CHAPTER 9
When Naruto saw Kakashi waiting for him at the Ichiraku's, he grinned inwardly knowing what was coming.
"Hi, Kakashi sensei!" He said as he sat down next to the jounin who was reading his pervy material. "What's up?"
"Well, Naruto I'm in a quite tight spot." Kakashi said in a flat tone that revealed little of his emotions.
"What do you mean sensei?" Naruto pretended ignorance. He wasn't going to make this easy on the man.
"You know very well that I have to train you and Sasuke for the final round. And I can't be with both of you at the same time."
"Sure you can, just use Shadow Clones!" Eat that pervy sensei, Naruto cackled in his head as he buried his face in the most delicious ramen in the world.
Kakashi sighed. "You know that I can't use them like you, actually no one can. Honestly, it's ridiculous how long your clones can exist and how far can you send them."
Naruto's current record was three days and twenty kilometres, with three clones. Which was scary. And insane.
"So, you're choosing Sasuke over myself." Naruto said in a bleak voice, causing Kakashi to wince in guilt.
"I don't have any choice, not really. Gaara of the Sand will try his best to kill him, while Neji won't do that to you." Kakashi's excuse seemed solid.
"I see," Naruto stared in distance. "You don't believe I can beat this Neji guy."
"It's not true, I just feel that saving Sasuke's life is more important at the moment. He isn't as strong as you are, and if what you said of Gaara is true, he's dead meat. I need every moment at my disposal to give Sasuke some chance to make it out of that fight alive."
"Wow, Sasuke better doesn't hear you, he'll be crushed by your low opinion of his abilities." Naruto joked.
Kakashi just shrugged. "I'm not blind Naruto. Besides, Gaara is a dangerous ninja. Very powerful, very deadly."
" I know, that's why I don't get why do you think you can teach Sasuke anything in a month that would help him against Gaara. What we saw him do, that's just a tip of the iceberg. No matter how you train Sasuke, he won't be able to beat Gaara."
"I plan on teaching Sasuke how to survive that match, not to win it. Maybe he'll even weaken Gaara so that you could finish him off later." Kakashi said and paid for Naruto's bowl. "I've already made arrangements for you to meet your temporary trainer. He's an elite ninja too, so I'm convinced he'll train you well. His name is Ebisu. Meet him tomorrow at the training field seventeen, exactly at eight am. He is a bit arrogant and pompous, but he knows his stuff. Ja ne!"
Kakashi was pretty much on spot with Ebisu. The guy was tall, athletic and had a pompous attitude about a mile wide, mostly in terms of belief about his own abilities and in his attitude that demanded proper show of respect to those of certain station in life and so on. He was full of ideas about what was proper or not, about how people should think and behave. And he talked a lot. Nauto didn't Force choke the man for one reason only-Ebisu was a decent sparring partner and had connections with some ANBU types who provided him with specific items Naruto needed to beat Neji. Ebisu showed decent appreciation of Naruto's plans, which also went in his favor.
Right now, the two were sparring. Ebisu dashed forward, his palms striking towards the blonde genin in attempt to hit him, but Naruto slapped each aside and tried to kick Ebisu's knee. It was a fast and precise attack that forced Ebisu to vault in a side flip, then roll and do a quick leg swipe that Naruto avoided with a short jump and kunai throw at Ebisu's head. Naruto could have tried to kick Ebisu's head, but that would also draw a risk of being slapped on the leg by Ebisu in a simulated Jyuuken counter, as Ebisu demonstrated several times before.
Ebisu rolled away, then flipped on his feet and vanished in a burst of speed. Naruto turned in time to block his low kick at his kneecap, and to grab Ebisu's forearm for a body throw over his shoulder. Ebisu's other hand flashed forward, aiming for Naruto's lungs so Naruto let go of his other arm opting to stay out of his palms range.
Both ninjas were breathing heavily, they were fighting for quite a while.
"Impressive reaction time Uzumaki," Ebisu commented while fixing his shades that hid his eyes.
"You're not too bad at this fake Jyuuken stuff either, Ebisu sensei." Naruto sent a compliment to the man. He noticed Ebisu liked praise, so he used it whenever appropriate, without trying to look like a suck up.
They made several fast and furious exchanges of attacks and counters before Ebisu signalled it was time to stop. He wiped his forehead and straightened his jounin jacket carefully. It was a mark of his rank and he loved it.
"That's enough for today Uzumaki, " Ebisu said. "We must relax, it's also a part of the training. Let's have you pratice katas on the water. You may use your Shadow Clones for light sparring to learn katas better. I'll observe." He vanished in the swirl of leaves, and Naruto followed him in the same manner. It took a while to talk Ebisu into revealing how to perform the Shunshin, but with Shadow Clones Naruto learned it in two days. Also, the Force helped a lot with it because he always could see where he would end up in advance.
They met again at the local hot spring, it's boiling water provided Naruto with sufficient incentive to maintain his footing above the surface, and he did so with ease. His clones either followed his moves or made short attacks that Naruto avoided with eyes closed.
Ebisu looked at Naruto with approval. Despite his fears, the boy proved to be a hard worker with excellent grasp of shinobi tactics. Kakashi didn't exaggerate about his star pupil who actually needed only gentle pushes in right directions to realize his vast potential. Ebisu also liked his respectful attitude, quick thinking and obedience. A model student, and strong ninja in his own right.
Ebisu heard an unpleasant giggle nerby and turned in annoyance to see who dared to disrupt the holy silence in the clearing behind women's bathhouse. He glared angrily at the shameless white haired man who was sinfully peeking at women inside, violating their privacy and beautiful bodies...Ebisu shook his head of the unwanted imagery containing nude, big breasted ladies and rushed the pervert to punish him.
He was knocked out in a second.
Naruto almost dropped in the boiling water as he saw Ebisu being taken down by some perverted ninja in a second. The guy didn't even look at Ebisu as he summoned a large toad who knocked out the jounin with his/her tongue.
"A-hem." Naruto cleared his throat from behind the white haired summoner, now identified as Jiraya of the Sannin. He was the only guy with the toad summoning contract.
"Go away." Jiraya mumbled in annoyed tone, never looking at Naruto as he scribbled something on his notepad.
"I won't go away, you pervy bastard." Naruto hissed in a false angry outburst. "You hurt my sensei, and I'll go to the ANBU and they'll take care of you."
Jiraya turned around so fast that he made it look like he switched sides without moving. He was sweating bullets and making panicked hand gestures. "C'mon kid, it's just a small misunderstanding. He'll be just fine."
"I don't believe you. You attacked a Konoha nin, you gotta pay."
"But I'm also Konoha ninja." Jiraya protested still trying to stay unnoticed to avoid doing his boring duties as long as possible.
"Where's your headband?" Naruto demanded sharply. "Actually, don't tell me anything. I can't trust you so I'll just go the ANBU, they can sort you out."
Jiraya grabbed Naruto in tight grip before he vanished and turned him around with friendly grin. "Relax kid, my headband is a mark of my status as a Toad Senin, I'm Jiraya of the Sannin."
"No way!"Naruto faked disbelief. "You're just an old perv."
"But..." Jiraya wanted to whine, but he caught himself as he saw the evil glint in the boys eyes. "Brat, are you making fun of me?"
"So what if I am?" Naruto said nonchalantly. "You deserved it."
"You've got some guts kid, to fool with me. Not many genin would be so disrespecting. Who are you?"
"Oh come on!" Naruto protested. "You know very well who am I. My face betrays me." Naruto was talking about his whisker marks, which identified him to any Konoha person.
"That's true." Jiraya admitted as he straightened to his full height. "So you are Uzumaki Naruto. Whatcha doing here with that fop Ebisu?"
"I was training for the final round of the Chunin Exam." Naruto explained.
"Oh? You're that good already. I find it odd that the Third would make Ebisu your jounin sensei." Jiraya remarked casually, fishing for more info.
Naruto felt no remorse for ratting Kakashi out to his idol. "Hatake Kakashi is my real sensei, but he's too busy with Sasuke to train me. In his opinion, Sasuke needs his help more."
"How so?" Jiraya asked, ow truly interested. He found it very surprising that Kakashi would favor one pupil over another, even if he was an Uchiha.
"Apparently, he fears that Gaara of the Sand, he's Suna's jinchuriiki by the way, will try to kill Sasuke. And Sasuke isn't strong enough to win now."
"Interesting, and he doesn't think you'll fight him too. Why?"
"My opponent is Hyuuga Neji, a genius of his clan. He is really good and sensei is certain I can't beat him. Otherwise he'd have to count on me maybe fighting Gaara too."
That made sense to Jiraya even though he didn't approve of Kakashi's judgement. It was clear that he had more concerns for Sasuke, than for Naruto. He'd have to have a word with the kid, Minato taught him better.
"Now, it's your turn to do what's right," Naruto said with smile. "Train me to beat another jinchuriiki."
Jiraya laughed. "Why should I? I have duties too, you know."
"Maybe, but you also like to watch naked women. If I were to report your presence to a few kunoichi, I'm sure you'd find it very difficult to enjoy your little habit."
"You wouldn't." Jiraya narrowed his eyes, but he knew he was beaten.
"Try me." Naruto challenged the man, his face stony.
"What exactly do you want of me? Ebisu is a decent jounin, more than enough to prepare you for your matches."
"Like i said, I want to have a way to beat Gaara. He will be my opponent after I deal with that Hyuuga prick."
"Huh, you're awfully certain you'll get him. That's foolish. The Hyuuga clan is feared with a good reason." Jiraya said in annoyance.
Naruto described his plan to Jiraya who found himself amused by it. It had that devilish cunning Naruto's mother was known for. He liked it.
"All right, I admit your plan is clever, maybe it will work. It's pretty rare to see genin who goes for tricks instead of brute force. But that won't work on a demon tend to be awfully strong and immune to most tricks. With them, it's either brute strength, or sealing."
"And you can't teach me any seals in a month." Naruto said.
"That's right kid, but no worries, I've got just the right kind of brute force you might you like to be the newest toad summoner?" Jiraya grinned widely, he couldn't have done better if he planned it.
It was the night before the final round of the exam. Naruto was resting in his apartment, meditating and focusing on the coming matches and , he knew what was going on. His teacher had spied around the village, gathering data and observing Konoha's surroundings. It was really hard to miss the signs, these shinobi were not as clever as they thought.
"Aren't you going to warn the old fool?" Avariss asked Naruto as his spirit coalesced in front of Naruto, red aura surrounding him.
"Why? I'm sure he already knows, you must've noticed changes in security patterns of the village." Naruto answered in an unconcerned manner.
"Indeed, but they don't expect a team of Orochimaru's servants to perform a large summoning ouside the west wall." Avariss replied in equal manner. "By the way, that sick jounin from the preliminary phase is dead. He was killed by the Sand jounin with mask over half of his face."
"Heh, now I'm sure that the Old Man is aware of the impending invasion. How pathetic of these morons from the Sand to be discovered so soon." Naruto scoffed.
"It wasn't their fault, that Kabuto boy led the sick jounin to the meeting place on purpose, although he hid it well." Avariss informed Naruto.
"Oh?" Naruto spoke in surprise. "That's strange. Or maybe not. It seems that Orochimaru intends to swindle both villages while he kills the Third. He goes away with both villages too weak to attack him back."
Avariss laughed evilly. "Ahh, so you are aware he killed the Kazekage!"
"Of course, when he came this morning with his false face I sensed it immediately."
"You are becoming a master of the Force Naruto. That is good, very good." Avariss purred in satsfaction of a teacher pleased with his student.
"Thank you Master." Naruto bowed slightly. "What should we do then? "
"Nothing." Avariss spoke coldly. "Tomorrow you must survive, let the village fend for itself. The Third dies tomorrow, by his own hand. I have foreseen it."
"A pity." Naruto said, feeling some regret over it.
"You could save his life." Avariss offered glibly, testing Naruto's resolve and loyalty to Sith teachings.
"And reveal myself before time is right? No." Naruto's response was cold and resolute.
"Very well, tomorrow you will conquer your last link to this place. Your last weakness." Darth Avariss intoned and Naruto closed his eyes, knowing it was his last test before becoming a true Sith.
The day of the exam was sunny, warm and welcoming. Totally opposite of what was going to happen in the next few hours. Naruto and the rest of finalists were lined up on the hard soil of the Chunin Exam's stadium, the only one missing was Sasuke.
Spectators were crowded in their seats, a mass of sweating and colorofully dressed people filling the air with noise of their voices and cries. And many of them were cleverly disguised spies and enemy ninjas. The ANBU were also subtly occupying spaces behind the crowd, almost unseen. But some did know of them, like Naruto. He could sense the underlying tension in many shinobi, they were ready for war.
"All right guys, I'm Shiranui Genma, your new proctor." Said a Konoha jounin with looks like Mizuki's, except he seemed older and he had a large senbon in the corner of his mouth. "The rules of the combat are the same as in preliminaries. Any questions? No? Good, now all of you get lost except Uzumaki and Hyuuga."
Only Naruto and Neji remained standing opposite of each other. Everyone on the stadium was deathly silent, the expectations of this match were high.
"I see that you're very self confident Uzumaki." Neji spoke coldly to Naruto. He obviously liked to belittle his opponents. "I say it's unfounded. Fate has decreed that you will loose, because it pitted you against me. There is a vast, uncrossable gulf in ability between us, and no amount of training can cross it. You can't win."
Naruto just smirked confidently in response to Neji's monologue.
"I see that there is nothing I can do to convince you that I'm right. Prepare yourself to suffer a humiliating defeat." Neji spoke and assumed the Jyuuken stance, his Byakugan activated.
Naruto acted first by sending four Shadow Clones to engage Neji while he studied his reactions. As he was suspecting, Neji was quite skilled and managed to defeat his clones with a single strike for each.
"Is that your best?" Neji sneered at Naruto, again in his starting stance. "More trash is just trash in the end. You will loose."
"Come on then, get me if you can!" Naruto challenged the boy while throwing down several smoke grenades that produced a thick shroud of smoke.
Neji's Byakugan saw easily through it and he smirked as he saw several different versions of Naruto clones and he rushed eagerly in. He speared those closest to him, they were made of dirt and then he danced with others, baiting them into blind attacks. He had to admit, those clones were able to guess his position pretty well-they probably relied on the sound.
But nonetheless, they were defeated and he saw the last Naruto retreat from the smoke so he followed.
Naruto created several clones again and these blocked Neji's attack, this time Neji found them much harder to hit. They attacked with more coordination, covering for each other. But Neji was better, faster. Yet the blonde would always send more groups of four and five who nipped at Neji's defenses like hungry wolves.
For the first time Neji was beginning to worry about his chances for victory. His enemy had obviously decided to tire him out, and he had the chakra to actually pull it off. His breathing was getting ragged, his vision swam slightly.
"It's getting to you, isn't it?" Naruto asked with a wide knowing grin.
"What do you mean loser? I can fight for a long time." Neji scowled in disdain, even though he felt like shit currently. Those clones drove him hard.
"Yeah right, with that much poison in your lungs I doubt you'll last more than two minutes from now." Naruto cackled.
"What?"
"That's right Neji, I poisoned you. Did you really think I was actually stupid enough to believe you couldn't see through the smoke? I was just baiting you, so you would enter and breathe in some of my special smoke."
"But you breathed it too," Neji said and realized it was getting harder to breathe.
"No, I just pretended to breathe. All you saw me do was to move my lungs as if I was breathing. You saw everything, but didn't really understand what was going on. What use is your bloodline when you can't think properly?" Naruto smirked and created ten more clones that rushed Neji in three waves.
Neji run and weaved, dodged and ducked, while using his remaining strength to beat them, but his body was getting sluggish and it was harder and harder to hit them. In last ditch attempt to get them out of his way, he spun quickly.
"Kaiten!" he yelled, producing a spinning wall of chakra that obliterated remaining clones.
"Wow, that's cool!" Naruto said and he meant it. To use chakra in such a way was a great trick. He decided to copy it as soon as possible. "Too bad it can't help you now."
"I can still fight!" Neji said defiantly.
"No, you can't." Naruto said and vanished from his spot, only to appear behind Neji who spun around to strike him with his fingers.
"Too slow." Naruto said as he caught Neji's hand and twisted it quickly, it broke at the elbow joint with a dry snap. Neji screamed and tried with the other hand but Naruto caught it too, blocked Nejis's knee and head-butted him.
Neji staggered backwards, his face bleeding. Naruto kicked him in the groin, making most of men in the audience wince in sympathy. And then he finished him with a high kick to the head that sent Neji flying for full three meters.
Naruto calmly approached the unconscious boy and extracted a needle injector.
"What the hell is that?" Genma said as he appeared with the Shunshin next to Naruto.
"The antidote, what else?" Naruto said calmly. "I can't leave him like that, the drug might stop his breathing."
"Okay, give it to him." Genma said and Naruto injected Neji with a whitish liquid.
"Where did you get the lung inhibitor anyway? I though it was restricted only to jounins and ANBU."
"I happen to know a jounin who also knows a few ANBU agents." Naruto smirked.
Gemnma shook his head. "It figures you would."
"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto!" Genma announced and people begun cheering on Naruto as he was leaving the arena.
"Huh, what do you know-the brat actually beat the Hyuuga asshole." Anko commented to Kurenai who was standing next to her with other jounin senseis of rookies. Then she started to jump happily. "I'm rich, I'm rich!"
"Er, you actually bet on him to win?" Asuma spoke with subdued voice.
"Of course! The kid is a killer, anyone could see that! Ha, you bet on the Hyuuga. How much did you loose?"
"That's my business." Asuma huffed and lighted another smoke.
"Poor Asuma, you won't be able to buy so many smokes for a while." Anko cooed to him in fake sympathy, and Kurenai giggled at that. She too hated Asuma's smoking.
Further away from them, the rookies sat in shock, actually it was Tenten who remained speechless.
"Cha, take that bastard!" Sakura voiced her opinion silently. She was still smarting from the humiliating defeat by Neji.
"Wow Forehead, I didn't know that Naruto was that strong." Ino commented.
"Of course he is, even Sasuke-kun said so once." Sakura huffed in offended tone. "He's really got a lot of chakra, and is quite sneaky. That thing with poison, nobody would have thought of it."
"Right." Ino answered thoughtfully. "Do you think he can beat Sasuke-kun?"
"No!" Sakura answered hotly. Then she appeared to think about it. "Actually, i don't know. But Sasuke-kun is surely a lot stronger now, he and Kakashi sensei were training together for the whole month."
"Isn't that kind of biased?" Choji asked while he munched on his chips.
"No," Sakura said resolutely. "I know for a fact that sensei asked another elite jounin to help Naruto."
"Really?" Ino wondered.
"Sure, I heard that he also trains Hokage's grandson."
Ino and Choji shuddered, they remembered the annoying nephew of Asuma's who would go around griping about becoming the next Hokage after he beat the Third. His sensei had to be a saint to stay on as his teacher.
"Congratulations Naruto, you were sneaky as usual." Shikamaru said in his lazy drawl as Naruto emerged on the balcony where the rest of finalists were.
"Thanks Shika, I can't wait to see what will you do." Naruto grinned evilly and
Shikamaru winced. His mother heard him complain about having to fight a girl, she tore him a new one loud and clear. He had to fight.
"Proctor, I forfeit!" Kankuro of the Sand spoke loudly as was his turn to fight Shino. Every spectator booed at him, it was cowardly.
Soon, it was Shikamaru's turn to face Temari of the Sand. It was an interesting match of wits and patience, although the audience didn't like all that waiting and positioning. It was a hard match up-the girl was a powerful long to mid range wind user, while the Nara was limited to only one jutsu, the Shadow Imitation. It relied upon him extending his own shadow to catch Temari's. That proved difficult since Temari knew of his jutsu and was careful to stay away and blast him with her wind attacks. But that didn't work, so they attempted to outmaneuvre each other.
After his last attempt, which involved making a makeshift baloon out of his jacket and kunai to extend his shadow range, Shikamaru gave up. He was low on chakra and the girl was too smart to fall for his traps.
Temari wasn't too happy with such a victory, but didn't look into horse's teeth.
Naruto merely smirked when Genma called out for Sasuke to face Gaara. Sasuke was still not at the stadium.
"Hey Naruto," Kiba called out to the blonde. "Where is that Uchiha ass? Did he chicken out?"
"Nope, I think he and sensei are going to be fashionably late." Naruto smirked in return.
"He's not worried about being disqualified?" Kiba asked incredulously.
"Kiba, we're talking about Sasuke, the last loyal Uchiha." Naruto pointed out to the dog boy who looked annoyed at that revelation.
"You're right, that prick could getaway with almost anything. I hate him." Kiba grouched and was even more annoyed when it was confirmed. Sasuke and Gaara's match was moved for later, while Kiba and Lee were called to fight.
Okay, that's it for this chapter. I wanted to thank all those who reviewed my story, you know who you are and I loooove you too, he, he, he. Well, except for one guy who made a comment how he stopped reading my fic because there was no Star wars stuff in it-like why doesn't Naruto have his lightsaber and why he doesn't use his powers to beat everyone, it was boring to him.
To answer that to him and everyone else, again I say Naruto is not your brute force mass killer like Vader or Maul were. He's modeled after Palpatine, during his best acting days.
Now, Naruto has extraordinary abilities, but they aren't enough, not yet. He has to hide his true potential, it's his ace in the sleeve. He is aware that Kyuubi didn't attack Konoha on his own, he also knows that Madara is alive and after him. He fears spies of Madara's, so he hides his real skills. And so he uses them only when no one can see it. Like 'convincing' Orochimaru to let them go in the Forrest of Death.
He doesn't use advanced tech, since he doesn't have necessary tools and parts to constreuct them. Remember, he has the knowledge, but not all of it. He could construct his own lightsaber, but for one missing piece-there is no way he can get or make it's power source. And not even chakra is powerful enough to fuel the lightsaber. We're talking about nuclear reactor that fits in someone's hand. Other tech is also out of question-it would bring unwanted attention to him.
I've read a few other fics with Force using Naruto, and they disapointed me, mostly because they made him insanely strong in just a few months or less. He uses his gifts openly and is loyal to the village.
Not realistic at all, but what can I say? Fics are fiction, not reality and I'm not one to judge too hard.
Again, my main complaint to most of Naruto fics is that they make him good and nice despite written intros where he is beaten to the death, tortured and neglected on a daily basis.
I say, kill them all and let the Allmighty sort them out. Harsh, but realistic in most cases. That's why in some instances I prefer Sasuke to Naruto, because he is angry and cold. Sometimes I feel sorry for him, especially since Kishi made it so that Konoha wiped out Uchihas after making them feel ostracized and rebellious. Who wouldn't think it was wrong and deserved punishment? But Sasuke still stays a prick in my book, since he betrayed Konoha before he learned the truth. He is power hungry and is jealous of Naruto's power. He is here like that too, and I'll portray him in that light, but there won't be much bashing.
Another thing I never liked too much was when authors simply change Naruto over night and he becomes smart, strong, a chick magnet and so on. Like, he realizes he's the son of the Fourth or he gets mocked by Sakura one time too many...mainly he gets a wake up call and becomes strong, suave and hooks up with Hinata soon after.
It's like there is a mass spread idea that idiocy can be cured instantly. From a moron who can't read to a genius of Shadow Clone style learning. I like stories where Naruto doesn't become a whole other person, I mean you can freely change the story so that Naruto never existed. People often make it so that Naruto only pretended to be so stupid, so he could get friends and nobody would fear him, but then he sheds his idiot persona and becomes cool. It would be better to have him keep his facade and kill from ambushes. There are such stories, and I like them. I like reading about evil Naruto too, but I do admit it's hard to write him like that-I like Konoha in general, especially the rookies. They are the ones Naruto should be loyal to. But alas, here in my fic to Naruto all are just tools to use as needed.
Nobody should get my words to the heart, I'm just a little cranky.
Stay tuned, and have fun!
