Will of the Oath Breaker, Chapter Three: Madame Yuuhi
It was once again graduation season, and Iruka didn't know where the past couple of years had gone. He reviewed his placement chart, and was pleased to see that Naruto was in the lower middle range of his class for his grade average, which qualified him for placement on Team Eight. He knew that Kurenai, despite her recent jounin promotion, would be a good teacher for Naruto if he could pass her test.
He began announcing the new genins' to their team assignments, and was a bit disturbed by the flash of killing intent he felt when he got to Naruto's placement. He peered in the direction he thought it came from, but only saw Mizuki, and wrote it off as graduation-day jitters.
Hinata nearly fainted after hearing that Naruto would be on her team.
Shino was able to guess that Naruto would be on his team by his apparent grades. He resigned himself to keeping an eye on his new team mate.
Kiba interrupted everyone's thoughts with his indignant shouting, after it was explained that he had the worst grades. Iruka looked at Kiba with an annoyed expression.
"You skip classes, refuse to do your written tests, and failed your stealth test. The only reason you passed was because you scored remarkably well in taijutsu, teamwork, and ninjutsu."
Kiba settled down a little bit after Iruka's explanation, but still seemed annoyed with his placement.
Kurenai walked into the small classroom, and with a brief sweep of her red eyes, she found her genin as they gathered before her. Kurenai smiled warmly and greeted her new team. She introduced herself, and told them to meet her at the training grounds so they could all get to know one another. Like the other jounin instructors, she vanished in a swirl of leaves.
Naruto left the Academy grounds, and fell into a brisk trot on the path leading to training ground sixteen. Shino showed no signs of fatigue as he trailed behind Naruto. Hinata had been the first to leave the building, but her stamina proved to be lacking. Naruto gave her an encouraging smile when he passed by, which caused Hinata to blush furiously. Only Shino seemed to notice, though no one noticed the amused smirk that was obscured by his jacket.
As the team arrived, Kurenai layered the training area with a few subtle genjutsu just to make the test a bit more interesting. She motioned for them to sit in front of her, near the centre of the grounds in a slight sandy depression next to a small stream.
"Alright, to start things off I will tell you all a little about myself. My name is Kurenai Yuuhi, I like reading, and meditation. My dislikes are ignorance and nonsensicality. My dream is to mold you all into fine ninja."
Kurenai motioned for Shino to introduce himself.
"My name is Shino Aburame, I like entomology. My dislikes are powerful odours, and weak opponents. My dream is to fight strong opponents, and celebrate by eating melon."
Kurenai wondered how his teammates would take to Shino's love of bugs not to mention his clan jutsu. Naruto smirked at how awesome his new friend was.
Kurenai motioned next to Naruto.
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, my likes are ramen and training. My dislikes are when there's not enough ramen and when bugs get into my food." He peered at Shino suspiciously as he shifted uncomfortably, but continued. "My dream is to be Hokage, so I can protect my home, and the people within!" Naruto punctuated his declaration by standing up dramatically.
Kurenai bemusedly tilted her head at that. 'Why does he wish to protect the very villagers who shun him? Maybe he means the ninja of the leaf, and any possible friends, and family he hopes to gain. I hope that my genin can grow to be friends, they all need it.' Kurenai smiled reassuringly, as she asked Hinata to introduce herself.
"M-my name is Hinata Hyuuga... I like... herbal healing, and... m-my dislikes are... hurting others when it is n-not necessary. And my dream is t-to become strong enough to..." After a little while it became apparent that she was too flustered to finish her introduction.
Kurenai directed her genin to make their way to the clearing behind them. As she stood before her team, she said, "There's one last test you need to pass before you are officially become genin. I have invited one of my colleagues to bring his team here so we can see you all in action. Your skills will determine whether or not you are ready to become shinobi of Konoha. You will be fighting, and I fully expect you to win."
The genin got their game faces on, and prepared for combat.
:::
They had been led to a separate training ground, and told to fight until they were stopped, or someone is was rendered unable to continue. They had been given blunted kunai, and told not to use deadly weapons, or techniques. Naruto gripped his sword, which he had promised to not take out of its scabbard, standing in front of Chouji. He got into a balanced kenjutsu stance, and readied himself for combat.
After his sensei's clone ordered them to start, Chouji barely dodged Naruto's slash.
'He's so fast.'
Chouji blocked a flying kick from Naruto, and grabbed onto his shirt. With his new grip on his opponent, he was able to throw Naruto into a tree.
'That should buy me enough time to use my Human Bullet Tank Jutsu... I hope.'
Chouji morphed into a ball, and started spinning, he hit the ground and shot toward Naruto. Meanwhile, Naruto groaned, and dusted himself off. He looked up and saw a giant spinning thing heading at him. He easily dodged Chouji's attack, and jumped into the trees. He hoped this would give him some breathing room, but Chouji just smashed the tree down, forcing Naruto to try his luck out on the clearing. Naruto stared at the rapidly approaching ball intently, he had only one chance to do this, and he needed to time this perfectly. He waited for just the right moment to unleash his shadow strike, but when he pooled the small amount of shadow chakra he needed for the jutsu, Chouji tumbled to a stop.
He got up and groaned. "I don't have enough chakra left to finish you off with my ninjutsu, but I still have taijutsu!"
Chouji ran the rest of the way, and punched at Naruto, only to miss and leave a huge crater where Naruto was just standing. Naruto unleashed his shadow strike on Chouji's back, sending his opponent flying. With a crash Chouji lay in the north side of the field. Naruto was the victor this day.
Asuma's clone looked a bit disappointed that his student didn't win, but he knew Chouji passed Kurenai's test the moment he stopped his jutsu to conserve his chakra. Kurenai's clone smiled, and told Naruto that he had done very well when he jumped into the trees to get away from the danger, and to observe the threat so he could plan his next move. Naruto may have won the fight, but they both passed their tests. Kurenai and Asuma's clones dispelled after instructing Naruto to tend to Chouji, and meet them where their teammates were being tested.
:::
Shino peered at his opponent Shikamaru. He made the first move, which caused Shikamaru to smirk. He moved his bishop into an offensive position, parallel to Shino's gold general. Shino retaliated by capturing Shikamaru's lance, but after a dozen or so turns of positioning key pieces Shikamaru was quick to move his knight into position to check Shino's king. Shino moved his king out of check, but he realized that in doing so he had trapped himself. He had no real strategy that could possibly remedy this situation, and so Shikamaru won the game. The match took about an hour. A personal worst for Shikamaru, which put him in a very good mood. He even had to use his thinking stance a few times!
They shook hands, and turned to their respective sensei's clone. Neither were amused.
Shino raised his eyebrow in query. "You stated quite clearly that we were to test our abilities against each other, and we came to the mutual decision that a game of shogi was a more than adequate way to comply with our orders."
Shikamaru nodded in agreement. "Fighting is far too troublesome anyway."
The two jounin sighed, and then talked to each other quietly. They came to the agreement that they passed the test, but the genin still needed to fight so they could gauge their skill.
"This time we want you to actually fight, just don't kill each other." Asuma-bunshin glared a little to get his point across.
Shino, and Shikamaru both made their displeasure with their orders known, but neither really tried to argue the point further than that. As their actual spar got under way, Shino was quick to snare the shadow user with his bugs, but Shikamaru was able to use the shadow of the swarm to capture Shino. However, Shikamaru was not able to finish his fight because of his disadvantage: he had no way of ending the fight, so Shino would just drain his chakra until he passed out. Shikamaru gave up, because he had no battle plan. Shino helped his new friend over to the jounin for their orders.
:::
Hinata stood before Ino thinking about how best to deal with the situation she found herself in. She wouldn't get the chance to come up with a plan before Ino charged, confident in her ability to deal with the 'weaker' kunoichi. Hinata was so busy thinking, that she didn't notice Ino coming, until she was right in front of her. Startled, Hinata instinctively entered her jūken attack stance, and quickly closed tenketsu in Ino's legs. Ino looked shocked, before sloppily jumping back, trying not to let the pain affect her. Hinata was just as surprised as her opponent by what had just happened. Hinata fought the urge to apologize and run to help her. She instead fell into a defensive juuken stance, not noticing the stun tag Ino had dropped near her. Though she was berating herself for using such a risky measure, Ino knew taijutsu wasn't her strong point, and the tag was just the ace up her sleeve. The tag went off, blinding Hinata momentarily, but it was more that enough time for Ino to complete her clan jutsu.
The next thing Ino knew, she was wandering down a hallway in a very traditional house. At the end was a door, and there was a garden to her right. She needed to find the seat of Hinata's mind, from which she could completely control the girl's actions. Everyone's mind-scape is different, though some things remained the same. In every person's mind there was an object that acted as a conduit allowing one to control the body. Ino walked into the garden, and wondered where the 'seat' was. She examined the pond, checking the obvious first. However, the pond only showed memories, feeling nosy Ino watched for a bit. She eventually decided to move on once it became apparent that Hinata's memories centred on her early childhood, and specifically the memories of her mother.
She had heard stories about things like that from her clan's elders. They were called 'windows.' Ino walked around a bit, before coming to a rock. The rock appeared to be perfect for sitting, and she concluded that this must be the 'seat' she was looking for.
She didn't get a chance to take control of Hinata's body, as she was knocked out from behind.
Hinata smirked as she dragged the kunoichi-baka away from the seat. Though Hinata's conscious personality was sweet-tempered, the form of her unconscious incorporated essentially everything she had repressed. She was everything that life had beaten out of Hinata, though, ironically, the Hyuuga Clan would greatly prefer this spectre to her conscious self.
She suddenly looked to her side. Her garden no longer ended at a wooden fence, but shifted into a dimly lit, cavernous room. The water stood tall enough that it soaked the bottoms of her pants. She turned towards a massive set of cage bars, her movement sending ripples of water ahead of her. She sensed another presence within the cage. The spectre quirked her head at the presence, and said, "I live here, this is my home... You should not be here."
"I suppose this is where I introduce myself."
Hinata forgot about Ino, and peered at the intruder bemusedly. "What are you? You didn't follow the Yamanaka, and you're not a kami."
The Kyūbi smirked with such unbridled, and narcissistic mirth that it disgusted Hinata. "Oh, how could you possibly know that I'm not a 'kami?' What if, that's exactly what I am?"
Hinata's eyes hardened at the supposed kami. "Why are you here? What gives you the right to invade Hinata-ue's mind?" 'Hinata' fell into a textbook jūken attack stance.
As if you could threaten me, mortal. I would, however like to speak with you."
The spectre eyed the intruder suspiciously, but nodded and dropped her hands to her sides.
"In the simplest terms, I am the spiritual embodiment of chaos, and I am bound to Naruto's soul."
This statement floored the spectre Hinata. "But, then how am I seeing you?"
"Because, the two of you are soul mates."
As if the first declaration wasn't enough of a shock. Hinata slumped down, ungracefully, unconcerned by sitting in water. If the embodiment of chaos was bound to Naruto's very soul, his fate would be as great as it was terrible, if the legends had any truth to them. And Naruto was her s-soulmate?
"Contrary to popular belief, being soul mates is not just for lovers. Any two beings that have a suitably strong connection are 'soul mates.' Siblings and friends can be soul mates as well."
The spectre Hinata nodded dumbly.
"It's the connection that allows you to see me as I am. If he tried, Naruto would be able to come here as well, though it was would be rather difficult, as Naruto is only just beginning to forge a connection with you."
Hinata could barely believe what was happening, and continued to stare at the cage. That was Chaos, a kami. Inside Naruto. Did anyone else know about this? A thought made her pause a moment.
"Why are you telling me this?"
"I like you, kid. You have so much potential, I'll spare your container, though mostly because I wouldn't want you to come to harm."
The spectre Hinata wanted to ask so many more questions, but felt her conscious self taking back control. The cage melted away into darkness.
Hinata blinked. 'What happened?' She could see Ino standing up, shakily. She was dizzy, and felt like she was forgetting something. Ino was looking at her strangely, and asked, "Do you remember anything?"
Hinata tried, but it was like trying to catch the rain. "No," she said quietly.
"That's never happened to me before," Ino admitted. Seemingly regaining her confidence, she said, "But I'm still going to win!"
Both the genin groaned as they fell into battle stances. Ino haphazardly threw a kunai in Hinata's direction, and Hinata lethargically rushed forward for a lunge. When they got within striking range, the two of them tried to finish the spar, but decided to go to their sensei as they couldn't fight properly any longer.
The two jounin talked for a while, and decided that the girls showed proper ninja behaviour by retreating, and seeking help when they were unable to continue fighting. They had both been worried that Ino had misused her clan's jutsu when both kunoichi seemed to pass out for a minute. But, as they both woke up, Kurenai sighed in relief that she wouldn't have to call the medics on her first day.
"Alright, you both pass this little test. Now go to training ground sixteen to meet with the rest of your team."
The two kunoichi helped each other hobble to the training ground.
...To be continued
