A New Chance of Life

By: Darksider82

Beta: Winged Seer Wolf

I own nothing of the franchises only the idea

"Chatting"

"Jutsu, spells and bijuu"

"Thoughts"

Chapter IX

Naruto hated D-ranks. He hated them more than his obnoxious and abusive team mates and he hated them a lot.

Thankfully he had his two elder sisters and brother to talk about his anger issues. Gemma secretly agreed with Naruto, she couldn't say so in front of him at all but she did.

Kakashi and she had decided to work on team building exercises and they weren't getting anywhere, neither were the psych evaluations Sakura and Sasuke were being treated for.

The team work exercises started with Naruto tentatively suggesting something, only to be hit into the ground by Sakura for 'taking Sasuke-kuns idea' despite the fact Sasuke hadn't said anything.

Then there were the D-ranks. It was mandatory for fresh genin to do three D-ranks a week to maintain their shinobi licences until they participated in their first Chunin Exams. Naruto was DEFINITELY not looking forward to them.

Currently he was up to his waist in a pit with a spade in hand, with another five clones digging other pits. They were being dug for extra water storage to help water Makrovich's farm.

Kakashi was reading his book observing the three genin. He could see they had potential but was stumped at how to get the three to actually use it. He wasn't dumb to see the supposed rookie of the year and smartest kunoichi slowly alienate easily the most powerful member of the team.

Sasuke had bee petulantly pestering him for techniques, threatening him with the council. Kakashi had unfortunately yielded to the Uchiha and had begun to teach him independently.

Gemma was a lifesaver for him. She spammed Kage Bunshin like no tomorrow and was single handily teaching Sakura some basic genjutsu and medical jutsu whilst getting Naruto to work on decreasing the amount of seals for his jutsu.

Gemma at this point in time was sitting on the decking of Makrovich's front porch eying the genin.

Yata Makrovich, watched from the front porch with the Scarecrowed jonin and the black haired kunoichi, as he observed the three kids working on his land. "They've been here for three hours Potter-san, would you kindly help me to my feet so I can see their progress?" Makrovich was a man in his late early eighties, it was only after his seventy-fifth birthday did he realise that time was slowly gaining on him.

So far his eyes and ears had withstood the test of time as did his body. He had been a farmers boy in a farming family, until he had on his way back from market noticed a young noble and his family being accosted by bandits. He had bought several new animals and a few farming tools including a scythe.

Then without thinking which happened to be a trait in his family going through the ages. He had assaulted the bandits with said scythe and cut them down. It appeared that the family he had saved were second cousins to the Daimyo and as a reward for saving their lives had allowed given him the chance to become a samurai.

He embraced the samurai way of life, the result after ten years of fighting on the frontlines, he had been elevated to Daimyo guard and finally Guard captain. Then he retired to the outskirts of Konohagakure no sato where he had resumed his previous life as a farmer.

He had married and had six children, four boys and two girls. The boys were currently following in their father's footsteps as samurai whilst his daughters were happily married in the village. One of his daughters had married into a clan called the Uzuki clan, a clan of shinobi who also followed the way of the sword.

"NARUTO-BAKA! HOW MANY TIMES DOES THE CLIENT HAVE TO TELL YOU WHAT TO DO! IF YOU GET PAID, I'M TELLING KAA-CHAN TO MAKE YOU PAY IT BACK FOR ALL THE DAMAGE YOU CAUSED!" Yelled Sakura as she saw the seven, six by six feet deep pits.

"Tune her out Naruto, tune her out." Naruto told himself as Sakura carried on her screaming and wailing.

"Sakura, shut up and carry on your job. I'll help you, once I have finished by job." Naruto grunted as he kicked off the side of the pit he was in as Makrovich came towards him.

"Makrovich-san, how many pits did you require again? I've got difficulties in remembering tonnes of information." Naruto asked politely.

"I required ten pits six in height and six in diameter…I was coming to check on your progress." Makrovich said as he rested on his cane.

"Currently seven with one of my clones…One second Makrovich-san QUIT SCREWING AROUND AND PLOT WHERE THE NEXT PITS ARE GOING AND START DIGGING…So sorry about that, I utilise shadow clones to help me do the work." Naruto said "One of the side effects of using are that they develop a bit of their own personality."

Gemma smirked at her subordinate "What does that tell you about learning forbidden jutsu?" She questioned a smirk on her face.

"To check for fine print, should the jutsu have no fine print why the hell am I learning it." Naruto replied; shovel biting into the ground as he proceeded to dig.

Sakura had made very little progress in regards to her trench. It was meant to be eight metres by four metres but she had very little as she had spent the duration of the day staring at Sasuke. The last Uchiha had the job of pushing the plough through the field to churn the soil and make it lighter for the planting of crops.

Unfortunately in Konoha, despite the Land of Fire being the most standard in temperatures with average highs of twenty eight Celsius it also had an average low of around two Celsius. However on occasions the temperature would breach the average and cause a massive heatwave.

Today happened to be one of those days. It was quickly reaching noon, the heat was still climbing and Gemma could tell Sakura was struggling. "Naruto, finish Sakura's work. She looks like she's about to perish from heat exhaustion."

Naruto grunted, hoisted himself out of his half-done seventh, summoned several clones which carried on his chore. Eventually the D-rank was finished with Sakura in a foul temper and Naruto relatively joyful he had not only out performed Sasuke and Sakura but had been recommended by Makrovich to work again their at some point.

"Kakashi-sensei, I need another jutsu." Demanded Sasuke the moment they left the property causing Gemma to snap.

"OCEAN STYLE: GUNSHOT!" The salt water smashed into Sasuke drenching him to the bone.

"Perfect what you have then ask for more punk." Gemma snarled directing her considerable KI at the Uchiha.

Sasuke gulped and nodded, his talks with Neville and Gemma out of training weren't being as effective as they once were. They had helped him reduce the nightmares from nearly every night to once a month. Now the nightmares were coming back, he had two this week.

The nightmares were so vivid that they were turning reality into his nightmares and his nightmares into reality. Everywhere he went he always saw the people he was talking to as dead. "You okay Sasuke?" Gemma asked seeing the boys thunderous expression.

"Fine sensei. I apologise for demanding another jutsu." With that Sasuke turned around headed towards the compound intent on getting his jutsu down perfectly.

"I'll see you later neechan, off to find Kurenai-sensei's team and find Hinata. See if she wants to train, though she keeps turning red and passing out when I'm around." Naruto finished before taking to the trees and started to tree hop, just using sheer balance and instinct with no chakra except to keep himself from landing to heavily.

Gemma had informed Kakashi that Naruto had mastered the tree climbing exercise and was working on his branch crossing along with combining parkour and free running with chakra to improve shinobi response time.

The results were amazing. Naruto slid down a tree trunk, free falling into a tumble three feet from the top onto his feet as Yuhi Kurenai spun at him with a kick designed to take out the patella or kneecaps. Naruto, jumped forward and using the palm of his hand speed vaulted over the young jonin sending her into the floor. "Peace, sensei. It's me, Uzumaki Naruto. I wasn't exactly disguising my chakra, I was wondering if Hinata-chan wanted me to help with her training."

Hinata turned red, swayed but managed to keep herself from fainting. "Su..sure N-N-Naruto-kun." With that she slid into her jyuuken stance and Naruto slid into his stance of the Arashi no Ken.

"What stance is that? It looks pathetic and weak." Mocked Kiba, however Kurenai could only stare, herself along with Asuma and Yugao had formed one of the first kunoichi heavy teams with Uzumaki Kushina as their sensei.

Kurenai and Yugao had done their best to look out for Naruto. Though Kurenai slightly less so, she only protected the boy because no-one should bully a child.

Yugao on the other hand was a sensor, she could tell that Naruto was related to her sensei, the resemblance to the Yondaime in the grape haired kunoichi's opinion was far too similar to be anything but a father and son relationship.

She had even heard Sarutobi say "How I wish I could do more for your son Minato." When she was on the Hokage's bodyguard shift. She had confronted the man and the elderly Sandaime confirmed his mutterings making the group of who actually knew up to three. Lord Jiraiya, the Sandaime and her.

If Yugao was able to she would have told Kurenai in a heartbeat. Kurenai would have believed Yugao easily because the grape haired kunoichi believed that as long as she held a blade she would tell no lies to friend and superior. It ticked off her colleagues but they knew it was for their own good.

"Kiba, that style is the style my sensei used so watch."

"Naruto-kun, I can't do this." Whimpered Hinata nervously as her team watched.

Naruto pulled out a deck of cards and placed the deck on his forth to ring finger on his left hand and with the flick of his thumb the hand was produced. "Hinata, you have ten seconds to attack or I start throwing my explosive playing cards at your team mates. How can I trust you to guard my back if you're scared to attack me…Also why are you even ninja? Are you trying to impress your family or someone?"

Kurenai's KI rocketed, provoking Gemma and Kakashi to make themselves known. "I'm going to kill that insolent shit for hurting Hinata." Growled Kurenai furiously, struggling against Gemma and Kakashi who had grabbed her waist and shoulders respectively.

"What did he do?" Asked Gemma curiously.

"When Hinata didn't attack, he first threatened her team mates and then questioned why she was even a ninja."

"But it has worked watch."

Hinata's eyes narrowed, she was seriously hurt that the boy she liked couldn't trust her and questioned her capabilities as a kunoichi.

"Show him what you've got. Make him open his eyes and notice you not Sakura. Ask him if Sakura-san actually likes him." Hinata surged forward catching the blonde off guard, who pulled himself into a tight spin tracking Hinata in her jyuuken strike.

"Naruto, I know you have never noticed me at the academy…but…you…will…never…harm…my…friends…and…sensei." Hinata growled, as the precision and power of her blows increased.

Naruto swept to one side and launched out with a palm strike that didn't go unnoticed by his sensei's. That palm strike was meant to have been a punch that would have given Hinata a very colourful bruise or kidney injury.

The spar carried on, until Hinata over extended an attack aimed at shutting down the jugular tandem. Just like the circulatory system, the chakra system has several places that if tampered with spell bad news to the recipiant. The results either death, cripple chakra network death, dismissal from the shinobi corps which leads to death. One of those places were the jugular tandem chord and carroted tandem chord. These two chords are much similar to the jugular vein and carotid artery in the neck.

Naruto swung his disabled right arm into the path of the blow, gasped as the bone fractured and delivered a powerful left spear hand under the solar plexus and towards the heart. "Dead, Hinata-chan. The spear hand would rupture the solar plexus winding you and then it carries into the heart...Your techniques hurt...Mind unplugging the chakra network." Naruto asked breathing heavily.

Hinata flushed red and several jabs later the Naruto felt his chakra network returning to normal. "I'm sorry for provoking you. I heard a rumour from my sensei that we were going to be swapping genin around allowing us 'integrate' into other teams to 'learn other styles of combat'. Team seven is geared towards high chakra reserved nin and taijutsu Primary Combat. Team eight is Tracking and Scouting with Team ten being Capture, Surpress and Assassination...Plus, I heard we are swapping the kunoichi around first so Hinata will be on Team seven, Ino on Team eight with Sakura on Team ten."

The sensei's stared at the blonde "How did you know that?" Kurenai asked nervously.

"Seriously? Floors are littered with secret passages and no ANBU has noticed? You learn a trick or two if you live on the streets and the village hates your guts...And two of those tricks are surpressing chakra to the point it hurts and hiding in plain sight." Naruto replied with a smirk.

"Genin Uzumaki, IF what you say is true then you could become an exceptionally capable assassin. This is more than likely lead to you having a personal session with Yamanaka Inoichi." Stated Kakashi coldly.

Naruto paled at the consequences of meeting the Yamanaka clan, because he had seen weaknesses in Konoha's defences he needed to inform the Hokage personally and if he resisted it would more than likely mean execution.

"GENTLEFIST: EIGHT TRIGRAMS THIRTYTWO PALMS!" Called Hinata, the training session had finished and she was meant to be back at the Hyuuga estate fifteen minutes ago. She had paid attention to the class about the T&I department. It was just her luck that it was her father who had come to find out why she wasn't at home.

Hyuuga Hiashi, patriarch of the Hyuuga clan and Hinata's father extended his byakugan to see his daughter land a solid twenty four hits and a shaky eight thirty two palms on Uzumaki Naruto.

Hiashi had prided himself on lip reading and realised why Hinata had dropped his team mates son. He wasn't dumb, he realised Naruto's parentage the moment Naruto had painted all the doors in the Hyuuga estate bright orange.

"Well done Hinata." Hiashi said making her freeze.