I don't own Naruto but I do own a justified hatred for its dub.
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
CHAPTER 3: A FAREWELL GIFT
Despite what the he had promised the Hokage months ago, Naruto was making slow progress in the process of making friends. Even though he was the same age as them, they knew that he already took the genin exam once and that was becoming a reason for isolation again. He was wearing the goggles that he got the Hokage that night though.
The other students who failed the previous exam decided not to continue at the ninja academy. When Naruto bumped into one of his former classmates days ago, he asked him why. The older boy simply said that he didn't have what it takes to be a ninja with a bitter smile on his face but he did say that Naruto did. That acknowledgement of his strength from the older boy who he barely spoke to in the last three years of academy life had strengthened Naruto's resolve and confidence.
Unfortunately despite the boost in morale, he was still having trouble with his goals. He hadn't improved much since the exam and both Anko and Daikyou-niichan have been going on more and more missions. When he asked them about it, they both said something was happening outside the village that he didn't need to know about. They both assured him that the village itself wouldn't be affected but it was still causing trouble.
The last time Naruto had gone to see Dr. Zetsumei was last month and that was because he was having lunch with Daikyou-niichan when the restaurant they were in suddenly blew up. Unlike his friend, he and several other villagers did not escape unscathed. Luckily enough no one died but with all the agony they were in, some of them might have wanted to. Since then, Daikyou-niichan was having trouble eating at some of his haunts. It was roughly the same kind of trouble that Naruto's dealt with for almost his entire life but at least with him, it was just the more expensive places that shunned him away. With the jinx of an ANBU though, any restaurant or supermarket with a stove or gas pipe nearby would shoo him away. Sometimes even with spiritual wards that they got from a traveling merchant that was passing through the village.
Aside from that, Naruto's academics weren't what they could have been. He's been flunking out of tests because he found them to be a waste of time since he didn't really need to pass them to take the genin exam. Also, even though they were teaching about charka in the first level now, Naruto wasn't getting much out of it since they were things he mostly knew already. He'd even skip classes on some days.
One time, a classmate who was from the clan that Daikyou-niichan warned him against stealing food from and insulting them, asked Naruto why he was failing the class even though he said he already went through it. Before he could answer that question though, the sleepy looking kid under next to him asked the young Chouji Akamichi, whether he'd bother to do the same things over again when it's not necessary. It captured the reason as to why Naruto's performance was dismal at best. Naruto then in turn asked Nara Shikamaru the same question about him. His answer was that he was simply lazy. They weren't exactly friends but they got along with each other.
A test had just come a few days ago and the results were out. At the top of the class was Uchiha Sasuke, who Naruto recalls having a very funny conversation in which Naruto asked him why he was buried in the ground a few years ago. He still recalls the bouts of denials and blushing that the dark haired boy had gone through that day. Since then Sasuke has made Naruto out to be a nuisance as he didn't just make his class introduction an embarrassing one, he was also the trigger for what appears to be a still growing Uchiha Sasuke fan club. All that blushing on his first day did wonders for his popularity with the girls and his academic performance was without a doubt was just going to improve that.
Naruto found himself on the bottom of the list with the lowest scores. 'Stupid tests! I still have to deal with them for the rest of the year too!' The test results were putting him in a bad mood and he wasn't all that willing to sit down quietly today. He was going to skip the day entirely if anything else bugs him.
"Hey dobe! I bet that it was your scores that made Nozomu sensei pull a disappearing act on us! I mean what else besides that could have sent him over the edge?" taunted Sasuke looking smug as he walked up to the blonde ten year old.
That, was the push that Naruto needed to enjoy a nice day outside the class. He'll be skipping out today. He'll just meet the new instructor tomorrow. But before he leaves, a little revenge was in order.
Naruto spotted the little gathering of girls still gushing over Sasuke's brilliance in the corner and sported an evil grin that he picked up from Anko. He hasn't pulled a good prank in a while. Sasuke saw it and suddenly felt a chill.
'Now, what did aniki say about that feeling?' thought Sasuke.
Naruto hastily jumped out of his seat and onto Sasuke's head drawing stares towards. Before Sasuke could shout at Naruto for what he was doing, the blonde leaped off the patch of dark hair and into the fray of young girls who were now screaming.
CRASH
The girls slowly got up and were quick to throw punches at the young boy on the floor. It never occurred to them that before even a single blow landed on Naruto, he switched himself out with a certain dark haired boy with kawarimi no jutsu. So closing their eyes, screaming in rage, they proceeded to beat up the boy on the floor who unknown to them was actually the object of their affections.
Naruto was quick enough to jump out of the window so that the girls wouldn't be able to touch him once they realized their error after their newly assigned academy instructor walked in to find the brawl an instant after Naruto had made his escape.
--
Ten minutes have passed since Naruto tricked the girls into beating up Sasuke and right now he was on his way to see Dr. Zetsumei. It wasn't because he needed medical treatment though. After all, even he was curious as to where Nozomu-sensei had gone off to.
When Naruto first met Dr. Zetsumei, he was too preoccupied to realize something anyone of his former classmates would have. The doctor looked almost identical to their teacher whom they had become accustomed to seeing in class for the duration of one year at the time. That 'almost' being that one wears a white lab coat while the other usually wears some form of a traditional garb. When Naruto inquired as to the reason why, Dr. Zetsumei told him that they were brothers. With their appearance and odd quirks, there would be no need to confirm that statement.
Recalling all the strange things that Nozomu sensei had done in the past three years of his life, Naruto wondered whether being strange ran in the Itoshiki family. Despite knowing him for that long, Naruto never really developed any form of a bond with his teacher. He was always making some with the girls though.
'I don't think I'll ever understand girls!' thought Naruto exasperatedly wondering about both Sasuke's and the academy instructor's popularity.
Itoshiki Nozomu was always ranting about how depressing the world was and was frequently doing things that disrupted the class whether it intentional or it wasn't, another reason as to why Naruto couldn't do henge properly. He also came to class in strange clothing a few times, among them were a corpse's robe, a cultist robe and a bear costume. In fact, Naruto never ever saw him in the standard Konoha uniform. And after Naruto wrote the strange man's name the way that Daikyou-niichan had told him to and blurted it out loud for the class to hear, he started hanging himself in public. All attempts were made unsuccessful though. Despite the effect that incident had on him, Naruto really had to agree with Daikyou-niichan when he said that the word 'despair' fit him perfectly.
Being so caught up in his reminiscence of his teacher, Naruto didn't realize that he had walked to Dr. Zetsumei's office on instinct alone. Knowing that he comes to the hospital way too much, Naruto knocked on the door.
"Come in!" came the answer.
Naruto opened the door and went in.
"Ah, Naruto! Haven't seen you in while. I was starting to think that one of those two had finally got you," said the doctor casually as he got out of his seat proceed to rummage through his desk drawer. "So who was it this time?"
"Neither of them," was Naruto's reply. Dr. Zetsumei looked confused. "I actually came here to ask you about Nozomu-sensei."
"What about him?" asked the doctor who stopped going through his drawer and was now sitting back in his seat comfortably.
"Well he pulled another disappearing act on us but he's been gone since the test results came out. It's been three days since anyone saw him... You don't think that he finally managed hang himself, do you?"
The doctor pondered silently for a brief moment.
"I doubt it. Nothing ever goes his way so he's still be alive somewhere," said the doctor who was irrationally confident that his brother didn't kill himself yet. "He's probably at our sister's place in a village south of here. He always did run off to Rin whenever he had a scare when we were younger."
"Rin…" thought Naruto out loud as he tried to figure out what would come out once he processed the name.
"Come to think of it I haven't been to see her in long time. Might as well take a vacation," said the doctor as his face lit up with glee. Dr. Zetsumei's name was the cause of his lack of patients. Naruto was practically the only person who ever sees him.
"Rin… Zetsurin?" said Naruto. The other person in the room's body twitched at this. "So she's really good at everything?"
"I wish people wouldn't judge us by our names…" whimpered the doctor. "But yes, Rin's really good at lots of things. She's actually a Grand Master in the art of flower arrangement."
"That's cool I guess. Will she ever come here to visit you guys? I'd love to meet her," said Naruto as he watched the man clad in the white coat stuff things from his drawer into a black bag.
"I guess I could bring her here when I'm done but whatever you do, don't call her Zetsurin. She will kill you for it."
Naruto who was unaware of the other meaning of the word simply said, "Okay."
But then just as he had said that, this member of the Itoshiki clan realized something.
"Hey wait! Shouldn't you be at the academy!" asked the doctor.
He never got a verbal reply as Naruto pulled his own disappearing act on the doctor.
--
After running a good distance away from the hospital, Naruto had found himself catching his breath on a bridge located above one part of a stream of water. Once he was done repaying his oxygen debt, Naruto decided it might be a good idea to train for a while since he was near one of the training grounds anyway. Didn't want to get rusty without Anko around to chase him after all.
He walked towards one of the training dummies in the area and was about to kick it when he heard the rustling of leaves coming from a bush to his left.
Naruto cautiously stepped towards the bush in question thinking that it might be one of Konoha's rare flying bunnies judging from the loudness of the sound. One step away from plunging into the bush, Naruto readied himself to catch his target.
That was when the creature in the bush decided to show itself. Naruto fell down backwards letting out a yell as he saw that instead of a furry rabbit, the creature was one ANBU who he'd been acquainted with for years now.
"Oh, it's just you," said Naruto disappointed that it wasn't a flying bunny.
"Sorry to disappoint you," said the ANBU gruffly.
"What were you doing behind that bush?" asked Naruto as he dusted himself off.
"Nothing much, just writing a suicide letter," said the ANBU nonchalantly as he pointed to a piece of paper in his right hand with the pencil in the other. "See?"
"What!" yelled Naruto obviously surprised and now panicking. "WHAT! DON'T KILL YOUSELF! WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO! WAS IT BECAUSE OF SOMETHING I DID!"
"Relax, it's not for me. It's for a friend of mine."
Naruto was staring to calm down but now worrying about something else, "Is it for Nozomu-sensei? Is that why we can't find him?"
"Huh? Nozomu's gone missing again? Oh, well he'll turn up eventually… Oh, and this isn't for him, it's for someone else."
Naruto was still feeling uneasy about the ANBU's casualness with the implications of his words and actions when all of a sudden The ANBU let out a grunt of pain clutched his head and kneeled down onto the floor.
"Daikyou-niichan! What's wrong?" asked Naruto as he moved towards the ANBU.
Before Naruto could touch him though, the ANBU held out his hand, palm flat as an indication for Naruto not to come closer. "Relax, it's just a headache."
Naruto watched worriedly as the ANBU stood up slowly and looked back at him.
"Huh?" said the ANBU. "That's weird… Naruto, your charka it looks… different…"
"What?" asked Naruto, confused.
The ANBU proceeded to look around through the eyeholes of his mask and stopped to look at his hand. Although Naruto couldn't understand why or how, but he knew that the ANBU was releasing charka through his fingers. He was probably right as fire suddenly lit up from the ANBU's gloved hand before it looked to have been smothered by something invisible just as quickly.
"I see…" said the ANBU. Naruto didn't as he was becoming more and more confused.
"Daikyou-niichan what did you just do to your hand?" asked Naruto worriedly.
The ANBU looked back at Naruto once more only this time it felt as if something was wrong with the ANBU's gaze.
"Sorry about that Naruto," said the ANBU as lowered his hand down to his side. The strange feeling wrongness disappeared. "I was just testing out my chakra's affinities to see if my doujutsu was affecting it."
"Doujutsu?" asked Naruto, not quite remembering what that meant.
"It means a technique that I did with my eyes. Most of my clan's members can do it but I just had mine reach a new level."
"Huh? What?" Naruto was confused.
"Never mind," said the ANBU. "By the way Naruto, what are you doing here, I'm pretty sure my brother went to the academy today."
"Skipped out. Decided to train instead," said Naruto.
"Oh. Okay," the person standing in front of him is not considered to be a responsible adult. "So… Do you want me to help you with your training for a bit?"
"Yeah, sure!"
"So what were you planning to do?" asked the ANBU.
"Just the usual. Punching the dummy and work on henge and bunshin," answered Naruto as he punched the training dummy.
"Well rather than the jutsus and physical training, I think you're better off training your charka control."
"How do I do that?"
"Didn't they teach you in the academy?"
"I probably was at hospital when they taught that."
"Okay, then. Why don't go pick a leaf from that tree," said the ANBU as he pointed to a tree not very far from him.
Naruto did as he was told and when he came back, the ANBU had a leaf in his hand.
"Now, Naruto. This is a charka control exercise that my former captain had told me to do. I want you to focus your charka into your own leaf and use it to make cuts in it like so," said the ANBU as he showed the leaf to Naruto. There small cuts forming around the leaf's edges.
"That doesn't look too hard," said Naruto as he pushed his charka into the leaf.
Nothing happened.
"Eh?" Naruto tried again.
Nothing happened.
"Think of a knife and visualize your charka as sharp as the knife is."
"Hmph!" Naruto tried once more, face scrunching up in concentration.
The only thing that happened was a fart.
"Okay what's the point of this anyway? Aren't there any easier exercises I can do?" asked Naruto, annoyed.
"Well there are but your jounin instructor will teach it to you some time after your team officially forms. Plus if you do this one, it'll not improve your charka control you'll also be able to perform wind ninjutsu more easily," answered the ANBU.
"Wind? Can't you teach me some water jutsus. I saw one of the kids in my class do a fire jutsu yesterday," whined Naruto.
"Who said I was teaching you a jutsu? I'm just teaching you how to improve your charka control and affinity. Besides, your affinity is wind and not water."
"What's an affinity? Jiji once said that my parents had opposite ones," asked Naruto curious about affinities.
"Affinities are the elements that your charka is naturally aligned to. That means the type of jutsus you can do more easily usually depends on whether or not your charka is compatible. Most ninjas have one at first but as they become stronger they naturally gain at least one more. I myself have two of them."
"What are they?"
"Well mine is a very rare but powerful combination. Like you I am aligned with the wind but just like many of the ninjas here I am also aligned with fire."
"How is that rare? I mean there are only five elements."
"Well, it's because when people have multiple affinities they usually get the weakest in their combo first and get neutrals ones later. That's why it's rare to have someone who has fire and wind combos or even earth and lightning ones."
"But doesn't that mean no matter what, I won't be able to use my wind affinity to beat any fire jutsus and the only way for me to win is if I get a water affinity?"
"Only if you don't train your wind charka hard enough. You see, among all of them, the wind affinity is the best for mid and close range attacks. No matter how destructive fire is, it's never going to be as useful as wind charka is," said the ANBU. "Watch."
The ANBU held up his leaf for Naruto to see and then, all of a sudden the cuts on the leaf extended and divided the leaf into smaller pieces.
"But it's still not as cool as fire is," Naruto pointed out.
"Still not impressed? Well then how about…" said the ANBU with a tone of amusement as he approached the tree Naruto had plucked the leaf from. The ANBU directed his hand towards somewhere up in the tree.
"This?"
A very strong gust of wind suddenly brushed past Naruto forcing him to close his eyes for an instant. Over the howling of the wind, Naruto could hear what sounded like thousands of twigs being snapped.
When he opened them again he saw that there were now lots of deep gashes in the tree bark and the branches and leaves had been cut up into little divisions that were either scattered in the air or piled together on the ground.
Naruto was about to yell out in awe but the ANBU proceeded to do something else.
He set the area around him on fire with a giant fireball that suddenly formed itself around him.
Naruto was shocked at how the ANBU had set himself ablaze and probably killed himself but the surprises weren't about to stop yet.
At first the ANBU could only be distinguished as a dark silhouette but then the ANBU's image became clearer and clearer until he stepped out of the fire. He appeared to have come out not the least bit affected by the blazing inferno behind him.
He then turned around and faced the fire. At this point, Naruto expected the ANBU to douse of the fire with some kind of water jutsu.
He didn't. Instead, Naruto saw the fire become smaller as if it was being smothered by the same invisible force he used to put out his hand. When the ANBU was done, Naruto couldn't even see any embers that usually accompanied a put out fire.
The ANBU then turned around walked towards Naruto. But there was something wrong. Naruto couldn't hear any footsteps. Even though he could feel the footsteps as the ANBU got closer, he still couldn't hear any foot steps.
Then as soon as the ANBU stopped in front him, Naruto felt the air rush past him and everything suddenly went quiet. He could hear birds chirping and the splashes of water a second ago but now everything was silent.
"Impressed yet?" asked the ANBU in a smug tone. Naruto had both his eyes and mouth wide open.
"How did you do all that! Everything went quiet and-nd… how did you do that to the fire! Was it the jutsu you use to sneak on me?!" asked Naruto excitedly.
"Like I said Naruto, wind is by far, a more useful element than fire can ever be," said the ANBU.
Naruto suddenly noticed that he could hear the birds again but it came to him softly but was slowly getting louder. Naruto looked around to see any indication of what had just happened. When he turned around to ask the ANBU another question, he was no longer there. He was now on the bridge.
"Remember Naruto, the wind isn't the air itself, it's the movement!" shouted the ANBU as he crossed over to the other side.
Naruto had never ever been so awestruck in his life.
--
Three days have passed since then and Naruto had been skipping academy lessons in favor of training hard so that he could do what he hoped he'd be capable of someday.
For the past four days, Naruto had been training in the same training field from morning till night trying to cut leaves with his chakra. In fact he hasn't even met the new teacher yet and skipping four consecutive days of lessons probably wasn't the best first impression you could leave on a teacher.
Despite having tried for the past four days, Naruto wasn't any closer to his goal than he had been at the beginning. He pumped more chakra into the leaf hoping that it'd least tear the leaf.
His attempt didn't work as the leaf suddenly flew out his hand and Naruto himself fell backwards from the force generated from pushing out a lot of chakra from his hands.
Naruto, now lying flat on his back to the ground realized that he once again lost track of time while he was training and it was now dark and the lamppost had turned on.
He slowly stood up and also realized that his entire body except for his hands felt like lead. His hands on the hand felt like they'd been set on fire which wasn't too far from the truth as he'd been pumping enough chakra through his hand to form burns on them.
Exhausted but still frustrated at his lack of results, Naruto plucked a leaf from the bush next to him and held in between his right thumb and forefinger.
He looked at the leaf intently trying to figure out what he was doing wrong.
Meanwhile, a majority of Konoha's ninja population were standing on the rooftop outside the council room waiting for the meeting to end. Every ninja that wasn't on duty had been ordered to assemble there for an important announcement. They were all talking amongst themselves about the reason they were there.
The buzzing of multiple conversations died down as the doors to the council room opened. The Hokage walked towards them with the members of the council trailing behind him.
Their leader got up onto the podium and all eyes were on him as they waited for him to speak.
He started, "I'm sure everyone is aware of the events that had taken place last night."
--
At the same time Naruto who was holding out the leaf in front of the full moon in the sky thought to himself, "I'm doing something wrong here. If I put too much chakra in, the leaf flies out of my hand. Too little and it won't even affect it."
--
Sarutobi continued, "Yesterday night, almost every member of the Uchiha clan were murdered. Every single person who was in the Uchiha district late last night was attacked and none of those who tried to fight off their assailant lived. Not even the ANBU."
--
Naruto spun the leaf in between his fingertips, 'What I want to do is cut the damn thing with wind like Daikyou-niichan. No matter how much I put in, it doesn't get damaged. I'm sure he didn't need to use a lot put out his hand. This means that the amount I use isn't important.'
--
"From the signs of the struggle within the district, we can infer that a battle took place in the inner area of the district. It is estimated that the duration of the conflict lasted for some time. That's why I find it strange that no one heard or saw anything strange last night."
--
'He said to imagine my chakra as sharp as a knife. He also said that the wind isn't the air itself and that it was the movement.'
--
"From the evidence left at the scene it can be concluded that there was only one assailant," said the Hokage as many of those who listening gasped. "As shocking and impossible as that sounds, the victims' injuries, property damage and the way the weapons were distributed in the area all indicate that there was only one person posing as their opposition."
--
'If I wanted to cut something with a knife, I'd have to run it through. And if the knife was dull, I'd have to do it over and over until I cut it."
--
"At first we found it strange that no one seemed to try to get help but that was cleared up when we acquired the identity of the assailant from the sole witness to the atrocity. Uchiha Sasuke who is undergoing trauma therapy claims to have seen the assailant in action with own eyes and that he admitted that he did it using a genjutsu to show him the entire thing repeatedly to the young boy and that he decided to spare the boy on a whim." Shocked expressions pasted themselves onto many faces.
--
'That means that instead of sending lots of chakra in at one time, I should send it in small amounts as fast as I can over and over until I cut it!' Naruto gripped onto the leaf stalk harder and concentrated on his task despite the burning sensation flowing through his hand.
--
"Furthermore the accused signed in at the south gate at one a.m. last night to leave the village incriminating him even further. He declared that his reason for leaving was to go on a mission according the guards at that time," those who were listening were able to follow where this was going. At least until what they heard next. "However, he has not been assigned any missions for the past few days as he was being prepared for the duties that would have been his should we have gone on to make our decision official this sunday."
--
Ignoring the pain going through his arm, Naruto forced in minute amounts of chakra into the tip of the leaf. Struggling to minimize the amount going into the leaf, Naruto subconsciously started releasing chakra through every other part of his body.
--
The Hokage smiled sadly and said, "Last night, Konoha was robbed of many things. We lost all but one member of the Uchiha clan. We lost most of our law enforcers. We lost much of our military strength." He paused for a brief moment. "Many lost their lives. An innocent child lost his family. The assailant lost his faith in us."
--
Chakra started swirling around Naruto but he didn't pay attention to this rapid waste of energy and continued to send chakra through his fingers even faster. He grit his teeth as the pain intensified slowing down the imminent black out.
--
"And I… lost another successor."
--
The chakra started to form a sphere around Naruto but he still kept his focus on the leaf.
--
Comprehension and grief slowly replaced the confusion in all of them but the Hokage did not stop at that. "From now on, the accused shall be stripped of his rank and will be considered to be traitor. Should he be found, he is to be treated as an S-class missing-nin."
--
Naruto let out a warcry as he pushed in every last bit of chakra that he could into the leaf just as the chakra sphere around him burst sending out a powerful gust of wind that flattened the grass around him and rattled the plant life around him.
--
"From now on, should any of you find him, you are to kill the traitor Uchiha Itachi," declared the Hokage as he stepped off the podium leaving everyone apprehensive and united in opinion. 'Is that even possible?'
--
Naruto let loose a weak smile as he let himself drop to the ground as he himself fell to his body's strong need to shut down.
'I did it…'
Among all the leaves that had been plucked, fallen or blown away, there was one that was split at the tip and separated into two halfway down the middle that was wedged in between Naruto's fingers.
Decided to send this part as one chapter now instead of putting it together with the next one. No side-story this chapter but you will find out what happened after the events of the first one. Next chapter should be the last one before the main story really starts so here's hoping I'll be able to finish this story as soon as possible.
I also just realized how my story title and summary might be confusing since at this point of the story its impossible to tell what I have in mind for the ending. So to make my story more interesting I'll tell you that the ending I have in mind will have a very big surprise in the last chapter and it involves Naruto making a very hard decision.
By the way it'd be nice if someone would put in a review instead of just reading but I understand how you feel seeing as I prefer to lurk myself. It'd also be nice if someone could tell me how to put an extra space in between lines so I can structure the paragraphs the way I want.
11th May 2008 EDIT
Decided to rework the chapters so that the wording is more fluid and some events a bit more realistic. Overall there are no major changes to the story, just minute detail to tie in story events better with everything.