Disclaimer: I have nothing to say you haven't already heard.
Chapter 5
The sun started to shine through the cracks in the shutters of a window. Light crept through the room until it fell onto a bed, showing the room's lone occupant fast asleep. Suddenly, a shadow slinked closer and closer until it was right on top of the bed. Tora smirked as he readied his claws. It was time for Naruto to wake up!
Before the tiger could do anything, however, Naruto's eyes snapped open and with a determined yell, leaped up from his lying position to give a drop-kick right to Tora's chest. The summon gave a surprised 'oof!' before tumbling off the bed clutching his chest. A now 9 year old Naruto stood on his bed victoriously, glad to have caught his tormentor/friend/summon before he could perform the daily ritual of 'wakeup and DODGE!'.
"Ha! Got you, yah jerk!" Naruto cheered in triumph as he jumped off the bed and aimed a downward kick towards the still recovering Tora. Before he could complete the attack, however, his leg was caught by a large and clawed fur covered hand.
"Heh, not bad brat but don't get cocky!" Tora roared as he flung his summoner around like a sack of potatoes before letting him slam into the opposing wall with a bang. Naruto groaned as he slid down, a noticeable bump the size of a baseball forming on the back of his head.
"Ah jeeze, why can't I beat you even after two years?!" Naruto complained as he picked himself off of the ground brushing himself off. It goes to show how much the blonde's endurance has increased, as that would have left him out of commission for at least an hour back when he first met Tora.
"Fat chance on that kid. You could study for a thousand years and not even reach the very minimum of my strength," Tora bragged. 'Though not for a lack of trying, mind you,' he thought as he turned his back to Naruto and rubbed his still aching ribs.
The preteen just rolled his eyes and stretched, the sun now fully lighting the room. Tora was just the same as he was when he was first summoned: shaggy orange fur with black stripes, silver eyes, and razor teeth and claws. It was Naruto however, who should the most change over the last few years.
Whereas before he was one of the shorter members of his class, he had grown to a decent height of nearly four foot eight. He also had a more muscular physique now, not to the point where he was bulky but more along gymnast/runner build. Tora accredited this to both the insane tort-training he put the boy through on a daily basis for the last couple years, as well an improved diet ever since Tora taught Naruto how to both hunt and forage for food. Now he only ate ramen every so often for pleasure. Naruto's hair was also longer and shaggier, looking slightly more like Tora's now.
It was the look in Naruto's eyes that really changed though. While they still held that playful mischievous look in them, they also showed a sense of alertness that most children lacked, as if he was prepared for any and all eventualities. They also showed something Naruto desperately wanted as a child, a true sense of happiness. Thanks to Tora's teachings, Naruto had been able to walk tall and proud these last few years, and he found making friends a much easier task then he did previously. Sure he still played pranks and was a lovable goofball most of the time, but now he had a sense about him that one gets when faced with a stronger being, one that demands respect and obedience.
After completing the morning rituals, we find Naruto jumping from the rooftops on his way to the Academy with Tora lazily flying beside him. "You seem happy today," the tiger noted.
Naruto just grinned as he leapt to a nearby rooftop. "Of course I am, Tora! We're doing spars again today and I wanna show everyone the taijutsu I've been working on!"
As the months went by, Tora pointed out to the blond that the Academy's standard forms didn't seem to work all that well with him. When Naruto asked the summon what he should do. The ancient beings response was as blunt as always, "Figure out your own style, moron."
After that, Naruto had worked on a fighting style that seemed to fit him best. Finally, after nearly three years of working on it, the style was, as Tora put it, "Not a complete piece of crap," which is as high a praise as one could expect from the tactless summon.
Tora just gave a fanged smirk at his summoner's enthusiasm. "Well, here's hoping that you didn't just waste these last two years working on it then," he commented snidely.
Naruto just rolled his eyes at the beast's 'encouragement' and started to go to the door of the Academy that he just arrived at. Before entering, Tora leapt up onto Naruto's shoulder, looking like a demented image of a parrot. The two entered the classroom where the other students started settling down, Tora going unnoticed thanks to his abilities. Spotting a familiar head of bluish black hair, Naruto grinned and called out to his friend, "Hey Hinata!"
Said girl gave a slight jump but controlled herself, looking over to the boy she had a crush on. "H-hello Naruto," she said slightly timidly, but not nearly as bad as two years ago.
After the event in the clearing back when Naruto was seven (to which he still didn't know was Tora's doing), the jinchuriki quickly took the fainted girl to the nurse's office and stayed by her side till she awoke. After greeting the young heiress back to the world of the living (and nearly having her faint again), Naruto was able to start talking to the girl. Naturally Naruto, thickheaded that he was, figured that the strange, pale-eyed girl might have been interested in training with him and that was why she was in the clearing, and asked her if she would be interested (once she felt better) in coming to train with him sometime. It was fortunate that Hinata was currently in a bed at that time, otherwise she would have fallen over at that. Gathering every fiber of the minimal courage that resided in her body, Hinata was able to squeak out a yes. Tora, of course, just watched the whole thing from the window, chuckling at the two children's antics.
As time went on, it turned out the two were good sparing partners for each other. With her Gentle Fist attacks, Hinata gave Naruto a good way to work on both his dodging and endurance while Naruto's never give up attitude not only helped Hinata work on her own endurance, but it also gave her more confidence in battle. While she was no amazon, she was still able to dish out and take some punishment now. The two had grown to be close friends over the years (though Hinata wished to be slightly more) and spend any free time hanging out. Surprisingly, the Hyuga clan didn't seem to raise a big stink over this, possible because it was noticed that Hinata had started to improve as an individual ever since she started being around Naruto more. The only problem was that on occasion, like when Naruto would take off his shirt after a spar, Hinata would still get extremely red and sometimes pass out. Naruto had asked Tora about this, but the bakemono just laughed. Jerk.
Back to the classroom, Naruto sat down beside the heiress as Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei walked in. For some reason, Tora didn't seem to like Mizuki because he 'rubbed him the wrong way' and always took the time to make the chunin miserable. From slashing the back of his pants when he wasn't looking (everyone laughed at the Hello Kitty underwear) to tying his shoelaces together so he'd trip when he walked (an impressive feat, considering the teacher was wearing shinobi sandles). Tora didn't seem to mind Iruka though, so the mysterious invisible prankster didn't strike against him. (Naruto was initially thought to be the culprit but there was no evidence to support this.)
Iruka cleared his throat, trying to get the students' attention. When that didn't work, he coughed louder but still the kids carried on with what they were doing. Iruka took in a deep breath of air, and Tora covered his long ears with his hands. Iruka's head seemed to grow to three times its normal size as he yelled, "SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP, YOU BRATS!"
Like throwing a switch, everything went silent as the class sat still in their seats, looking at the now normal Iruka. 'I still can't figure out how he does that,' Tora mused as he took his hands away from his sensitive ears.
"Good morning class, today we will be holding our weekly spars to see how you all have improved. If you'll follow me and Mizuki, we will head out to the sparring arena." Iruka announced while standing up.
With that, the two chunin waited as the students lined up before heading to the circular ring set up in the back yard of the academy. Once everyone was accounted for, Iruka gave an encouraging smile and said, "All right, please wait for us to call your names and step into the ring with your partners. The standard rules apply; just remember to use the Seal of Reconciliation afterwards. Up first is…"
This went on for several minutes as the children were called up to do their spars. Some did well, others average, and others still did terribly. This got rather monotonous after a while as Naruto's attention started to waiver. He idly noticed Tora was lounging on the rooftop of the Academy, seemingly asleep but Naruto knew from experience that he was alert and ready to move at a moment's notice. Finally his name was called, along with Sasuke Uchiha, the class prodigy.
Naruto gave a grin at this and got into the ring with Sasuke following soon afterwards with his 'tough bad-boy' look, which caused most of the girls in the class to squeal and cheer him on. Normally, Naruto would be nervous about this fight seeing as whenever they previously fought, Sasuke would always have Naruto kissing dirt. This time, however, Naruto knew his completed fighting style would give him the edge he needed. As Sasuke slipped into his clan's fighting stance, Naruto slid into a stance that wasn't recognized by neither the students nor the faculty. He stood upright with his left leg slightly behind him and his arms held at his side with a slight angle, giving the impression that he was leaving himself wide open.
Sasuke seemed puzzled by this momentarily but shrugged it off. Once the signal to begin was giving, the last Uchiha shot forward at near blurring speeds, but Naruto stood in place. When he got closer, Sasuke shot a fist out intent on going for Naruto's face but before it could make contact, Naruto shot his left arm out and actually managed to swat the incoming fist away. Sasuke blinked at that but quickly changed tactics, using the momentum from the block to bring his leg up for a kick. However, Naruto's right arm shot out and actually managed to grab the other boy's leg. Using some impressive maneuvering, Naruto turned the grab into a grapple, forcing Sasuke onto his back while Naruto held onto the leg while simultaneously getting behind the downed boy, preventing him from getting up.
Sasuke growled in irritation as he tried to use his other leg to donkey-kick the blond, but Naruto was able to use his own legs to wrap around the incoming limb while his left arm grabbed Sasuke by the right shoulder and pinned the arm along his back, turning them into some kind of human pretzel. Sasuke struggled to break free but then Naruto pulled his head back and gave a head-butt to the dark haired child. This didn't knock him out, but it was enough to daze him and Naruto used that to roll Sasuke onto his stomach, successfully pinning him. Iruka blinked at the vastly improved display from one of his favorite students before realizing that there wasn't any way for Sasuke to get up, thus allowing him to call the match in Naruto's favor.
Naruto grinned as he got up. It looks like his new style worked well after all. Due to his constant spars with Tora, Naruto came to the realization that he couldn't full on fight the more powerful opponent, especially with Tora's superior size, strength, and sharp claws. He then came up with the idea for a style that focused more on deflection and grappling using unpredictable movements (think an improvised Krav Maga), which allowed him to successfully get around Tora's unstoppable offense. The swiping movements were partially inspired by Tora, as the tiger's powerful swipes were easily able to block his attacks while at the same time having the potential to give damage. Naruto would still lose to the summon though due to Tora simply overpowering him, but this gave him the insight on how to use it on unsuspecting opponents who were anticipating him to go for a full on charge. Tora also commented that it would be ideal for fighting armed opponents, as most weapons had a frontal assault that the swiping motions could easily block.
Naruto brushed off the dust on the bottom of his pants while idly noting the silence in the area. Looking up, Naruto noticed most of the spectators were watching in stunned silence as the dead last just whooped the top of the class. Others were looking like they'd kill him while he slept, namely Sasuke's fans. Finally, there were those who were looking at him in interest, namely Hinata, Skikamaru, and possibly Shino (it was hard to tell with the shades).
Iruka then spoke up, causing Naruto's attention to go back to his teacher. "That was a well fought battle. Now if you'll both do the Seal of Reconciliation," he said expectantly.
Naruto gave a smile to the now standing Sasuke as he held two of his fingers out. The dark haired boy, despite looking a little dusty had largely shaken off the effects of the head-butt and was frowning at the smiling blond. Reluctantly putting two of his fingers out to form the seal, Naruto swore he heard Sasuke mutter, "…how'd he get so strong?"
The two then exited the ring as the silence finally broke amongst the crowd as the students started to gossip excitedly about what just happened.
Later that Day
The Academy was letting out for the day and Naruto was walking Hinata home. "So what do you think those girls' problem was?" Naruto asked idly as they walked. For some reason unknown to the boy, the majority of the girls in the Academy had given him the cold shoulder for the rest of the day. While getting glared at wasn't anything new to the boy, the sudden increase of hostility made him uneasy.
"I-I think they must be upset about your win against Sasuke," Hinata told her crush honestly. She was truthfully irritated about the girls' response to the loss their object of affection suffered. Did she give any of the other students the cold shoulder when they beat Naruto? No, even if she was upset she'd never do that, that was silly to do for a simple sparing match.
"Huh? That's stupid!" exclaimed Naruto, apparently agreeing with the girl's thoughts without her saying anything.
"I know it is, but they'll hopefully get over it with time," Hinata said optimistically. "After all, you've just proven that you're getting much better so you can't be called the dead last anymore."
"Yeah I hope so, thanks," Naruto nodded in agreement. It was then they reached the front of the Hyuuga estate. "Well, here we are. See you tomorrow, Hinata?" Naruto asked.
Giving a small smile, Hinata said, "I would like that."
In a display completely out of character for her, Hinata reached over and gave Naruto a quick hug. It was so quick that you might have missed it if you blinked, but it was there. Afterwards, Naruto had an expression of complete and utter surprise on his face while Hinata's looked somewhat like a tomato with how red it was, before she went running into the compound at speeds that would have made the current Raikage jealous.
Naruto stood stock still for a few minutes, until a rumbling chuckle snapped him out of his daze. Turning around, Naruto found Tora perched on top of a street light looking highly amused. "Well, well, well. Aren't we on top of the world today, huh?" he grinned through a fanged smirk.
A light shade of pink mixed with the whisker marks as Naruto turned away while stammering out, "I-I have no idea what you're talking about, dumb tiger."
Giving another laugh, Tora leapt form the street light and landed right beside the boy with cat-like grace. "Oh, you know what I'm talking about. You're just too stupid to realize it yet! Anyway, great job today brat. You've proven that your physical aspects don't suck as hard as when we first met. Now all we need to do is work more on the chakra portions. You better be ready, because the hell I'm planning will make what we've done previously seem like a cakewalk!" With that, Tora shot into the air and sored over to where Naruto's apartment was, cackling all the while.
"Stupid summon," Naruto muttered under his breath as he started walking towards his home, wondering about the hug, his victory that day, and Tora's words. It was when he thought about the last one was when he stopped walking and lost all color in his face. "Waaait a second…what did he mean by a 'CAKEWALK?!' Tora you sadist, you get your furry butt back here right now and tell me what you have planned!" Naruto hollered as he raced towards the apartment with plans of forcing his troublesome summon on what tortures he had planned for the boy.
AN: So, here we are again with another chapter of Naruto and Tora. I'm thinking next time will be a time skip to the graduation day, similar to my Kid Kyubi fic. Reason being is that, like I mentioned previously, there have been so many stories that begin with the Academy years that anything I do will seem dull and repetitive. In this chapter we get to see how Naruto has changed over the years while showing how these changes had affected him, so it may be a bit of a filler. Also showed a little cute moment with a younger Naruto and Hinata (all Naru/Hina fans freaking CALLED it in canon!).
I also chose the fighting style because it goes with the whole 'unpredictable' motif and the swiping motions of Krav Maga are similar to that of a tiger's swipes.
I also have this to say: ...oh my God...Oh my God...Oh My God...OH MY GOD! IT IS FINALLY HERE! THE LAST 2 NARUTO CHAPTERS! (rolls around on the ground while foaming at the mouth) It was...beautiful. While there were some questions that needed to be resolved, I'm hoping the movie will clear some things up. But still...dammit it was AMAZING! It was a little hard to go through both chapters though, since they were still uploading but I managed to read it all. I'm so...happy!