Naruto
Honor of a Kitsune
Chapter 11
Naruto was walking the streets of Konoha lost in thought she was thinning back on her battle against Orochimaru. Should she have fought the man alone? No, no she shouldn't have. But she couldn't run from his either.
Once Sasuke and Sakura ran from the battle Naruto knew she was going into a losing battle and she knew that she should have ran with them but Naruto wasn't the type to run from a problem. It was a flaw and she was aware of it. But what hurt Naruto the most was the fact her teammates had no faith in her abilities nor did they respect her enough to fight with her. Alone it was a losing battle but as a team the battle could have played out differently than her almost dying, would they have still lost yes this was Orochimaru for the Rikudo Sennin's sake.
Naruto knew that alone she should have died but as a team they could have stalled Orochimaru until help could arrive or at least learn more of what Orochimaru had planned. Naruto knew nothing of what happened after Orochimaru cut her open. What made matters worse was the fact that even after her recovery she hadn't seen either of her teammates she had seen Kakashi in the hospital while she was still recovering and he had said he would let her team know she was still alive but she had seen neither one of them.
Naruto was so lost in thought she didn't see the person walking toward her until she literally bumped into them and fell flat on her ass and simultaneously knocking the other person over as well.
"Sorry." Naruto said as she looked over to see Sakura also on her butt.
"Naruto?" Sakura asked in slight shock. "Naruto, why are you wearing a henge of a girl?"
"Sakura, it's not a henge. I'm actually a girl not a boy. I hid my gender because I didn't want people thinking less of my skills." Naruto explained.
"Oh." was all Sakura could say. "So um how are you doing I thought you had died in the forest until Kakashi-sensei told me you were still alive and in the hospital."
"I'm doing ok. I made a full recovery from my injury." Naruto said not wanting to admit she felt betrayed by her team to their face not yet at least.
"I'm glad you recovered. I felt bad knowing we pretty much left you to your death back in the forest." Sakura admitted.
"Thanks Sakura, that means a lot hearing you say it." Naruto said. "I know Kakashi-sensei wanted us to take it easy while the Exams were going on but I can't just do nothing. It's been a week since the second phase ended and I'm going crazy."
"Well Kakashi-sensei never said we couldn't train. I have been trying to find someone that will teach me Iryo Ninjutsu but so far I haven't had much luck." Sakura confessed.
"Training would do me some good." Naruto admitted as she wanted to get stronger to be able to protect those she cares about better.
"Well I need to get going Naruto, it was great seeing you." Sakura said running off.
With that Naruto was once again left alone in the middle of the street. Naruto sighed and took a breath. It was nice to know her team, ok one member of her team actually gave a damn about her. She still had no clue about Sasuke but she doubted he would care too much.
Naruto resumed walking and found herself near the hot springs she though about going in to take a relaxing soak until she heard a perverted giggle from a nearby bush near the fence. Turning to the bush she saw a tall man hunched over looking through a peephole making her blood boil. Naruto being Naruto went through a number of hand signs for her favorite jutsu.
"Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu!" Naruto yelled.
With the completion of her jutus a large steaming water dragon rose from the Hot Spring and crashed into the man peeping. This had two effects: it burned the man from the hot water and the force of the dragon slammed him into a nearby building, hard. Once the man recovered he looked at Naruto who was the only other person around.
"Ok you got my attention." the man said.
"Peeping on unsuspecting women while they bathe is wrong pervert." Naruto said coldly ready to defend the unsuspecting women of the Konoha.
"I'm not a pervert gaki. I'm a Super pervert." the man corrected Naruto.
"Really you openly admit that?" Naruto asked falting. "Just who the fuck are you?"
"Glad you asked gaki." the man said. "I am the Gallant Jiraiya Swooner of Women across the Elemental Nations and the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku!"
"Well Mister Ero-sennin stop peeping on the women of the Hot Spring before I report you to Hokage-jiji." Naruto said firmly.
"Sensei? Wait you wouldn't happen to be Uzumaki Naruto would you?" Jiraiya asked.
"What's it to you Ero-sennin?" Naruto asked.
"Because sensei asked me to train you." Jiraiya replied. "Truth is I'm your Godfather and a coward. Your father named you after the main character in my first ever novel 'The tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi' however when your father died fighting the Kyubi i couldn't bring myself to face you so I ran leaving sending money for you every month to cover your expenses. I hid behind my spy network always saying I can't come visit you and the road is no place for a small child to grow up on. So I kept making excuses for why I can't face you, the truth is I should have been in your life from the start but I ran from you and my responsibility."
"So my father really is the Yondaime Hokage?" Naruto asked her godfather.
"Who told you that?" Jiraiya asked seriously.
"Well First there was Orochimaru before he tried gutting me. Then there was the Kyubi when we spoke briefly in my mind when I was unconscious from Orochimaru's attack that almost killed me." Naruto explained.
Jiraiya let out a sigh. "You weren't supposed to know about your father until you were strong enough to protect yourself from his enemies if Iwa ever learned Minato had a child especially a daughter they would never rest until they had you in their village to be used as a breeder, if they didn't outright kill you." Jiraiya spoke.
"Well to late now I already know about him seems though no one else does because if they did they would have a lot more respect for me. While they don't outright attack me they whisper and shun me like I don't belong in Konoha like I did some terrible crime. I know now that the reason is because of the Kyubi inside me but for the longest time I didn't know what i did to make them hate me so much." Naruto said "So you're my godfather I was wondering where the money that Jiji always gave me for my monthly expenses. If you're going to train me then I guess I should be thankful."
"Please let me make up for my transgressions Naruto." Jiraiya pleaded.
"Fine you can train me." Naruto said firmly she wasn't about to pass up the chance to be trained by one of the legendary Sannin.
"Glad that's settled now tell me what are your strengths and skills?" Jiraiya asked his new student.
"I have solid taijutsu, I'm pretty skilled with ninjutsu, I have both Wind and Water elemental training, I am very skilled in stealth and infiltration, and I am a skilled assassin." Naruto listed off her strengths.
"Well I can help improve your stealth and infiltration skills as well as help you use your ninjutsu for assassination. Your wind chakra is prime for assassination. I know a jutsu thats perfect for assassination I was never able to master it or even be able to use it in combat but I have a feeling that you can master it." Jiraiya said with a smirk. "The jutsu I plan to teach you will kill an opponent in two steps. Its Inton in nature and should never be used unless you intend to kill your opponent."
"What kind of jutsu is this Ero-sennin?" Naruto asked.
"The pinnacle of Inton and assassination. However it requires the user to move at high speeds. Basically you have to use the Shunshin in a combat setting. This will be the first step of our training, getting you to be able to use the Shunshin in combat to virtually teleport around the battlefield without leaving a trace." Jiraiya said. "Let's get to one of the training grounds so we can start your training."
"Yatta." Naruto said excited about learning a new jutsu.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Once at the training ground Jiraiya and Naruto, who was beyond excited about learning a new jutsu, stood there in the clearing ready to start their training. However something donned on Naruto she had never learned the shunshin.
"Alright gaki first show me your skill with the shunshin." Jiraiya ordered.
"Um Ero-sennin I was never taught the Shunshin." Naruto confessed.
"Really now? Now matter it's a simple enough jutsu I can teach it to you now." Jiraiya said. "The basis of the jutsu is to gather your chakra and use it to move at incredibly high speeds almost as if you were teleporting. The hand seal is simple, it's just the tiger seal."
Jiraiya formed the tiger hand seal and teleported across the training ground. "Now you try."
Naruto gathered her chakra and formed the tiger seal, and when she moved she ran right into a tree.
Jiraiya burst out laughing holding his sides.
"Yea yea laugh all you like ero-sennin." Naruto said.
"Try again gaki only be more mindful of how far you travel."
Naruto did in fact try again this time when she moved she stopped before the treeline.
"Good now keep practicing, try and get it down to where you don't need hand seals." Jiraiya ordered.
Naruto then formed another hand seal a cross using her fore and middle fingers and instantly ten more Naruto appeared. Jiraiya was stunned momentarily he hadn't expected her to know the Kage Bunshin or how to use it to help in her training.
"Alright you lot we are learning the Shunshin no Jutsu practice until you can do it without the hand seal." Naruto ordered her clones.
The ten clones saluted the original and began to practice the jutsu along with the original.
Jiraiya just watched as his new student practiced the jutsu.
For the next hour Naruto and her clones practiced the jutsu after an hour Naruto was able to drop the hand seal from the jutsu. And dispelled her clones so she would get the added practice from her clones.
"Good job Naruto now I want you to remove the smoke from the jutsu." Jiraiya ordered.
"Hai." Naruto said and made ten more clones.
It took another two hours but eventually Naruto was able to remove the smoke from the jutsu once again dispelling her clones after the fact.
"Those clones of yours are something amazing Naruto. I heard that you knew the Kage Bunshin but to see you be able to create ten and still be able to train is something amazing." Jiraiya said. "Alright you learned the Shunshin to the point you don't need seals and leave behind no smoke now i want you to use it in a fight with me and try and use it in as short of a distance as possible."
For the next hour the two shinobi sparred all the while Naruto was virtually teleporting around the battlefield using her new jutsu. Jiraiya was impressed at how quickly Naruto got the jutsu down to be able to use it in combat. The only other person he had ever heard of to be able to do this was Shisui of the Uchiha clan. After their sparring match Jiraiy was impressed by Naruto's ability to get the jutsu down as fast as she did even to the point of being able to use it in combat.
"Alright gaki, that's enough for one day. Tomorrow I'll teach you that jutsu and we will add it to your arsenal of jutsu." Jiraiya said with a smile on his face.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Naruto was walking down the streets of Konoha heading for her favorite place to eat, Ichiraku Ramen. However she was stopped by a voice calling her name. When she turned toward the voice she saw Ino and her team waving her over.
"Hey Ino hey guys." Naruto said as she walked over to their team.
"Hey Naruto." the trio said.
"I see you are no longer hiding behind your male persona." Ino said smiling.
"Yea my bandages were totally ruined and plus I was getting tired of pretending to be a boy anyway. Do you know how hard it is trying to get to the hotsprings when you're pretending to be one gender but when you go to the springs you have to reveal your true gender." Naruto exclaimed.
"Well you look better as a girl anyway." Ino said. "Hey why don't you join us for dinner? We were heading to Yakiniku Q."
"Sounds good Ino." Naruto said she hadn't had a chance to hang out with her friends since the exams started.
The group then made their way to Yakinku Q where they were given a table near the back. The waitress brought out the meats the group ordered which the group began to cook on the grill in their table.
"So Naruto, I wanted to ask you something." Ino said.
"What's up Ino?" Naruto asked.
"When we found you in the forest Sasuke-kun and Sakura were nowhere to be found. Did you guys get separated or something?" Ino asked.
Naruto looked down her bangs hiding her eyes. "We weren't separated. We were attacked by an enemy shinobi. The Shinobi proved to be really strong and instead of working as a team Sasuke and Sakura ran leaving me behind. The shinobi was after Sasuke for some reason and I chose to fight instead of running away." Naruto explained.
"Who was the shinobi?" Shikamaru asked.
"Turns out the shinobi was Orochimaru posing as a Kusa nin in the exams." Naruto replied.
"What? You fought Orochimaru? Why didn't you try and run like Sasuke-kun and Sakura?" Ino demanded.
"I didn't know it was Orochimaru at first. By the time I realized it was Orochimaru the fight had already started and running was no longer an option. I knew that Orochimaru was after Sasuke for whatever reason and even though Sasuke and Sakura abandoned me to fight Orochimaru alone I couldn't bring myself to run and allow Orochimaru to catch us again so I fought Orochimaru to give Sasuke and Sakura a chance to escape." Naruto explained.
"I get protecting your team but Naruto you seriously should have run this was Orochimaru." Ino said.
"I know Ino, you saw how close I was to death in the forest." Naruto reminded her friend.
"Yea don't remind me I was really scared Naruto, I thought I had lost my best friend when we found you in the forest." Ino said.
"I'm sorry Ino I." Naruto said still looking down.
"Well all that matters now is that you're alive and hopefully you wont do that again." Ino said.
"I won't Ino." Naruto promised.