: If you notice it, it's not mine. And thanks for the reviews )
Naruto: Darker Than Black
Naruto sat on top of the Hokage monument as he watched the sun going down in the horizon. It was a beautiful sight and he always loved watching it. Maybe that was why he felt the impulse to come up here and draw a sun in the dirt.
He drew a large circle, and then began drawing twenty one lines coming out of it, eleven long lines with ten shorter ones in between them. As he continued to slowly draw the lines, he heard the soft footsteps of what he came to recognize in the last year as Hinata's coming from behind.
"What are you doing, Naruto-kun?" she asked as she sat next to him.
Not looking away from his drawing, he answered her. "Performing one of my obeisance."
Hinata seemed confused as she had never seen him do this before. "But I thought your obeisance was to eat seven cups of ramen three times a day and to wear orange?"
Naruto paused before answering. "It is, although those impulses have lessened since I got them. This is a new one. Since Yin can now use dirt to travel, that counts as a new power. And for me to be able to use it, I need to do this."
Hinata nodded even though she still did not fully understand how his Kekkei genkai worked. "So what do you have to do now?"
"Draw the sun every time it's about to go down," he answered as he finished his dirt drawn sun. He had told her Yin was a bloodline limit. It was more reasonable to explain Yin to her that way instead of telling her about his Nee-chan. "But this isn't too bad of price to pay for power. It could be a lot worse."
"You have never told me what will happen if you do not perform your obeisance, Naruto-kun," she stated hoping that he would get the hint and tell her even if she feared the answer.
Naruto looked at her and thought about the pros and cons of being honest with her. In the end he knew that if he did not tell her, she would continue to ask. Looking her in the eyes, he told her.
"The obeisance can be delayed for a short time depending on the situation, such as combat or I am unconscious. If I am conscious and do not do my payments, which so far seems impossible, my chakra will rush to my brain and melt it like butter."
--Chapter 4—
Arriving at the training ground, Naruto saw that he was not the first one to arrive. Sasuke sat against one of three stomps in the middle of a clearing and Sakura was sitting on top of another one. Naruto noticed that she looked really tired, as though she did not get that much sleep the following night. He approved of this, even though it may be slightly problematic when they do the test. At least this way he knew that what he told her yesterday had sunk in and she thought about it.
Deciding that both of them were not going to be real receptive of him at the moment, Sasuke would just tell him he did not want anything to do with him and Sakura would be uncomfortable, he walked over to a nearby stream that he knew cut off from the river that ran through Konoha. He could practice that water control exercise that Hinata had mastered over a year ago but he was still struggling with.
Taking off his sandals he sat down and put his bare feet in the water. Almost immediately a transparent Yin appeared. She was naked for some reason, and she nor his Nee-chan could explain why the clothes did not appear, although they speculated that they might begin to as Yin grew stronger. "Yin," he nodded to her in greeting. "You want to get out for a little, huh?"
"Hai," Yin replied softly before looking behind him. "The girl is coming over."
Turning his head, he saw that Sakura had indeed started walking over, her posture showing how uncertain she was. Upon seeing him watching her, she put her head down but continued none the less.
"Hi, Naruto," she greeted him as she sat down.
"Sakura," he greeted her. "You don't look like you had much sleep last night. Why was that?"
Looking around, she took off her own sandals and put her feet in the water. She hesitated for a moment, her eyes still looking in the stream, before she answered. "I thought about what you said yesterday, and I realized you were right."
Naruto took out a kunai and began to spin it on his finger as he listened. Sakura watched him in the reflection of the water. Yin, Naruto noticed, had moved herself so that she was looking right into Sakura's face.
"What was I right about Sakura?" he asked her, wanting her to say it out loud.
Sakura glanced at him for a moment before looking back to the water. "I have been acting very embarrassingly. I didn't even notice what it must have looked like to other people, chasing Sasuke-kun around like that, constantly arguing with Ino, and just acting like I wasn't taking becoming a ninja seriously."
She paused here. "And I didn't even notice how badly I treated everybody else. I broke my friendship up with Ino, I always hit you and treated you mean, I brushed off any boys who tried to strike a friendship with me, and I treated every girl in the class like a rival, even those who did not seem interested in Sasuke-kun.
"And I must look like an idiot to him. If you, the boy who had a crush on me (slightly blushes) thought I was acting stupid, I can't imagine what he must have thought."
Naruto considered her for a second before responding. "You're right. You were acting illogical and irrationally, and Sasuke most likely thinks you're just like every other dumb girl who fawned over him for no reason other than his clan name."
"That's not the reason I like him," Sakura interrupted him. "Well, it's one of the reasons, but that's not all."
"Really?" Naruto asked slowly drawing the word out. "Regardless, I don't care about your reasons for liking Sasuke. I just care about what you are going to do from this point on. How are you going to act, how are you going to be as a teammate, and whether or not I can trust you."
Sakura looked saddened by that. "You don't trust me?"
Looking her dead in the eye, Naruto said, "No. I haven't trusted you since I was ten and realized what kind of unreasonable person you are. It was too dangerous to be around you. Besides, I lost any feelings for you around that time as well."
Smiling sadly, Sakura spoke. "You've changed Naruto. If I didn't have a feeling in my gut that's telling me you are just being as truthful as you can, I would think you were trying to hurt my feelings."
"Sometimes people have to have their outlook crushed in order for them to see reality," Naruto answered as he watched Yin raise her hand toward Sakura's face. "Being truthful does that. I needed for you to see that the path you were taking would either get you killed, raped, or one of your teammates killed. It had nothing to do with hurting your feelings."
Sakura frowned at the word rape but nodded in understanding. "I understand," she said just as Yin's hand touched her lips. Jerking a little and causing Yin to back away, Sakura put her hand to her lips and looked around. Taking her hand away, she looked to make sure there was nothing on it. She repeated the process a couple times before once again noticing Naruto looking at her with curiosity.
"Are you alright?" he asked her.
Frowning, Sakura nodded and put down her hand. "Yea. It just felt like something was brushing against my lips. Might have been a bug or something," she said not looking totally convinced. Naruto glanced to the bank of the water and saw that Yin was now trying to touch the grass.
"Anyway," Sakura got up and began to put her sandals back on. "I'm going to change and I'm going to get stronger too. I realized last night that you weren't the same idiot as before and remembered the graduation test, even if I was hardly paying attention. So I know you're stronger then what I gave you credit for. But I'm also stronger then you realize, and I do take my ninja career seriously. And during this survival test, I'm going to prove it." With that she turned back around to head back to her original seat.
Satisfied with Sakura's decision and wondering if she could truly keep her promise and prove him wrong about taking her career choice seriously, Naruto turned to look at Yin. "What was that?" he asked her. "Did you really touch her?"
"Hai," she answered in that soft voice of hers. "I can touch, but I cannot put much pressure into it. But I will be able to soon, Naruto," she finished almost shyly, which Naruto completely missed. Inside his head, Kyubi gave a small frown.
Giving Yin a small grin, Naruto nodded before putting his kunai down and started the water control exercise.
&&&&&
Kakashi arrived about four hours late to a very pissed off Sakura and a very annoyed Sasuke. Naruto, he saw, was over by the river doing something that looked surprisingly like the water pull chakra control exercise.
This made Kakashi frown somewhat. Although not unheard of, finding out and manipulating a ninja's second chakra element does not usually occur until a ninja is either a chunin or a little older. But if the rumors and the Hokage were to believe, Naruto was already able to use an element. He had used a lightening based attack to finish off Mizuki. Could Naruto already know his second element? From what Kakashi was witnessing, that seemed to be the case.
This was more proof that the academy reports were either completely wrong or fairly close to it.
"You're late!" Sakura's scream brought him out of his musings. Naruto heard the scream and turned around. Upon seeing Kakashi finally here, Naruto got up, put his sandals on and walked over.
"Um, sorry about that," Kakashi said not sounding sorry at all. "There was this old lady that needed help carrying groceries, so I had to uphold my ninja duties and help her."
All three looked at him with varying degrees of disbelief before Sakura decided to comment what they were all thinking. "LAIR!" she yelled.
Ignoring her, Kakashi pulled an alarm clock out of his pocket and set it on one of the stomps with a bag he had carried with him. "This alarm clock is set for noon, about an hour from now. Your job," Kakashi said while holding up two bells, "is to get these two bells away from me before the alarm clock rings. Anyone who doesn't get one gets tied to a stomp while I eat their lunch right in front of them."
As soon as he said this, all three knew this was the true reason why they were told not to eat breakfast, but it was only Sasuke's stomach that grumbled. Kakashi noticed immediately how the Uchiha glared at the other two, Sakura looking sheepish and apologetic, Naruto raising an eyebrow at the boy as though to say 'I told you so.'
"So, I take it you two didn't follow my advice and ate anyway," he accused them.
Sakura glared at him. "Naruto offered me a couple apples while we were waiting and he ate some ramen," she said. "If you were on time we would have never felt the need to not listen to you."
Glancing at Naruto, who looked just as apologetic as Sakura sounded, he decided to let it go. "Hm…I guess I can let it slide. It doesn't matter anyway, seeing as the person that does not get a bell not only gets tied to a stomp, but fails and gets thrown back into the academy."
Not waiting for any arguments that looked about to happen, Kakashi continued. "Now, the only way for you little guys to get the bells is if you come at me with the intent to kill," he said tying the bells to his waist. "That means you can use any skills that you have. Anything short of that and you will surely fail.
"We'll start when I say begin. Are there any questions? Good," he said not waiting for any questions. "Ready…begin!"
As soon as he said it Naruto jumped backwards while making a hand seal and Sakura followed Sasuke to the surrounding trees for a hiding spot. Kakashi didn't see this though, even if he felt their presence leave, due to the white smoke that covered their escape. When the smoke cleared, two Naruto's stood in front of him with a third one right behind them.
"You know, your other two teammates had the right idea of hiding themselves," Kakashi said as the Naruto's all pulled out a kunai.
"Point?" the one in the back asked. Before Kakashi could respond, all three ran forward, two trying to flank him with the last one coming at him dead on. Putting a hand in his pouch, Kakashi pulled out his favorite book in the world.
The Narutos, who hesitated for only a moment when he did this, all charged in faster than they did at first.
'According to Mizuki's academy report on him, Naruto is faster than average but lacks form in Taijutsu,' Kakashi thought. 'I see that was accurate.'
Kakashi blocked the left clones strike before spinning quickly to get around to the clone's back and kicking it. It stumbled right into the thrusting blade of the other clone and disappeared in a little white smoke. The one that had come from the middle immediately stopped and threw his kunai at Kakashi, who ducked underneath it and surged forward.
Faster than Kakashi had seen so far, the clone that he made stab the other pushed what Kakashi assumed was the real one out the way and took a powerful knee to the stomach that knocked it into the air. Momentarily surprised that the clone could take such a hit and not dispel, he almost missed the kunai that flew into the clone's outstretched hand.
'An exploding note,' Kakashi thought right before jumping backwards to avoid the explosion.
Turning to face the lone Naruto, he decided to speak up about the dangers of using such a dangerous weapon so close to his precious.
"Now Naruto-kun, you ought to be more careful with throwing explosive notes everywhere. Look," he said holding up his Icha Icha book. "You could have severely damaged it."
Not liking being taken so lightly, Naruto ran forward once again. Kakashi sighed. Perhaps he had expected too much after hearing what he was told.
&&&&&
Crouching under a bush not too far away, Sakura watched in awe as Naruto took on their sensei. Just as Kakashi spoke of right before the fight started, she thought Naruto made the mistake of not hiding first as well. But even so, she could not help but feel a bit of wonder. Naruto was much faster than she had thought. Seeing as she never once sparred with him, this was to be expected.
And she also had no idea what kind of clones he was using. From the way they moved, affected the ground they ran on, and the way Kakashi could hit them, they must be solid. However, she had never heard or read of a solid clone before. And now after blowing up his own clone in an attempt to hurt Kakashi, Naruto was once again charging forward.
Naruto first went in with a punch but it was blocked by Kakashi's book free hand. Wasting no time, Naruto swung his leg upward to try to hit Kakashi in the chin, but Kakashi just leaned back and it missed. With the momentum Naruto spun in the air and tried a spinning kick aimed for Kakashi's stomach.
However, Kakashi seemed to disappear for a moment before reappearing right behind Naruto. Sakura noticed that while Kakashi squatted down, his hands were over his book in the form of the tiger seal, which usually are used for fire jutsu according to the books.
'He can't really be about to hit Naruto in the back with a fire jutsu is he?' Sakura thought in near panic.
"You know a good shinobi should never leave his back open, right?" Sakura heard Kakashi speak in a voice that sounded disappointed. "Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Ōugi: Sennen Goroshi," Kakashi yelled as he surged his index fingers forward.
To Sakura's surprise, Naruto only gritted his teeth in pain but otherwise did not move before he spoke up. "I never let you behind me."
Kakashi's visible eye widened in surprise before Naruto exploded. She could not believe what she just saw. Their sensei just killed Naruto. As the ground shook and Kakashi jumped away from the explosion fast enough not to get hurt badly, she could not help but to scream. "NARUTO!"
&&&&&
Kakashi heard the scream and would have gone over to berate the stupid girl for giving away her position, but right now his mind was on what lay in his burnt finger tips. It was the remains of his book, Icha Icha Paradise, a part of it still on fire. A whistling in the air behind him brought him back to reality.
A kunai with a metal wire tied in the loop struck and buried itself right below Kakashi's shoulder blade and Naruto jumped down from the tree holding the other end of the wire. He could not help but feel proud of his trap, it had worked perfectly, and now he had Kakashi, a Jonin level ninja, in the perfect position to immobilize, paralyze, or even kill if he wanted.
"Give me the bells, Kakashi-sensei," he said. Out the corner of his eye he could see Sakura staring at him as though he were a ghost. He supposed he could have told her about his abilities while she watched him do the water control exercise and eat the two apples he had given her, but it had slipped his mind.
"Give me the bells or I'll kill you, sensei," he spoke up again when he did not receive an answer to his first demand. He did not mean it. He would not really kill his sensei when he did not have to. The problems that would cause him far outweighed the gains.
He began to suspect that something was off when once again Kakashi did not say anything. Deciding that he would just immobilize his sensei just long enough to get the bells, he concentrated his chakra and sent a current of electricity down his arm and into the wire. The electricity surged forward until it reached the kunai and it spread throughout Kakashi's body.
However, instead of Kakashi thrashing to the ground, there was a poof of white smoke and in Kakashi's place was a log. There was a sound of someone walking out from behind a tree behind him and he turned his head.
"You know," Kakashi started speaking as he took off his burnt gloves and let them fall to the ground. "Despite you destroying my book, I think I'm beginning to like you!" he finished with his eye closed up in a U shape and a shift of his mask. Naruto figured he was smiling.
While he was trying to form a new plan in his head, shuriken and kunai flew from out of the trees and hit Kakashi in the side. But Naruto knew even before Kakashi went up in white smoke and a log took his place that Kakashi got away.
Glancing to the side, he saw Sakura had headed back into the woods. From how things were going so far, he now knew he was way out of his league. Kakashi was not even taking them seriously and was barely even hurt after Naruto used one of his best techniques on him. No, he would need help from someone. He knew that Sasuke would just brush him off, but perhaps Sakura would want to…
Help. Of course! Naruto would have smacked himself if he knew it would accomplish anything for not seeing it from the beginning. They were supposed to get both bells from a Jonin, not some Genin or Chunin. How was a lone Genin supposed to do that? They couldn't. They were supposed to get help, from one or both of the other Genin.
And if they got the bells, then wait? Perhaps the Jonin sensei would pick the two that gave the best performance out of all three of them if all three worked together. If it was just two worked together, then they would get to stay Genin under their sensei and be a team…
Team.
'Oh, I'm an idiot. Iruka sensei would be so disappointed in me if he knew I didn't remember his hint,' Naruto thought to himself as he ran to the spot he had seen Sakura. 'From this day forward you will be working with a team in a three man cell, and although at first you will have a sensei to help you, that will not always be the case… he had said, and now Kakashi-sensei used a divide and conquer tactic to tear our eyes away from the truth.'
He found Sakura in a little clearing looking a little lost. "No…No way. Sasuke-kun," he heard her say as she stared in horror at…nothing. Glancing around and not seeing where his sensei was, he jumped behind Sakura and put his hand on her back.
"Kai," he said while pushing some of his chakra into Sakura just as the academy books said to do in order to get someone out of a Genjutsu.
Kakashi watched from his perch on a tree as Naruto released Sakura from his genjutsu. He was a little disappointed in the girl, seeing as she was apparently the smartest Kunoichi that had graduated. Leaving them as Naruto pulled a confused Sakura back into the cover of trees, Kakashi left to find the third member. If he had been impressed with the village outcast, he hoped this encounter would be just as good.
&&&&&
Sasuke could not remember ever being as pissed as he was right now. He could not believe what he had just witnessed. He thought of what he saw the dobe do as he finished setting up his trap. The dobe's Taijutsu form sucked, just like it always had, even with his increase in speed. That was one thing that pissed him off though. Since when had the dobe become as fast as him?
Sasuke was not as pissed off at Naruto for that as he was at himself. If the dead last had caught up to him, he must not have been training hard enough. But that would change, once he got one of the bells, he would pass this stupid test. Then he would have his sensei teach him new jutsu and training methods that would get him stronger. For once he agreed with the dobe. What the dobe had told Sakura yesterday was true, he had an ambition, and with the way she acted if she was on his team she would be a distraction and hold him back. Even the dobe was taking things seriously.
And speaking of the dobe, Sasuke could not believe he was thinking it, but he hoped the ramen loving boy passed as well. The dobe had showed off three techniques, three, that were not taught at the academy. A clone that was solid, a clone that actually blew up, and that electric current he had tried to use on Kakashi. If the dobe passed, he would get him to teach those techniques to him. Besides, the dobe actually seemed to get him and how he felt, more than any other of his peers.
Sakura had actually surprised him a little. She was still useless, but at least she was brave. Right when Sasuke was about to strike at Kakashi's back, Sakura had tried to help the dobe out by throwing kunai and shuriken at Kakashi. All of them had hit the target, which shocked him because of her accuracy, before Kakashi showed he had done a body switch.
Standing in a small clearing, Sasuke waited for Kakashi to appear. Sure enough, he heard someone land behind him. "Naruto didn't do too well with Taijutsu, you know," Kakashi spoke up with his hands in his pockets, surreptitiously damning Naruto for destroying his book. "And it only took one Genjutsu and poor Sakura was out for the count."
"Pfft," Sasuke responded. "Don't compare me to them. We're nothing alike."
"Really?" Kakashi asked in mock surprise. "Perhaps I'll believe that when you get a bell. I've been told that your brother got it on his first try when he took this test."
Sasuke spun around so fast he thought he almost break his spin. "What do you know? Don't talk like he was some sort of hero!" Reaching inside his pouches he threw the shuriken as fast and accurate as he could. Kakashi dodged to the right.
"You can do better…" Kakashi started before he heard a snap. Turning to his left he saw that there was a trap and a couple of short swords flying at him. He jumped over these and immediately saw one of them suddenly switch with the last Uchiha.
Sasuke swung his foot around aiming for Kakashi's head, but it was blocked. Using the other leg, he spun and tried to kick down on the top of Kakashi's head instead, but that foot was grabbed. Seeing the perfect opportunity, he reached in his pouch again and withdrew a shuriken. Throwing it, he was able to slice one of the strings and a bell fell to the ground.
But before he could make any head way to grab it, Kakashi kicked him in the stomach and he landed a couple yards away. Getting up as quickly as he could, he saw Kakashi about to reach down to pick up the bell. Flipping through the necessary hand seals as fast as he could, he noticed Kakashi's one eye widen in surprise as he called out his jutsu.
"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu," Sasuke yelled before putting his fingers to his mouth and blowing. Out came a huge fire ball that rocketed toward Kakashi.
'Where the hell are these kids learning these jutsu,' Kakashi thought already into his own jutsu. 'Genin shouldn't have enough chakra to do what they're doing, although with Naruto it's understandable.'
Taking a deep breath and looking at the place he just burnt, Sasuke noticed that no charred remains of his sensei were there. As the fire cleared and dispersed from his lack of concentration, he tried to pinpoint where Kakashi had gone to.
"Below," he heard a muffled voice. Looking down in surprise, he was suddenly pulled down into the earth until his head was the only thing above ground.
Wiping his hands on his pants, Kakashi stood in front Sasuke's head. "Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu," Kakashi said as he turned to get the half melted bell. As he walked he spoke to the boy behind him. "You were right I see. You are way ahead of the others. Ahahaha." He stopped laughing when a kunai came from his left. Dipping his head to the side to avoid it (These kids are really trying to kill me) Kakashi looked in that direction to see three Naruto's charging at him.
'This is getting old,' he thought getting ready to meet the onslaught. However, they suddenly changed positions to where they were in a straight line. Blocking the punch of one, he wasted no time with kicking it hard into a tree where it dispersed. The second one jumped to kick Kakashi's head as the third one aimed a swinging kick at his legs. Grabbing the leg of the one he noticed that it lacked the strength they had earlier. Focusing chakra into his legs, he felt the clone kick his leg, but it too lack its normal flare.
Throwing the clone he had grabbed away and kicking the other in the stomach, he tried to figure out what the blond was playing at now.
His answer came in a voice behind him. "Futon: Renkuudan," he heard Naruto's voice speak. Spinning, he saw a clone running over to Sasuke, presumably to help him out of the ground, and the real Naruto sucking in a breath then blowing it out. The jutsu moved faster than even Sasuke's great fireball, though thankfully only a quarter of its size, and Kakashi was forced to dodge quickly to the left.
He saw the air projectile hit a tree out the corner of his eye. The tree literally got snapped in half and fell to the side. He thanked himself that he was fast enough to get out the way when he saw something pink attacking him from the side. Reacting on instinct, he swung his hand around too fast for her to see let alone dodge, but to his shock the moment he hit her face she dispersed into hundreds of sakura petals. Forming a one hand seal as the petals swirled around him, he yelled, "Kai."
The petals disappeared and he looked down just in time to see the real Sakura pulling away from him and noticed the bell was gone from his waist. Moving as fast as he could, he reached out to grab her hair. Instead of pink, however, he was fisting blond. With a hard pull, just because he was a little ticked that Naruto had really tried to kill him so many times, the clone dispersed.
Looking over at where his three potential students were, he saw an exhausted Sakura leaning heavily on Naruto and a Naruto clone dispersing in smoke after helping Sasuke out of the hole. Glancing to where he was headed before being attacked by Naruto, his suspicion was confirmed when he saw the half melted bell gone.
"Hm…I seem to have misplaced my bells, would you two happen to know where they are?" Kakashi asked. As Sakura held up the half melted one and Naruto the other, he could not help but feel optimistic. They had all done so well, and at the end they had even worked together. Well two of them did, the other was being dug out of a hole.
"Well, seeing as the lucky duckling isn't so lucky today," Kakashi said as a glaring Sasuke just huffed. "He'll have to be tied to the stomp as I eat in front of him."
Naruto and Sakura glanced at each other before Sakura spoke up. "What are you talking about, sensei?"
Kakashi tilted his head in confusion at her question. Hadn't she been paying attention before the test started?
"Yea, sensei," Naruto interrupted Kakashi before he could ask. "I'm pretty sure you said whoever didn't have a bell gets tied to a stomp and sent back to the academy."
Now at a loss for what they were trying to say, he ignored the alarm clock that he heard in the distance. "That is correct," he said while glancing at Sasuke, who continued to glower at him.
Shrugging, Naruto spoke nonchalantly. "Well, we all have bells, so neither of us fails and all of us can have lunch."
Now knowing he was missing something, he squared his shoulders. "Sasuke doesn't have a bell."
Now smirking, Sasuke reached into his pocket and pulled out a bell, an exact replica of the one in Naruto's hand.
"I guess this means that we pass, eh Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked with a huge smile on her face.
Kakashi smiled as well, feeling something akin to giddiness as he looked at his first genin team. "I guess it would seem that way. Good job. Starting tomorrow, we will be performing our duties and missions as Team 7."
&&&&&
Huh, chapter number four done already. Hopefully I did a good job with the fighting, as well as the different personalities. And also, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.
Cya!
Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Ōugi: Sennen Goroshi: Thousand Years of Pain
Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu: Fire Element: Great Fireball Technique
Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu: Earth Element: Inner Decapitation
Futon: Renkuudan: Wind Element: Air Projectile
:) I'll try my best to describe them accurately in the text so you don't have to look at the bottom of the chapter to fully understand what the jutsu name means.