The tale of the ninja wizard
Chapter 7: The return home and the start of a new test
A/N: Hey guys, I'm back with a new chapter. I would say sorry for the wait but you should know how I work by now so we will just skip it in the future (but I'm still sorry). Now for one of the chapters that will stress me the most: the chunin exam. I will warn you now: the first part of the exam (the written test) will be exactly the same so I won't go into details in it. And since nobody answered, I thought about what would be the best for the jutsus names and I decided to bring them all in English as to not create a difference between the canon jutsus and the ones I will create except for a few cases like the Rasengan. Well now that's all said and done, let's go to the story!
Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto or Harry Potter this story would have never existed.
"Dialogue"
"Thoughts"
'Mental dialogue'
"Kurama dialogue"
"Kurama thoughts"
"Spells and jutsus"
After a now familiar and weird portkey travel, Naruto arrived in the Hokage's office with all his stuff and his trusted phoenix Amaterasu. Hiruzen smiled when he saw his surrogate grandson appear in front of him wearing the white T-shirt, black sweat-shirt and blue jeans he had when he departed to Hogwarts.
"Welcome back Naruto" he said with a warm smile that Naruto shared,
"I'm home" simple words, but for Naruto, as an orphan, it meant a lot. "So, what happened while I wasn't here old man?"
"Well quite a lot actually, your team was stuck doing D-ranked missions because you weren't there and I lost count of the number of times they tried to get me to tell them where you were" Naruto chuckled,
"I'm so gonna get killed by them for this"
"I wouldn't think that, in fact your prolonged absences worries them a bit"
"They do?" he asked in shock while the old ninja chuckled at his reaction,
"Of course, it was more evident on your pink haired teammate but even the Uchiha at least wondered where you go every time, although I fear it's more because they want to do C-ranked missions than because they miss you" Naruto smiled sadly,
"Yeah, I already know that they don't like me. Well except for our sensei… The only one that appreciates me in my team is a pervert, just how creepy can it be?" Hiruzen laughed loudly at that,
"True, but they aren't the only ones that wondered where you went. I recall the young Tenten asked about your whereabouts"
"She did?" he asked in surprise, he knew Tenten from the time he was at the orphanage. The one year older girl always helped and supported him despite the staff that was doing all they could to separate them, that they succeeded in throwing him out when he was five years old. Since then they didn't have a chance to meet up, even at the academy the teachers, warned by the orphanage staff, always found a way to stop the two of them to meet up. Basically it was years since the last time he saw his surrogate older sister.
"What team is she in?" Naruto asked,
"Team nine is currently training at their training ground, and don't worry about your baggage: I will have someone bring them to your home" he said while he wrote something on a piece of paper that he gave him, "and here's your new address" Naruto's eyebrow rose slightly at that,
"I suppose the villagers had a party at my old apartment?" the old Kage's face was shadowed as he answered,
"They thought that it was a good idea to warm themselves with a big fire, the fools must have hoped that you will leave if they did this. I already arrested those that did this, on another note it gave me the opportunity to give you a new apartment. A bigger and nicer apartment payed by those same people as an apology" he finished with a bright chuckle that Naruto shared,
"The civilian council must have gone bald from that" Naruto said, barely containing his laugher,
"They nearly did. And you don't have to worry about it being burnt since it's in the ninja blocks. And your new neighbours might be too much for them"
"What do you mean by that?" Naruto asked but the Hokage just winked at him,
"Now you should go or you will miss your friend" Naruto was going to go but stooped to ask a last question,
"And for the 'you know what' announcement?" Sarutobi smiled,
"The authorities of both worlds made contact and talked about the different issues, and your particular case. I will tell you the details later but I assure you that the public will know before the chunin exam." Naruto nodded before he went out of the office.
He walked in the direction of training ground number nine, with the usual glares and occasional insults that he strangely noticed were a bit less oppressive, but just a little so he shrugged it off. When he arrived he saw team nine training and decided to wait and observe. The team was composed of their jonin sensei Might Guy, a muscular man with a bowl haircut, huge eyebrows and wearing a bright green spandex. There was also a mini Guy named Rock Lee that looked and wore the same thing; a dark brown hair guy with completely pale eyes, sign he was a Hyuga, called Negi and wearing a khaki shirt, brown pants, blue shinobi sandal and had bandages wrapped around his right arm and leg. And finely the last member of the team: Tenten, dark brown hair and eyes, she wears her hair in Chinese-style buns on either side of her head with short fringe-bangs falling on her forehead protector, a pink, sleeveless qipao-style blouse with red trimmings, dark green pants and blue shinobi sandals. Naruto looked as the group spared in groups of two: Lee versus Guy and Negi versus Tenten. Lee and Guy were only using pure taijutsu but it wasn't this fight that interested Naruto, he looked at Negi and Tenten and saw she had trouble trying to keep her distance against Negi. She threw weapons after weapons at an incredible rate but Negi deflected them very easily with the help of his byakugan and it wasn't long before he managed to go at close range and finish the fight. Coincidently Guy and Lee finished their spar at the same time, it was then that they noticed him, well, that Lee, Negi and Guy noticed him as Tenten was busy picking up her numerous weapons from the ground,
"Hello, why did you come here young man?" their sensei asked energetically, making Naruto cringe slightly at his loud voice,
"Um, I just came to see Tenten, it's been years since we last saw each other after all" he answered calmly. Tenten gasped when she turned to look at him,
"Naruto, is that you?" he smiled sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head,
"It's been a while, huh, Tenten nee-san?" Lee's jaw fell at that and Negi raised an eyebrow while Tenten quickly ran toward Naruto and brought him in a bone crushing hug,
"Sister?" Lee exclaimed in shock, just as loud as his sensei,
"Tenten, you didn't tell me that you supported a younger brother with your flame of youth!" Guy shouted, which Naruto started to assume was normal for him,
"What the hell is the 'flame of youth'?" Naruto whispered to Tenten who broke the hug,
"No idea, most of the time it doesn't make any sense" she answered in a whisper, she took a step back and, ignoring perfectly her team behind her, examined Naruto's appearance. "You look good, Naruto. What happened to the orange eyesore I often heard about?" Naruto looked embarrassed,
"Well… I still have it and wear it"
"You can't be serious? I only saw it from far away but even then I found it horrible. And seriously, bright orange for a ninja? Do you want to wear a 'kill me' sign with it?" she said in disbelief mixed with slight exasperation before she turned toward the jonin, "Guy-sensei, can I have the rest of the day off? I know training is important but it's been such a long time since we saw each other…" Guy grinned and shot a thumb up,
"No worries, I know how bright your flames of youth shines when you train so you can go and catch the lost time with your youthful younger brother!" he exclaimed. Tenten thanked him before she quickly dragged Naruto away. They walked for a while, Tenten talking about what her life was like since the day Naruto was kicked out of the orphanage, she was in the orphanage until she was adopted by Higarashi Tatsuhiro, a renowned weapon maker, became a gennin and decided to become a great kunoichi. Naruto was happy that even though it has been years their relationship didn't really change.
"And you? What happened to you after you were out of the orphanage?" Naruto started to sweat a bit, wondering what he should tell her but he recovered soon enough,
"Well, I lived in the streets for a little while…"
"How long?" she asked sternly,
"Approximately one month" he answered wearily, she had a shocked look on her face,
"How the hell could they do this to you, you were just a kid god dammit!" she nearly shouted, Naruto put a hand on her shoulder to calm her, even if it didn't really work.
"I have a lot of things I want to tell you but it will have to wait until we are in my new apartment"
"New?" she asked in confusion, "What happened to your old one?"
"The villagers were cold" he simply said, and as soon as the word escaped him he felt killing intent coming from Tenten, all of it directed towards the villagers around them. Naruto tried to calm her down, saying that his apartment was barely better than an old dump and this 'accident' gave him a nicer apartment for free. They talked for a while, mostly Tenten as Naruto couldn't say out in the streets that he was a wizard. He had planned to tell everything to Tenten as he still considered her as his older sister and as such deserved to know all of his secrets, even if she might never speak to him again. They arrived in front of a big building painted in light blue, the ninja apartments. Naruto led Tenten to his apartment, the number 305 and opened the door. The apartment wasn't very big but for Naruto it was enormous, and it was clean. They stood in the little entryway, in front of them was the living room with a wood table and four chairs, at its left was the kitchen, a bathroom at its right and a hallway with two doors that Naruto guessed were bedrooms. Naruto's baggage lay in a corner of the living room with Amaterasu perched on his suitcase, when she saw Naruto she immediately flew to his shoulder and rubbed her head against him. Tenten looked in amazement at the phoenix as Naruto petted it,
"I never saw a bird this beautiful, what is it?"
"A phoenix" he answered as he went to sit down on a chair, motioning her to do the same. Once she sat down she continued,
"No, for real what is this bird?"
"I'm not joking" he answered seriously, making her look at him in disbelief,
"Um, Naruto I'm pretty sure they are just legends" she said with worry in her eyes that made Naruto chuckle but before he could answer he heard a knock on his door. He opened it only to see a huge snake in front of him, he instinctively jumped back and threw some shuriken that he soaked in a paralysing poison. The shuriken didn't miss their target and the snake immediately fell on the ground, unable to move. Naruto took a kunai and was ready to kill the snake when it disappeared in a puff of smoke, the shuriken falling on the ground.
"Not bad kid, you pass" said a voice he recognised instantly and his eyes widened,
"Anko nee-san!" he exclaimed with a bright smile as she showed herself at the door with a smirk on her face. Naruto knew Anko since he was thrown out of the orphanage, when the hokage found this he assigned an Anbu squad to protect him and she was one of them, she often came to keep him company when he felt lonely and he considered her as family.
"Hey there kid, it's been a while since I last saw you. Where the hell were you?" Naruto motioned for her to come and sit down which she complied. He went to sit opposite them, Amaterasu on his shoulder, and stared straight at them.
"What do you know about magic?"
"It's just a fairy tale for kids" they both replied at the same time with the same look of confusion on their faces, Naruto mentally braced himself.
"What if I tell you it's not? And let me finish before you start panicking about my sanity" he said when he saw the look in their eyes, he then started to explain everything that happened to him from the day the owl brought him the acceptance letter to today and punctuated it with concrete evidence by using a few harmless spells. At the end of his explanation they had a dumbfounded look on them,
"Wow, that is bloody insane" Anko finely said before she smirked, "So my little Ototo is a wizard, heh? I always knew you were weird"
"Nee-san" he exclaimed in exasperation before he glanced at a still shocked Tenten,
"Well, that is a lot to take in" she admitted, "But I guess Anko-san is right, you were always weird" she said with a playful smile that made Naruto whine a bit,
"Not you too…" they laughed at him and when they calmed down they was another knock at the door. Naruto opened it to see the Hokage,
"Ah, Ji-san!"
"Hello again Naruto, I see you have guest over" he stated as he sat on a chair, followed by Naruto while Anko and Tenten, startled by the hokage's casual appearance were standing up to greet him with a bow. Seeing this Hiruzen chuckled and dismissed their formal greeting with a wave of his hand.
"There is no need to act this formal here" they sat down reluctantly,
"They know about my particular situation" Hiruzen raised an eyebrow in amusement,
"And I thought you were good to keep secrets"
"You already planned to reveal this to all the elemental country and I don't want to keep any secret from them" he responded seriously, making the others smile.
"I suppose I shall tell you about the situation between the wizard and ninja worlds and your new privileges" he started as he took a serious tone, "First, as you can guess, it wasn't easy to keep things from blowing up at the governments meeting. A majority of the wizards think we are barbarians because of our very different living style and our unfortunately frequent wars and ninjas will tend to think they are lazy fools and hypocrites incapable to defend themselves as proven by their recent civil war."
"Woah, must have been more of a time bomb than a meeting" Naruto stated,
"Indeed it was at the beginning but we finished by accepting the fact that we are from really different backgrounds. That said we talked about how we could create peace between our two worlds until we finely talked about your case. To say it was a difficult subject would be an understatement: the wizards wanted to, and I quote, 'take an innocent child from a path of barbary'. You can guess that we didn't really appreciate that" he said as he saw the shocked and angry look on Naruto's face. "Now, after a long negotiation about what would be the best for you Albus and I finely managed bring them to let you choose your path. Hence the privileges that I mentioned: you are a special case, someone between the ninja and the wizard world and it would be foolish to make you choose a side, so we decided that you will have a special status in both worlds."
"What do you mean by 'special status'?" Naruto asked,
"Because of ninjas frequent wars and fight for power and ambitious wizard government we decided to give you an ambassador status in both worlds" Naruto, Anko and Tenten gaped at that,
"A-A what now?"
"An ambassador" his surrogate grandfather said with a slight chuckle, "You are a link between the two worlds and as such laws will have some changes, after all we can't have you in a wizards prison if you had to kill someone in a mission, and you can use your spells despite the fact you are a student in the wizard world. But you are not exempt of laws, you are a ninja of Konoha and as such all our laws applies to you, the wizards laws just have to adjust itself to you, not the other way round. You also don't have to worry about your security since you will be protected by the entire elemental country and the wizard world"
"Wait, if I'm protected by everyone I won't be able to considered only as a ninja of Konoha" Naruto said in panic, making Hiruzen sigh,
"That's right, Naruto. You can't support only a ninja village but you can take missions here, it's just that you can't take a mission that tells you to kill a ninja from another village. But you will also be able to go to any hidden village as you wish and take missions in them, you will also be the mediator between ninjas and wizards." he finished, Naruto sighed as he buried his face in his hands.
"This is a huge mess" he said, earning concerned glances from Anko and Tenten,
"I know it will be a difficult role to endorse" started the old ninja, "But it is an opportunity to make our two worlds to work together, it is a chance to bring peace and not only between the two worlds. I believe that one day you could bring peace to the elemental nations" he said with a smile,
"You really think I could do this?" Naruto asked,
"Not now, but I know that one day you will be able to" Naruto smiled,
"Thanks jiji" Hiruzen then got up,
"Well then I should be going, I have my eternal enemy to fight, also known as paper work" Naruto chuckled and said goodbye. He talked with his two guests for the rest of the day, getting teased along the way on various subjects before they left, letting Naruto to tidy up his new apartment.
It's been one weak since he was back in his village. A week he spent training as much as he could with his two teammates that seems to hate his guts, especially after the Hokage announced to the whole village about magic and his… particular position. Now the villagers weren't pleased by it as it meant they couldn't attack the 'demon' anymore, a feeling shared by a minority of ninjas. This also meant he could use magic freely in public, a fact that infuriated his teammates, Sasuke hated him because the 'drop out' had a power that should be his as only he would be able to use it at its full potential and Sakura hated him because Naruto, of all people, had a power that should belong to her Sasuke-kun and that he had a special social status that protected him. Both totally ignoring the fact that it wasn't Naruto's fault and that he never asked for any of this. At the end of the week they discovered their sensei put them in the chunin exam, but on their way toward where the first part of the exam will be held they were called out by someone about a year older than them wearing a green spandex, Rock Lee. Naruto was internally glad that Tenten and Anko dragged him to by some decent clothes, he was now wearing a black jacket with the hood down, black pants and a burned orange facemask that will cover the bottom part of his face up to his nose if he put it up, no matter what he will still have some orange on him somewhere. While he reflected on this the green wearing gennin was walking toward them, more specifically him,
"Good to see you Uzumaki Naruto" he greeted energetically,
"Hi, Lee. What do you want?"
"I heard from Tenten that you were a hard worker like me and I wanted to test my flame of youth with yours!" he exclaimed loudly, making Sakura look at him weirdly and Sasuke grit his teeth,
"If you want a challenge then you shouldn't ask this dropout, he wouldn't last a second against me" he sneered, Lee looked at him in disdain,
"If there is one thing I am confident with is my ability to sense my opponent's worth, and I'm sure Naruto, a hard worker, will be far more challenging that somebody like you who doesn't put much effort in his training because he think is the best" he answered bluntly, annoying the Uchiha who then tried to punch Lee, only for him to dodge and punch him hard in the face, sending him flying a few meters away.
"What the hell was that?" He shouted, "Tell me what jutsu you used and how I couldn't see it with my sharingan" Sasuke ordered,
"It was just pure taijutsu" answered Naruto with a sweat-drop before turning toward Lee, "I'm sorry but if we might be late for the exam but I will gladly fight you after the exam, or during it if the occasion present itself" Lee had a large grin on his face,
"Yosh, I will await the occasion to burn our flames of youth in a most youthful spar!" he exclaimed before running away, probably toward his teammates.
"What… the hell was that?" Sakura asked in a sweat-drop, before being angry, "And who is this guy to think he is better than Sasuke-kun" Naruto resisted the urge to facepalm, choosing to go in the building instead. When he arrived he noticed a group of people standing in front of room 301, the room they were supposed to go to but something didn't add up: They were not at the right floor. Naruto planned to calmly walk away but it proved itself impossible when Sasuke arrogantly called out the genjutsu placed on the room, allowing people who clearly weren't qualified to pass the exam to take it either way.
"Are you an idiot?" shouted a kunoichi Naruto knew too well, "That was obviously part of the test, if they couldn't tell it was a genjutsu they don't stand a chance in the exam!" she scolded the Uchiha, before anything could be told Naruto intervened,
"I'm sorry for the comportment of my teammate" he said to the two 'gennin' guarding the door to the false test room,
"No need to worry, Naruto" said one of them as a puff of smoke revealed him as a chunin,
"Things like that happens from time to time" said his colleague as he too reappeared in a puff of smoke, they were two chunin that knew Naruto well as they often had to chase him after some of his pranks. Naruto turned toward his teammates and Tenten's team,
"So, I suppose we should go before we are late?" he half-asked half-stated before going.
The first part of the exam was… emotionally challenging to say the least. It was a written test with a man named Ibiki as a proctor, a man he knew from Anko as he was her superior in the T&I division saw he knew that this man was a master of all types of tortures. After he managed to inspire the rest of the gennins that was ready to give up as did many before them, the proctor of the second test presented herself. A bundle of cloth broke the window only to be pinned open by several kunais, showing 'The incredible Mitarashi Anko is here!' written on it before the woman in question appeared a second after. She presented herself energetically, making everyone sweat-drop except Naruto who just had a smile on his face. A smile he kept even as the gennins were brought in front of a huge forest behind tall wire fences.
"Welcome to the stage for the second test: training ground 44, also known as the forest of death" Anko said with a smirk that Naruto mirrored, attracting the attention of Sakura and Tenten, who was nearby,
"Why are you smiling you idiot?" she asked harshly, only to have a kunai next to her throat, courtesy of Tenten,
"Don't. Insult. Him." She ordered coldly, "But I also want to know why you were smiling like that"
"Well, I've been in this forest a few times so I know it quite well" he answered in a whisper. Sakura just stared at him blankly,
"If you were here before you were a gennin and you went to this… wizard school the Hokage told us about, it can't be dangerous…" she stated, making Naruto grin evilly,
"Maybe… Maybe not…" the two kunoichi stared intently at him before Tenten regrouped with her teammates and Sakura went to her 'Sasuke-kun' while Anko was explaining the test, a survival test with a time limit of five days, each team has one heaven or earth scroll that they have to keep and they have to steal one of the opposite scroll and go at a tower in the centre of the forest in the time limit. Five days with the risk of being killed by the other teams or the wildlife of the forest… In other words it will be a test to remember.
The doors opened and the teams rushed in, the survival test has begun.
A/N: The end of the chapter, I hope you will forgive me for this little cliff-hanger but if I included this exam it would have taken far too long to update but I'll do my best to put up the next chapter soon enough (I have only a vague idea of what's going to happen in the next chapter for the moment). On another note, what do you think of Naruto's strange status? Full of problems huh? Any reviews are appreciated as it will help me to develop the story (but I don't complain when you guys just say you like my story, a great way to be in a good mood I tell you). Well then, hope you enjoyed and see you next chapter ^^