Chapter 5:
The Hokage was already watching the fight between Kakashi and Naruto (and Sasuke), hoping to see things that he would have never thought possible.
And then, Kakashi revealed his Sharingan, that too just for a single greenhorn.
Then again, this so-called greenhorn already killed 40+ chunin level adults alone, not to mention how many he might have done in secret.
'I guess Kakashi realized he would have to go full out for this child.'
The battle was at a halt, the genin was still adjusting their thoughts with the new information, and Kakashi was slowly trying to calm his nerves. For Naruto, however, he has fought the Uchihas before, that too at a time where the three of them were some of the strongest people he fought.
Compared to them, Kakashi was still Child's play.
'Aah! Those were the good times. Fighting the crow arts of the Uchiha clan themselves. 3 dastardly powerful men who became almost synergistic with each other, a trio who came to be known as the Trident. Itachi and Madara Uchiha are at the forefront, and Shisui Uchiha launching powerful genjutsu from the back .'
Lost in thought, Kakashi pounced on an unfocused Naruto.
"Pay Attention!"
"-but I was?"
In a fluid motion, Naruto tapped the side of Kakashi's extended hand, just barely adjusting the trajectory away from his head, as he leaned to the right to gain an even bigger buffer. Kakashi gilded right past Naruto, but he pushed his extended hand into the ground, and using his acrobatic skills, his rooted hand as an axis of rotation, did a full 270 spin and attempted kicking the side of Naruto.
'Good!' thought Kakashi, as his legs came within millimeters of Naruto's side. But he immediately noticed an elbow smashing into his knee, as another hand grabbed the kicking leg and held it in place.
'Not Good!'
Kakashi took out his rooted hand and spun 180 degrees horizontally in such a way that his head was facing the ground and the backside of his knee would get hit (which would bend on impact, so the damage was minimal). Or that was what he wanted.
The firm grip Naruto's hand had, didn't even let Kakashi gain a single degree of rotation, and his elbow smashed the side of his knee, shattering it.
'Sh!t' but the attack wasn't over, no, Naruto had plans.
Using his grip and sheer brute strength, Naruto flung Kakashi onto the ground, then jumped knee first as he fell. Kakashi hit the ground first, the impact caused him to bounce a little, right into Naruto's knee, which smashed Kakashi into the ground again.
Broken ribs and a shattered knee were only a minuscule amount of things he broke with the two attacks.
Had Kakashi used his other leg beforehand instead of attempting a spin, the chances of his knee being broken and ribs shattered would have been reduced by about 10%?
But wait! There's more!
Kakashi clutched his chest in pain but was promptly lifted, and hurled onto the ground again, chest first.
The same process repeated, the bounce happened and he crashed into the knee, which smashed him onto the ground again, breaking his spine.
It would have been death, but Naruto knew he wouldn't die. The Kakashi he spent so much time flinging around was just a clone after all.
When?
Before he even attacked, the real Kakashi was hunting Sasuke and hoped he could use him as a hostage.
Suddenly, Sasuke heard Naruto's voice in his head.
'Jump. Now.'
Sasuke was flustered, flustered for a bit too long, as Kakashi appeared from the shadows behind Sasuke's body, and placed a Kunai on his neck.
They both walked out of the bushes and right in front of Naruto, who just finally popped Kakashi's clone.
"That's quite the sturdy clone you got there." he glanced at the kunai, "and I'm assuming that's quite the sturdy grip too."
No trace of emotion was on Naruto's face though, even if his voice was passively sarcastic.
"Damn, you pulled out a hostage situation. Would be a shame, if I cared."
Hostages? Against Naruto? Anybody in his previous life who heard that would laugh at the information.
Kakashi made an audible "?" sound. Naruto explained.
"You don't take…" Naruto crouched real low, "...hostages…" his hand pulled out a kunai from his pouch, "...against somebody…" the hand visibly clutched the kunai, and his eyes looked intensely at the tip of the blade, and spoke much louder than before, "who couldn't care less."
The kunai flew at Sasuke's head, faster than lightning, and more powerful than a bull horde, it struck. A body fell lifeless on the ground.
"What the fu-" Kakashi muttered wide-eyed, but his internal safety system shouted, "INCOMING" before he could finish.
A punch landed neatly on his jaw. Join or not, a dead person, suddenly killed before your eyes, would inevitably shock somebody. Kakashi might be at the top of his game, and not all that affected, but the shock was still there.
The dead Sasuke poofed away from existence, and Naruto used the new shock to land another jawbreaker.
Kakashi, who had thought he gained an advantage after revealing his Sharingan, was suddenly doubting himself.
As if the two punches cleared his mind, he took a good look at Naruto.
The way he carried himself, the way he planned out his attacks, his raw skills, his subtle aura of arrogance that he spews, everything backed up his raw power.
Now that Kakashi realized his disadvantage, the only thing he could do was back up the last attack with everything he had.
A large ball of chakra formed in Kakashi's right hand, and a torrent of Lightning in his left.
"Raikengan!" he shouted, as he pushed his two palms together, forming a pea-sized ball of pure lightning energy, as the occasional zap it would shoot out, while harmless, reached meters in size.
"That looks bad."
He rushed forward, hoping to land the hit, and noticed despair creep up on Naruto's face.
No, it was a look of disgust.
"Don't tell me this is your trump card. Disappointing."
All it took was a slap, and the ball zipped off in a different direction and into the clearing of trees beside them.
And a second backhand slap immediately after the first, zipped Kakashi off into the other direction.
Sasuke slowly got up, a kunai stuck in his forehead, but alive. How? Well, simply put, Naruto used all of his chakra control to unleash a simple yet untraceable genjutsu. Why did Kakashi not notice with his Sharingan? 2 reasons, Naruto is Naruto, a beast of a creature who can do things people can't even dream of.
The second reason, Naruto didn't use any ninjutsu for the majority of the fight, taijutsu was the only skill he demonstrated. Kakashi lowered his guard and stopped searching for ninjutsu so that he could better focus his concentration.
If he didn't use ninjutsu, what was the chance of him using genjutsu? Practically none. But Naruto's sole existence in this universe is to bend the laws of nature and common sense with sheer ability, always expecting the unexpected while still preparing to experience more unexpected shit.
What good was a jounin if his genin team was stronger than him?
Recently, the 4 other nations, excluding the hidden leaf, started getting stronger and stronger. They were always nearly similar in strength, while the fire nation barely towers over them all in terms of average ninja ability.
But now, the fire nation was only, in the words of the Hokage himself, "dominating the shinobi world by their intimidating history and not their preparation for any inevitable future."
Simply put, they were the strongest merely in name, otherwise, the shinobis of the world were practically head to head. But the confusing part was how this happened?
2 years ago, the Hokage had gotten a letter from a crow and secretly picked it up, anticipating a debriefing from Ita- one of his… spies. Instead, he got a letter addressed to him beginning like this.
"I'm not your precious little Uchiha you've got running around for you. Did the crow throw you off?"
Clearly, the man had information about the Hokage's darkest secrets, including him. Anxiously he read on further.
"I am a shinobi of the world, a being who no longer affiliates himself with nations or beliefs like the rest of you puny mortals do. I am 'strength', I follow 'strength', I die for 'strength'.
As such, I strive to further seek my boundaries, by simply experiencing the potential 'strength' in other candidates."
Candidates? The Hokage already knew where this was going.
"An unnamed facility in an unnamed place led by me, an unnamed warrior. Training unnamed shinobi with unnamed techniques and unnamed methods.
I only wish to see how much 'strength' I can visualize from your candidates.
Here, in this unnamed school, shinobi cannot wear or express faith or loyalty to anything but 'strength'. A course only till the candidates can show me their strength.
You might not believe me, but your precious 4th Hokage was one of my numerous students. In his file, you notice that he took a 15-month long mission during his chunin times, a mission he completed within the first month, and spent the rest 14 working with me. Me, the unnamed warrior.
I of course will not ask you to join the program, but if you should ever decide to, and meet with a child who has even the faintest glimmer of greatness similar to that of the 4th, then please send him over.
On the 1st of December every year, atop the first Hokage's head, will be a man waiting. He will stand there for 30 seconds, exactly at noon, and take whoever is with him after the 30 seconds, to me.
If you attempt to subjugate this man, your village will most likely be obliterated.
Again, We do not favor nations or wealth or titles, or heritage. You shall be treated as per your 'strength'. I hope to see you."
The Hokage was skeptical, but in the Kage meetings, all the Kage claimed to have sent their best genin and chunin to this man. Later that year, the very genin they gave to the man, dominated the chunin exams.
Although no longer skeptical, the Hokage wasn't prepared to just give any Larry who got a 100% on the academy test. If he was going to give somebody this opportunity…
… it would be given to somebody…
… truly exceptional.
And the Hokage watched intently, one thought swimming in his head, "I found him," he muttered.
After around a week of D-rank missions, done as a sheer formality and for no real reason other than for the records, the Hokage exempted them from D-Ranks but also told them to not complete missions below B-Rank.
The single eye that peered out of Kakashi was wide open.
'B-Rank? I know we have Naruto and Me, but in this case, Sasuke becomes a dead weight…'
"Sasuke is not as weak as you think," Hiruzen said, realizing what Kakashi was thinking, "he is simply outshined by the Beast of Talent."
It need not be said who was this Beast of Talent, only one person fits this criterion.
"I have given Naruto some personal training time today. You, on the other hand, with Sasuke, have a little team spar with Gai's team at 1:00. Just Sasuke versus the rest of his team." he started rubbing his beard gently, "I'm not saying he will win, but you'll be realizing a lot of things this afternoon.."
The cyclops nodded, he really hoped to be equal to both students, but Sasuke didn't seem anything great as of yet. That was the sole reason the Jounin couldn't help but anticipate something from the Hokage's words.
As normal, Sasuke was waiting at training ground 7, and Kakashi quickly landed in front of him. Usually, he would be talking to Naruto, but his companion was missing, so he reverted to his 'revenge is my sole purpose and happiness is a lie' mode.
Kakashi quickly set him to work, the emo-ness of Sasuke so potent it felt like a miasma, and he couldn't bear to be around it much longer.
After many hours of watching Naruto pushing around Sasuke by simple words, he got a gist of how to moderate Sasuke.
He took a deep breath and attempted to flex his throat in a method that would best allow him the best results.
"Oye! Gaki! Get yo butt here and spar with me!"
Weird, very weird, but it worked. Sasuke was stretching his muscles and circulating plenty of chakras, and with a nod of approval, Kakashi did the same.
Upon retrospection, Kakashi never really taught them anything, as Naruto was almost a well of information that taught itself. Hence, Kakashi's life was easier, but he always got the unnerving feeling that he was avoiding his responsibilities. Kept the sheets off him at night.
Now for the first time, that feeling was gone, and Kakashi felt all better.
A frog decided to step on a twig again and the battle initiated.
Here's a little something about Team 7:
All spars are battles.
All battles will have your life on the line
Escape is never allowed
These were the unsaid rules taught by Naruto, something Kakashi felt very unsettling and sinister for a team that was supposed to be his to teach and govern.
The rules were awfully ANBU-like, but perhaps more, Root ANBU-ish, in the sense to maximize improvement while slimming down the crowd to only the best.
It was anarchical in its own sense, yet had a romance to it.
So all in all, it was most likely the reason why Sasuke was charging at Kakashi with both his single-tomoe Sharingan out blazing and a premature form of Kakashi's Chidori. All in the first move.
If he didn't, then the jounin would kill him by the second move. He had plenty of Naruto getting awfully close to his throat and heart with a kunai to know that this team was…
...quite cut-throat (pun intended)
But much to Kakashi's pleasure, team 7 was no longer afraid of anything. By already accepting that any battle would lead to death, it was given that one would become numb to the feeling.
He slapped the wrist of the genin and completely launched the Chidori elsewhere, a technique he learned from when he got his ass handed to him for the first time by Naruto, and backhanded the poor uchiha.
However, to his astonishment, Sasuke grabbed the hand and forearm and bit the thumb hard, as well as using his grip to place his left foot in his armpit and right foot on his head.
He looked like he was squatting horizontally using Kakashi's arm as a makeshift platform.
As hard as the genin could, he extended his body, popping Kakashi's shoulder out of its socket. And then using the dislocated shoulder to swing him in a judo flip manner, although not perfect, as he was not used to such complicated maneuvers one after another.
Kakashi was able to bend his back and land just barely on his toes, enough to reverse the momentum and counterflip Sasuke.
But Sasuke's style of fighting, a ruthless creativity to the movement, was unique to Naruto, yet Sasuke had his own brute force and somewhat choppy manner to it that was purely his.
For some reason, the only reason why he wasn't remotely afraid of the genin's actions, was that it lacked experience.
Weird, indeed. How could the difference between two similar fighting styles by genin's was a shit ton of experience?
Kakashi was quick to realize not to be too introspective during this spar, as Sasuke was quick to use the bounce-back from the impact to twist his hips and in a large arc, kicked Kakshi's shoulder with his left foot. (Kind of like a breakdancer where they lean on the should and both legs form a 50 degree angle)
The impact was weak, but it was front for a more powerful attack. He tucked in his right foot to go behind his left and stretched his hand into a single handed handstand. Then Spun 180 so that his legs were in a natural position, while harshly kicking up (down for Sasuke) with his right foot, successfully uppercutting Kakshi's chin.
'A wonderful maneuver,' Kakashi thought as he took the hit. It was fast and clean, and very obviously planned on the spot, but it was unorthodox and creative.
It was for a moment, but he could see Naruto doing the same as Sasuke right behind him, like it was him himself fighting Kakashi.
Sasuke launched himself up from the single hand and gallantly landed without a sound.
"That's enough, you have a team battle today. Try not to wear yourself out."
Sasuke quickly stood upright and nodded seriously. Then briskly jogged to a tree nearby and practiced the taijutsu formations that Naruto taught him.
He attacked the tree with his forearm, then bent the same arm back enough to hit it again with his elbow, then smashed the bottom of his other arm's palm into the trunk, and raised his heel with much strength and stability to replicate a block.
It was all so unorthodox!
Attacking with appendages commonly used for blocking, and blocking with things commonly used for attacking. Suddenly, a punch would fly from the bottom and kick to your shin right when the rhythm of unorthodox-ness was about to settle into the memory of the enemy.
Many ninjas tend to feel a Rhythm when they fight at a high enough level. Like a symphony of bass drums playing inside your ears, banging and making noise as you and enemy attacks. The Rhythm. Some enemies have a loud, slow rhythm. Some have a light, rapid rhythm. Later in this tale, the presence of Rhythm will be crucial, and can help dictate many fight scenes.
For now, rhythm is not necessary, but I will keep referencing it as the characters (mainly Sasuke) gain an understanding of rhythm. Just putting it out there now so you can learn it better over time as the story progresses.
At around 2:00, an hour after both teams met and got to know each other, Gai thought it was about time to fight. Sasuke was willing as well.
"All right kiddo, you know what I've taught you. Keep calm, try to not let the opponent fall into a groove. Keep countering but don't speed up the battle, let the… rhythm, be calm."
"What's rhythm sensei?"
"It is hard to understand now, but don't worry about it. Anyways, you are not expected to win, but stop before dealing any major injuries, the senseis will call off the match once they deem the injury you could have inflicted was enough to win."
It was a roundabout way of saying that. Not expecting to win, but stop before dealing major injuries? It was a clever way of saying, "You have the potential to win" without enunciating it.
Sasuke nodded once again and bowed deeply. After that, he simply grinned, and Kakashi ruffled his hair.
Gai too started his pep talk, and his genin members belatedly gathered themselves up and dragged their feet toward Gai and his carbon cop- I mean Rock Lee.
The level of discipline was clear.
'Is this what genin are supposed to be like? Thank god Naruto and Sasuke were extremely disciplined beforehand!' thought Kakashi, as Sasuke sat beside him and circulated his chakra in prep for battle.
A white eyed person walked up to Sasuke, and asked him, "Why would you forcibly circulate chakra?"
Sasuke glanced upward to meet his eyes.
"Keeps me sharp, warms up the body without expending energy. Helps strengthen the muscles too."
The hyuuga scoffed like it was all nonsense and walked away.
First UP: Sasuke vs Rock Lee.
They got into their stances, and Rock Lee had a little fire in his eyes.
"The hokage said this team has the strongest genin of their batch. I cannot wait to fight you friend!"
Sasuke nodded in a way that said likewise.
The fight started and Rock Lee was quick to rush forward, only to be hit on the right by a roundhouse that was very poorly placed, his head only met the part of thigh slightly above his knees.
He was way too close to land a roundhouse like that.
But for some reason, Rock Lee could no longer feel his right arm. It wasn't a bad roundhouse, it was a front for a grapple that rendered the arms unusable.
For a taijutsu user like Rock Lee, it was the worst matchup.
Sasuke was quick to slightly release his Arm numbing grapple after the damage was done, only to fluidly slide into a Leg Lock grapple from the behind, at the same time shifting his and rock Lee's center of Gravity (CoG) forward so Rock Lee would fall with Sasuke on top.
His arm useless and leg gone, Sasuke nimbly reached out and elbowed Lee's left shoulder blade as hard as he could.
Now 2 arms out of Commision and a leg pinned, Lee was out of fighting condition without a fight, Sasuke easily took the win.
"What was that technique?" Rock Lee asked once both his arms and legs were moveable again. There was a shine in his eyes.
"Naruto's Grappling Method of Winning Battles, Strategy Number 9: ideal for enemies who mostly use Taijutsu and little nin/genjutsu. Three Point Pin."
"Is this Naruto person some Taijutsu sage?" Gai asked, eavesdropping on the conversation.
"No, he's my teammate who couldn't make it today."
The atmosphere dropped a few degrees.
Sasuke vs TenTen.
Without a moment to spare, TenTen had 3 scrolls spinning around her in a spiral. The ends fluttered wildly, and inside this vortex, TenTen slowly levitated.
"Overseer of Blade!" TenTen shouted out her next attack
The levitation was simply due to the nature of the art, to enhance the "Overseer" part of it all, and let the user gain a bird's eye view of the field.
Suddenly, the spiral started spewing weapons, and they fell quickly to the ground. And once the outpour of weapons finished, the spiral stopped spinning, and started rotating the other way even faster than before.
The weapons too followed the spiral and formed a second vortex around TenTen going the opposite direction.
Sasuke was in awe of the beauty of the technique. It took some prep time, which is why the art was designed to be mesmerizing.
Suddenly, A single kunai launched at Sasuke, who quickly blocked sloppily.
Out of his trance, he had his guard up. The technique's success rate relies mostly on the first sudden attack, and Sasuke blocked it, TenTen frowned.
"Second formation: Full Rain!"
The vortex sped up to a speed that made it look stationary. And there was a flash of light and intense boom, and after the flash subsided, all the weapons were scattered around the ground, indiscriminately ruining the training ground's perfectly leveled grass.
Having Naruto pull all sorts of dirty tricks onto him, including a flashlight and a prepped firecracker, Sasuke was quite easily able to avoid most of the weapons.
A single senbon got him bad in the shoulder though. Nothing impairing.
Sasuke looked at the instructor, he wondered if that was a life threatening attack enough. They looked back with eyes of intention.
'Great, my turn now.'
He sped through hand signs, and Pulled his hand close to his mouth, and blew through it, a large fireball extending from his palm.
TenTen quickly pulled out a large broadshield, and braced herself with chakra.
Sasuke shot his fireball, and ran right behind it.
The moment the Fireball was close to TenTen, Sasuke stepped into his own fireball, and hid there momentarily.
As TenTen blocked the fireball, she felt a slightly delayed push, and then a silhouette jumping over her, a kunai in its hand, pointed at her neck.
Gai was quick to finish. He looked vaguely proud and also disappointed.
"Sometimes flashy doesn't mean good TenTen," said Kakashi.
"And sometimes waiting to fight with a turn-based mindset will for sure kill you," said Gai to Sasuke.
A new voice came into the picture.
"And sometimes taking a few seconds to pluck a senbon outta your shoulder helps long term."
Who was it that said this great sage-like advice? It was the blonde Beast of Talent.
He had been fairly unimpressed when he saw the previous 2 spars. Only staying silent to help Sasuke improve.
Having a thinking power so high, even sudden attacks feel like an eternity. He never has his guard up anymore, just the sheer ability to process knowledge and react faster than anyone no matter what condition is enough.
Naruto was quick to comprehend the levels of everyone on the field right now. Jounin's included.
"May I have the liberty of fighting the last spar."
Sasuke frowned but quickly realized that Naruto was trying to show Sasuke something.
"Go ahead, he's all yours."
"Thanks"
Naruto was going to show Sasuke his first ever demonstration of a battle won by brains and not brawn.
He walked forward into a clearing that seemingly marked itself as the next arena for his spar.
No trees to retreat behind, only grass, and a pond off to the side.
Neji followed and got into a stance, frowning.
Naruto grinned back, "Lighten the mood up! We're not going to murder each other…" Naruto trailed off, a few harsh memories re-entered his mind.
Neji frowned even further, the thought of murdering Naruto deeply distrubed him.
'Bingo,' thought Naruto.
"But then again, this battle won't end without a fatal blow~ wonder if you can even land one on this feeble body." Naruto said, puffing out his chest.
The sleeping silence of the arena was quickly nowhere to be seen, as Neji started his technique.
A quick dash, and Neji closed off Naruto's chakra point.
"Oh?"
Few milliseconds later and another 3 closed off. The arm was now unmovable.
In another few seconds, Naruto would be rendered useless. All his points would be blocked.
"Yare Yare, how cute."
The hand that was supposedly unable to move, drew itself up, and backhanded Neji 15 meters to the left.
Naruto proceeded to unlock his chakra points in a flash. Precisely and without hesitation, one single movement, all of Neji's work neutralized.
Said person got up from the bushes and looked shocked.
"How dare you…" he grumbled.
"AAGH" a lunge.
All in slow motion, a few moments, as Neji lunged, he could see Naruto, or rather all 360 after images of him blocking every single of chakra points the moment he got into range.
But he lunged.
Now in the air, he can't stop. Had he ran, maybe a stop was possible.
The rhythm started, it came, 2 loud booms of a bass drum. Then again the 2 loud booms. After every half meter, it came. Neji had 4 more loud booms before the excruciating pain.
He could hear his mind talk to him as though he were another entity.
'Calm down. Lower your center of gravity, try to gain as much surface area on the ground as possible.'
He obliged, by thrusting his legs and chest down, he dropped rapidly, and his legs barely contacted the slipping ground.
BOOM BOOM
'Your hips! Put them down. Try grabbing the ground with your hand.'
He did so, and he slowed considerably.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
There were three this time, to indicate the danger? Or perhaps to say Neji was safer?
'Get your legs dug into the ground, and start attempting to run the other way.'
His legs went down and hands up. A 180 turn, and then while moving in the direction he lunged, started running the opposite way.
It was like moonwalking- no, moon running.
BOOOOM a single loud one. And Neji wasn't anywhere close to stopping, despite cutting down to 20% his original speed.
He ran faster and faster, 5% speed, 5 inches left.
4%, 4 inches.
3%, 3 inches
2%, 2 inches
1%, 1 inch.
Neji slipped. A fatal mistake.
Boom. It came silent. Like as though it mourned for neji.
The pain came flaring up.
He felt a person tap his chest, then the pain instantly stopped.
Kakashi was pulling Neji away while saving him, and Gai was squirming in pain where Neji was originally.
'Kakashi sensei used Gai sensei to substitute me, and had him take the brunt instead of me.'
The blond looked at the Green devil in front of him. He exhaled.
"That kid," Naruto said, "Could hear the rhythm."
A pregnant pause.
"He heard the drums didn't he? He had the look in his eyes. His actions had a timing to them. Congrats hyuuga brat. You just gained one of a ninja's best friend," he said to himself, outside of Neji's hearing capacity.
Naruto unblocked Gai, and walked towards the freshly defeated Neji.
"Those drums," Naruto said to him, and Neji understood, "Listen to them well."
Gai nodded instantly the moment he heard "the drums''. Kakashi closed his sole eye and raised a thumb.
Naruto continued, he spoke a phrase that his mentor told him the first time he heard the rhythm, "The rhythm is your music. Play it well."
Neji couldn't understand it yet, but at least wasn't dumb enough to not realise the importance those words held to Naruto, and now to him as well.
A loud gust of wind.
A faint trickle of water.
A croak of a frog.
A sound of labored breathing.
And the sound of the Drums.
Rhythm is in them all.
Rhythm is them all.
And with that poetic ending, Chapter 4 or 5 or something I think. cya!