Hey I'm back, you get the update early 'cause we have a snow day woot, anyway there will probably only be one more chapter before I go on holiday. Oh and you all get to welcome my Beta GreyWolf15.
Grey: Mwahaha...welcome me, r&r...or else. (Kidding, love you really)
Bold writing – demonic or summoned creatures speaking and technique names
Bold italics – demons or summoned beings thinking
Italics – people talking inside other's heads or thinking
Normal – either descriptions or humans
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any affiliated products or characters I do however own Akaken and my other OC's
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"The Finals will be Naruto-san Vs Sasuke-san. Begin!" Iruka called.
"Alright, think. Sasuke, what do you now about his style, think. Dammit! He hasn't used any style yet," Sasuke thought, studiously ignoring the calls of his Fan-girls. He moved into the ring, trying to look like he wasn't bothered whilst furiously trying to think of how to win this fight.
Naruto stood in the middle of the ring waiting. "I hope Hinata's all right. I didn't think I hit her at all. Gah! Concentrate! What do I know, he probably uses the Uchiha style, but judging by his earlier moves - he hasn't mastered it."
Naruto leaned back and closed his eyes. "Remember the feel of the wind. It will guide you; that's what Tou-san said." Naruto concentrated -"There, just above my heart," he opened his eyes in time to see that Sasuke, taking advantage of his lack of sight, had charged at him. His charge faltered as he saw Naruto's eyes had changed. They were no longer a deep blue, but paler, more grey, the colour of the sky in the middle of a hurricane.
Naruto spun, in taking advantage of Sasuke's surprise jumping up and blocking his punch, with his leg he turned midair to kick him in the head. Sasuke recovered, quickly ducking under the kick in an attempt to sweep Naruto as he landed. Instead Naruto seemed to hover in the air a moment longer than Sasuke expected.
"What the… how did he do that?!" In his surprise, Sasuke almost missed the kick Naruto had aimed at his head, recoiling and sliding back he entered what Otou-san had always called the Chounai stance. "Both legs bent, arms in front. This is the first time anyone has actually made me use this." In response to Sasuke's stance Naruto slipped back his legs, bent, but his arms held horizontal to his body one slightly more forward than the other, his wrists bent inwards and his fingers bent like claws.
"If you're too scared to come to me Sasuke-san, then..." Naruto had leapt forwards spreading both arms wide like wings before spinning into an axe kick "...I will come to you."
Sasuke, having stepped to the side, now glided in with a punch to Naruto's head. Naruto merely bent backwards his leg coming up and kicking Sasuke in the chin with enough force to lift Sasuke off the ground. He then spun on his hands performing a helicopter kick to Sasuke's midsection.
"Winner - Naruto-san!" declared Iruka, seeing Sasuke fly out of the ring.
"You have twenty minutes for lunch before we start the Ninjutsu section."
"T-t-that was a-amazing, N-n-naruto-kun!" Hinata told Naruto after he got out of the ring.
"Thank you, Hinata-chan," he said with a smile. "Are you feeling okay? I didn't mean to hit you hard."
"He still cares!" she blushed. "I-I-I'm f-f-fine," she finally managed to stutter.
Naruto sighed, relieved that he hadn't hurt her. "Good, hey - if you're not too busy tonight, do you want to come have dinner at mine?" he asked.
"I-I-I'd love to, b-but O-o-otou-sama might want me at the c-c-complex."
"Oh." His heart sank.
"B-b-ut if he l-l-lets me I w-w-would love to," her heart soared as she saw him cheer up.
"That'd be great Hinata-chan, I'll see you here at six, all right?" "Heh, I probably should have checked with Tou-san," Naruto thought, beaming "Ah, he won't mind."
"Hey you! Naruto-san, wasn't it?" came a voice from behind him "How did you do that?"
Naruto turned. "Do what, Sasuke-san?" Despite his outwardly cool expression he was seething inside "Dammit can't you see I was in the middle of something?"
"You know what I mean, you stopped in the air!"
"Hovered, the term is hovered," Naruto replied.
"Ho- " Sasuke was cut short by the bell ringing the start of the Ninjutsu test. Sasuke growled.
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"Hokage-san, I need to speak with you," Akaken called through the door. He heard whispers of "didn't you tell her we were not to be interrupted?" He rolled his eyes - did they really think that he was stupid enough to burst into a important meeting? And since the door obviously didn't have a silencing seal on it...he walked in.
"You cannot come in here, this is a private meeting!" The adviser to the Hokage's right yelled.
"Well it can't be that private since there wasn't a silencing seal on the door."
Then he heard the thought "but I did.".
"Whoops, sorry. You really need a better seal..." Akaken said.
"Well, there's nothing we can do about it now. Can this wait, Akaken-san?" Sarutobi looked down at the map before leaning back and taking his pipe out of his mouth. He sighed. "No, I guess not. You wouldn't come if you could avoid it, what is it?"
"Originally it was about the exam but now, well you're underestimating the problem already. If Mizu want a war the first thing they will do is ally with Iwa who will join because they hate you. Oto will want to join because as a small village near Iwa it would be threatened, if Kumo then heard they would either join or tag along behind for the Byakugan with such a large army villages like Ame and Suna will try to join to stop them turning on them. The only Village that will help you would be Kusa because the army will have to go through Fire country to reach them. You're dead, basically." Akaken told them.
The council members immediately looked up, their mouths open in large Os, then they looked at each other.
"Help?" the member on Sarutobi's right whimpered.
Akaken chuckled "Well, I guess it would ruin Naruto's day to be invaded. I'll help. What do the public think of the Mizukage?"
"The current one? He is known to be a pervert but other than that, they aren't against him."
"Isn't that enough?' Akaken said mildly, raising his eyebrows.
Sarutobi ignored him. "Succession wise, it's unsure - he hasn't designated anyone, and the country is split as to who should succeed him."
"All right." He paused a moment to think. "We should assassinate the Mizukage."
He raised his hand to stop the outburst of the advisors - "I can pin the blame on Iwa, that way both Iwa and Mizu will eliminate each other as a threat as well as take away the catalyst for the war. Without those two, Oto won't feel threatened and Kumo won't start a war it can't win."
"All right...we will send a team - " Sarutobi began.
"No, I will do it alone. I can't be traced back to Konoha yet and I can pull off the assassination - all I need is something to cause a chakra flare."
"Go to the ANBU Armoury; give them this." He wrote on a slip of paper. "Ask for Iwa. When you break a capsule it releases a chakra flare, an old student of mine managed to procure a dead ANBU chakra signal for each of the other countries for just such an occasion. I'll tell him we will need a new set"
"Excellent. I'll go tomorrow, the assassination will be about four days after so I'll be back a week after that. I had originally come about the Genin exam so if you will excuse us," he paused to allow them to leave before turning back to Sarutobi.
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"W-w-what's wrong N-naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, seeing Naruto shiver.
He scratched the back of his head. "Yeah I uh, well my Ninjutsu isn't great." He grimaced - it was true Kawarimi he could emulate Henge, he could manage most of the time; he had figured out how to stop his scent escaping as well, but his Bunshin...
His musing was interrupted when Iruka called "Shikyotenchi Naruto!" He cursed and entered the room.
"All right, Naruto-san. Perform a Kawarimi with the desk." Naruto concentrated before the wind picked up around both him and the desk. Neither Naruto nor the desk could be seen, but when the wind died down a few seconds later, they had switched places.
"Very good Naruto-san. Now Henge, Transform into me."
This time rather than the wind picking up Naruto seemed to shimmer before taking on the appearance of Iruka. "Like this, Iruka-sensei?" His voice even matched that of Iruka's.
"Exactly, Naruto-san. Final test then - you may have your Hitai-ite, make three Clones." Mizuki started to worry at this point. "If the Demon passes with full marks I will have to take the scroll myself..."
"I wonder what Mizuki-sensei is so worried about?" Naruto thought. He took on a look of concentration, the air shimmered in three places and Naruto's form emerged. Unfortunately they could be seen through.
"I'm sorry Naruto-san, that isn't good enough to pass." Iruka said. He shocked himself in finding that he was actually sorry. "And to think I was ready to condemn him just this morning."
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Naruto was sitting on the top of the Hokage building. It had started to get dark about an hour ago. He was still reminiscing about the test when Mizuki appeared behind him.
"You know Naruto-san, Iruka didn't do that to be mean." He sat down next to him.
"It doesn't matter, I didn't pass whether he was just being mean or not." Naruto told him sulkily.
"Now that is something we can change." Mizuki smiled.
"How?" Naruto was instantly suspicious.
"There is a second test just for people like you, who could have passed but didn't."
"What is it?" Naruto was still suspicious. If there was a second, Tou-san would have made him do that one using the god's powers - he was not suited the basic test. "That's it! Tou-san mentioned a few days ago that one of the instructors was considering treason it must be Mizuki, what to do...if I can trap him and call Tou-san," he smiled up at Mizuki "Then I will both pass and Konoha will be safe."
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Naruto waited outside the Hokage Building. His Henge was better than most, since people did not expect to see anything or smell anything, they didn't and his wasn't limited just to him - he was to all intents invisible. He glanced at his watch. "Eleven to six. Mizuki said the guard changes at ten to six." Sure enough, two more ANBU appeared, hidden behind one of the pillars and as a civilian Naruto admired their skill. There was only a fraction of a second when a civilian walked by, when he flickered and the other ANBU took his place.
Now that the guard had changed he didn't need to worry about someone having noticed the shimmering of the air when he hid, followed by the air being displaced as he entered. "So far, so good - now the scroll Mizuki said it was in the safe. I wonder if I should actually take it?" As he entered the room, he felt the wind move around him.
"Take the scroll, Naruto. Mizuki-san is watching."
"Tou-san I should have guessed! Still, he isn't stopping me." Naruto slipped in. Mizuki had said part of the test was figuring out how to open the safe. "Too easy! It's a simple lock and the chakra detection unit has been turned off, heh Arigato, Tou-san." He placed his ear to the lock and twisted until he heard the tumblers click into place it reminded him of the time that that old lady with the cat had come to Konoha after she had her guards remove him from the Hokage building for trying to talk with the Hokage. "Heh, she woke up with only one earring and I managed to live of those necklaces for a week!"
He took the scroll and left.
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Hinata had practically skipped to the Academy gates. Hiashi had said yes.... kind of. She stopped when she felt the air move - "Otou-sama is always worried I would be attacked if I left the compound by myself..."
She formed the Ram seal. "Byakugan!" she called. No one around. Wait. That was Naruto's signature running towards the forest. He couldn't have forgotten, could he? "No. With that scroll, he must be taking another test," she thought, remembering how unhappy Naruto had been coming out from the exam room. "Well the least I can do is be there when he passes."
With that thought in mind, she chased after his chakra signature.
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Naruto arrived in the clearing. Mizuki said to meet him - now he only needed to learn a technique from the scroll in case someone else turned up first.
"All right. Let's see if there's anything I can actually learn in here."
He opened the scroll. Instead of a list of techniques there was a message.
"Naruto. Mizuki is a traitor. You may deal with him as such; here is a basic attack technique. It was one of the first I learnt as well as several variations on it. Akaken."
The first technique he saw when he looked down the scroll was the Kaze Yaiba.
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Hinata was hiding in the bush near Naruto when she felt Mizuki's approach. She had become good at hiding over the last few years - after all, it was hardly befitting for a Hyuga heiress to be seen looking for someone like Naruto. Her father would have fifty fits.
"Naruto-san, well done. I must congratulate you on managing to steal the scroll. Now hand it to me!" Mizuki said, standing on the branch almost directly above her.
"No, traitor!" He laughed at Mizuki's surprise. "What, you thought I bought your story about a second test? Tou-san would have made me do that one instead, no matter the difficulty."
Mizuki thought fast. "Oh s&*t, I need to throw him off balance and kill him quickly before his father finds me. Yes! That should do it."
"Do you know why the village hates you, Naruto?" He didn't wait for a reply. "They call you demon for a reason. You..." he paused for effect "...are the Kyubi."
Hinata's eyes widened at the news. "No, that's not possible. He-he saved me!"
"Your point?" Naruto asked stiffly.
"Oh, and her name's not Kyubi. It's Kokoro." He smiled. "Okay, that's enough annoying him. Let's see what this technique can do!" He waited for Mizuki to throw the shurikan before concentrating.
"Wind bullet!" As expected, the wind condensed. What he didn't count on was it cut straight through the shurikan - not slowing it at all.
"Naruto!" Hinata screamed, running at him. His eyes widened in shock of seeing Hinata. Then he gasped in horror as she tripped, but the wind picked her up and propelled her at Naruto. Faster than the shurikan. She thought she heard someone say
"Go, save my son." But the wind couldn't talk. Could it?
"Okay Naruto. Why don't you go to the Hokage now? He has your Hitai-ite, and you need to explain to your … girlfriend why you said you were the Kyubi," Akaken said, raising an eyebrow at the particularly compromising position they had landed in.
"No. I will deal with him."
"Naruto, whilst Hinata saved your life and our style works particularly well against ninja, you are too tired. Remember, this taxes your spirit as well as your body, on top of this - you no longer have the element of surprise. He is a Chuunin for a reason. This is not a fight you can win. Go." He commanded.
"Mizuki! It's time to die!" he roared as Naruto carried the now unconscious Hinata back to the tower bridal style. Before Mizuki could move, Akaken was right in front of him - "Now, since you have potentially ruined my son's friendship..." "Akuba? Want to play?"
"When don't I?" he grinned, as he came out of the aether and tore into Mizuki's mind.
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Whew, done - tell me, what do you think of the longer chapters? Anyway, no new names but here are the translations:
Chounai- the block (if anyone does martial arts think fighting stance)
Kawarimi- substitution
Henge- transformation
Bunshin- clone
Hitai-ite- forehead protector
Arigato- thank you (informal)
Kaze Yaiba- wind blade
Anyone confused over Tou-san and Otou-sama? Tou-san is like Dad and very informal, Otou-sama is how the son of someone, like a king or noble should refer to his dad when they have company.
Anyway R&R
GreyWolf15: Yes, R&R, or we will set the Fen Tiger on you. Only kidding...kind of!
