Sealing Salientia - Chapter 26: Targets - Author: PenSmoke
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor make any profit from writing this.
Previously on Sealing Salientia: The resulting appearance of matter slammed into him, sending him flying for the second time that day. His vision was filled with pink for the second time as well, as he was blasted into Sakura, causing them to tumble across the dirt and ground. Ending in a tangle of limbs and hair, he sighed as laughter chorused in from all the different voices across the yard. This just really wasn't his day.
Konoha
Monday, October 12th, Year 71
The tree had hurtled him into his classmate, causing a connection to be made for the second time that day. The chorus of laughter that erupted from the children of the Academy was shortly followed by another eruption, this one of an embarrassed blush on Naruto's face. He started to extricate himself from the fallen pinkette, who was staring at him wide-eyed from close range.
He noted that Gamakichi had been sent flying from the sudden activity and had poofed back into the summoning realm after impacting the ground. He would have to apologize to the little toad later. Possibly bringing him back for a interesting snack from Konoha would appease the son of the boss summon. He wouldn't want to be on Bunta's bad side. He had been squashed enough for a lifetime already.
Exiting from the tangle of arms and legs and clothing that had previously encompassed him, he wanted to say something witty or funny to diffuse the situation. Looking back on it later that day, he would curse himself for not quipping 'We should really stop running into each other like this.' Instead, the only thing that his slightly concussed brain could come up with at the time was.
"Ow…" Naruto mumbled softly and rubbed the point of impact, which had this time been his ribcage.
Sakura still lay on the ground as he pulled himself into a sitting position, followed shortly thereafter by bouncing up to his feet. He reached out an arm, to again help haul the poor girl up to her feet. The outstretched fingers were accompanied by some words as well. "Sorry… Here, let me help you."
His hand was filled with a warmth as hers grabbed hold and he firmly and quickly pulled it up. The warmth that was left on his palm did not dissipate as her hand left his though and he held it close for a moment. That was before he got slugged in the shoulder.
"Nice one!" The boys' voice was filled with mirth as he continued. "Way to get KO'd by a tree!"
Naruto turned to look behind him to see the boy from earlier that had introduced himself in the classroom, Kiba, laughing at him from a foot away. The puppy that sat in his hood also seemed to be smiling, the tongue lolling out of his mouth happily.
He noticed that every kid was laughing at him except three. The first was Sakura, who was still somewhat dazed on her feet next to him. The second was Ino, who glared at him from across the yard with a smirk on her face. The third was Sasuke who looked at him with curiosity evident in his eyes.
The reason why was answered a split-second later as the Uchiha stalked up to him. "You. Me. Spar at lunch." Just as quickly, the boy walked away as the remainder of the adults started to disperse the crowd that had gathered. Naruto watched as multiple teachers from various classrooms ushered their kids inside, while old man Sarutobi stood next to the tree.
Naruto walked up to him, slowly speaking. "I'm sorry about your tree."
Hiruzen looked at him, a kind grandfatherly smile spreading across his face. The aged wrinkles that lined his eyes filled with emotion as the man gazed upon him, a gentle countenance expressing itself on his face. "Naruto, that was quite the display. I see that Jiraiya wasn't exaggerating when he said that you were an upcoming seal prodigy. Tell me. If you had put the seal back in the correct position, would the tree have gone back in its' spot?"
Naruto thought for a moment. "Yeah, it should have."
"Show me. This time, don't rush it."
Naruto looked around and realized that the teachers had evacuated the yard, leaving no other children behind that he could see. He grabbed the spent seal from the trunk of the displaced tree and grabbed a brush from his supplies pouch as Hiruzen looked on. Redrawing the activation portion of the seal, he again applied it to the trunk, this time taking careful note of the orientation. The wood disappeared with a 'Poof' and a bit of smoke, leaving the paper behind. Naruto then re-applied the paper to the area where the conifer has originally stood, this time placing it vertically in the dirt.
"Release." He whispered this again, this time jumping much further back than before, in case of any issues.
The tree appeared back in place, standing tall. It shifted for a moment, canting slightly to the side, needles dropping from the newly displaced branches. After a couple of seconds of settling, it remained still, the only evidence that it had been moved was the recently disturbed soil at the base and the slight tilt of the trunk.
"As I suspected. That is quite impressive Naruto." Hiruzen spoke again, still with the same gentle smile on his face.
Naruto beamed with pride as he received the praise. What he did not see was a pair of onyx eyes staring at him from a window, burning with jealousy.
A scant few minutes after the rest of the students had returned, Hiruzen guided him back inside the front doors and to his classroom, ushering him in while he spoke out loud. "My apologies for keeping your student from class for a minute, Mrs. Uchiha. I had to talk with him about some destruction of school property and I made him clean up his mess."
Mikoto quirked an eyebrow at the destruction phrasing. "Thank you Hiruzen, I hope that he will not become a troublemaker."
Naruto ducked his head at the comment as he was finding his way back to the seat that he had previously occupied. He noted that Ino had moved seats away from him as well, finding a way closer to Sasuke, displacing a boy he had not yet been introduced to in the process.
Hiruzen responded while he was making his way, "I assure you; he will not be. I'll make sure that Jiraiya teaches him a lesson if he does."
Naruto froze as he was passing the person now next to his seat, a boy wearing sunglasses and a white high collared shirt. He turned to the older man with a look of horror on his face. "Please. No. Anything but that." Naruto knew exactly the sort of punishments that Jiraiya could think up and none of them were anything he ever wanted to experience again. From bug dinners of the most disgusting kind to being sat on by toads, they were always awful.
Hiruzen grinned. "See? He'll behave for you, I'm sure."
Naruto sat down with a somewhat sullen expression. Apparently, he had little choice in the matter, he was going to have to figuratively keep his head down for now. Which, ironically, meant keeping his head up and paying attention.
Mikoto picked up the class again after that, moving to the different types of projectiles that were out there. Konoha typically used kunai and shuriken, which Naruto was proficient with. But Mikoto kept drawing and naming different things that he was either barely familiar with or had never even heard before. From senbon to kusarifundo to tetsubishi, the breadth of weapons that were available out there was boggling. And each one had to be calculated differently in the way it was thrown, according to Mikoto. She kept things like resistance profiles and inertia frames. It went over his head for the most part, but at least he didn't draw the female Uchiha's ire any further during the remainder of morning class.
When Mikoto ended the session with a call for lunch, Naruto received a sudden drop in his stomach. Sasuke had challenged him to a spar. But he needed to keep his head down to not attract any trouble or punishment. He hoped that maybe the Uchiha scion had forgotten, but that was quickly destroyed with a glance at the boy in question. Sasuke was staring directly at him while the class around him packed up their things. So much for that idea.
He thought about telling the teacher. That was Sasuke's mother apparently, perhaps she could step in somehow. But that felt like the cowards' way out, and he was no coward. The thing was, he really did want to spar with the son of the Hokage. Naruto had never practiced against a human outside of Jiraiya, who was so far above him it was ridiculous. He did want to see where he would stack up, he just did not want to get in trouble for doing it.
Seeing that Sasuke was standing by the door now, looking directly at him and waiting, he decided that there was no way around it. From the looks of it, there would be a couple of observers too. Kiba was standing next to Sasuke, talking to Shikamaru and the two other boys that he had walked in with earlier. That was good, at least if something went wrong, he could hopefully use them to say that Sasuke started it.
The white-haired boy walked down the steps, hand inside his supplies pouch. He didn't know what the Uchiha might try or where the spar was to take place, but he wasn't going to be caught off-guard. Jiraiya had always taught him that an elite ninja never went into a battle unprepared. And, most importantly for someone experienced in seals, preparing the battlefield in advance meant a huge advantage going in. Since he had no idea what could happen, he had his hands on a kunai and a tag of his own creation.
Sasuke stood face-to-face with him as he approached the doorway. He realized that unlike most of the other kids in the class that were a bit shorter than him, Sasuke matched his height, looking him dead-level in the eyes. If it wasn't for the fact that he had regularly faced a man of legendary status staring him down constantly, the look held in those onyx eyes might have given him pause. They held back a slew of emotions circling within. Pride, jealousy, anger, fear, and a dozen others swirled within, creating a mixture of expressions on his face that was hard to read. The words that came from him, however, were comparatively easy to understand. "Follow me."
Naruto was glad for the eyewitnesses a minute later as they turned onto the staircase that led downstairs towards the training rooms. Hiruzen had said earlier that the teachers would lead them down there and he didn't want to get in trouble for being down there. But if Sasuke was leading him, he could pin it on the boy, without being called a chicken for backing out now.
The raven-haired boy clicked open the door to a training hall and flicked a switch to the side of the door. Electricity crackled to life and a faint buzz filled the expansive room as tubes of light flickered into existence above. The open area was filled with a circular area of packed dirt in the middle, about thirty feet wide. Crammed around the edges were rows of bleachers, on which their viewing party quickly sat down in the front. Kiba and Shikamaru sat on the edges, while the portly boy eating chips and the sunglasses kid took the middle. Naruto idly wondered why the boy would still be wearing sunglasses inside but dismissed the thought a moment later.
Sasuke had walked to near the center of the dirt circle, which was delineated by a white line at the circumference. There were two stripes near the center, on which Sasuke stood atop one. The boy motioned for Naruto to join him, which he did after a moment.
Naruto scuffed his feet, dragging out the time he had to mentally prepare. There was stone along the walls, dirt in the center, the air was dry and cool. Earth techniques would be especially potent here, sadly he didn't know of anything offensive in that element. He could make a small shield barrier from earth but that was it. Water would be near useless, as there was no source. Fire would be highly effective since the counter was non-existent here. There was electricity in here for lightning techniques, but that wasn't what he knew for offense either. Wind was going to be in short supply, as well, which meant that his ninjutsu techniques would be limited.
He didn't know what his opponents fighting style was either, but by observing his stance as Naruto walked towards him, he seemed to be prepared to lunge forward and be aggressive. That suited Naruto, as he was mostly a defensive fighter. He'd never been able to touch Jiraiya offensively, but his endurance had always allowed him to buy plenty of time to outlast time limits.
He was going into this fight practically blind, and he didn't like it one bit. But, it was too late to back out now as his feet stopped on the opposing white line from Sasuke.
Naruto spoke up first, "So, how do you want to do this?"
What he wasn't expecting was for Sasuke to launch off his position as soon as Naruto finished the question. As he thought, the boy went in aggressively, pushing off with his left foot and leading with his fist in a right hook designed to go directly across his face to disorient him. And, unfortunately for Naruto, the boy was fast. Much faster than he had expected. Naruto realized as the fist made a connection on his cheek that he had sorely underestimated the boy because he was a kid. The fist ripped his head to the side, sending a spray of spittle out of his mouth as his jaw snapped to his own right with a cracking noise. The force of the punch made his entire body move, and his feet got swept out from underneath him by a leg sweep that he wasn't prepared to even see.
As Naruto slammed into the dirt for yet another time that day, he started feeling very angry. He grabbed his jaw and popped it back into place, feeling the bones grind underneath his ear as the socket reconnected. "What the hell was that for, you bastard?!" He screamed at the Uchiha.
The black eyes stared back at him coolly, delivering a remark that cut him to the bone. "A ninja takes every advantage they can get. First to leave the ring loses." And with that, Sasuke launched off again, not even allowing Naruto time to stand back up before resuming the fight.
Being on his butt was not a good position to defend from, but thankfully it did mean that his hands were close to the ground. He flipped through a couple of seals, slammed his hand on the ground as Sasuke was two feet away and yelled out, "Earth Style, Mud Wall!" A slab of dirt rose up from under his feet, separating the two as the fist from the next punch was blocked by the soft earth. This allowed him time to quickly backflip to his feet, as the small barricade collapsed into a pile of dirt with one swift kick from his opponent.
Now that he was aware of the rules, on guard and in a defensive position, he quickly drew his kunai while trying to think of an idea on how to move the other boy outside of the ring. While Sasuke's speed was higher than expected, the Uchiha was only just slightly faster than his own capabilities. The two jumped around, Naruto moving away from Sasuke in a dance of dodged punches and parried kicks. Naruto made sure that each of his jumps backward was done at an angle so that he would never land too close to the outside of the ring.
Hearing a couple of whooping noises from outside the ring, he listened to Kiba yelling out loud for them to get on with it. The dog boy was apparently impatient and wanted some more action. Naruto smiled to himself, he could oblige that response. Tossing his kunai to his off-hand, his reached into his supply pouch and grabbed the tag that he had his hands on earlier.
The tag was keyed to his own original technique, something that he had been working on since training with the frogs. Originally it had been designed to keep the water or bugs off him, but it had turned into a repulsing barrier. Rather than passively keeping unwanted things away, it used a concentrated blast of stored chakra that was released at once to create a shockwave, blowing all undesired objects away.
Naruto sensed another punch coming from his opponent, this time the boy was leading with his right arm in a sweeping arc that would land right in his solar plexus if he continued in his current movement. The pattern so far had been to dodge or parry, never letting a blow connect at full strength. To continue to do so would just prolong the fight unhelpfully. He wanted to get his technique off, and couldn't do so with Sasuke pressuring him like this. Instead of moving out of the way, he blocked the punch from his offside with his left forearm and quickly changed course. Watching Sasuke's face grimace with the pain of the unexpectedly blocked blow, Naruto discarded the strategy of hopping backwards that he had been doing for the past 10 seconds. Now, he lunged forward, just to the side of his opponent. Sasuke tried to react but had already been preparing to continue his trajectory forward, his feet leaving the ground in the movement. This created a separation in the two that placed Naruto closer to the center of the ring and Sasuke towards the outside.
He channeled the chakra into his hands and threw the tag down a couple feet short of where he saw that Sasuke was going to land, yelling release. The split-second delay between his release allowed the momentum of the tag to fly forwards towards the Uchiha, whose eyes went wide.
'Kra-koom' The sound of the shockwave crackled like thunder against his eardrums, blasting Naruto backwards several feet. Even though he was expecting it, the force was still strong enough to move him. Sasuke, on the other hand, was not expecting the display and it sent him tumbling towards the edge of the ring.
Naruto kept greedy eyes on his opponent as a flash of metal appeared when a kunai was drawn by the boy and then disappeared when the bladed weapon sank into the packed dirt to slow him down. Coming to a stop a couple of feet short of the edge of the ring, Naruto looked on in disappointment as Sasuke righted himself.
Deciding to try and capitalize on the position and timing, Naruto charged at full speed towards the Uchiha, intent on moving him out of the ring. When he was halfway through the charge, he saw Sasuke look up at him. This time instead of dark, featureless eyes, they were practically glowing red, each having a single circular line and a comma-like marking on the inside. Naruto disregarded the change as a trick of some kind, designed to spook him or throw him off.
That was until Sasuke blinked out of the way from his charge, moving much faster than before. An axe kick from overhead connected with the back of his skull and he went crashing into the dirt, his momentum carrying him several feet forward before tumbling to a rest.
Naruto quickly kicked up to his feet, trying to spit the grains of soil from his mouth. Sasuke was on him in less than a second though, this time spinning like a top in the air with a leg outstretched for what would be a devastating kick if it connected. Naruto reflexively ducked, his hair taking the blow and moving to the side. What he didn't see was that the twisting spin of his opponent carried the boys' fist directly into his temple, brandishing the blunt ring of the kunai.
His white follicles were slowly turning brown as the boy kept getting knocked to the ground. But, tough as ever, Naruto got back up. Jiraiya had hit him harder than that on many occasions. It hurt but he'd live. Grimacing as his head throbbed in pain, he looked up to see Sasuke sprinting towards him yet again.
Judging from the angle, it looked like the boy was going to try and punt him off over the white line while he was down. Which would be rather simple as his feet were only inches away. Naruto waited until the last possible second and the flexed his muscles to hop over the incoming kick.
However, he watched in astonishing agony as Sasuke corrected for his movement while his muscles were tensing to start moving. It was as if the boy could read his movements before he even did them. Launching up in the air to make his kick happen higher up, Naruto could do nothing as the motion he had started played out. He managed to throw himself up about two feet in the air, enough to have avoided the initial kick. But the new path of Sasuke meant that the boys' foot buried into his side, sending him flying.
'Crack!'
As Naruto slammed into the stone barrier outside of the ring, he heard the cheering from Kiba suddenly cut off as well as the soft landing of feet next to him.
Grimacing from both pain and embarrassment from having his clock cleaned so easily, he looked up to see Hiruzen and Jiraiya next to him. More feet landed in the center of the ring as a figure he didn't recognize grabbed Sasuke by the arm. Finally, the mechanical squeak of wheels rotating alerted him that Mikoto was there as well.
His face dropped as he saw the look of frustration and anger on Jiraiya's face. He knew that he was in for it now. One consolation was that Sasuke seemed to already be getting chewed out in the center of the ring. Better yet, the Uchiha wore a pained expression as he was sitting on the ground, rubbing his ankle. As the boy shot a smug look of victory at him, his chin was roughly grabbed by the yelling man wearing a long white robe with a flame-like pattern at the bottom. It made him feel slightly better knowing that he wasn't the only one getting yelled at or in pain. That did little to comfort him a moment later as the toad sage approached.
Naruto nearly felt his arm yanked out of the socket as Jiraiya roughly pulled him to his feet, practically yelling, "I thought I told you to lay low! Not bring a ton of attention to yourself! Instead, you're making tress disappear and fighting in an off-limits area? What part of that is laying low?" A particularly hard smack to the back of the head left him seeing stars for a second, before he was dragged off.
Mikoto had apparently already cleared out the other students, he could hear her wheels clacking and kids complaining down the hall. Jiraiya had his wrist in a vice grip and was following Hiruzen out of the training room. As they exited, the lights flickered out behind him and the mystery man clicked off the switch, dragging Sasuke in a similar manner as Naruto was.
After Naruto barely managed to keep his feet under him up the stairs, they started heading to the office. Hearing a 'ding' noise from across the hall, he looked over to see a sliding door opening. The four spectators of the match were all ushered out of the tiny room that was behind the door, Kimoto following them. Naruto didn't really understand why they were all in such a cramped room, but he did see Kiba give him a thumbs up before being ushered along by Mikoto. Shikamaru looked up at him for a moment and then looked back down, while the boy with the sunglasses gave a quick nod of acknowledgement. The last boy walked back without even looking, stuffing more chips into his mouth.
A moment later, he was pulled in through the front office door, the noises of stomping feet startling Mebuki from her work, as she looked up at all of them. After a glance that could only be described as pity, she went back to work. It was obvious that she saw the same stern countenance on the faces of the three adults that Naruto did.
He and Sasuke were manhandled into to headmasters' office, each standing in front of the desk as Hiruzen sat behind his desk and the two adults by his side.
Hiruzen started off. "Would either of you care to explain why you were alone in an off-limits training room, outside of classtime?"
Naruto started to open his mouth but was beaten to the punch by Sasuke. "It was my fault, Sarutobi-sama. I challenged Naruto to a sparring match after seeing his skill in sealing. I led him and the others down there."
While he still thought that Sasuke was a bit obnoxious and stuck-up, the boy suddenly climbed several pegs in Naruto's estimation. He could have very easily tried to shove the blame off on and Naruto wasn't sure that he would be able to defend himself. Taking the blame definitely saved Naruto's skin a little bit, as he noticed the look on Jiraiya's face soften a tiny amount. On the other hand, the stranger looked a bit angrier, so Naruto wasn't entirely certain.
Hiruzen responded with, "I see. We got reports from a student that several kids had snuck into the basement, so we went to investigate."
The stranger spoke up. "Sasuke, I am disappointed in you. Yes, sparring with fellow ninja is a great way to build camaraderie, but you should not be breaking rules to do so. You know as well as anyone that all students have weekly sparring matches on Friday. Your curiosity should not have overridden your respect for the rules of the Academy."
Sasuke lowered his head more. "Yes, father."
At this, the links connected in Naruto's head. Sasuke's father was the Hokage. That meant that the person speaking was the leader of the village, the strongest ninja in Konoha? He subconsciously straightened his back at the realization.
Jiraiya was next to vocalize his thoughts. "Naruto, while you may not have known it was off-limits, you should have realized something was wrong. I expect better reasoning and thinking from you."
Naruto lowered his own head. "Yes, Pops." He couldn't be sure, but he thought that he heard a faint snicker from beside him.
Hiruzen contemplated them both for a bit, before announcing his decision. "First, they will both stay in class the rest of the day. Misbehavior is no reason for them no to learn. Second, they will restore up any damage to the training room. I believe I saw displaced dirt and cracked stones that can be repaired. Third, they can clean up the first floor of the school tonight. Perhaps that will teach them a lesson on how to behave. I believe I will also have something for them tomorrow as well. Am I understood?"
Sasuke and Naruto both carried looks of shame on their faces as the punishment was stated. After the headmaster was done speaking, they replied, nearly in unison, "Yes, sir."
"Good. Now off to class while I discuss things with your fathers. Dismissed." The elder Sarutobi gave a hand wave excusing them from the room. Naruto bolted out and Sasuke glumly followed. As the door shut behind them, Naruto could hear the start of a muffled conversation. He thought about trying to listen in for a moment before a look from Mebuki sent him out into the hallway, where he waited for Sasuke.
As Sasuke marched out of the office, Naruto pushed off the wall where he was leaning, joining the slightly older boy as they walked towards their class.
After several steps, Naruto found his voice. "Thanks."
Sasuke paused in his stride, turning to look at him. "For what?"
Naruto replied without pause. "For being honest. You could have set me up to take the blame back there. But you didn't. So, thanks."
Sasuke jogged the couple of steps to catch back up. "You're welcome, I suppose."
Five more steps of silence occurred before Sasuke spoke up again. "You're stronger than I thought you'd be."
This time it was Naruto's turn to stop in his tracks. "Whaddya mean? You kicked my butt!"
Sasuke looked at his, his eyes shifting from black to the patterned red again. "Nobody in our class has ever made me use the Sharingan before though."
Naruto looked slightly confused. "What's a Sharingan? Is that what makes your eyes go bloody like that?"
Sasuke looked offended for a moment. "They aren't bloody! It's our kekkai genkai, our clan's heritage!"
A light bulb went off in Naruto's head. "I've heard Pops use that term before. And we talked about it earlier in class too when I asked what would happen if you combined Fire and Earth Release. Mikoto said that Lava Release was a kekkai genkai, right? Is that what yours is, some combination of two elements?"
Sasuke grinned at him. "No, it is completely different than that. I'll have to teach you about it sometime, idiot."
Naruto looked at him, about to reply angrily before he saw the smile and realized Sasuke wasn't trying to be mean. It was a similar smile to when Jiraiya called him a brat. Grinning back, he replied in kind. "Fine, ya prick, guess you'll just teach the idiot something new."
Receiving a light punch on the shoulder, Naruto's smile widened as they continued back to the classroom. Perhaps he had just made a friend through getting beat up.
The two entered the classroom a few moments later, Naruto punching Sasuke on the shoulder on their way in. A fistbump later and the two separated, heading towards their respective seats. Naruto noted the odd look from Kiba and the glance from Shikamaru. The boy in sunglasses next to his seat, scooted back to allow him passage.
As Naruto had just passed, the strange boy commented, "I see you have returned. What was your punishment?"
Naruto took his seat while Mikoto continued her lecture, this time on the aerodynamics of projectiles in flight and how to adjust for wind shear. He quietly replied, "Gotta clean up my messes and then the school."
The quiet boy next to him spoke once more, "That seems appropriate. You performed well downstairs though, better than I have seen from the others of our class. My name is Shino Aburame. It is nice to make your acquaintance."
"You too, Shino. You seem cool. A little strange, but cool."
Shino nodded in affirmation. "I have been told as much multiple times. We should pay attention now." With that, the high-collared shirt wearing boy moved his gaze back to the front of the room, where Mikoto was writing down the math that went into how hard wind could push against different projectiles.
Naruto shrugged. The boy was strange and quiet, but not unfriendly. Judging by the notes that the boy was writing, he was smart as well. Naruto wouldn't mind sitting next to him. He struggled to understand the lecture for the next hour, barely making it through without a headache.
Even with that, he was still excited for the next bit, as Mikoto announced. "It's time for practical demonstrations. We have a couple of chunin here to work with you today, we'll meet them in the halls downstairs."
The entire classroom seemed to scramble for the door, vying to be the first one out. Naruto let the mad rush die down before exiting just behind Mikoto. He watched in curiosity as Mikoto went towards the opposite side of the hall from the stairs going down and pressed a button. She was at that same sliding door that he saw her appear from earlier. Overwhelmingly curious, he walked up to her while the rest of the class went down the stairs.
"What are you doing? Aren't we going downstairs?" Naruto asked, not really understanding what was happening.
"Oh, hello Naruto. I am going downstairs, yes. But the stairs are difficult for me in this chair, so the headmaster had this elevator put in." Mikoto responded, a calm tone in her voice.
"Elevator? What's that?" As Naruto asked the question, the same bell that he had heard previously dinged and the doors slid open to reveal a small rectangular room only a couple of feet wide.
"Step on in and I'll show you." Mikoto wheeled herself in and Naruto followed. She spun around, pressing a small button on the wall, making it light up. The doors slid closed a moment later.
"So, we entered on the first floor, right?"
"Yeah? We did." As the elevator started to move, the sudden bump caught him off guard. He quickly moved to a defensive position, not understanding what was happening.
He heard laughter behind him. "You've never been in one I take it?"
Pink tinged his cheeks as he put the kunai away, Mikoto's tone informing him that there was nothing to be afraid of and that this was normal. "No, I've never heard of one." He listened to the mechanical whirring of some apparatus that was working nearby. "So, you use this to go up and down? But, I don't get how that'll work."
As the door slid open in front of him, he was astonished. He had felt the room wobble earlier and it felt like he was dropping for a second but now he was all the way in the basement. That was at least 30 feet of going down stairs and he didn't have to even walk!
"Huh? But how? What? How does that work? Is that ninjutsu?"
Mikoto laughed at him again. "No, no Naruto. It's not ninjutsu. It's gears and pulleys and electricity that makes the room go up and down. There's an opening all along the building vertically that this little box sits in. Just like my wheels help me move along the floor, there are wheels in there that help the box move along the walls up and down."
Naruto looked at her, mouth drawn open. "Oh. Okay." Not truly understanding, he found it curious and fascinating that these gears and pulleys that she talked about could seemingly magically teleport them. It was definitely something to investigate another day.
But, for now, it was time to throw sharp things at targets. Even now, down the hall he could hear the distinctive 'thunk' as a metal projectile sank into a wooden target. He walked down to where the rest of the class was trying to shove through a doorway all at once. Standing up on his tiptoes, he looked over the heads of the assembled crowd, into the training room.
This one was much different than the one that Sasuke and the others had led him too earlier. It was about the same size and made of similar materials, but that is where the similarities ended. Unlike the rows of bleachers, there was no seating available. And the walls were covered in targets strewn around. There were pop-up targets on the ground, lowering targets from the ceiling, and even some targets that were being thrown across the room.
He watched as three ninjas wearing the green vest common to chunin and jonin sequentially threw kunai and shuriken, hitting every target currently visible with a plethora of steel.
The first ninja looked to be an early teenager at oldest and was practically an exact duplicate of Sasuke in looks, aside from blatantly obvious lines running down along the profile of his nose from his eyes. Dark black hair adorned his head, identical to the shade found on the other Uchiha he had seen made it likely. The fan symbol on his sleeves made it obvious. As he watched, he could see that Sasuke was looking on with a smile on his face, purely only watching that one ninja. Clearly, there was some sort of bond there. Based on the age difference, Naruto was guessing that was his older brother.
The second ninja looked to be a couple of years older than the Uchiha chunin. His hair was unnaturally silver, making him look older than he probably should. Round glasses framed a face with gray bangs flailing down the side. The boy had a purple vest-like garment on with a white undershirt and wrappings around his midsection that quite obviously contained multiple pouches, judging from how the boy reached into them continuously to pull out new projectiles.
The last of the group of three was still a couple of years older than the previous two. Dressed in khaki colored tan clothes underneath the green vest, he had very few defining characteristics. The clothes were plain, the hair was brown and unremarkable, the ninja headband was tied in the standard position and nothing stood out to Naruto. It felt like the man could have been the definition of generic. Until he saw the face. There was a huge scar running from cheek to cheek across the bridge of the nose, defining the male figure. His brown eyes showed a determined glint in them that the others did not show.
Mikoto's voice draw everyone's attention and the display from the three guests was brought to a halt with the audible cue. "I'm sure you are all aware of my relation to our Sasuke. What you may not know is that he has an older brother." Several chuckles and groans emanated from the various children. Naruto immediately surmised that many of the students did, in fact, know about Sasuke's older brother. He also guessed that this information was likely for him to catch up. "This is Itachi Uchiha and his teammates, Iruka Umino and Kabuto Yakushi. They have freshly returned from the most recent round of Chunin Exams in Kumogakure and all three were promoted based on their exceptional skills." The three ninjas that had now been introduced bowed, waved a hand and adjusted his glasses respectively.
"They, and their sensei, have agreed to come by and do a thrown weapons demonstration and class for today." From the corner of his eye, he noted a taller man, clearly an adult, probably a jonin based on that he was the sensei of the other three. The man stood straight, wearing the green flak jacket that the others had. He had bandage wrapping underneath, covering his torso and biceps. This ended at brown leather forearm guards on the arms. He also wore a thin belt with several small pouches by the hip, loose black knee-length shorts, and more bandage wrappings appearing on his thighs and calves. His leaf-marked headband with extended black fabric was tilted to the side, letting two long tails of fabric drift lazily down towards his chest. He waved lazily at the crowd, apparently content with letting the younger members of the team handle the work.
Itachi stepped forward. "How many of you are capable of hitting a target from more than ten feet?" Several hands shot up, including Naruto. Itachi pointed at a random kid, selecting someone who Naruto didn't yet know the name of. Itachi called them forward and instructed them to hit a target that had popped up from the ground about ten feet away. The kid grabbed a kunai from his pouch and hauled back to throw it. While the strike wasn't a perfect bullseye, it did hit the third ring of the target and buried itself an inch into the soft wood.
Itachi commented, "Good. But your form is a bit unstable. Get into throwing position again." The boy complied, getting into his stance. "Alright, you should raise this part of your forearm higher up. You should also plant your feet farther apart, they are too close together. Lastly, grab the kunai lower on the handle, creating more stability." The Uchiha walked around the child, poking and prodding until the form suited him. "Now throw!"
The boy released the strike and it slammed home, just barely missing the bullseye. The kid cheered and jumped for joy at the hit. The assembled kids all started to clamor to see who could be next. Mikoto stepped in and organized the kids into three lines.
Naruto ended up in Iruka's line, third back. He waited patiently for the first two to throw, watching how Iruka corrected their forms and trying to take in the information himself. The first up was Kiba, who had pushed his way to the front by charging for the lead. The dog-boy landed a near perfect strike on a target ten feet out, so Iruka had him try for fifteen feet. When Kiba missed wide left, the exuberance stopped and he sulked for a moment.
However, Iruka didn't berate or degrade him, instead congratulating him for the first hit and then taking steps to correct the form, moving the shoulder out and pushing the back foot to the left to get more balance. When the next three strikes all hit at fifteen feet, Iruka looked satisfied and told Kiba to head to the back of the line.
Next up was a girl that Naruto had sat behind in class. He thought he remembered her name to be Ami. She had bright purple hair and had been one of the girls that hung out with Ino while she was glaring at him. She struggled to even hit the first target. Iruka's coaching got her closer to making an accurate throw, but even after 5 attempts and correction, she was still missing at ten feet. In Naruto's mind, there was no excuse for such weakness. He had been throwing weapons for years and Jiraiya had drilled it into him for a long time on how important it was to be able to put a weapon where you need it.
As he walked forward, he noted that Sasuke was walking up to get feedback from Kabuto at the same time. The boy looked disappointed, probably that he hadn't been matched with his brother. Naruto suspected that was on purpose, as the point was to learn something new. Sasuke and Itachi had probably trained together hundreds of times. While looking over, he caught Sasuke's eyes and they locked gazes for a moment. He read that intent easily. It was yet another challenge from the Uchiha scion. The boy apparently loved competition, and Naruto was quite willing provide.
Before Iruka even prompted him, Naruto took out three kunai and whipped them at the targets ten, fifteen and twenty feet out. Split seconds later, six thumps were heard. Naruto looked at the targets and realized that Sasuke had copied him, aiming for the exact same targets he had at the same time. Two kunai were buried in the bullseye of each target.
Iruka blinked at him, looking back and forth between himself and Sasuke, as well as Kabuto, who was also staring at them. It appeared that the two chunin were somewhat impressed. Iruka waved to his sensei who pulled a couple of levers. Five swinging targets descended from the roof, tracing long pendulum style arcs as the wooden targets floated on long poles attached in the darkness of the ceiling. Iruka stated to him. "See if you can hit those."
Naruto looked out and took stock of what it was that was in front of him. Foot-wide targets on easily predictable arcs between twenty and forty feet away. He chuckled to himself. In the summoning realm, Ma and Pa had been having him try to hit bugs from twenty feet. And after months of training, he had finally been able to with relative accuracy. This was simple in comparison. He let loose with the flying weapons, timing them so that they would catch the target at their easiest point, the top of the swing where the targets' velocity would be zero. This ensured the highest chance for success, as either overpowering or underpowering the shot by a small margin would be covered by the momentum.
The steel flew like bullets, whistling with the displacement of the air surrounding their path. A multitude of thinking noises resonated throughout the training hall as the knives sank deep into the wooden red circle that denoted the bullseye of each target. 10 kunai thrown by two people, all embedded into their targets. 9 bullseyes and a single kunai in the inner ring.
The children all cheered while the chunin and jonin in the room exchanged glances. As the proctors called a temporary halt, Sasuke and Naruto both jogged forward to retrieve their thrown weapon. They exchanged grins while moving forward, but no words. They removed the first 8 metal weapons from the first 4 targets in silence. At the last and farthest target though, Sasuke's grin turned into a wide smile as they both approached. Naruto could see after having collected the knives that the ones owned by the Uchiha were a little brighter metal and had a different handle wrapping than his own. And he could tell who had the bullseye and who had just barely missed.
Naruto had to concede, Sasuke was damn good at throwing weapons. He could hear the slight taunt in his comrade's voice as they removed their weapons. "Ooooh, so close. Want some tips on your form? You could obviously use a little more practice, slacker."
Naruto felt himself getting heated for a second, before breathing and letting it pass. He didn't care for the Uchiha's attitude still, but he could trade barbs. "I'm surprised that you have time to even practice throwing after all that work on your hair, pretty boy."
He saw his classmates' face turn a shade of red and knew he had won that verbal spar of throwing insults, which more than made up for the defeat at throwing weapons in his mind. Sasuke lowered his head and gave him another light punch to the shoulder, begrudgingly giving him the mental tick for victory.
The rest of the kids were going wild at the display of marksmanship and it took several minutes before Mikoto could pry the rest of the class back to waiting in line. Once calm had finally been restored to the chaos, she waved the other jonin over. The man, who had lit up a cigarette in the meanwhile from across the room, slowly walked over.
Mikoto first turned to admonish the jonin. "No smoking inside! You should know better than to smoke around the kids!"
The man raised his hand and lazily grabbed the offending stick of burning leaves and snuffed it between his fingers, holding the other hand out placatingly. "Yeah, yeah, I hear ya. It's just boring watching these little brats."
Then he turned his attention to the boys, "Except for you two. That was impressive. Many graduated genin would have trouble hitting all of those in a single set of throws." He stuck out a gigantic hand in an offer of a handshake. Naruto and Sasuke each took turns having their hands practically crushed by the grip of the jonin. "My name's Masuya. Masuya Sarutobi. Do you boys know what you want to be a specialist in when you grow up?"
Sasuke replied first, "I'll probably be a front-liner with wide area fire attacks and my Sharingan jutsu." Masuya seemed to accept the answer as if it was a foregone conclusion. Turning his head towards Naruto, he waited patiently for an answer.
"I… Uh… don't really know. I'm good with seals?" As Masuya's eyebrow only lifted higher, he explained more. "Pops taught me a lot about seals. I like to use them in strange and weird ways. I don't know how that'll work on a battlefield. I have high endurance and chakra reserves though, so wherever that puts me."
"Who is Pops? Is that your dad?" Masuya inquired.
"Oh, right. Yeah. Pops is Jiraiya, my dad. I'm Naruto!" At that information, the man's eyes opened wide for just a moment before darting up to look at the hairline as if to confirm something. A moment later, the eyes reverted back into a normal resting position that looked somewhat bored.
"Hmmm, interesting. I'll have to have a talk with your Pops then. Nice meeting you Naruto." After that the man slowly stalked back to the wall he had been leaning on to begin with. Naruto could see the small orange light by his mouth flicker back into existence, shortly before Mikoto yelled out again "NO SMOKING!" This was followed by a quiet cursing, another extinguishing of embers, and quiet grumbling about strict teachers.
Naruto was mostly unaffected by the strange display. It seemed that Pops really hadn't been lying all of those times. Every single time that someone learned that Jiraiya was his dad, they all looked shocked for a second, looked at his hair and then just accepted it.
The rest of the session was rather uninteresting. The kids who couldn't hit the targets kept going to the front of the line, and once a student hit a bullseye at twenty yards or more, they were sent over by Mikoto to wait.
Only 4 passed through to wait on the rest in the first round. Naruto and Sasuke obviously had easily cleared showing the required skill. But the monotone Shino and the lazy Shikamaru also struck true with their first set of strikes, each gathering near the entrance to watch the rest.
As Shino approached, Naruto held up a fist, to which the boy paused for a second, uncertain. Naruto turned to Sasuke who reciprocated the gesture, showing the workings of the fist-bump. Shino then returned the movement. This did not change Naruto's initial opinion of the boy at all. Skilled, cool, and somewhat weird.
Shikamaru, having throw out his targets with ease came over and plopped down on his back. He reached up to bump fists when Naruto offered, but then closed his eyes and grumbled about how he couldn't see the sky from way down there. This also reinforced the idea that Naruto had gleaned of him as well. Talented but lazy.
As Sasuke sat back and watched, aloof from the rest. Naruto engaged in small talk with the other two boys. "Shino, where did you learn to throw like that? You were pretty good!"
"The answer is simple. My parental figures taught me the basics of ninja techniques when I was young. It is obvious that you benefitted from the same training." Shino replied in a almost monotone voice. Shikamaru accentuated the point by letting out a soft snore after the sunglasses-wearing boy had finished speaking, which made Naruto chuckld. "I fail to see how reciting the facts in a succinct manner is boring to you, Nara." This only made the fake snores grow louder, which in turn made Naruto's chuckles more audible as well.
Returning to the prior line of conversation, Shino continued. "For the second time today, you have found yourself just barely bested by Sasuke. Is this the beginning of a rivalry between the two of you?"
Naruto looked over to Sasuke, who returned the look with just a hint of a smirk. Apparently, he liked that others noticed his victories. Naruto kept his eyes on the Uchiha while he replied, "Perhaps. We'll see how long it takes for me to pass the prick up. My bet is a week."
Sasuke scoffed and retorted, "In your dreams, loser." The shared smirks between them belying the real thoughts lying underneath.
Practice wrapped up as most of the students eventually were able to hit the targets from the distance. The remaining few that didn't were given a final set of tips on how to better themselves and told to practice more for next week. At that time, a bell rang out, signaling the end of the day. Naruto followed the rest of the students back up the stairs and up to the door, waving goodbye to Mikoto on the way.
"See ya tomorrow, jerk."
"If you survive that long, weakling."
AN: Well that was fun! I hope that nobody gets upset that even though Naruto has been training constantly, he gets wiped by Sasuke. Yes, Naruto has had elite training his entire life, but Sasuke now has a Kage level dad and prodigy Itachi to teach him for his entire life. Plus, already having unlocked the Sharingan due to having his family be more cohesive gives him a huge advantage that Naruto doesn't even know exists, much less has a counter for it.
Yes, I know I didn't even stick to only Mondays for one week. I had written three chapters ahead, and I really wanted to get the next arc going. To be perfectly honest, I was impatient with myself to get it out, and it felt like I was holding back unnecessarily. So, I published the Chapter 25 ahead of schedule. Oh well. I may do bi-weekly updates if I'm writing fast enough. I just want to have at least three chapters in reserve in case of emergency.
Definition time:
Senbon: Throwing Needles, meant to pierce flesh, usually to administer a poison. What canon Haku and Kin use.
Kusarifundo: Chains with weights on the end, meant to bind or incapacitate when thrown. Canon Tenten uses these on occasion.
Tetsubishi: Multi-pointed prongs, thrown on the ground to make an enemy have to slow down. Think road spikes.