Chapter 4

I'm a bit displeased by the length, but I honestly couldn't think of a better place to end it. Enjoy my loyal readers.

"Again runt!" shouted Jiraiya as Naruto fired off a blast from his hand only for it to collapse upon itself several meters in frot on him in a wave of dissipating chakra. Naruto grunted and concentrated again. He pretty much had the flying down because with his reserves, he could fly for a while. The ranged technique was, however, giving him trouble.

Jiraiya had been a real taskmaster for the past few days, improving his form in basic hand to hand with katas and spars along with practicing the dreaded ranged attack. Soon, he felt Jiraiya's hand upon his arm.

The white haired sage said, "Lets try this a bit differently. Instead of forming a disk parallel to your hand, how about building up the chakra around your arm then releasing it as a beam. This should be easier to use and you can build it up a good while longer then release it as more of a beam than a bullet."

Naruto gathered chakra around his arm in a wave of sparks and liquid blue fire. His arm almost felt like it was burning. The waves of power cracked and he pushed more chakra into it until it extended nearly one foot from his arm. As the toad sage directed, he released it as a beam extending from his arm. The beam left a trail of dust as it ripped past the sound barrier. It smashed into a nearby tree, ripping nearly one third of the trunk out. The trail of destruction went on another thirty feet before losing cohesion and blasting apart a glade. Naruto suddenly felt drained. He nearly fell, only for Jiraiya to catch him.

The man sat him down and put a supporting hand on the spent boy's shoulder and inquired, "How much chakra did you use in that attack?"

Naruto replied, "About an eighth total."

Jiraiya said, "That attack could break or disrupt most shields, even the Kaiten. So that was what you were after."

Naruto shrugged and replied, "I wasn't going to take any chances considering he nearly killed another leaf ninja."

Jiraiya asked, "So, where did you get he idea for that?"

To this, Naruto explained, "This lady told me about these ancient weapons called Kojima cannons, weapons that haven't been seen in nearly two-thousand years, that were used for breaking energy shields like the Kaiten, except much larger and powerful."

"Interesting. I assume that you have a last resort secret technique."

"Oh yeah. Yes, I do. All the destructive power of a high level summon. Ranged attacks causing massive damage from nearly fifteen hundred feet away. Amazing maneuverability and flight capability. I know how to use it. Best of all, unless I use chakra to enhance my senses or reflexes, it doesn't use any chakra whatsoever. I got many of my ideas for these techniques from using this secret technique. Y'know, I think I'll call these karajutsu."

"You're going to call them raven techniques."

"Well yeah, it fits with the... secret technique. By the way, I'm not going to show you."

Jiraiya nodded and gave him a few pointers on reducing the amount of chakra used for the same effect and sent him off as he thought, "I wonder what that kid's ace in the hole is?"

For Naruto, he was having a great break. He was sitting down on a lawn chair under an umbrella, watching the sunset, and drinking a tall glass of iced tea with Toxicity towering above him. Hailey was blaring rock music from the AC's speakers. What a great way to end a day.

The next day, Naruto was lazily walking through the city streets as he saw Team 8 also wandering around. He started off to greet them. He began to run and caught up with them to give a quick greeting.

Kiba responded with a reply of, "Good to see you too, Naruto. How have you been?"

Naruto responded, "I've been doing fine, thanks. For the most part , I've been doing training."

Kiba said, "Hey Naruto, beat that guy's ass into the ground for nearly killing Hinata. He deserves it."

Naruto said, "Of course I will."

Kiba remarked, "Good."

A moment of silence passed between them before Kiba inquired, "What happened that orange jacket of yours?" gesturing at his knaki jumpsuit.

"I still have it, but I prefer this. Rock Lee just gives them a bad name."

"Okay. Could you show me what you've been working on?"

"Yeah, just don't tell anyone? Hey Shino, do you want to watch?"

"Yes please," replied Shino with a hint of interest.

Naruto led the two over to an empty training field littered with boulder. He blasted himself into the air and hovered, building up the charge for his shield breaker. Waves of chakra and sparks emanated from his arm before blasting out a beam that splintered the boulder into fist sized shards of rock and melting what it didn't smash. By the time the beam finished, only a crater of glass remained. Kiba was left speachless at the destruction.

Shino commented, "Whoa!"

Naruto said, "That was about half-power, which is fairly safe to use."

Shino abruptly asked, "Are there any hand signs?"

Naruto replied, shaking his head, "No, there aren't. It's pure chakra manipulation."

They went off, each readying themselves for the exams.

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It was now the beginning of the exams. He stood proud with all the other entrants: Shikamaru, Temari, Neji, Gaara, Shino, Kankuro, himself. Where was Sasuke? Now, it didn't matter. He stood proud in his pilot suit. Gone was the idiot. There was now a true warrior, a Raven.

Thus endeth the Chapter. What did you think? There will be much asskicking next chapter.