Chapter Three

A New Dawn Rises

Early in the morning, far out among the trees of the forest, an fox ear twitched. It turned in one direction, then the other, until finally settling on one location. A second later, the sound of a needle flying through the air could be heard, followed by a muffled yelp. The fox ear, it's twin, and the head they were attached to walked calmly to the location of impact. Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto Could often be found in this portion of the forest that surrounded Konoha, given the fact that he lived there. For the last two years, Naruto had been holed up in the forest, training to the point of unconsciousness every day. He had grown, filling out a lithe and agile frame. His eyes had become similar to those of his fox tenant, with slitted pupils. His sclerae remained pitch black, and his irises had become a deep, and royal purple. These were commonly covered by the pair of wrap around shades he currently wore. The sunglasses were a black frame, with lenses the exact color of Naruto's irises. His ears had long since turned to those of a foxes, with purple fur. His hair had become a lighter blonde, with more pronounced black streaks. He had also grown a tail, of the same color as his ears. His outfit had grown to consist of his golden orange cloak, his naginata in it's collapsed form, his cloak's hood being up, and a blood red undershirt being worn in a similar fashion to what Alex had worn in the mindscape. His naginata was, when it was fully extended on it's handle, six feet long from the tip of the blade, to the butt of the handle. It's handle was that of obsidian, with a golden inlay, and the blade was what looked to be diamond on the blade side, with an onyx back hand. On the blade was a glyph in the form of a dragon done in Lapis Lazuli. The Tsuba looked to be two wings going in a circle, one demonic, the other angelic. As Naruto walked, he unhooked Shōmetsu, for that was the naginata's name, and began to run through some practice kata.

With a final swing of the shaft, he arrived at the spot where his senbon had landed. He found his kill to be two deer, now laying dead perfectly one on top of the other. He plucked his senbon out of the ground beneath their heads, and pulled out a scroll. He quickly sealed the deer, and proceeded to return to his compound. Or rather, his compounds.

The Namikaze and Uzumaki clans had been very close from the start, and had built their two compounds next to each other. But neither trusted anyone in the village with the contents, and so built a joint compound in the fashion of a sealing array. On the night of the Kyūbi attack, the seal was initialized, and the whole compound was sealed in a glyph. The glyph was then added to the seal that was to be used to seal the Kyūbi. The result was that the heir of both clans could essentially use the seal as a summoning contract for the house. Naruto, the Sandaime, and his two tenants had gone deep into the forest, and found an appropriate clearing. After a day of training to clear the area, Naruto had lain down in the middle, bitten his thumb, and swiped it on the seal with some chakra. He was instantly propelled at least forty feet up by the roof that had risen out of the ground beneath him. the rest of the compound rose in a similar fashion, in concentric rings. the final result was something the size of Training Ground Forty-Four, a ten kilometer in radius area, with the exception that instead of brush, it was full of buildings. Naruto's fortune had been transferred to the central vault, and the cleaning seals had, once discovered on the blueprints in the main office, been activated. The resulting dust devil flung both of the compounds residents out of the area bodily, and had only dissipated after a whole day had gone by. Upon inspection, there was not a single iota of dust to be two solitary inhabitants had discovered on the blue prints what seemed to be a seal for the storage of livestock, but upon it's activation, had discovered it to be filled with the cryogenically frozen bodies The inhabitants of the village. There were instructions on the wall of the building they had been found in that, should the seal be activated, the bodies would be revived over the course of five years.

Naruto and Hiruzen had discovered a seal for the copying of memories into a foreign Bunshin, and, upon the revelation that Naruto could create clones with his Fukashi Kōsen (Black Light) Kekkei Genkai, two were made with both Hiruzen, and Naruto's memories at the time. Those two then took on the publicly known appearances of the duo, and left to run the Village, and go through the academy as if nothing had happened. Over the next two years, The duo had trained in anything, and everything. Naruto, so that he could become the proper Kage for Uzushiogakure when it was rebuilt, and Hiruzen so that he could both maintain his title as The Professor, and so he could get back in shape. These peace times made one complacent. The result was such as was described for young Naruto, and that Sarutobi Hiruzen began to look younger, taking several years off, so that he looked to be in his mid forties, as compared to his real age. The elderly Hokage had tutored his young pupil in everything he needed to know about the shinobi world, and then some. He began to teach him complex maths, and physics, even going so far as to explain what he knew of multi-dimensional theory. Several gaps in Naruto's education had to be filled by Alex, and Kioko, as the Kyūbi had taken to being called in her human form. These included how to control the Fukashi Kōsen, and how to control yōkai. There was one attempt to mix the two, but the resulting feedback had wiped out a whole city block's worth of forest, and left Naruto on the mend for several days. All he said afterward was, 'Never again.'

Back in Konoha, the aftermath of the annihilation of the civilian council, and the resulting public beheading of any who broke the Sandaime's law, left those who had hated Naruto quite terrified, and those who had supported him, such as those at Ichiraku Ramen, and the Hyūga clan, quite content. Business had gone quite normally for the two Kuroi Chi Bunshins (Black Blood), until the night that Naruto and Hiruzen had decided to come back on. That night, something horrible happened. The ambassador of Kumo had been staying in the village to discuss a treaty with Konoha. Not two nights after negotiations began, an alarm was sounded. All available shinobi rushed to the Uchiha compound, only to find an unconscious Sasuke and Mikoto Uchiha lying among their practically vaporized compound, amid the dead bodies of their clans men. Once the two were secure, another alarm arose. Shinobi rushed to the Hyūga sector, only to be passed two orange and black streaks going the opposite direction. The squads leaped to the rooftops to find similar duos of color all converging on a single point. The ambient Anbu leaped forward in an attempt to find the Hyūga heiress that had been kidnapped, only for one pair of the blurs to whirl turn them, and force them back, only to proceed to close in on the one point. Every shinobi in the entire village watched as what looked to be the Kumo ambassador's aide had the living shit beaten out of him, while one of the blurs that had slowed to reveal a figure in an orange and black cloak worked at untying the sack that until recently had been on the Kumo nin's back. The bag was opened to reveal the Hyūga heiress, completely unharmed. The figure took the unconscious girl in it's arms, and shunshined away in a whirl of shadows. An anbu foolishly tried to follow suit, only to have his hand broken by an arm that emerged from the shadows. His comrades whirled to see who had done it, but found no one. The blurs that had until recently been devastating the Kumo nin all dissipated into smoke. All that was left for the Anbu was to pick up the pieces.

A few blocks away, the figure emerged from a shadow, to be greeted by his comrade.

"You did quite a number on him Naruto-kun. Are you sure you didn't over do it?"

"He'll be fine, assuming that Ibiki and Anko go easy on him... Well that was a strange thought. Anyway, let's get her home, the graduation exams tomorrow, don't you know Jiji."

"Hai."

The two figures promptly melted into the shadows again, leaving not one trace.

The Very Next Day...

Hinata Hyūga awoke to the sound of birds chirping, and her father snoring. This was strange, as her father's snores sounded much closer than normal. She turned her head to find him asleep in a chair next to her bed. She chuckled at his strange ways of showing affection, and walked down the hall to the kitchen. Once she was through the door, she began to brew herself a cup of tea, only to look at the clock above the stove. The time was 10:00 a.m. She thought nothing of this, and proceeded to drink her tea, only to spit-take it into the face of her unfortunate younger sibling, Hanabi.

"What did you forget this time sis?"

"I-I have to go! I-I'm missing th-the graduation exam!"

"Hinata, calm down! Do you remember any of what happened last night?"

"All I remember is that I fell asleep reading again..."

"Hinata... You were kidnapped."

Once more, tea found it's way Hanabi bound, only to be blocked by a napkin held at the ready. Hanabi watched as her sister turned, looked out the window, and then began to collect her equipment.

"Hinata, surely you cannot possibly intend to take the graduation exam now? Father will have a fit!"

"Don't worry, Hanabi. I have a guardian angel watching over me." She tilted her head and smiled at her younger sibling, then took to the roofs.

Hanabi face-palmed at this, and proceeded to make herself, and her father tea. they were going to need it when she had to explain what her beloved sister had done.

At The Academy...

Naruto chuckled from the roof as he reviewed the memories that he had received from the Bunshin. He noted that over time, it had developed it's own personality, one that had wound up being combined with Naruto's own. He glanced at the sun, and realized that he ought to get going if he didn't want any extra attention... Or at least anymore than he was already going to get. He checked to make sure his glasses were in place, then stood to his full height of five foot eleven. After making sure Shōmetsu was firmly secured, he channeled biomass into his legs, and leaped off the roof. The only things that saw him go were pigeons.

He landed, and then turned to look at the place. It wasn't much, but for generations shinobi had called it their school. He would have to get Hiruzen to do something about that. He made sure that the biomass in his legs wasn't going anywhere, and leaped to the window across the hall from Iruka's room. Glancing in, he noticed that of all the girls in there, the most beautiful one was also the only one not fawning over the newly orphaned Uchiha. He chuckled when he noticed that she was a Hyūga, which meant that most likely she knew what most boy's had long since theorized. That the Uchiha's all were over-compensating. He pulled himelf up onto the ledge, releasing the biomass to go into the seal on his legs. If he hadn't, he knew from experience that he would promptly go straight through the floor. Deciding to save the full shock and awe for later, he used some biomass to form a fedora over his ears, and curled his tail into the small of his back. He then slowly opened the door, entered the room, and silently walked to his Bunshin's seat. He heard the protests of several of the other students, but just smirked inwardly. Iruka had been briefed on Naruto's new appearance, but not the reasoning behind it. He decided to ask the young blond over a bowl or ten of ramen later. He continued to read off the attendance list, ignoring the cries of protest about the fact that an apparent total stranger had just sat next to one of the two celebrities of the day, until he reached Naruto's name. He called it, and received the affirmative.

It had been just a normal day in Iruka's class, but as per usual, it appeared that Naruto was late. Sakura and Ino had even had the forethought to create a new jeer for him if he failed again. Imagine their suprise when the second-hunkiest-only-to-sasuke-kun person they had ever seen walked into the room, and sat down in Naruto's usual seat, right next to the Hyūga heiress. Kiba, Shino, Shikamaru, and Choji had all realized who it had to be within seconds of course, Choji especially because Naruto had still given him his customary bag of chips as he walked by him. None of the aforementioned quartet, widely known in combination with Naruto as the laziest five in the village, were surprised when Iruka called his name, and he answered it. His appearance didn't matter today. Their test scores did. All four had something terrifying to come home to if they failed. Mothers. Once Iruka was done with the roll call, he handed out their tests, and it began.

An Hour Later...

"Everyone, please follow me. It's now time for the ranged portion of the exam."

The class ran through their throws, with the top female scores being, not surprisingly, Sakura and ino, both with scores of six out of ten, and five out of ten, bested only by Hinata with twin eight out of ten. The top males were Shino and Kiba at eight out of ten for both, then Sausuke was the current highest with nine out of ten, and eight out of ten. With those scores, Naruto stepped up.

"Oi, Iruka, can we use our own projectiles?" Naruto received a shaky affirmative. Grinning, he released the fedora, and removed his shirt so that his tail could be out in the open. Shaking his head and tail to undo any messy hair, he removed his shoes, and took out fifty senbon. Amid the onlooking jealous looks from the male population, the looks of dawning lust from the female population, and that of true affection from Hinata, he curled his tail around, and placed ten senbon on his tail, one on each of his toes, and one on each of his fingers. Holding them in place with chakra, he swirled around once, twice, and all of a sudden, all of the senbon were flying through the air. Each hit their target dead on, with one straight through the head, one through the heart, one nicking both sides of the target's neck, and one straight in the groin. He promptly turned, and simply said,

"What's Next?"

As the class headed over to the arenas for the combat practice, the only chatter was on the subject of Naruto. How did he get so powerful, when did he get the tail and ears, when did he become so cute, on a scale of one thousand to infinity, how much did you want to cuddle his tail... Rumors went from zero to a hundred and fifty in less than ten seconds when all of a sudden the talk was of marriage. The only two not participating in this conversation were Naruto, for reasons which should be obvious by now, and Hinata, who had surreptitiously activated her byakugan, and in her perversely shocked condition after sneaking a glance at Naruto, had neglected to turn it off, and as such was walking in tandem with Naruto, slightly savoring the view, and attempting to memorize it. Naruto had noticed the influx of chakra to her eyes, and had merely chuckled to himself behind the glasses. Tracking chakra had been just one of many benefit's he had from integrating Kioko's eyes with his own. After a small walk, they arrived. The students fought through the practice course that Iruka had set up, with identical results to the ranged portion. Naruto, when his turn arrived, merely walked through it, poking each practice dummy right where he need to to cause it to fall to pieces. His time easily devastated the previous record of twelve seconds by Itachi Uchiha. In fact, he made it through a full five seconds faster. Poor Iruka had to rush and repair everything so that Ino could go.

The final portion was that of the Academy Three, The Henge, The Kawarimi, and The Bunshin. All who went through either came out proudly wearing a hitae-ate, or came out crying. Shino, Choji, Kiba, and Shikamaru all passed with flying colors. Finally, it was Naruto's. as he approached the room, he stopped, and chuckled to himself. He then proceeded through the waiting door, closing it behind it. The class waited with baited breath. All that was heard from the adjacent room was various construction noises. After a few more minutes, Naruto walked out looking quite satisfied, wearing a hitae-ate that matched his sunglasses in color, with a royal purple band, and a pitch black metal plate.

A Few Minutes Earlier...

Naruto walked into the room, noticing one thing immediately. There was a seal barrier around the room, with just enough power in it to be undetected, but still power itself. He was able to discern that, given the rumors of people being unable to form even a Bunshin, despite the fact that they were the top of the class. He chuckled as he sent a small bit of biomass through the floor to begin leaching the chakra from the array. As the years had gone by, he had advanced his use of the Fukashi Kōsen to such a point that he could create completely autonomous creatures, while still having a link to their mindscape. He had several snakes, toads, and slugs all around the village for the purpose of recon. He also had figured out how to create sentient weapons, but could only maintain one's biomass requirements at a time. Once he reached the center of the room, he began.

He initially formed seven Yami Bunshin (Darkness Clones), all of whom transformed in a puff of smoke. The result was that before Iruka stood all of the Hokages and the Sannin. Said Bunshins immediately threw themselves at each other, fighting to the death via taijutsu. once the smoke had cleared, not a single body was left. Iruka looked around, trying to sense Naruto's chakra. He finally gave up, and was about to leave the room to find Naruto, when the blond suddenly appeared behind him. Iruka whirled to find himself at senbon-tip, and began to sweat.

"N-Naruto, you can put that away now..."

"Hm? Oh, sorry. Force of habit. See back on the flip side once that other banshee is done." The boy replied, as Iruka handed him his new hitae-ate, while obviously meaning Ino. Iruka chuckled, wondering just how far Naruto had come in two years.

Twenty minutes, and several failed idiots later, Iruka stood before those that had graduated.

Alright, Congratulations, all of you. Now that you have become Genin, you will be assigned to your teams next week, so don't be late! Class Dismissed." A rush of excited young shinobi poured out the door, chattering about what had happened, and what their parents would think.

End Chapter Three