I do not own the rights to "Naruto", nor any of the persons, places, or concepts within. This fan fiction is a non-profit tribute to the series, as well as a critique on it's existing plotline. Therefore, if requested by the owners and distributors of the "Naruto" anime or manga, I will discontinue and remove this story immediately.
Chapter X:
It was then the blonde looked up from the pages. Something had caught his eye, like an odd, blue glow. The ghastly hint of light reflected on the page. Studying the jar, Naruto watched as the charred orbs burned with the last traces of his master's chakra. And it was there, with that haunting glow of a Branch Hyuuga, that the inscriptions on the first page appeared.
"A map?" Uzumaki asked.
•••••••••••••
The screening force of chuunin and jounin had not reported for nearly three weeks, Gaara realized. The angered shouts back and forth in the council chambers could be heard from the training grounds. Hissing in frustration, he felt someone closing in. Turning and raising his sand defense, Gaara paused as his sister, Temari, frozen in place, let out a simple whimper. "G-Gaara!' she gasped.
"Do not sneak up on me, dear sister," he answered coldly. "What do you want?"
Taking a breath to calm herself, she sighed gently. "Do the know what happened to the advanced squad?" she asked.
"Dead," Gaara answered. "Our enemy must be strong. It will be interesting, to see who lives and who dies." Watching his sister flinch as he licked his lips in delight, he turned his back to her, and continued with his training.
•••••••••••••
Eight Months Later
Kakashi looked at his team roster once more on the board listings in the academy building, then back to the hand-written scroll he held in his hands. All three had signed up for the chuunin exams, but he had not seen Uzumaki since the announcements. Granted, they did not have a mission since the announcements, but the boy's behavior troubled him.
Their missions were carried out a little too efficiently. Uzumaki never seemed to waste time, completing his aspect of each mission quickly. While Naruto was far less skilled than Sasuke, the jounin knew something was wrong. There was no way the blonde could have completed his portion of their assignments without having some sort of advanced skills, skills that he apparently lacked every time he was forced to spar with Sasuke in mock battle training. Still, the boy lived for nothing but solitary training, often ditching their group sessions on the practice grounds, saying he would be back after studying one jutsu or another. Occasionally Sakura or Sasuke would find him with the Hyuuga heiress and the others in Team Eight, but he was never seen training amongst them. It was as if he was putting off his training, or worse yet, training only in secret, keeping his true potential hidden. The Council wouldn't like the latter one bit, and with the Hokage's failing health-
Hatake shook his head, and sifted through the duty roster for the next phase of training. He had to make sure his students were as prepared as they could be for the upcoming challenge.
Walking back to the administration office, Kakashi froze, looking up from the scroll in his hands. Was that… Naruto? Blinking, the jounin did a double-take, staring at the figure in black. It was Uzumaki, alright. Was he going to a funeral or something? Besides a few strips of orange along a black nylon utility belt, the blonde was completely monochromatic. The black turtleneck sweater and black utility khakis were topped off with fully enclosed black hiking boots, like the occasional civilian merchants would wear during the harder winters. Finally, a black synthetic jacket draped over his shoulder, but it was the minor details that the jounin had to study that impressed him. The boy's thighs and belt were loaded down with equipment pouches, again all black, without a single strap or brass fitting exposed to make the least amount of noise during movement. The black headband was gone, the protective plate painted a flat black, and affixed to his jacket's left shoulder. Then there was the kunai and shuriken, the ones he could see, at least. Those were all flat black. Was he even wearing black socks?
Kakashi had to hand it to Dead Last. While he couldn't manifest a decent henge, at least anyone without an eye technique would lose him at night. But would he even be able to see his own two feet in front of him? That's why all his instructors insisted on varying colors and more subtle camouflage hues. For a moment, the boy looked directly at him through the growing crowd in the merchant square. There was something off about the blue eyes today. Something dark was storming behind them.
The crowd passed between them, and then Naruto was gone.
Kakashi blinked, looking around. He didn't even sense a shunshin or a kawarimi technique. Walking across the street, Kakashi studied the boy's footprints, noting them in the damp soil from the early morning rain. He had traversed that much distance without a jutsu? Oddly enough, the tracks left behind by the boots were in an unfamiliar pattern, a pattern he had not seen before used by other shinobi. "Bad move," he muttered under his breath. "They could find you that way."
But where did he get all the gear, and how did he manage to afford it?
•••••••••••••
Hinata blushed as she heard the familiar footsteps approach the Hyuuga compound. Even without her Byakugan activated, she could tell who it was. She had spent so much time in the wilderness with him, it was hard not to recognize his characteristic sounds. Dressed in a heavier black jacket and matching utility khakis, she still kept the gray undershirt and wire mesh protective inner layer. But it was foolish, she realized. Shuriken would penetrate such defenses easily if she was ever engaged in a real hand to hand struggle, and how often did people have harmless accidents with shrunken in a shinobi village?
The flat-black painted headband draped across her neck, Hinata stepped out to the heavily polished wooden porch, putting the socks and fully enclosed hiking boots on her feet. "Why do you wear that junk?" Hanabi, her younger sister asked. Dressed in a black and red kimono, the newly appointed successor to the main house scowled at her dropout elder sister. "Those boots and clothes are for merchants, not a proper kunoichi! Or are you giving up on that path?"
Hinata furrowed her eyebrows, and started to instinctively move her index fingers together. She froze, however, pulling her hands away at the last minute, and taking a deep breath, locked eyes with her diminutive younger sister. "I would explain, but it would be pointless," she answered. "My training was different, and it requires different tools."
Turning on her heel, Hinata beamed into a genuine smile as she saw Uzumaki walk up the steps. Yes, she thought, it was finally happening. Smiling in return, Naruto took confident, intentional strides towards her. The two met along the path towards the compound, reaching out with their hands. Interlacing their fingers, each squeezed the other's digits gently, before walking away into the village.
In the distance, Hanabi noted, her father stared at the two with a disapproving glare.
•••••••••••••
Kurenai studied the reports alongside Asuma, and the two stared back at Kakashi. "You're serious?" Sarutobi asked. "You think they're-?"
"I don't know what to believe," Hatake answered, nursing the small vessel of sake in his hand. "But you have to admit, the evidence is leading that way. We don't know how those two were… affected by the events in Mamoru. More importantly, they have been spotted with Anko."
"But she was cleared!" Asuma spoke up. Yuuhi turned her gaze cautiously to the man, her lips pulled back into a frown. "I mean, she did the job, and Ibiki proved conclusively she wasn't turned. What more is there to say?" He noticed Kurenai's glare, and coughed, clearing his throat. "But, the same goes for all the genin from Hyuuga's class. Each one of them was thoroughly screened before they were indoctrinated back to the village."
"I agree, but something just doesn't seem right," Kurenai pressed. "However, Hinata and Naruto both have been through a lot. The Council's move to remove those refugees out didn't go as well as anticipated, and they still have much room to improve." She sighed, looking down at the reports. "At this rate, they're just passing the requirements to participate in the exams this year."
"But that's the key," Kakashi hinted, whispering. "They're showing us they're just passing the requirements." He looked up at the ceiling a moment, then turned back to his comrades. "I never told you the bell test results."
"With Team Seven, sure you did!" Asuma retorted. "None of your kids got it, and that-" He paused, stroking the rough edges of his beard as Yuuhi focused on Hatake with interest. "Wait a minute, you mean with Naruto?"
"Yeah," Kakashi answered. "To avoid an unfair advantage, I rotated Sasuke and Sakura out of the mix, and instead had Kiba and Hinata participate. The results were… unusual." Reaching into his jacket pocket, the charred, dented bells fell loosely to the table. "Inuzuka was more or less useless," he said, adding an apologetic nod to Kurenai. The woman reciprocated the gesture, before Hatake continued. "But Hinata and Naruto both worked flawlessly together. They didn't get the bells away, but instead, they took a different approach."
"What..approach?" Kurenai asked. But then Kakashi gestured at the table, the two bells broken beyond repair. "Destroying them?"
"It means they're thinking outside the box," Hatake explained. "The last time I ran the bell test, my students tried everything from tricking me to an outright assault to get the bells from me. Most couldn't last more than a minute against me. But these two, these two kept it up for a solid hour, practically kept me on the defensive the entire time. Then they did this." Gesturing back to the bells, Hatake shook his head.
"That makes sense in theory, but what's the point?" Asuma asked. "If they destroy the bells-"
"Think what the bells represent," Kakashi stressed. "If it were a scroll, for example, and the objective was to keep the other forces from obtaining it…"
"There's another concern," Yuuhi blurted out. The two men turned to her instantly. "Hokage-sama gave me the last known copy of the Raidon Hyuuga text." She paused, waiting for them until they both nodded. "I gave it to Uzumaki."
"That's rather advanced, unorthodox stuff, not like it can help a genin starting out," Asuma hinted. "Or are you worried about the rumors, since he's around Hinata so much?"
Yuuhi frowned. She thought she was the only one to notice the pair for what they were. For a moment, Kakashi studied one or two pages of Jiraya-sama's disgusting "literature", then returned to the conversation. "The stories Raidon left detailed jutsus to overthrow the village? Come on, Yuuhi! Every branch member has been forced to study that manual by the Council, and none of them could find anything! If it was encoded, wouldn't it be visible to a branch Hyuuga? His sentiments weren't that well hidden."
Nodding, Kurenai looked at the bells, and frowned. "Still, I can't help but feel we've set loose another serpent. Don't forget, this isn't the first time we've had problems with eye jutsu users." The table went instantly cold and silent. "But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there's nothing to the rumors, or maybe Hinata can't access them, if they exist."
"You don't have to worry about Hinata," Kakashi answered. "You have to worry about Naruto."
"What do you mean?" Kurenai asked.
"Look at what he's done so far," Kakashi hissed. "The kid beat the Academy with a jounin-level technique he studied in less than a day! Then he goes out, and with less than a few weeks of Academy-level survival training, saves the refugees single-handedly with deception, cunning, and only that one technique! Now, even if there is nothing to the rumors, you've given the Number One Knuckleheaded Ninja in the village, who by the way has an absurd talent with code-cracking, a treatise on political and guerrilla warfare theory that borders on heresy!"
Each of the jounin looked at the other, then frowned. "Where's Mitarashi?"
•••••••••••••
Anko Mitarashi had her reservations. After two masters had failed her, she was an outcast once again. Oh, the Council was quite thorough, stating repeatedly they had the utmost faith in her. Still, she was a specialist jounin, and doubted she would go any further. Morino was careful to dangle a position in counter-interrogation before her, suggesting her skills keeping the genin out of enemy hands was proof she could teach at a more advanced level. But that didn't seem to materialize as she intended. It was more busywork than anything else, listening in to current theories, taking notes, and working her way from one classroom to another. The path to jounin seemed to come to a standstill.
Then that Uzumaki brat came out of the woodwork again, with the heiress in tow. She had refused at first, telling them there was nothing she could teach them that their jounin-sensei couldn't. Furthermore, it was inappropriate to seek her out without their guided instruction. This wasn't like seeking out the legendary saannin for insight. She was blacklisted, and associating with her could mean…problems.
"I don't care," Uzumaki insisted. He glared at her, the heiress standing to his side at the edge of the waterfall. "You have skills, skills we need to be competent, and take it to the next level. You taught us before, and I'm asking you to teach us again."
Throwing her hands up in a passive shrug, Anko tilted her head to the side, the toothpick from the dango candy dangling between her teeth. "Okay, okay!" she sighed. "What did you want to learn?"
"Show us… the Box."
•••••••••••••
Two Months Later
Neji Hyuuga continued his sprint, ignoring the chants and jeers from Gai-sensei, and his ridiculous copy, Rock Lee. Even Tenten started to frustrate him earlier in the morning, asking random questions about her attire, how her hair looked, what she should do to prepare for the chuunin exams. So, alone, he accelerated past his teammates, leaping from branch to branch amongst the forest perimeter of the training grounds.
It was then he thought he sensed an unusual concentration of chakra. Coming to a stop, he hunched over the tree branch, looking down at one of the more secluded training grounds. It had gone unused for years, but no one knew why. Most simply didn't venture out that far, because the other sparring and training areas were closer to town. The instructors favored those because it was easier to watch their students, and protect them from possible intruders. But this one, this derelict field had two occupants today.
Activating his blood limit technique, his eyes adjusted, peering through the obstructions to the training area below. It was there, he saw a dance of blue and red chakra. The first was his cousin, that delinquent, Hinata-sama. She had changed since her disastrous tutelage under that outcast, Raidon, and that snake lady, Anko. Still, he did not expect the sort of changes he sensed on the field below.
The other was Uzumaki, that degenerate from the Academy. He had heard rumors about him, how he was responsible for that influx of refugees. Though, away on a mission at the time, Neji didn't make much of it. Gai-sensei seemed to reflect on the lingering refugees outside the village walls as a problem in human understanding that could only be resolved with the fires of youth. However, the fires of youth didn't burn too brightly in crippled old women and children.
Not at all like what he saw below.
The two sparred for nearly an hour since he stopped, and they were well into their regimen when he first arrived. As one struck out, the other countered with the inside blade of their forearms, redirected, and went instantly for inside strike to the chest or head. It was a deadly combination. Then he realized what he was seeing, the chakra leaking out as they continued. It was Jyuuken! The disgraced heiress, his own cousin, was teaching an outsider the Jyuuken strikes!
But as he watched, this wasn't traditional Jyuuken, and more disturbingly, the Uzumaki brat was hitting practically all of Hinata-sama's chakra points without difficulty. How could he do that? He didn't have the Byakugan, did he? It didn't make sense. Throughout the clan's history, there were records of outsiders trying to learn the techniques, determining how to defeat from the inside-out, but none had been successful because no one could replicate the accuracy of a Hyuuga.
Then he noticed the odd exaggerations, the interplay of their limbs and the focus of their eyes. This wasn't the same, not like Jyuuken at all! There were variations, combinations of katas he had never thought of putting together, not in his or any lifetime! This level of mastery, of refinement was something a master would have put together after decades of research.
It was then he heard his teammates approaching, and looking down at his own blistered hands, let out an exasperated sigh. If Rock Lee learned these with the same zeal...
•••••••••••••
End of Chapter X
Guys, thanks for the support on this story. So far, 1,540 views on October 16th, alone, and 1,750 views from the US. It's funny looking over these statistics, deciding which stories I want to keep writing, the ones I've lost interest in, and which ones no one bothers to read (especially the stories where only a handful of chapters are read, and the majority aren't even viewed).
It's also hilarious to see which countries read my work in greater amounts than others. While part of that is obviously the language barrier, it seems more tied to cultural influence and the way my ideas are conveyed compared to the norm. In comparison, I would love to see how Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton, my two influences, would stack up with these same statistics.
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