Chapter 6
The Tests
Mifune led the trio of ninja to a small courtyard filled with test dummies and a table with many different swords. "For your first test, you will select any sword you want from this table. Pick one you feel most drawn to." Mifune commanded. Naruto looked at the table that was displaying over a dozen swords. Finally, he chose a simple katana.
"Now, you are to destroy as many of those dummies as possible. You may only use your sword and legs. You only have 5 minutes. Begin when you are ready." Looking at the dummies, Naruto remembered the first time he picked up a sword. It was on their way to the Land of Iron.
Thinking of that day made phantom pains run through his body. But then and again, it allowed him to at least know some form of swordsmanship beforehand- and compared to that sword, the katana in his hand barely weighed anything.
-Flashback-
The three ninja were on their way to the Land of Iron when it started to rain. "Aww man! I can't see anything in this rain!" Naruto complained.
"Shut your whining!" Zabuza shouted over the downpour "There is a town not far from here. We will stay there until the rain clears".
-Next Morning-
The next morning Zabuza led Haku and Naruto into a small clearing. He unsealed a sword and explained "This is what I used to use before I could wield my Executioner Blade. It helped me build my strength and stamina so I can use it easier". Naruto just looked at the sword in wonder.
"Pick it up" Zabuza pointed to the large no dacha sword in front of Naruto. The blade wasn't anywhere close to the size of the massive blade used by the demon of the hidden mist, but it still seemed too big for Naruto's relatively small frame. After some struggling to get it out of the earth Naruto finally managed it.
"Alright, now what?" Naruto rested the blade on his shoulder.
"Now Haku has prepared some targets for you to go against" Zabuza tilted his head and Naruto turned around noticing how the puddles left after the rain began to turn into replicas of the masked ice user. They didn't seem very active though, most likely they were just targets, but relatively realistic ones. "What are you waiting for brat? An invitation? Get to work!"
"Tch, fine!" Naruto dashed forward.
He cleaved right through the nearest target, but then nearly fell over. The sword wasn't helping his balance. As a result then next strike missed horribly and that's against a stationary target. "Are you trying to be pathetic or does it come naturally?" Haku laughed while sitting on the edge of the roof.
"Oh shut up, you gender confused bastard!"
"I am not gender confused!"
"Who are you trying to fool?"
"Ahh!" Naruto screamed when Zabuza's massive blade struck the ground right in front of him, nearly cleaving the boy in half.
"I said, get to work" Zabuza growled and that voice promised nothing but pain.
"I'm going, I'm going!" Naruto went on swinging the blade, but again it wasn't as simple as it seemed.
"Work with the blade, not against it" the veteran assassin instructed, while leaning on the flat side of his own massive weapon that remained stuck in the ground.
"Yeah, how do I do that?" Naruto nearly fell over. The blade had no problem disposing of the targets, but that was the only good thing about it so far.
"Figure it out" Was the only reply he got.
"For crying out loud!" Naruto nearly screamed when he almost fell over again, but the sword still hit the ground again. As before the blade was too heavy, after a strike it was hard to force it up or to the other side. But then again, perhaps that was what Zabuza meant.
Naruto allowed the heavy blade to continue its path and spun around, using the momentum to bring the weapon down in a devastating overhead slash. "Ah hah, so that is how you do it." Naruto cheered in triumph.
"Hm?" Haku leaned closer noticing how Naruto began to use the momentum of the heavy weapon to turn strikes into combinations of slashes. They were crude, amateurish, but they were effective and they showed the raw talent of the boy, who managed to figure things out more due to his instincts, than actual logic. Given enough training he would become a true beast on the battlefield and the rapidly disappearing targets were clear proof of that.
"Phew, done" Naruto sighed and again rested the blade on his shoulder. He was soaked in both water and his own sweat, but looked pleased with himself "So, now what?".
"Repeat" Zabuza shrugged and Haku restored the targets.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Naruto whined.
-End Of Flashback-
'Hm, a katana... According to what Zabuza said, it would suit him well. It is extremely flexible and deadly if wielded correctly and is capable of wild and unpredictable movements. Perfect for someone like him. After all, a person who relies more on instinct and improvising instead of solid forms is a deadly opponent, but a true master will have solid forms but can improvise in a moments notice' Mifune thought from the sidelines.
"Pft, those things? Easy". Naruto dashed forward striking the nearest training dummy, though apparently it wasn't as simple as that. No, hitting the thing wasn't hard, but apparently the thing could spin after the blow and to make matters worse, the mechanisms inside made various sections move in different directions. The result was obvious.
A strong wooden limb struck him in the back of the head and Naruto fell face down in the mud. "Time waits for no man" Mifune crossed his hands on his chest.
"Oh shut up" Naruto pushed himself up and simply kicked the training dummy with enough force to break it. He then began moving from one target to another. He obviously had no technique. His attacks were straightforward, primitive and brutal. They caused much damage, but Naruto received a blow after a blow himself and only his tolerance for pain and sheer stamina allowed him to keep moving.
"Enough" Mifune commanded as another training dummy fell, reduced to several deformed pieces.
"So, how did I do?" Naruto took a few moments to catch his breath, placing the sword on his shoulder.
"You have potential as a fighter, as you clearly can use a blade, at least when it comes to basics, and there is much work ahead of you. But we will see".
"Heh, meaning I did awesome" Naruto grinned cheekily.
"No, you barely passed that one. And this is only the first test. There are more to come" Mifune shot him down immediately. No need for the kid to get arrogant, that was how many samurai and ninja with potential died.
Mifune then took him to another room. On the way, some samurai lead Haku and Zabuza away. "For the next tests, they cannot be there as they can distract you" Mifune answered Naruto's unasked question.
Finally, they arrived in what seemed to be a mostly empty room. There was a container of water with a rope and dummy above it and a pedestal about 3 meters away. The floor was made of many uneven tiles. Some were high, some were low and others were just in between.
As he was taking this all in, Mifune started talking "Before we begin, tell me, why do you wish to train in the ways of the sword?".
Naruto was unprepared for the question by answered anyways "I want to get stronger, only then can I protect my precious people. Though not many, -I can count them all on one hand- I will still die for them".
Mifune stared at him for a bit before speaking "I see, that is a good reason. If you fight for others, you will be stronger than if you fight for yourself" Mifune then turned away.
"For the next test, there will be a hostage scenario, there is a "living person" and an "important document." They will both be placed in danger and you will have to think quickly on whether you will save the "hostage" -a "human life", or the "document" -that may or may not lead to war. For this test, let's pretend that this hostage is one of your "precious people". Can you place his or her "life" above an entire country and risk many more people dying for one person?". Naruto looked at him in shock. He was supposed to choose between his precious people or an entire country?
Before he could fully grasp the situation, Mifune showed him the training dummy and scroll. "This dummy here is the hostage, and this scroll is the document. They will both be placed in areas with traps, one misstep could lead to the hostage, scroll or both burnt. The traps will be, either lowering the dummy, lighting the fire, both or a rare decoy trap which will do nothing. the dummy and scroll will be placed 4 meters apart. The scroll will be on a pedestal while the hostage will be over a container of water. If you touch of either, the other will fall or be burnt. You have 5 minutes" pause "Begin".
And just like that, Mifune left the room faster than Naruto could follow. "Fast!" he thought, but didn't have time to dwell on it. He looked at the traps. There seemed to be a slight difference in each stone, but he could still see that some were higher, lower, or loose. Now to figure out which one was which...
Naruto slowly stepped on the highest one. Immediately the candles on the pedestal lit up and moved slightly closer to the scroll. Naruto then stepped away and on to a loose stone. The dummy lowered. Naruto took a large jump and landed on another high stone, though this time, the fire moved more than the last. "Oh I forgot to mention, the more force you touch the traps with, the higher the effect!" Mifune's voice echoed through the walls.
"Of course you did" Naruto thought sarcastically. "Great, the scroll is about halfway to burning and the hostage is about 3/4 there…" he observed as he scanned the room. He was only 1/4 way across "I'll never make it at this rate!" he started panicking.
Seeing no other option since he was surrounded by high stones, which he presumed would lead to the burnt scroll, he took a running start and tried to cover as much distance as possible. Seeing he was going to land on a higher stone, he panicked "At this force, the scroll would be burned for sure!" he thought in panic.
Suddenly, he had an idea. He tucked his body in and tried to aim for another one that wasn't high and minimize the impact. He landed on a medium sized stone, about halfway out. He slowly opened his eyes and saw everything was still the same 'must be a decoy stone' he thought in relief.
Now was the problem, he was exactly 1 meter from either scroll or dummy and couldn't decide which. Then, another bright idea popped up "he never said I couldn't use Ninjutsu, or that I couldn't save both" He thought in glee. He made the handseals for the water clone jutsu and 2 popped in existence "Ah well, close enough, I was aiming for 1" he ordered one to go to the pedestal and the other one to follow him to the water container.
It was tall, taller than him. He made the clone boost him up while the other prepared to grab the scroll. But then the one going for the scroll accidentally touched it, causing the dummy to start falling in the water. Naruto's clone boosted him up before bursting into water. In the air, with no way to move, Naruto created another clone to throw him. He tackled the dummy in midair and landed safely on the other side.
He took a moment to steady his breathing before opening up his eyes… only to find Mifune looking at him with an unidentifiable look. The clone walked over and gave Naruto the scroll before popping like the others. "Soooo, how did I do?" he asked nervously.
"This was supposed to test a samurai's ability to move quickly and only stepping lightly, though your methods are unorthodox and you used Ninjutsu, which defeats the purpose and could be considered cheating-" Mifune started before he was interrupted.
"But you never said I couldn't!" Naruto pointed out.
"Yes, that is the only reason why i'm not failing you now" Mifune sighed before holding out his hand palm up. Naruto gave him the scroll.
The samurai leader clicked his fingers and 3 other samurai appeared. He gave the scroll to the first one, who then proceeded to leave. Oddly, the second one was holding a sword but Naruto didn't think too much of it. It was the third one that caught Naruto's attention. What, or rather who he was holding. "HAKU!"
AN: right, sorry for the longer (much longer than planned) wait! I'm starting exams and needed some time to study. I finally got some time off and decided to work on this again. Hope you are all happy with the almost twice as long chapter. Thanks to Novrier for the small fight and training scene in the beginning.
Review (kinda disappointed at the lack of them)
BlackDragonShinigami: thanks and here's your chapter!
