Dread. That was the only emotion Naruto could feel at this moment. He had just been informed that tomorrow will be his third-ever Genin exam. He wanted to try. He wanted to say it would be all right, but after failing three times… it's hard to keep going.
Alas, Naruto doesn't have a choice. He never was a person that got many choices. So, like always, he lied to himself. If he doesn't lie to himself, then why would he even try in the first place?
"I am going to pass this test. Then I can beat Sasuke and be one step closer to becoming Hokage," Naruto exclaimed, his eyes burnt with determination.
Then, he saw it. A figure suddenly appeared before him. He didn't do anything, so what did this guy want? The figure soon became clear to Naruto. It was an average shinobi. The only thing to note was that he had crimson hair.
"You're Naruto, correct?" The man asked
"Yeah, that's me… Who's asking?" Naruto said. He was very suspicious of this man.
"Calm down, I just want to offer you something. It could help you pass your exams. I was going to give this power to anyone, but you seemed up for the challenge… and the closest one to me. Want it?"
"Wait, you can make me pass the exam?!" With that, all the suspicions Naruto had were thrown out the roof. He would do anything to get a hold of any power. Not to mention that he was pretty naive.
"What do I have to do!? Save the village from sand raccoons, maybe look for a temple with a bunch of jutsu's, or I might have to save the world from a guy with an orange mask and stop a war!" Naruto exclaimed with an excited look on his face.
"Those are some wild dreams kid, all you have to do is keep up with me while I run. Pretty simple, right?" The red-haired man said.
The second he said that, the race began. Just like the rest of his life, he was already losing.
Naruto wasn't dumb enough to not note how strange this was, but… he had to pass, so he would do anything in his power to achieve that goal. Even if it meant pretending that this isn't weird.
Naruto started running, officially starting the chase.
"HEY! That is not fair," Naruto yelled. It felt like he was running faster than he ever had in his whole life.
"Nothing's fair for Shinobi, so get used to it, or you'll die," the Red-Haired man yelled from in front of Naruto.
Naruto winced at the last part but decided to ignore it and started chasing the man with all his might.
(3 HOURS LATER, LOCATION: FOREST OF DEATH)
Naruto had been so focused on following the man that he didn't see the warning signs for training ground 44, the training ground that put the Bloody Mist training grounds to shame.
Naruto was still chasing the red-haired man, he was exhausted. So, when he heard a roar and fell to the ground to see a bear at least five times bigger than usual, he almost peed himself, but because he's the great Naruto Uzumaki, he didn't pee himself… barely. He thought that this was the end for him because, at a time like this, he had to admit that he was weak. He was a bad Taijutsu, no Genjutsu, and the only Ninjutsu he had sucked or worked on 1. perverted boys/men or 2. perverted lesbian girls/women, and a huge bear wasn't either of those, and he couldn't even run because he was exhausted.
"This is it, for the great Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto thought as the bear lunged at him. He prepared his body for pain, but it never came.
The red-haired man that he had been chasing the whole time jumped from the tree at the speed of an elite Jounin and started making hand signs.
Uzumaki Style: 5 Fingers of Hell Jutsu
He then placed his hands on the bear's forehead while using his hand and the bear's forehead to launch himself up onto a nearby tree. After he landed, he snapped his fingers and watched as the monster bear lit on fire, yelling and roaring. After about a minute, all that was left of the bear was ash.
He then jumped onto the ground. "Hey kid, are you ok?" he asked, his face leaking worry.
"Yeah, I am fine. . . and thanks for helping me. Also, what's your name?" Naruto said, just above a whisper.
"Well, my name is Aka Uzumaki, and as you can tell, I am from the Uzumaki clan just like you," he said with a grin on his face.
This information must have shocked the living hell out of the poor blonde-haired fellow because he did a Hinata and fainted.
At first, Aka thought he was hurt and checked his pulse to see that he was fine, so he decided to ask why he fainted later and carried him the rest of the way.
(Location: Secret Uzumaki clan hideout)
When Naruto woke, Aka was right in front of the Uzumaki clan hideout. In Naruto's sleepy state, he noticed that the symbol on the clan's hideout was the same as the one he had on his jumpsuit and the Chunin/Jonin vest, so he thought that this was probably just the Jonin's lounge.
Aka noticed Naruto had awakened and decided to ask his question now. "So, Naruto, are you okay? I was worried about you. Why did you faint?" he asked with curiosity.
This woke Naruto up, and he remembered what Aka had said to him.
(Super tiny flashback)
"Jiji, do I have a clan or a family-like Kiba?" a four-year-old Naruto asked.
"Sorry Naruto, you were found on the streets, and no one knew your parents, so they must not have been important enough to have." He lied through his teeth. Oh, please, Minato, don't kill me again when I die, but then he remembered that Minato was the belly of the reaper and gave a sigh of relief.
With tears in his eyes, he left but not before saying, "Oh, it's okay. Thanks, anyway."
(Location: Naruto's apartment)
"So my family hated me, too, and dropped me on the street and left," Naruto said with tears streaming down like a waterfall.
That night, he cried himself to sleep with his torn up teddy bear and frog wallet.
(End of flashback)
At that moment, Naruto started crying.
"Is it true that you're a part of my family?" Naruto asked in a scared tone.
For a moment, all Aka did was look at Naruto, but then after a bit, he said, "Yes Naruto, it's true that I am a part of your family, which means I have to protect you with my life" he said with a wide, foxy grin.
"Aka," Naruto whispered, "Thanks for everything."
Aka looked shocked for a moment before saying, "You're welcome."
-Scene Change-
Naruto woke up and found himself in a bed that was much more comfortable than his own. He looked around to find a room that was definitely not his. Next to the bed was a small orange carpet and fox slippers. There were also a couple of paintings in the room that looked quite old.
When he finished processing where he was, he remembered the events of the day before. "AKA," Naruto yelled, and just like that, Aka appeared right before Naruto.
"I see your awake sleepy head, you've been out for quite a while now." Aka teased
"Am I in the hideout you were talking about?" Naruto asked hopefully. The moment Aka told Naruto about the Uzumaki clan hideout, he really wanted to go and see it for himself.
"Yeah, this is the third guest room there are five in total." Aka said to Naruto "This is one of the bigger hideouts within the land of fire, there are two training grounds, one armory, one living room, one kitchen, four bathrooms, and six bedrooms" Aka Explained, "But enough about that are you feeling better" he asked
"WAY, better than yesterday," Naruto shouted while punching the air around him to show that he had the energy to spar. "I am hungry though, does this place have any ramen," Naruto asked hopefully. The villagers rarely let him buy anything from them, and if they do, they jacked up the price way higher than it's supposed to be. So, when he found that Ichiraku's ramen sold to him and that they didn't jack up the price, he started eating there every day.
"There are a couple of instant noodle cups in the kitchen if you want; let's go down stairs," Aka said. Aka was neutral to ramen, but he bought lots of it because he can buy a pack of 24 packs for $4, and when you are not associated with any village, but refuse to do rogue ninja work, it can be tough to make a living.
Naruto jumped out of bed, still wearing his bright orange jumpsuit and ran out of the room. He saw four bedrooms upstairs but decided to ignore them for now. He ran down the stairs and saw a spacious living room that had a rather large kitchen connected to it. The living room had a reasonably new television model, a somewhat old couch, and a table that can fit six, and five potted plants. The kitchen had everything a kitchen needed; the only odd thing was that there was a kunai next to all the kitchen knives.
"WOW, this place is way better than my apartment," Naruto yelled in excitement. His place only had the bare essentials needed to survive.
In a flash, Aka once again almost instantly teleported to Naruto and then teleported to the kitchen. He boiled some filtered water and then poured it into both cups of ramen.
"Aka-sensei, where are your cups of ramen as Naruto was looking at the two cups. Usually, Naruto ate three to five cups of ramen each meal.
"There right here," Aka said as he pointed to one of the cups of ramen goodness.
"WHAT, I CAN'T LIVE WITH ONE CUP," Naruto yelled.
"Naruto, you need to stop yelling all the time, and to answer your question, if you eat more than one cup, it can kill any chance for growth, especially people in your age group." Aka explained
"But... But RRAAMMEENN" Naruto said
"Naruto, did you not just hear me," He said as he shot K. I
"Ok Aka-sensei" Naruto replied
(Three minutes later)
Naruto was slurping down his ramen. "I love ramen, I love ramen, I love ramen," Naruto said in between breaths. In 40 seconds, the whole cup of ramen disappeared. "I never had so little ramen," Naruto said sadly.
"How about I train you, to make up for not having as much ramen as you wanted," Aka asked. In all honesty, Aka was going to train Naruto today anyway, but he just wanted a reason to make Naruto happier.
"You're going to train me; is it going to be a super cool jutsu?" Naruto asked with excitement in his cute blue eyes.
"No, Naruto, I'm going to train you in the basics first. One of the secrets to becoming a powerful shinobi is to know the basics better than the back of your hands" Aka said. Legends say Madara Uchiha could water walk in his sleep. "Well, Naruto, I'm done with my ramen, so let's go to the training ground. I will show you where it is.
(Uzumaki training ground)
When Naruto first walked into the room, he saw a dojo style room with a big blue orb in the middle. Aka told Naruto to touch the orb, but when Naruto did the orb exploded into a hologram.
"Hello, my name is Trainer. I am a hologram made by the Uzumaki clan for training purposes." Trainer said with no emotions or expressions
"Wait, what going on" Naruto replied with a lot of confusion about the hologram
"Well, Naruto, our clan once made a seal that allows a hologram to appear. They improved the seal, to give the hologram more knowledge and the ability to touch objects, because of the holograms knowledge they found a way to let the hologram train others." Aka replied.
"Oh you should have just said that before" Naruto said
"Trainer-san can you please help me learn the academy taijutsu since I'm failing badly." Naruto asked with his head held low. Naruto has always been bad at being a shinobi due to a mix of him not trying enough and him not getting taught enough.
"Of course, Naruto-sama, I would never do otherwise." The Trainer replied while punching Naruto in the face.
"HEY, what the hell was that for," Naruto yelled, also where did Aka go. Naruto needed to learn how Aka does that teleporting thing.
"I am testing your reflexes and taijutsu, just as a warning, this training may be painful," Trainer explained while beating Naruto. The sound of the punches and Naruto screams could be heard from miles away.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" Naruto screamed
-Scene Change-
Naruto has improved somewhat after training with trainer-san. The improvement is not noticeable to people that don't look for it, but it's still there. The improvement was mainly focused on the body. Naruto's punches and kicks were very weak since he hadn't done much strength training, and his ramen addiction didn't help that fact one bit.
Naruto's kicks and punches were still one the weaker side but were much better than before. It may not seem impressive, but Naruto has at least improved to the level of an average civilian academy student. Which is much better than being dead last.
Currently, Naruto was sitting on his bed, thinking about the start of the academy tomorrow. Every year the start of the academy was one of the worst times of the year for Naruto. Since everyone knew that he was held back, and often insulted him. Sure, he was insulted all throughout the year., but the beginning was worse.
"Damn, why did I have to fail the darn test" Naruto muttered to himself. Each year he had failed the same exact test. At first, he failed everything on the test, but the second time he only failed half of the test, and this time he had only failed the clone part of the test. Even though he was close to failing the other test. If he could get a perfect score on one of the tests. That should balance out the fail from the clone test.
"Well, I guess there is no use worrying about it now," Naruto said with a little more motivation. "Might as well just make some ramen, and go to sleep. I can deal with tomorrow's problems tomorrow" Naruto said while getting up.
Naruto walked over to his box of ramen. He used to have more, but Aka took them away. He said that he can only have a box per month. So, he uses his ramen more carefully. He grabbed a cup of ramen and proceeded to place it on the table. He poured some sink water into the electric kettle. Then he turned it on, after a while, it started to boil, and create steam.
Naruto poured the now boiling water into the cup of ramen and put a small plate to cover the cup ramen. He sat down on the couch, counting every second. After reaching 180 seconds he stood back up and grabbed the ramen. He got out the chopsticks and proceeded to eat the ramen.
After he finished eating his ramen, he got up and changed into his night-wear. He went into his bed with the moon shining brightly over Konoha. He closed his eyes and realized. He couldn't sleep.
"DAMN IT!" Naruto yelled. He then realized it was 1 AM, and he may have disturbed some people. He cringed inside and hoped that he hadn't woken anyone. He knew that he would need the sleep for tomorrow to have a chance to make an impression that wasn't bad. This hadn't happened before, so Naruto didn't really know what to do.
After trying, and failing to go to sleep. He changed into his day day-wear and walked to the Uzumaki Hideout, or as Naruto called it, UHON, which starts for Uzumaki Hideout of Naruto. Aka did say that was a selfish name but never told Naruto to stop using it. So, he didn't stop. Naruto quite liked the sound of UHON.
Naruto walked to the path in the forest. Naruto understood how UHON would be very hard to find without any directions, and basically near impossible to find on accident. The path there had many curves, and at one point you had to get off the path to get there. When I'm talking about a "path" it was more like a line of rocks that you would have to follow, since a real path would be too obvious.
Once Naruto was at UHON, all he had to do was put his hand on a seal right next to the door. This seal would read if you were an Uzumaki. If you were it would open the door, if you weren't it would shoot kunai at you. You can add people that would be allowed to come in. Just like giving a spare key to your home to a friend.
Once Naruto was inside the building he went straight to the dojo. He put his hand on the blue orb and came trainer-san. "Naruto-sama, I would always like to train with you, but doesn't it seem quite late?" Trainer-san asked questioningly
"That is the reason I came here" Naruto replied while putting his hands behind his back in an embarrassed manner. "I couldn't really sleep, so I decided to come here and train a little bit. Then I will hopefully I will be tired enough to go to sleep" Naruto added it
" Then shall we do a light spare?" Trainer-san asked hopefully. Trainer-san's favorite way to train Naruto was by sparing him.
"Seems about right to me," Naruto said, getting into the basic academy stance. This is already a major improvement since Naruto used to not have any style. He was more of a brawler, trying to outlast his enemies, and not caring if he got hit if he could land a hit. There were many problems, but first of all, Naruto couldn't even do that correctly. Brawler's need to be able to hit their enemy two times harder than their enemy could hit them. Naruto couldn't do that at the time.
"Then let's begin," trainer-san said had she sent out a punch
Naruto dodged the punch by jumping up in the air, but before Naruto could land. Trainer-san grabbed his foot and threw him on the ground. Trainer-san then tried to land a kick on Naruto's stomach while he was down, but Naruto barely rolled out of the kick. He then quickly stood up and tried to land his own kick which was parried by Trainer-san's arm.
They both then jumped back to gain some distance. "Doomed Needles!" Trainer-San yelled. 30 needles then shoot directly at Naruto. "Substation Jutsu!" Naruto yelled barely avoiding getting hit by 30 needles. Damn, that would be a pain in the ass. "I see you have improved on the substation Jutsu, but that still took far too long, and he had to yell it out, also I suggest you look behind you," Trainer-san said
Naruto turned around to see another trainer-san with a kunai in hand heading straight for Naruto. His senses kicked in and jumped far away from the second Trainer-san forget about the first one. Naruto was surprised to feel himself getting kicked straight towards the other trainer-san, but to his surprise, he went through her. Once he landed on the ground trainer-san grabbed both of his arms and put them to his back.
"DAMN IT! The clone Jutsu sucks" Naruto yelled in frustration for losing. This wasn't new by any means, but it was still annoying none of the less. Naruto really did hate losing to anyone, young or old. Hell, even a Hologram.
"So, what's all this yelling I hear while I'm trying to sleep?" Aka said, coming from seemingly nowhere. Aka can use the body flicker jutsu much better than most ninja's. He is so good at it that some people may confuse it with the 4th Hokage's flying thunder god jutsu.
"Sorry Aka," Both Trainer-san, and Naruto said. Trainer-san then disappeared into the blue orb. "Cheater" Naruto thought. "So, what are you doing here so late?" Aka asked
"Well, I couldn't sleep, so I thought I would come here, and train so I could get tired, and fall asleep. Naruto replied sheepishly. "Well, since I'm guessing you're tired now. I will let you sleep in the guest's room since it would take a while to get to your home, and you already lost enough sleep."
"Thank yo-" Naruto was about to say until he realized that he was now in the guest bed. "Go to sleep," Aka said and left the room
He was still in his day-wear, but that didn't matter much since it was so fluffy. Naruto thought about how cool, and bad tomorrow was going to be. After thinking for 20 minutes, Naruto was finally out cold.
-End
Author Notes:
How'd you guys like the story? I hope it was decent enough for you guys to continue reading. Anyhow, see ya next time.