Chapter 4:
Anko, an eccentric Jounin in the Hidden Leaf Village, often priden herself as the "Caretaker of the Forest Of Death".
She trains, eats, and sleeps in the Forest. While she does occasionally go back to her residence, a comfy and homely house, she doesn't find it appealing at all.
"Nothing beats sleeping 20 meters in the air, on a cold, hard, swaying branch that could snap from your weight at any given moment, surrounded by Monsters out for your blood."
Recently in the past 3 days, she kept finding the corpses of various monsters, each one carefully pierced open near the guts and signs of a hand pulling something out of them.
She even found a dead Velvet Cobra, there were also signs of a hand impaling near the guts and pulling something out of it. The horn was broken off and most of its Velvet scales skinned off, meaning whoever killed it had enough knowledge to know just how valuable the hide and horn of the cobra are.
Luckily, the fact that the corpse was an effing VELVET COBRA, genuinely helps narrow down the list of suspects. It was a fully mature Cobra, and there were evident signs of struggle, various slashes were in its corpse and the track marks spanned many many miles.
She couldn't sense residual chakra emitting from the head, meaning the mystery man who killed it had probably cut off its ability to use chakra before fighting it, or negated all of its attempts to use chakra mid-fight.
'This man is hella smart. Cutting off its chakra is the same as only fighting half of its power.'
Yet for some reason, there were no footprints, not a single trace. In fact, none of the monsters who had been killed had any footprints around. No residual chakra, scent, or trace.
'Goddammit, this guy's a veteran.'
But Anko was pissed solely for the reason that she can no longer hunt as many monsters as once would have. All of them would be dead the moment she even approached them.
Many times she got close to seeing the man with incredible power, often laying traps like clustering a bunch of monsters together and waiting, but he would never come, and the moment she looked away, one of them would be dead.
And sometimes, he would do it right in front of her while she was looking, that too with such speed that it looked like a blur. The only thing she could make out was the streak of Bright Yellow hair. Everything else was lost.
It had been about 4 days and the number of encounters she had with 'Blonde Beast' summed up to over a hundred.
It was shameful, but after every encounter, he only seemed to get faster. And there were less monsters for her to hunt. In 2 or 3 days,she would be called to lead a Genin Squad, and she would reject, but would be dragged by Kurenai to help her team train, so it was the same as leading a genin team without all the formalities.
That also meant she had 2 or 3 days left to catch the Blonde Beast. And at the rate this hunt was going, it would take years.
It was Day 6 of Hunting the Blonde Beast. Both the Beast and Anko had been hunting non-stop for the span of these 6 days. And Anko had used every maneuver, trap, method, and skill in her book to catch him, all ending in failure.
It's like everytime Anko laid a trap, the guy knew what it was, its weakness and how to get out of it, all engraved in his mind. What could she do now?
She even lay in the open, wearing an extremely revealing dress, hoping to appeal to the beast's lust, but when he noticed Anko's antics, he audibly snickered and continued his hunt.
While she was enraged beyond belief, she heard the beast's voice. A raspy, and childish voice, that felt mature and held depth. It was near the lower mid-range octaves, and bouncy.
It was a childs, yet an adult's as well.
'Don't tell me… HE EVEN CONCEALED HIS TRUE VOICE?!'
Naruto did in fact, not conceal his true voice.
Thanks to this 6 day hunt, technically 7 for Naruto, his DKi was considerably stored up. Strong monsters and weak monsters were all slaughtered indiscriminately. In perspective, he had about 1% of his original reserves.
But since it isn't an activated demon chakra that can slowly grow with meditation, and refill itself when used, the reality is more like 0.1%.
This meant he could in fact hunt for 5,993 days and regain his prior abilities, but it would be a lot easier to just find the Akuma no Heya.
Anyways, it was around 7:30 PM when Naruto got the message to meet up at the classroom at 8:00 AM tomorrow for the Genin Squad placement.
'As expected'
Naruto looked over his gear. They had grown dull and dirty, red stains adorned all of them. He had used up all his ninja wire laying elaborate traps and choking the necks of god knows how many monsters. His kunai dwindled by about half, and the remaining ones were unusable, their blades were dull and chipped.
His clothes were a mess too!
While blood wasn't on him, he did slide, jump, and run along a lot of dirt. Plus he often slept in blankets made of herbs and dirt, to conceal his scent.
Luckily, he had another 5 sets of the same clothes, and sandals were meant to get dirty anyway. He also had the spare utility pouch that was untouched.
"Nothing a quick shower couldn't fix!" sang Naruto, as he skipped to the bathroom.
- You seem happier these days, I guess the stress of being a criminal is no longer there, so you feel lighter and more carefree perhaps?
'Perhaps.'
As he showered, Anko Mitarashi made her way into the home of Naruto. She wasn't dumb enough to enter through the door, so she used the window.
Although it was locked, using chakra, she slowly and carefully unlocked the window and slid inside.
"You let your guard down, Blonde Beast. Now, to see who you really are?"
She looked around, and saw a rather clean home.
Ever since sasuke went on a search inside his home, Naruto made extra sure to clean it out. He burnt all items that were sensitive information, and kept his weapons inside a secret storage space inside his bed, and set up various traps in just his room, since he really didn't mind who ravaged the rest of his house.
Anko finished searching the living room and kitchen, and was making her way to the bedroom, when a hand grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back.
By reflex, she tried to grab the hand and judo flip whoever it was, but the man didn't budge.
No, the hand was a child's.
"Take a step forward and brace yourself for becoming a kunai porcupine."
This Voice!
That raspy, lower mid-octave range, bouncy voice.
"Blonde Beast!?"
'Huh?"
Anko turned around, and finally, finally saw Naruto.
"A child? Really?"
"An adult? Really?" Naruto mocked.
She took a deep breath, and slowly analyzed the child in front of her.
He just came out of the shower, so there was the scent of steam and soap, but nothing else. He only had a towel wrapped around his lower body, revealing his 8-pack abs, and a toned, but powerful body.
Judging by how she couldn't even judo flip him, he probably had a strong core and understood how to manipulate one's center of gravity.
If he was the Blonde Beast, then it wouldn't be completely out of the ballpark.
"Did you go hunting in the Forest of Death, training ground 44, and hunt every monster you saw for 6 days straight?"
"Were you stalking me for 6 days straight, laying traps to stop me from hunting?"
"So it was you!"
And hence, Anko, for the first time in her entire life, felt like the truth was a lie and all other possible lies were more believable than the truth.
"H-How old are you?"
"12."
"So you are going to be a genin tomorrow?"
"Yup."
'You've been on a mission."
Naruto hesitated, then sighed, "No."
"You were the first in the test at least?"
"Dead Last."
"The rest of your classmates are stronger than you?"
"Not at all."
Anko had a general idea of the situation. This kid is insanely strong, but since being that strong would arouse suspicion, he hid his abilities and got the rank of dead last. Although how the kid became this power is still a mystery.
"What is your name kid?"
"Naruto Uzumaki Tsunizu."
'Tsunizu? Isn't that the Legendary Warrior?'
A/N: The next section will be a little bit of Tsunizu's history as well as his origins. It's nothing important, but if you want to skip it, scroll down to the next line, like the one above.
Long ago, before Kaguya even made her entrance on Earth, Humans were already dwelling and living inside caves and underground. They developed language and religion, and somehow, they knew that there would be a time where technology would advance leaps and bounds, far beyond their imagination, and named themselves the Genshi-Hito (Primal Human) Race.
Their religion was called Heiindoten, and they had many many gods. In a series of 4 scriptures, the first was called Hajimari, or the Beginning. It talked about the creation of deities and how they created life and their unique powers, while shedding light one something called the divine rule. It stated that Gods cannot use their power amongst each other, nor directly interfere with their creation's actions.
The next was called Konton, or Chaos. It talked about how the gods entered conflicts with each other, and split into their separate paths. They led battles against each other, using their creations as armies to fight alongside them. Eventually, the battles became a free-for-all battle, and then War.
The next was called Dakusan to Buraitomun, or Dark Sun and Bright Moon. Being the longest in the scriptures, it only talked about a single battle, where they introduce the idea of gods choosing certain prophets to shed their power and thoughts to, hence bypassing the Divine Rule, and allowing a divine being to directly take part in the battles amongst one another. However, they also introduce a man named Tsunizu, a warrior who was not made by any god, a creation that was created by anybody. As the Dakusan to Buraitomun speculates, Tsunizu was the Divine Law itself, who entered the mortal realm to punish those who bypassed it.
Tsunizu was human at first and did not know he was the Divine Law, and not a god. But he grew much faster than other humans and became exceptionally powerful. At a certain level, he inherited the Divine Law's full power, and while still a human, he had power compared to divinity.
The gods couldn't influence Tsunizu's minds, as they did to their armies, so they sought to kill him. The first god to hunt his head, Rendeta, made the mistake of coming to him in person. Tsunizu killed him and absorbed his powers, along with his armies. Tsunizu set the army free of their mind's influence, and hid them away in various dimensions. The gods learnt their lesson and set up a single battle ground to end it all.
Trillions and quadrillions of soldiers walked this battle ground that day, from millions of dimensions all around. Each one of them were slaughtered, and the only one remaining was Tsunizu, who apparently got stronger with every kill. Unfortunately, he became so powerful that he became divine.
The thing is, despite being the Divine Law, the Divine Law works on ANY divine being, and hence, Tsunizu self-destructed, and all his power split and formed very special races, like the Otsutsuski.
The last book, named Horizon, was lost, but experts speculate that it has not been finished, or destroyed.
Although, recently, a new page was discovered, and it was apparently the first page of Horizon. It only held a few words.
'Tsunizu will be back.'
The female Jounin knew better than to jump to conclusions, and ignored it.
Naruto was the first to break the silence, "I have the genin placement meeting tomorrow in the morning please leave."
It wasn't a request, it was an order. It was said in such a manner Anko felt powerless against it, and left quietly.
"At least he didn't attack me, god knows if I would survive. Oh the shame."
Naruto was the first to the classroom, at 6:00 AM he was sitting there and slowly developing his chakra control.
He tried forming various shapes with his chakra, like ropes, or planks. Then he would slowly aim for far more intricate figures.
The plank's now had a texture like wood, and the ropes were weaved. Then he managed to stimulate the fibers in the rope, as well as the characteristics of wood.
By this time, it had already become 7:40, and the second student walked in. It was emo brat, I mean Sasuke.
He noticed Naruto and his face softened a lot. A light smile adorned his face.
"Good morning, Sasuke."
"Where were you?"
"Huh?"
"I came to your house like 50 times over the week, and you weren't there!"
Naruto knew he messed up. Obviously Sasuke would be worried, having seen Naruto's hospital papers and his overall reputation with the rest of Konoha. But he couldn't exactly say that he hunted high class monsters for 7 days without sleep and rest while evading a Jounin.
I.N. ~ Talk about the Massacre and the investigation!
"Umm I was camping in the forest, and stuff. Tryna get away from the village while the investigation is going on." Naruto spoke, as he gave I.N. a mental headpat for his quick thinking.
Sasuke nodded, his gaze lingered downwards.
"But all is good now! I'm clean!"
A pause later, the blue haired Uchiha sighed, and sat next to Naruto.
It was 7:47, and there were a large number of loud footsteps, and the two people in the classroom could see dust clouds out of the window. The footsteps got closer, and the sounds of various squeals also became apparent.
"Quick, hide me Naruto!"
Naruto nodded, and in a hot second picked up Sasuke by the collar...
"Aww shi-"
...and flickered out of the Classroom. The sounds of barfing was in the background as Naruto realised he subconsciously flickered inside the Forest of Death.
"Where are we?"
"Training ground 44."
"Huh?"
"Let's sit out for a bit here, then I'll flicker you back."
"We'll be safe here right? It is the Forest of Death."
"Oh yeah, I already killed all the monsters in this forest and some!" wasn't an answer he could just say.
"Yeah the Jounin are on patrol right now."
"Hmmm, I see."
Sasuke started practicing some taijutsu, and Naruto took a short nap on the tree.
At 7:55, Naruto grabbed Sasuke by the collar…
"Wait! Wait! Wait a Min-"
...and flickered outside the door of the classroom.
The academy Janitor had a little bit more work to do today.
As the two walked in, Iruka was already there, proud that no one failed the meeting, even Naruto.
"Alright now that we are all here! Should we start?"
The entire classroom got on edge. Their careers as shinobi were beginning and the Jounin they got put under, would shape up how their lives would go. Their teammates would become their best friends, and people they will have to put their lives in the hands of.
It wasn't a test, but far more nerve racking.
"Team 1….. Your instructor is in room 3."
And so the list went on.
"Team 7, Sasuke, and Naruto? A team of 2? Led by Kakashi Hatake. Your team leader will be meeting up with you here."
The Hokage probably had a hand in this. Pairing the two most powerful new shinobi under the village's most powerful Jounin, a state where anyone else would not only disrupt the balance but bring down the capabilities of the team in general.
Officially, Naruto was dead last. But the Hokage knew better, but it helped pair the two together, since officially, "He wanted to boost Naruto's growth by letting him observe and take motivation from the first."
The rest of the teams split up, and Naruto, Sasuke, and Iruka sat in the classroom, waiting.
"Kakashi usually comes about 3-4 hours after the time so wait for a bit."
Sasuke raised his hand, "Could we use the training field?"
Iruka nodded. And the two made their way.
As they went out in the open, Sasuke turned around and asked Naruto.
"Can you teach me how to fight better?"
The timing was so abrupt, Naruto rejected the offer.
"I see."
2 hours went by, Sasuke beat the living daylights out of a scarecrow, never once daring to ask Naruto for a spar. The blonde sat alone in the shade, meditating, continuing his training from this morning.
He now made multiple planks, and increased the size of the rope. Of course, it was invisible, but Naruto could sense his chakra.
He started linking plants together with the rope and made a small raft. Then he made many more small rafts, laid them on the side, and put 3 others down forming 4 walls. The last one hoe put over the top, and used rope to tie them all together.
"It's barely acceptable for now."
Sasuke, who thought it was a complement to his training, smiled. Naruto smiled back, deciding it was better to not tell him.
The two heard footsteps and saw a white-haired ninja with a jounin vest.
"Kakashi, these two are your students." spoke Iruka
The cyclop ninja looked puzzled, "I was supposed to be getting 3?"
"These 2 are more than enough."
The jounin again looked confused, now with a hint of curiosity. After all, Kakashi knew that he would be getting the dead last and the number 1 rank from the Hokage's briefing, but, why would JUST the number 1 rank be enough?
Iruka read Kakshi's eye expressions, and noticed how he was eyeing Sasuke but not Naruto, and quickly caught his train of thought.
'Aah, he doesn't realise Naruto is the strongest genin here does he."
All evidence pointing too was covered up. Large chakra? Kyuubi. Muscles? Hidden by clothes. Fighting skills? Not yet tested. Stress Management and Clutching up? Too early to make a definitive decision.
Naruto still upheld the name of the dead-last. That to a level far more than sheer coincidence, the blonde in front of him was consciously setting his appearance to be that of a deadlast. All of his strengths had an explanation that would not point the fingers at him.
'Scary'
"All right then, you two… on the roof in 30 seconds."
Sasuke turned and dashed, and Naruto calmly jumped out of a window.
Like a lizard, Naruto scaled the building. No chakra or anything, just sheer grip strength, upper-body strength and agility. Naruto was at the top of the building within 23 seconds, that too after considerably slowing down while climbing.
"Seems like both of you got here in time…" said Kakashi, obviously bored, and uninterested. "Let's do some introductions. You, Lone Wolf Uchiha, go first."
Suddenly, the somewhat emotionally stable Sasuke became gloomy and dark, his emo-ness knew no bounds.
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I don't like-"
"That's enough, you... blondy, go."
"I'd rather not."
"Fair enough. Meet up at training ground 7 tomorrow at 6:00 AM. Late people will face no mercy… oh! And don't eat breakfast." and the jounin shunshined away.
Both Naruto and Sasuke weren't fazed. 6:00 AM was no biggie, and neither was training at such a time. But the criminal had better insight.
'A simple training session won't be backed by a threat of 'late people will have no mercy' and neither will they be asked to skip out on breakfast. It must be some test.'
As a superior mind, the Blonde often forgets to realise Sasuke would be far too excited by the thought of training with pros, and his start to his revenge - I mean - Shinobi Career. Enough to not realise that it's more than just training.
So, Naruto left without a word, expecting Sasuke to reach the same conclusion as him.
The next day came without a hitch, and the two were waiting intently for their instructor to arrive.
3 hours later, at 9:00, no one came.
At 10:15, their Jounin instructor came, not even greeting them, and reading his small handheld book. After a moment, in went the book and his single gaze went to both of the genin.
From the same place he stored the book came out a small clock. Judging by the model it had an alarm function.
There was a single bell on his hip, and no other visible difference from his appearance yesterday.
"This clock is set to ring at 1:00… before it would be at 12:00 but you guys are only a duo so that was accounted for. See this bell on my hip?" he gave it a light tap to make a sound, "this is your goal for today, get it off my hip by 1:00 and you pass."
'Aah the classics. Pitch your teammates against one another for the bell, or let them develop an outstanding sense of teamwork.'
After some more instruction, he paused and then shouted, "Start!"
Sasuke jumped into the bushes and Naruto remained still, meanwhile Kakashi got out his book again, indicating he didn't take either one of them seriously.
"Heh!"
Naruto neither jumped nor ran, he made no visible movement, but he simply vanished.
Not a blur or streak, not a trace how ever bleak.
And Kakshi realised his mistake.
'Shit! I let my guard down!'
The book went in and his hand protectively covered the bell.
The bell? It wasn't there!
And from far away, he heard a sound familiar.
"Jingle!"
And so, the test came to an end, not even 5 minutes into its start.
"Ha, I let my guard down. Screw it! Redo the test, I'm serious this time…"
Naruto threw the bell and Sasuek waddled out of his hiding spot, leaves adorned his hair, and his jaw was agape. Clearly Naruto wasn't supposed to be able to take the bell from the jounin but he went and did.
The jounin however was unfazed. Naruto even briefly saw hints of pride and satisfaction in his gaze.
'Weird.'
Kakashi wasted no time, "Start!" And sasuek jumped into the trees again, Naruto remained still, but this time, Kakshi was in a defensive position. No book.
All things considered, it would be beneficial for Naruto to test his skills against a honed Jounin.
BUT! Let's not rush things shall we?
The vanishing act was just a warning, but irregardless of who it is, NOBODY should see his true skills. And he sure as hell wasn't ready to reveal them this early into his reincarnation.
'Let's slowly build up the intensity of the battle. First, let's attack him with the thing he was most prepared for, the Vanishing Technique. Then follow through with different variations.'
Cling! As expected, Kakashi parried his attack with his backhand protector, and counterattacked with his fist.
.Naruto Vanished again. Now behind Kakashi.
Tang! This time, a Kunai blocked his own, and the two pieces of metal resonated in a high pitch.
'Level 2'
This time, Naruto didn't vanish, but held his ground and released his kunai from the opponents, then jabbing and slashing at the vitals and ligaments, all to be blocked, parried, or diverted by the various metal sheets that adorned the Jounin's body.
'Vanish!'
Naruto unexpectedly Vanished, but the slurry of attacks came from elsewhere, and Kakashi turned around to block, when he met the air.
'Face the wrath of a technique I used during my green horned month in the wars as a fresh genin. Hat Trick Vanish!'
A slash to the back ligament was all it took for Naruto to realise not mess around either.
A slash to the blonde's own ligament… that was. And the Kakashi in front of him popped into smoke.
"Aiming for my ligaments and Vitals, while secretly positioning the approach of the attack in a sense that I couldn't attack back. This isn't genin level performance! Nevertheless, quite impressive, but child… I'm a jounin."
The slashed Naruto turned his head around, and in an awkward, eerie smile, spoke.
"And I'm… a clone!" and then the blonde went poof, a slash now appeared on Jounin's left tendon.
'Nani!'
Kakashi snapped his head around, bewildered, yet no one was nearly around him. In fact, the only one he could sense was Sasuke, and not Naruto. He just came back from a mission two days ago, so he knew he wasn't rusty enough to not be able to detect two genin.
And then…. It all clicked.
"These 2 are more than enough."
Kakashi couldn't help but grin. He didn't get the dead last and #1 genin… no. He got the #1 genin on the records, and then the strongest genin yet, off the records.
"Sweet mother of God, what the hell have I gotten myself into?"
Without another hint of doubt, he put his hand up to his hitai-ate, and slowly lifted it up, a big, 3 tomoe Sharingan, came into view.
And the two genin watching could only think the same thing.
'What the Fu**?'