately knew what maze his partner was talking and it never seized to amaze him at how easy it was for the older boy to find his way around the massive area.
"What does it say?" This time it was Mako who asked the question.
Rintaro opened the paper that was folded in half; it revealed writing, positioned in the way of a poem or rhyme. Sotan looked over the boy's shoulder and read out loud what the poem said.
'A place, where the future god spends most of his time,
Is a home, of a critter no bigger than,
one single dime.'
"Huh, what's that supposed to mean?"
"I don't know." Rintaro admitted but to his surprise Sotan almost instantly burst out "The training grounds!"
The other two children looked at their friend in confusion.
"What makes you think that?" Rintaro asked.
"Just follow me I'll explain on the way." With that said Sotan raced to the nearest training grounds.
Mako and Rintaro run after him trying to keep up, however the young boy was known to be quite fast which didn't make their life any easier.
Mako was the first that spoke as the squad dashed through the trees "Sotan so why are we looking for the training grounds?" It was obvious that neither the girl nor the boy who run beside her knew the answer to the question.
"The rhyme mentioned a God, and the Kages of the hidden villages are viewed by their people as Gods."
Mako nodded, now that she thought about it, it seemed to make sense 'but still why the training grounds?' she thought.
Sotan as if reading the girls mind carried on explaining his theory, "In order for a Kage to reach their position they must be powerful in order to protect the village. This means that they must spend most of their time training"
"So you think that our goal is one of the training grounds?" Rintaro asked which earned him a simple nod.
Mako was thinking hard about what her teammate said and somehow now it made perfect sense 'The place, where the future god spends most of his time' she thought about the line a bit more and couldn't help but wonder how Sotan found out the meaning.
Soon the trio reached the closest training grounds which were placed south of their meeting point. The grounds where surrounded by a high fence which absorbed chakra when the two touched in order to prevent and ninjutsu from escaping and attacking anyone who was walking past. The ground consisted of dry earth and a few scattered pebbles here and there were also around three massive, strong oak trees on the sides near the fence.
As the children searched around they were slightly disappointed since they couldn't find anything, after all though, they had no idea what they were looking for.
"Sotan," Mako said as she looked at the boy who was older than her by a few months any yet syill younger than Rintaro.
"What's up?"
"Doesn't critter mean creature or animal?"
Sotan nodded as he continued to search by crawling on the ground.
"Umm, well the poem told us about a small creature so shouldn't we be looking for a critter then?" Mako questioned.
As soon as Sotan heard this his face lit up, "I know just the place, thanks Mako"
After calling Rintaro over, the team set out once again searching for a clue that would help them find what they were looking for.
It didn't take them long to arrive at another training ground this time located in the south-east. This training ground however hadn't been used in a long time and therefore it was more like a forest with hundreds or even thousands of different types of vegetation.
"How are we ever supposed to find one tiny bug in here?" Mako asked no one in particular.
"Come on let's get to work," Rintaro said quickly before he walked forth to open the gate and walked in, followed by Sotan and Mako.
After discussing their plan the children split up in search of a bug in a forest, this sure was going to be difficult.
"Where are you? Come on out mr. bug" The young girl cooed as she examined around, in bushes, on leaves and under rocks, however no matter how hard she looked she couldn't find a single insect.
She sighed as she checked under a large rock before confirming that there was nothing there and then sitting down.
"I'm no help at all today," She muttered and just then she heard a peaceful sound coming from deep with the long grass.
Mako turned around and noticed something small and green leaping through the large storks of moisturised grass.
Mako's face instantly lit up as she carefully stood up and tip toed after the tiny bug.
"Wow…" The young student whispered as she came face to face with a massive tree the trunk of the tree was covered with many tiny green and brown bugs and it only took her a second to recognise the species as grass hoppers.
"Hey, Mako did you find anything?" The voice of her comrades came from the west and the east side of the clearing.
The girl looked up her face beaming with delight as she nodded her head in Sotan's direction before turning back around.
The boy's exchanged glances before they shrugged their shoulders and walked towards the girl, they were amazed at what they saw. A unique massive tree over populated by all types of different grass hoppers.
"How do we know which ones the right one?" Sotan asked but just then the smallest creature jumped onto Mako's shoulder.
"I'm guessing this one," The girl answered as she raised her hand up and allowed the grass hopper to leap onto her palm before she brought it back down and cupped her hands with the miniature figure inside.
"Where do we go next then?" Sotan asked slightly confused.
Mako turned her body slowly around so that she was able to look at their surroundings, as she did this Rintaro kept his gaze on the grass hopper.
"That way," Rintaro said as he pointed south, surprising the other two children.
"But how do you know?" Mako asked still holding the grass hopper.
"All the other grass hoppers have their antenna facing up but this one has it pointed south even as you move." The boy explained.
Mako turned around just to check if this was true and sure enough it was.
All three then agreed and raced through the forest and out of through the gate. Mako ran at the front using the grass hopper as a compass and guiding her team. The trio run through the streets past the people, without stopping. They raced all the way down to the harbour.
When they finally reached it all three were breathing heavily. Mako looked down at the insect and she noticed it smile which confused her slightly then within seconds in vanished replaced by a cloud of smoke.
"Was that a summoning animal?" Rintaro asked as he finally caught his breath.
His teammates merely half nodded as they focussed on recovering.
Kunai bashed into each other in the darkness of the alley as neither opponent was eager to give up. A muscular man with unclear features due to the darkness stood facing off against a teenage boy with a black cloak.
"What is this? This is the fourth guy I battled today and they just keep getting stronger," The cloaked man said although it was clear that he wasn't even struggling against his opponent but simply playing around.
"Impossible how can someone like you be able to hold his own against me? Who are you?" A monstrous voice belonging to the muscular bloke asked.
As a glimmer of light, which had escaped through the uncovered top of the alleyway that kept the two opponents hidden from the rest of the world, crossed the shadowy faces of both individuals pointy ears and large fangs could be seen on the face of the brawny man. However due to the hood covering his foe's the only this which was visible was the smirk which stretched across his face.
"Who am I you ask, that's the same question that I was asked by all those other half beasts half humans" The teen answered still smirking.
The light soon disappeared off of his face and reappeared on the beast's face who begun to get goose bumps.
"I didn't tell my name to those other ones though, however I will make an exception since you seem to be the strongest so far. Now my name, my name is Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki, you might want to remember that and tell your friends to stay out of my way." As the boy finished his speech he thrust his kunai into his opponent's knocking it out of his hand and allowing it to glide through the air before finally landing on the concrete with a loud clang.
The beast's eyes widened even more before he gave of a scared screech and escaped with his tail between his legs, literally.
"What are those things anyway and why are there so many of them?" Naruto asked himself before he put his weapon away and picked up his opponent's one up before putting it away as well.
"Oh well it's time for dinner anyway, ramen here I come!"
'Why don't you ask me what I would want for a change?' A deep voice asked from within the young boy who smirked as he came out from within the darkness, "You'll get your chance soon," Naruto answered.
'Stubborn as ever, just get extra bacon this time' the voice commented.
"You bet"
"Is it here?" Sotan asked as he looked through the doors of the ramen shop.
'Hey, it's that guy again,' He thought before moving onto the next store.
"You guys come over 'ere'
Sotan looked around and noticed Rintaro standing across the bridge by 'Miso Soup'.
"What is it?" Mako asked as she followed Sotan.
As the two approached their destination and looked through the glass doors of the shop, both children looked shocked at what they saw.
"Is that?" Sotan begun,
However Rintaro finished his sentence of for him "Yoichi sensei,"
The Jounin sat at a table enjoying his soup with many licked clean bowls beside him.
The children walked in, Sotan was slightly annoyed at his teacher's actions but stuck with his team nevertheless.
"Sensei," Mako said, conveying the man's attention to the group.
"So you finally finished, I didn't expect a warm up like that to take you an entire day," Yoichi explained surprised at the sight of his students.
"Warm up? You were supposed to teach us, help us get stronger but instead you tell us to race around the village while you enjoy a nice meal. You call that training?" Sotan almost screamed at the older man, eyes glared at him from all around.
Unable to control himself the young trainee turned around and run through the door, heading for one of his favourite places 'The ramen store'.
It didn't take him long to reach the place and as he walked in he wasn't very surprised to see the hooded man again sitting by the counter. Sotan walked over to the worktop where he sat down beside the man and ordered one large bowl of ramen.
The young woman with midnight blue hair tied in two ponytails instantly served him a fresh bowl. Sotan thanked her before he reached for a pair of chopsticks and slowly enjoyed every bite he took.
"Huh, are you feeling alright today Sota?" The lady asked as she looked with slightly worried emerald eyes.
Sotan didn't answer he just simply nodded.
"Oh come on, what's wrong?"
"It's nothing,"
"Really, well how's your training getting along?" She asked once again.
The boy's face darkened within moments and he looked up, his eyes threatening to allow tears to escape at any moment.
"All we did was pointlessly run around; I can't take it we don't learn anything and we don't even train. Mel, how am I supposed to get stronger?"
The girl didn't answer her expression dropped.
"You can't always rely on someone else; sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands. If that means you have to train yourself or ask someone else so be it. However if you have a goal you should never give up" The deep stern, uninterested voice of the hooded man beside him said as he finished his ramen and asked for seconds.
'Only repeating what someone else told him,' Once again the voice from within the older boy said tiredly however only Naruto heard this.
Sotan stared at the man; he wiped away his tears and nodded with a twinkle in his eye.
"I know, mister would you mind training me?"
Naruto hesitated he looked at the boy his face still completely covered.
"I don't have time for things like that, I have better things to do and anyway I was only passing through this village," He said sharply before pushing his second bowl out of the way and placing a voucher beside it.
"Oh please mister, you're really powerful I saw you defeat that guy in the alley and save the girl and then you pinned my sensei to the wall like that, it was awesome."
"I had no choice if I didn't stop that fight they would of destroyed this place," The traveller was about to walk out when Sotan quickly called out "What if I pay for your ramen until the exams?"
This seemed to spark the boy's interest, 'I'm going to run out of vouchers soon,' Naruto thought to himself "For how long kid?" Sotan's expression instantly brightened "Two weeks"
"How about a week, a week and a half at most?"
Sotan wasn't very happy about this at first but soon he agreed, the girl by the counter who went by the name of Mel couldn't help but smile as she took the empty bowls of ramen and gave them to one of the girls who were washing the dishes.
"When do we start then sensei?" Sotan asked eagerly.
"Right now,"
I know this chapter probably seems really rushed but I just found out yesterday that I'm supposed to be going on a short holiday so I won't be able to update for a while, so I decided to post this chapter as soon as I could. I hope there aren't many mistakes; I'll try and fix it up a bit when I get back, but due to the reviews and all the comments and alerts that this story got over the past three or four days I decided to update as soon as possible. Oh and there's still a POLL on my profile, if you don't know where then it's at the top above the picture and it has 'vote' written in blue you just have to click it and vote, so please do, it will really help me with this story. Feel free to PM me if you need any help but I won't be able to answer for a while so please don't feel offended. Anyway I want to thank all of you who read this story and I would like to give special thanks to:
SinOfDisaster and Black Rookie~ For reviewing, thanks guys and I'll do my best ;)
ThrashPunk23 and digimonfanatic4ever~ For adding this story to their fav.
Darkrexbeta,ThrashPunk23 and TigrezzTail~ For alerting.
Please tell me if I missed you of the list I'll try and add you to the list for the next chapter.
Anyway bye guys I hope to hear from you again soon ;)