Naruto:The Smarter Choice
Disclaimer:I don't own Naruto in any way, shape, or form
Previously…
"Why do they need you to return to the village?"
"I dunno. Something about a new mission. He probably figures I'd be of better use elsewhere."
"So, are we escorting you back?"
"I suppose. But you know how weird things are. The more powerful you are the more protection you need." He then started chuckling to himself
Ch 6New Clothes in a New Element
"Oh! This will look cute on you!" A pink haired shopper squealed, holding up a perfectly ridiculous outfit.
"But-"
"This will look good on you!" She exclaimed, tossing another outfit towards her blond haired friend.
"But-"
"Oh! This will go great with that other jacket I found for you! Isn't that right, Naruto?" She looked towards her teammate who was buried under a pile of clothes.
Earlier that day, sakura had insisted that Naruto come shopping with her to get rid of that horrible orange jumpsuit. He protested that orange was an awesome color, but complies since he figured that what he bought would be his choice in the end. And he was getting frustrated with the genjutsu disrupting technique Kakashi had given him shortly after meeting Sansai.
"Urg." He groaned from under the leaning tower of clothes. He finally tipped it over and took a deep breath of fresh air. "Sakura I can't buy all of this. I'm only getting one outfit."
"But-"
"No. I only brought enough money to buy food and supplies to have a little left over. One is all that I am getting." He answered the unasked question firmly.
Naruto calmly walked over to the clothes racks and pulled out a shirt, a jacket, a pair of pants, a belt, and a pair of gloves, seemingly at random. He then walked into the changing room. (Him being familiar with it since he had to try on some of the outfits at Sakura's insistence.)
When he walked out, Sakura had to blush. It looked great! Wow, who knew that he could actually look good once out of that monster orange jumpsuit. She couldn't help but stare. Her inner self was ranting at her to ditch tall, dark, and broody for Naruto.
"What?" He was wearing a black jacket with dark orange trim and the standard red spiral on the back. (Unzipped) under it was a plain gray muscle shirt with the kanji for Uzumaki on it. His pants were ankle length, colored black with an orange stripe running down the sides. On his hands were the red fingerless gloves. (He would ask Kakashi sensei where he could get metal plates put on them later.)
Sakura was blushing lightly. "Good, huh?" She nodded.
Naruto went back in, changed his clothes, walked out, grabbed a grey facemask and bandanna, paid for his stuff, and left. He figured that they would be useful for disguising his identity when necessary. Sakura was left to clean up to giant tower of clothes.
Later, after Naruto had put his new clothes in their hotel room, he went out to train. He found a clearing with a large pond and a few trees in it. Kakashi was reading his book peacefully in on of the upper branches. Sasuke was alternating between practicing the Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu and the Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu. His underground control had gotten much better as he almost always hit the small rocks that he had scattered around the field.
Naruto sat down next to the tree Kakashi was reading in and silently tossed up Basic Strategy: Scroll Four while Kakashi dropped down scroll number five. "Arigato."
Kakashi then used a genjutsu that produced several phantasms for Naruto to see. After all it is easier to practice breaking genjutsu by practice than by theory. What he was to do is to temporarily halt to flow of chakra in his body. Doing so would break the genjutsu as it would not have an anchor to latch onto anymore.
In a word, he sucked at it. No matter how hard he tried he could never get the flow to completely stop. It was as if there was a force acting against it. He blamed Kyuubi.
After a couple of hours of doing this, he was slightly frustrated. That would be the understatement of the year. He decided to practice the Shuriken Kage Bushin no Jutsu while water walking as it seemed to calm him down. The phantasms started to nag him about practicing his genjutsu dispelling technique.
About an half an hour later Sakura had shown up to run through her laps, punches, kicks, and genjutsu. Halfway through, she decided to play a little prank on Naruto who seemed to be too immersed in water walking to notice. Kakashi sensei told her that genjutsu was more of a invent your own thing rather than a thing that has to be taught. Once she started to play around with it a little, she discovered
that she could disguise her raikou tama as a kunai or shuriken. (or other object) She knew that Naruto was now good enough with his ninja weaponry to try to catch it rather than dodge. She also knew that she would get in trouble, but he left her to clean up all of those clothes. That's the guy's job! He didn't even get any of the outfits she had chosen for him!
Naruto saw her throw the 'shuriken' at and figured it was revenge for leaving her at the store. He promptly dodged the lightning shot and smirked. "You forgot to mask the sound, Sakura." He yelled. He chuckled to himself when he saw that she was silently fuming. He decided to go back to the genjutsu dispelling technique since he managed to only two extra shuriken this time and none of them missed their target.
About half an hour later Sansai showed up to check on how the Konoha shinobi were doing. Pinky looked to be practicing genjutsu. Broody looked to practicing a kunai throwing drill where you had to hit a target that was behind a blind spot. The orange guy seemed to be trying (and failing) to dispel a genjutsu that had been placed on him. Knowing that due to his tenant, halting his flow of chakra would be near impossible, he decided to show him an alternate genjutsu dispelling technique.
"Hey, kid."
Naruto jumped as he did not notice him arrive. "Was I that deep in concentration?"
"You know, there is a better way to dispel a genjutsu." Sansai drawled.
"What is it?" he asked excitedly. He was obviously frustrated with trying to halt his chakra.
"The Chakra Pulse. Rather than disrupting the anchor, it cuts the genjutsu off from its source. Normally it only has a maximum range of a about a yard, but with your condition, it will be perfect."
Naruto tensed when Sansai said that he knew about his condition but relaxed when he sensed no ill will. "So I just pulse my chakra outwards?"
"Right. Just get closer to the lazy bum every time that it doesn't work."
Naruto pulsed his chakra. The results were… well let's just say that Sakura was surprised when her genjutsu suddenly shut off.
"Thanks Sansai sensei!"
"Oi! Kakashi!"
"Hm?"
"I think your team is ready for the next step."
"Hm. You're right. What kind of evaluation test should I give them?" He seemed to be talking more to himself than to Sansai.
Sansai jumped up to the branch that Kakashi was reading on. (Yes, he was still reading his book.) "When I go back to Konoha, I will most likely be reintegrated into the shinobi force. I figure that it would be a good warm up for them to pass my test."
"Okay. What are you going to have them do?"
"You'll see. You got one of your famous bells?"
"Yeah." Kakashi pulled two bells out from his kunai pouch.
Sansai grabbed one and jumped down from the tree. By then Naruto had gathered the Rest of Team 7 and were waiting for the test. "All right kids. You goal is to get this bell from me by any means necessary. You have one hour."
"Sansai sensei, why are you doing this and not Kakashi sensei?" Naruto asked, thinking that Sansai was just a guy that sat behind a desk all day.
"I'm coming back to Konoha, and so I need to start training again."
"Why is there only one bell?" Sakura asked, thinking of the bell test.
"This isn't a test of whether or not you are capable of teamwork, but rather a test of your capabilities."
"One more question. Why are you still in civilian garb?" Sakura inquired.
"Even if I have been sitting behind a desk for several years, I'll never hear the end of it if I get beat a team of fresh genins. It shouldn't matter that I'm still in civilian garb." That oughta set them off. Sansai suddenly dodged a punch aimed for his spine and shoved Sasuke, who overextended, into a face plant. "Nice try, but I haven't said start yet. Start."
The trio nodded to each other and moved to hide in the light tree cover. They began to signal to each other to agree on a plan.
"Their teamwork so far is halfway decent." Sansai thought as he followed what Team 7 was signing. "Although they ought to know better than to use the same code we used in the war. And they shouldn't have to retreat just to come up with a plan. An hour goes by awfully fast."
Fifty minutes later…
"All right. They decided on an attack from below, then a lightning jutsu from my left, then a shuriken barrage, then a fire jutsu from my original position, and lastly an all out charge. A good plan, considering that they know nothing of my skills other than what the history books say, and that they are only genin. I wonder what happened to all that genjutsu that Pinky was working on earlier." Just then Sansai felt a hand grab at his ankle. Áh, it begins." Sansai kicked upwards uprooting one Sasuke with it. He followed up with a roundhouse kick, sending Sasuke straight into Sakura.
Who just fired off the raikou tama. Naturally, the two objects collided, giving Sasuke several second degree chakra burns.
"Sasuke kun, are you alright?"
"Hn. Keep on moving." Sasuke grunted as he pushed himself back up. Sakura retreated to the trees and performed the kanchi katawa no jutsu. (Perception distortion technique) "When Naruto does his kunai barrage Sansai will have trouble dodging or catching since everything will appear a half inch to the left, especially if he underestimates us like Kakashi sensei almost did."
Kunai Kage Bushin no Jutsu! Was heard from behind Sansai's original position. A throw of three kunai turned in to rain of thirty. (Plus two)
"Urk!" the grand majority of the kunai all hit the mark. Some went all the way through and impaled on the ground.
Sakura paled. "Naruto, how could you? You killed him!" She was on the verge of tears.
From his perch, Naruto thought, "I didn't throw any of the kunai hard enough to go all the way through someone."
At the same time, Sasuke activated his Sharingan to check the corpse. His eyes widened. He had to tell Sakura that it was a genjutsu! "Sa-"
Shinkan jutsu. (Silence technique) Whispered a voice from behind him. Sasuke heard the whoosh of someone Shushining.
A voice whispered into Naruto's ear. Heki takai (false death) someone grabbed Naruto shoulder. Kanchi Katawa no jutsu (perception distortion technique)
Naruto suddenly noticed a massive wave of vertigo overcome him, but remembered that the kanchi katawa was a genjutsu. He pulsed his chakra outwards hoping to reach his teammates, who were most likely also under a genjutsu.
An image of a dead Sansai suddenly left Team 7's eyes, Naruto no longer felt a sense of vertigo, and Sasuke could talk again. (Not that anyone noticed)
Sansai jumped to another tree and noticed that there were traps set up along most of the trees. "Guess there are a few Kage Bushin roaming around here. Naruto must've had tem set up traps while they were planning."
Twenty shuriken were fired at Sansai and he dropped down to the ground to avoid them. He saw a goukakyu no jutsu to his right and some raikou tama to his left. He sighed. Ninpou: Jutsu seisatsu! (Ninja arts: justu reflection) Now the fireball and lightning shots were headed towards Sasuke and Sakura respectively.
Both dodged in the nick of time, sporting only light chakra burns. Three Naruto's jumped out of the bushes and Sansai's watch went off.
"One hour."
The two Naruto clones dispelled themselves and all three groaned, thinking that they would have to spend the rest of the time on the way home working on perfecting justu that they felt that they had already mastered.
"Would you like to tell me why you lost?" Sansai asked in a cheerful voice.
"Because you know more jutsu than us?" Sasuke.
"Because you are faster than us?" Naruto.
"…" Sakura.
"Partially. That maneuver might've actually thrown me for a loop if I hadn't of known what you were going to do already."
"Huh?" was the collective response.
"You used the same code we used back in the Third Great Shinobi War. For a vet like me, deciphering it is practically second nature. You would've had a better chance if Pinky hadn't of panicked when she saw my 'dead' body. I shouldn't fault you for that though. Most people who haven't seen death before tend to do that." Sansai lectured.
"What did you think, Kakashi?"
Kakashi snapped his book shut. "They are ready. We will start the next step tomorrow before we set out. Dismissed!"
After the genin's left, Kakashi asked, "So, what kind of training seal have you invented this time? Normally, you wouldn't use Shushin to move at those speeds."
"That's for me to know and for you to maybe find out. I'll tell you one thing though; it has the potential to turn even the lightest movement into a workout." Sansai left to change into something more appropriate for training.
Later, upon agreeing to see what someone who could defeat the three of them so easily called training, Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto followed Sansai to a more forested training area.
Sansai wore is Konogakure hiaite on his forehead. He wore a sleeveless, black jacket that went down to mid thigh. He wore a kunai pouch on each leg, suggesting that he was ambidextrous. He wore blue shinobi pants, (not unlike Naruto's new ones.) and on his feet were black, open toed, shinobi sandals.
They noticed the intricate seals on the backsides of Sansai's arms while he was stretching. The two most noticeable was one with the kanji for thunder in the middle on the underside of his right forearm. The other most noticeable one was a circle on each palm with a line that ran up his arm and down under his grey, sleeveless, shirt.
Sansai bit his thumb and wrote something one his right palm. He suddenly seemed to be weighed down some. He formed four Kage Bushins and had them surround them. "You know the drill" He said to them.
The clones started to throw kunai at him. It started with a volley of five from each clone. The kunai, by some unseen force returned to the clones. They used the Kunai Kage Bushin no jutsu to create a total of about a hundred kunai.
Sansai dodged them all. The kunai lifted themselves out of the ground and started slashing at Sansai as if wielded by invisible people. Sansai doesn't have a scratch on him yet.
Sasuke activated his Sharingan. He signed to Naruto and Sakura. They are controlled by chakra strings. They nodded in understanding. He deactivated the Sharingan not wanting to waste chakra.
After ten minutes of continuous dodging, a lightly bloodied Sansai suddenly shouted Kyokusei no Jutsu! (Polarity technique) All of the kunai suddenly stopped in midair. They impaled themselves into the surrounding trees and the ground, ring first.
"That oughta give them a good show." He said to himself, referring to the Team that had bolted when the projectiles came their way. "Next!"
The Next Day
Kakashi held up three slips of paper to his genins. "This paper is made from chakra sensitive wood. When you push some chakra into it, it will react according to you chakra affinity. It will burst into flames for fire, get wet for water, crumble to dust for earth, crumple, for lightning, and split in half for wind. He showed them his by crinkling one of the sheets.
"What's Sansai sensai's affinity?" Sansai (who was back in civilian garb) silently grabbed one sheet and his chakra split it in half. "Wind."
Sasuke took his sheet and it crumpled. He smirked. "Lightning."
Naruto took his sheet and it was sliced in half. "Woo Hoo! Wind!"
Sakura took her sheet and it
crumbled into dust. She smiled. "Earth.
Sansai started his
lecture. "Those who have a lightning affinity generally think and
do things in the most straight forward fashion. Those who are wind
are fast, either in body or in mind. Earth is the great protector.
She who will do anything to protect what is hers."
"These are the first exercises." Kakashi interrupted as he began to explain and show how they are done.
Jutsu List
kanchi katawa no jutsu. (Perception distortion technique)- genjutsu that distorts one's perception. Sakura likes to use it to make things appear to be several inches to the right or left. Sansai used it to give Naruto a sense of vertigo. The part of perception affected affects the difficulty of the technique.
Shinkan jutsu. (Silence technique)- genjutsu that tricks someone's mind into believing that they cannot use their vocal cords.
Heki takai (false death) – Genjutsu that creates a phantasm that depicts one's gruesome death. Sansai purposely make his overdramatic to give Team 7 a chance at noticing.
Ninpou: Jutsu seisatsu (Ninja arts: justu reflection)- Ninjutsu that creates a weak barrier that reflect low level elemental jutsu upon it's caster.
Kyokusei no Jutsu! (Polarity technique) - Creates a magnetic field that repels any lightweight, and not tied down metallic object away from the caster
Author's Notes
I think that this chapter turned out pretty good. Tell me what you think of some of Sansai's abilities so far. I hope that Naruto didn't suddenly change too much. The Chakra Pulse came from the story Team 8 by S'TarKan. Remember Sansai has a special training seal that has allowed him to stay in shape even with his desk job over the years. Please review, as it inspires me to write better stories.
EDIT:This chapter just needed to have some minor details changed.
