CHAPTER 14 Training Before Graduation
Karin nodded her head vigorously and immediately gave Naruto her undivided attention; it was like a child waiting for her bedtime story. Her fear of Hinata long forgotten as she waited to be told her friends secret.
"Come on already!" Karin whined, "I already have an idea, but I wanna know if I was right or not." Naruto shook his head at her excitement and lack of patience. Him and Hinata both took a seat where they were standing, prompting Karin to do the same.
"Alright, well as you know Hinata and I have another source of chakra…" Naruto stated slowly, "The reason we have that is because we are half demons." Karin's eyes widened at that but Naruto continued. "It's not as bad as you think really. There is a bunch of perks to being one, and we don't really age past the our current age in our hanyou forms. We have tons of chakra. We are physically much stronger, and we have heightened senses." Naruto listed off the top of his head, while Karin continued to gawk. "The only 'bad' thing is that we have a bit of a bloodlust and we become really protective of our mates." Naruto finished with a sigh. He wasn't sure how Karin would react, but it would be better to tell her now rather than later.
Karin sat silent for what seemed like an eternity to the pair; She didn't even look like she was breathing. However, after several seconds Karin jumped to her feet and started to rapidly fire off dozens of questions at the two. Naruto and Hinata both stared at their teammate in amusement until she had run out of breath from all of her questions. The red headed girl took a few deep calming breaths when she realized she had been rambling, but right when she was about to start again slowly, the two half demons heard Shikamaru begin to stir from his position under the tree.
"Feeling better?" Naruto asked over his shoulders; a small smirk formed when he heard Shikamaru mutter 'Troublesome blonde' under his breath. The Nara slowly made his way to the trio and plopped next to Karin with a tired sigh.
"Ok so I'm a half demon, or becoming one. I have another… darker chakra source within me that i'm probably going to have to learn to control. Unlocking my power has something to do with the tattoo that I have on my arm. I also assume that you both are half demons as well, but Karin probably doesn't know or has just found out. I feel much stronger than I was before, and my control over shadows has probably improved drastically." Shikamaru drawled on in a lazy tone. "Am I missing anything?" He asked curiously. Karin stared dumbly at the newly created Hanyou with a look of awe.
"How did you know all that? I just found all that out myself." Karin asked. Shikamaru responded with a care-free shrug.
"It's pretty obvious isn't it?" He asked. Karin huffed and crossed her arms underneath her breast. A cute little pout forming on her face.
"Well I'm sorry! Not all of us are half demons and or genius'." Karin grumbled frustratingly. Naruto and Hinata chuckled at the two bickering, but decided to get back to the main issue.
"To answer your question Shika, No. You pretty much got everything." Naruto said with a grin. He knew that Shikamaru was a genius, but it was just awesome seeing him figure that out on his own. Naruto focused his attention back on Karin. "How do you feel about all this Karin?" Naruto asked. Their four-eyed friend rolled her eyes and pointed directly at the two.
"If you guys haven't figured it out yet; I don't have any friends or family, so you guys are pretty much all I got." Karin explained with a sad smile. "So if you think you can get rid of me, just cause you guys aren't exactly human, you got another thing comin'!" She exclaimed with a cheerful smile. Naruto and Hinata both grinned ear to ear.
"Great! I would have been pretty sad if I had to lose one of my only friends." Naruto said cheerfully.
"Yea, I'm glad your ok with it too Karin-chan. Sorry for scaring you earlier by the way." Hinata said in her small gentle voice. Karin just waved her off.
"It wasn't really you that scared me. It was the way your chakra felt… It was like Killing Intent but without the killing part. I just KNEW if I didn't move away I was going to die. It was a scary feeling…" Karin whispered the last part while a shiver crawled down her spine. Nonetheless, she shook off that feeling a gave Hinata a bright smile. "But it's ok now, and I forgive you." Hinata gave a nod and a small smile.
Naruto cleared his throat to get the attention of the group. When he saw that they were all listening he looked directly at Shikamaru with a serious expression.
"Listen up Shikamaru. This is probably going to be the hardest training you'll ever have to go through. I'm going to have to train your mind as well as your body so that the darkness that goes hand and hand with your power can be controlled." Naruto noticed Shikamaru's eyes slowly widening, but he continued nevertheless. "The reason I'm going to be training you so hard is cause I don't want you to harm the people you love if you lose control. By the time you graduate the academy, I'll make sure you get your first tail." Naruto said with a serious expression. Shikamaru's face turned serious when Naruto mentioned him harming the people he loved again. 'I suppose that if hard training is the only way I could control this and keep my friends and family safe then I-' Shikamaru's eyes widened to epic proportions.
"Wait, wait, wait. Did you say tail?" Shikamaru said with a look of pure shock. Hinata let out a small giggle while Karin rolled her eyes at the supposed 'genius' of the group.
"Yea the amount of tails you have depends on how much Youki your body contains." Naruto explained in a sage-like manner; not seeming to notice Shikamaru's look of terror. The dark hanyou blurred towards Naruto and grabbed him by the shoulders; shaking him vigorously as he shouted.
"How am i suppose to explain having a tail!? I don't want to be known as 'The kid with a tail!'" Shikamaru slowly began to stop shaking the poor hanyou when he realized Naruto had started to form swirls in his eyes. The frustrated Nara put him down with a sigh and waited for the blonde half demon to come to his senses. Once Naruto got a hold of himself, He narrowed his eyes at Shikamaru and his words seemed to come out in a growl.
"Me and Hinata have tails ya know. We have a special henge to hide our demonic features so stop worrying." Shikamaru's eyes widened at that; he hadn't thought that tails would be a factor, but in hindsight, he should have expected it. Naruto let out a tired sigh and looked over to Hianta and nodded. Seconds later their bodies were enveloped in a cloud of smoke. Once the smoke cleared, both Naruto and Hinata were in their hanyou forms; Naruto displaying five tails and Hinata showing her four. Shikamaru openly gawked at the two when he saw the amount of tails they had. 'So Naruto is four tails away from having the same amount of tails as the Kyuubi. Hinata's tails aren't anything to scoff at either. That's some serious power. They look older too…' He thought before trying to gain some semblance of composure. His dad had already saw fit to inform him on Naruto's status of Jinchuuriki of the Nine Tails, so he assumed that his power had something to do with the Kyuubi. He brought his hands to his temple and sighed heavily.
"I knew you were gonna be troublesome from the first time I saw you." Naruto gave Shikamaru a sheepish grin while walking off in a seemingly random direction.
"Karin, it would be awesome if you would join us." Naruto called from over his shoulder. The redhead gave Naruto a 'Where else would I be' look, while Hinata let out a soft chuckle, finally seeing where Naruto was headed. Everyone's attention was drawn to the blonde hanyou when the sound of whistling was heard from the outskirts of the training ground. Naruto was walking back towards the group tossing up a rock the size of a beach ball as if it were just a small pebble. He stopped ten feet short of where Shikamaru was standing and dug his clawed finger nails into his ball shaped rock.
"Training begins now." Naruto declared with a sadistic grin spreading across his face; Shikamaru's face paled drastically. 'What did i get myself into?'
TIMESKIP DAY BEFORE GRADUATION EXAMS
The three hanyou's and Karin were walking down the streets of Konoha, heading towards the academy for their second to last day. Naruto had his arm wrapped around Hinata as he whispered something into her ear that made a cute blush form at the bridge of her nose. Karin was walking beside the others as normal, but there was something different about her. Replacing her brown framed glasses was now a red blindfold that matched her hair and wrapped securely around her eyes. Karin casually turned her shoulder sideways, avoiding a passing civilian with unnatural ease; it seemed as if the blindfold was not hindering her in the slightest. Naruto had suggested that she train her Minds Eye to such an extent that using her eyes would be a bonus, not a necessity. Karin's Mind Eye was to the point where it was literally as if she could see without her eyes. If someone was close to her, she could determine their elemental affinity and judge how someone was feeling just by the way their chakra looked and felt to her. Naruto had told her never to take off the blindfold unless it was absolutely necessary. Shikamaru had a anxiousness look on his face as his head suddenly shot towards his rear, looking down at his tailbone. He sighed in relief when he saw nothing there for the… 100th time that day. 'Man… I really hope this Henge doesn't break. I still can't get over the fact that I have a tail.' Shikamaru thought to himself. 'Naruto almost killed me in training to get me to develop it. He kicked my training into overdrive the last two weeks' He thought as he mentally sighed. remembering the day his tail actually manifested.
FLASHBACK THREE DAYS AGO
Karin and Hinata were on top of the small lake; Hinata was sitting cross-legged on top of the water while Karin was positioned in from of her… dancing? Well, that was it looked like to anyone who was watching. In reality, She was actually dodging tiny water droplets that contained a very small amount of Hinata's chakra that made it difficult for even Karin to sense. Hinata just continued to shoot tiny droplets of water at her friend while also working on her youki control. She wasn't really sitting on the surface of the water; In fact, She was actually hovering a couple of inches above it by expelling excess amounts of her youki. Hinata was a bit jealous that Naruto had got his sixth tail 3 months ago and she was still working towards her fifth. At the center of the training ground was a kneeling and heavily panting Shikamaru with an impassive looking Naruto.
"Get up Shika. You have to keep up that barrier until I say so. This time, I wont stop throwing the kana if you drop it." Naruto said in an even tone. Shikamaru glared at the blonde before taking one last gulp of air before shakily getting to his feet and a look of concentration crossed his face. A black semi-transparent looking barrier seemed to take shape as a semicircular sphere protecting the front of his body. He was pushing every last bit of youki he had outside of his body and projecting it as a shield of sorts. Naruto nodded in satisfaction when he saw the barrier form. Without warning, he let loose a barrage of kunai that seemed to either deflect off of the shield or be slighty melted depending on Shikamaru's youki output. Once he saw that Shikamaru was getting comfortable with his frontal assault, he changed tactics and started to fire kunai from different angles; forcing the hanyou in training to concentrate on surrounding his whole body in his youki.
This went on for another hour before Naruto noticed that Shikamaru's barrier was getting weak or even nonexistent in some areas. However, just when He was going to make a comment, Shikamaru's entire barrier flickered out of existence as he fell to the floor unconscious. 'Maybe I was a bit to hard on him.' Naruto mused. He shook his head to banish the thought and put Shikamaru under the shade of a tree; outside of the training ground entirely. Naruto looked over at Karin and Hinata training and smiled over at them; Karin had been progressing wonderfully, and Hinata had been really working hard for her fifth tail. 'Speaking of accomplishments…' Naruto thought with a growing grin.
"Hey!" Naruto called out to the girls; making them stop their training to look towards him. "I'm about to try something totally awesome but I don't know what it's going to do." He said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head nervously. "So could you girls get back at bit?" Hinata smiled softly and shook her head.
"Come on Karin. Whatever he's gonna do, It's probably going be absurdly powerful for no good reason other than to look cool." Hinata said with an exasperated sigh. She got up from her position and put a hand on Karin; The lavender hanyou shadow walked to the very outskirts of the training ground and gave her mate the thumbs up. Naruto gave her a foxy grin before stretching out his hand in front of him and forming a familiar blue ball. Once the Rasengan was completed, the wind that was being generated by the intense spinning ball was starting to pick up. Seconds later the ball of chakra started to slow in its rotation, but as it did; darkness started to engulf the bright blue ball, beginning from its core. More and more the darkness seemed to spread throughout the entire glowing ball until all that was left was a solid black ball. The wind that had picked up had stopped completely; it was an unnerving stillness to the air around the chakra ball. Naruto nodded his head in satisfaction in seeing its completed form and looked towards a random tree that he decided would be his target. However, before he could even push off towards the tree He felt the ball have some sort of gravitational pull towards his targeted tree. Naruto lifted an eyebrow in confusion, but decided to go with the flow and extended his arm towards the tree.
"Yami Rasengan" Naruto stated clammy as he sent a pulse of chakra to his hands. The dark ball of chakra shot out of his hands like a cannonball and drilled itself right into Naruto's intended target. However, the ball didn't drill directly through the tree. Instead, the ball expanded on impact and engulfed the entire tree before quickly contracting into a ball no bigger than a pinball. Naruto and the girls watched in fascination as the tiny ball seemed to vibrate with power until it exploded outwards violently, sending chunks of the tree in all directions. Naruto lazily shrouded himself in his youki to avoid the bits of tree that flew at him. He slowly made his way to the epicenter of the blast and looked at the 10 foot crater that was left by his jutsu. The blast had encompasses the whole tree, even the roots of the tree were gone. He had only put a small amount of his chakra with that last attack. He shuttered to think what would happen if he had put more; If he had actually used his youki...
"That was awesome!" Naruto said with a toothy grin. Karin and Hinata had looks of awe written on their face; Karin showing it much more than Hinata.
"Wow… That jutsu seems a bit overkill. don't you think Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, humor lacing her sweet tone. Karin's head snapped towards Hinata at hearing that.
"Overkill? There is no such thing! That was freakin' awesome!" Karin gushed. Hinata had to stifle a laugh when she saw Karin rush up to Naruto and start to bombard him with questions on how she could learn his 'totally freaking awesome' jutsu. Once Karin had stopped badgering him on the intricacies of his jutsu, he began to try and master it completely.
Three Hours Later
Naruto was taking a break from training as he watched Karin and Hinata spar vigorously with each other. Karin was getting really good with that blindfold on; he was going to have to come up with more ways to make it challenging for her. And her speed was nothing to joke about either, although nothing compared to the hanyou's. They moved around the training ground like they were locked into a deadly but beautiful dance. Naruto's train of thought was sidetracked however when his ears perked up from hearing groaning coming from Shikamaru. He turned his head to see if he was ok when he saw raw black youki that was becoming visible to the naked eye enshroud him. By now Karin had already felt the spike in chakra and was making her way over with Hinata to see what was going on. As the trio watched in fascination, Shikamaru's youki was becoming more and more dense eventually completely blocking the young hanyou from view. The youki seemed to stop building but slowly started to gather in one central location; His tailbone. The youki that was just moments ago covering his entire body was now concentrated under the small of his back, right where Naruto and Hinata's tails were. After a few minutes, all the youki had converged into one solid black tail. When the tail seemed to be fully formed the pitch black youki started to crack in various places and after a couple seconds, the entire construct fell into pieces; leaving behind one impossibly black furry tail. All three of the onlookers were so enthralled in what had happened that they continued to sit in silence until…
"KAWAII." Karin screamed as she glomped the still unconscious Shikamaru. She blinked in surprised when she realized what she had done and blurred back to her original position, sporting a small blush. Naruto and Hinata chuckled as the tense atmosphere was broken by Karin's little outburst. Naruto smiled proudly when he looked at Shikamaru's tail lazily rock back and forth until he noticed his tattoo had changed somewhat. Now, instead of the five intact chains that wrapped around his bicep; there were only four. 'So each tail he grows in contingent on the amount of chains? That must mean he could only have a max of 5 tails.' Naruto thought while he tried to rack his brain on ways to develop Shikamaru's next tail.
FLASHBACK END
The whole day after that was dedicated to getting Shikamaru to stop freaking out over his tail and for him to learn the henge to hide his new features. If he was being honest with himself, He kinda liked the way it looked on him. However he knew he wouldn't be accepted if anyone were to find out about his transformation. He wondered if Naruto and Hinata planned on staying in a henge for the rest of their lives, or if they would eventually drop the illusion. He was suddenly interrupted from his thinking when Karin spoke up.
"Anbu incoming in five. I think it's Cat-san" Naruto glanced at Karin and smirked. He was glad that she was coming along well with her sensory ability, but he thought that she could go even further.
"How is she feeling right now? Quick." Naruto whispered. Karin's eyes widened behind her blindfold as the group turned to her with amused expressions. Her forehead scrunched in concentration and smirked before replying quickly.
"She's annoyed… I wanna say it's because she is having trouble mastering a Jutsu. Her cha-… Nevermind." As soon as she finished speaking, a swirl of leaves appeared in front of the group and a cat masked Anbu appeared.
"The Hokage would would like to speak to all of you." The Anbu explained in a monotone voice, but Naruto and Hinata could hear the underlying stress in her tone. Naruto smiled at her and nodded his head.
"No problem cat lady. But could you tell us if you were recently working on a technique that you haven't mastered?" Naruto asked in a chipper tone. The Anbu's eyebrow twitched at the cat reference, but widened when she heard his question.
"How do you know that?" The Neko masked Anbu asked. Naruto chuckled when he saw the smug look that Karin gave him as she stuck her tongue out at him.
"I didn't. Karin figured it out. Later cat lady!" Naruto exclaimed as he gave the woman a two finger salute and bursted into flames that were quickly doused by a torrent of water that came from Hinata's own shunshin. Shikamaru shook his head before melting into his own shadow leaving a frustrated Karin and a very confused Anbu.
"Wait for me losers!" Karin yelled to apparently no one before she too disappeared in a swirl of water.
IN FRONT OF THE HOKAGE OFFICE
Naruto waited cross armed while lightly tapping his foot on the ground restlessly as Hinata and Shikamaru stood waiting patiently. Finally a swirl of water appeared in front of them from which Karin emerged with a scowl on her face.
"Why do you guys always leave me behind!?" Karin yelled angrily at Naruto as she took a step forward.
"Why are you always so slow!?" Naruto yelled back as he took a step towards Karin.
"Who you calling slow?" Karin said through gritted teeth as she moved closer to Naruto, only inches away from him.
"What? Now you your deaf too!" Naruto growled out as both their foreheads made contact and sparks of lightning shot from their eyes. This is the scene that the Hokage walked out to when he opened the door to his office to see what all the commotion was about. He chuckled mentally at the sight of the blindfolded redhead and the blonde Hanyou arguing. It reminded him a lot of Minato and Kushina. He cleared his throat, getting the attention of the group outside his office. Naruto and Karin instantly separated with their backs facing each other with cute pouts on their faces. Hinata giggled at their antics while Shikamaru seemed to have dozed off leaning against the wall.
"If you guys are finished…" Sarutobi said with humor as he gestured for the four to come in. Karin, being the kind person she was, kicked Shikamaru in the shin to wake him up; walking into the office with a small grin on her face when she heard him mutter something under his breath. When the four came into the room they noticed that Shikaku was standing beside the Hokage's desk with a lazy expression on his face, giving them a pretty good idea of why they were summoned. They each stood in front of the Hokage waiting for him to begin.
"I have called you each here today to evaluate the skills of Shikamaru Nara and to explain what will be happening with your genin teams." Hiruzen explained before gesturing for Naruto to report his training. Naruto stepped forward with a grin on his face, making sure that the Anbu were already sent out.
"Well how about you see for yourself." Naruto said in a innocent tone that made Shikamaru nervous all of a sudden. He discretely released a pulse of his youki to disrupt Shikamaru's henge and his tails shimmered into existence. Shikaku and Sarutobi's eyes widened to epic proportions seeing the fuzzy appendage stick out of his tailbone. Shikamaru saw the looks he was getting from the two and ever so slowly turned his head to his lower back. He immediately sent an angry scowl at the innocent looking Naruto whistling a tune and looking around aimlessly. The Hokage was the first to regain his composure.
"I wasn't expecting this… But then again, I should have known better." Sarutobi said as he shook his head. "I assume he is much stronger than he was before. Correct?" Naruto with a foxy grin on his face that made the Hokage a bit uneasy. "How strong Naruto…?" He asked warily. Naruto's grin grew to a full blown smile.
"Hmm… I don't know old man. Without his demonic chakra he is only slightly better than the average Chunin." Naruto said with a thoughtful expression. "But… If he does use his youki…" Naruto seemed to instantly produce a kunai in the palm of his hand and flicked his wrist. The kunai traveled faster than most newly promoted jounin could react and headed straight to towards Shikamaru. However, before it could reach him He produced a concentrated barrier of black youki in the direct path of the kunai; Actually making it melt into a indistinguishable lump of metal. The two occupants in the room that were unaware of his abilities were surprised at seeing how effortlessly it was done. "…Then he could give an average jounin a run for their money." Naruto finished with a smug look. Shikaku who had been silent until now finally spoke.
"How do you plan on dealing with your new… features? Surely you don't plan on using a henge for the rest of your life." Naruto spoke up before Shikamaru could respond.
"Yea, yea. We know. Hinata-chan and I were planning on revealing our true forms after the next Chunin exams where I suppose we will be entering. I don't know about Shika though." Naruto said nonchalantly. Shikaku gave him and nod and turned to his son; still waiting for his response. Shikamaru sighed.
"I really don't know dad. I have to think about it." Shikaku seemed to accept the answer for now and took a step back. The Hokage nodded his head and addressed Naruto's team.
"You guys will be taking the chunin exams for sure. It will be an excellent way to showcase our strength to the other villages." Naruto, Hinata and Karin nodded as He turned to look directly at Shikamaru. "I'm going to keep you on the team I originally planned to put you in. But know that may change once you become a chunin." The Hokage finished as he dismissed all the occupants in his office.
While this meeting was going on, another secret meeting was happening on the other side of the village…
Two figures were in a dark alleyway close to one of the secret entrances of Konoha. One was dressed in the usual chunin attire while the other was cloaked from head to toe with the shadows of the alleyway; only showing his yellow slit eyes that closely resembled a snake.
"You summoned me my Lord?" The chunin asked nervously. He was hoping that they could do this meeting somewhere a bit more private, but his master told him it would be quick. The voice that answered him would send shivers down the spine of most people.
"I'm going to need you to do something else for me Mizuki… Something other than bringing me the scroll of seals." The voice said in a smooth tone. "Tell me, what you know about the Hyuuga."