It was another normal day starting in the Leaf Village, its villagers slowly coming out of their houses to start their routines, merchants opening their stores, and people gradually filling the streets. And of course, since this was a shinobi village it was no surprise that there were ninjas running from one place to another fulfilling the most varied missions. Especially the newly trained ones who were on their first, more basic ones. In one of the forests that existed in its extension, it was possible to hear footsteps echoing among the trees, probably some genin behind someone or something.
"This is Onix in position B. The target is nowhere visible." a childish and serious voice sounded over the communication radio.
"This is Cherry. The target just passed point A, but I lost sight of it." another voice quickly reported.
"This is Sapphire. I've spotted the target, it's heading for the business district. I'm going after it." a third voice spoke, not waiting for an answer before going after him.
So the third child went alone after the one they were chasing, who was clearly agile and fast enough to escape them. And they had been chasing him for at least half an hour. By coincidence and luck, or not, this third member of the team, a kid with blond and frizzy hair, was probably the fastest of them. So it was not so hard for him to stay on the back of this one until he finally managed to corner and capture the damned runaway cat.
"I finally caught you, Tora! I can't believe you made me follow you up here." Naruto said to the cat, lifting it up with his hands and looking down at the terrace he was standing on. "Hey, that hurts!" he complained as the cat fought and scratched him to get away again. Distracted by the feline he didn't notice that there was someone behind him, when he saw it he turned off the microphone of his communicator and hugged the animal, ignoring the claws that were stuck in his arms. "What do you want?" he asked the people in front of him, trying to be indifferent despite being alert.
"What do you think you are doing here?" the man in front of him spoke with disdain. The others in the group looked at him with equal disgust.
"You know you're not welcome here." another added. The Uzumaki frowned, what was everyone's problem these days? Why did they now insist on saying they didn't want him there? What was new about that? He was under the brief impression that the attention he was getting for graduating would only get worse, and from their eyes, he knew that the chance of them making his life even more difficult was great, almost a certainty in fact.
"I'm just doing a mission." he made himself answer hesitantly, sincerely hoping that they would accept this and leave him alone. Unconsciously taking a step back.
"Your presence is disrupting our lives and disrupting the commerce." another person declared hostilely.
"I don't...!" he should have known better than to confront them directly.
"Get out of our way, freak!" the first one pushed him away. The last thing he saw on their faces was a smile as he fell off the building. He cringed and used his body to protect the cat, in the meantime accidentally pressing the microphone button, so that the rest of his team heard the sound of his fall, fortunately somewhat cushioned by some empty boxes in the alley.
"Naruto? Is everything alright?" Hatake asks over the radio. 'No' was what the boy wanted to answer, but he didn't want to talk about it either. What was the point if all the adults knew that the village hated him? What was the point if apparently nothing he did was going to change that, since the reason was something that was neither his fault nor under his control? Kakashi knew what he was, he couldn't forget the way he reacted when he used that trick on him in the test. Could he trust him? He grunted before answering, his head and body aching.
"I'm fine. I just fell," he answered finally, part of his attention focused on the cat that lay motionless in his arms. Fortunately, the cat was all right, he sighed with relief.
"We heard it, dobe," Sasuke remarked, half divided between finding the situation comical or being worried about a clumsy person on the team.
"You have to be more careful, Naruto!" Sakura was having exactly the same problem. "Did you get Tora at least?"
"Yep". the blond agreed. He had let his guard down too much, having become a ninja hadn't changed anything. It didn't matter to them. "I'm with him. I'll meet you near the tower, okay?" -he asked, getting up. In a few minutes, they were together, going to report the mission completed.
"Are you sure you didn't get hurt, Naruto?" the teacher asked, eyeing the boy from head to toe.
"If I was hurt I wouldn't be walking, sensei." the younger boy rolled his eyes as if it was obvious, but the adult was not very convinced as if he suspected that the boy did not have the normal parameters for these issues, not that it was not true in this case.
"What did you do to the poor cat to make him so quiet?" Haruno asked, looking at the curious little animal. "He's been known to scratch anyone who tries to catch him when he runs away."
"I don't know. But I wouldn't want to hurt someone who fell off a building with me." Naruto spoke up.
"Well, he has a point." the ravenette agreed with the logic.
"You fell off a building with him?!" the pink girl shouted in astonishment, hitting her irresponsible colleague on the head, who winced slightly at the blow.
"I tripped." ...after they pushed me Uzumaki mentally completed, fighting the urge to sigh.
"And you still call yourself a ninja?" his colleagues looked at him incredulously.
"Ninjas aren't perfect, you know. Nobody is!" the blond defended himself, feeling small flames of rage go through his body. He wanted to scream that it wasn't his fault, so he made a point of locking his jaw to make sure he wouldn't say anything.
"Let's go, trio. The sooner we solve this the sooner I can get back to reading my book." the sensei spoke slightly disinterested in the children's discussion before leading the group into the room.
"Tora-chan! Oh, Tora-chan, I was so worried about you!" a lady approached when she saw the feline in the boy's arms. Naruto tensed unconsciously at the approach; he tended not to trust adults. And he was almost certain that he had never had good experiences with the female half of the population. They tended to be somewhat protective of their families, and consequently more cruel to him. Since he was a d... He stopped his thoughts there, he was not alone, he was not safe. Then, with trained ease, he opened a smile for the woman.
"Here it is." he spoke as politely as he could since it was clear from her clothing that she was not just anyone. The wife of the Daimyō of the Country of Fire, his mind supplied after seeing a familiar symbol she wore proudly: the symbol of the country Konoha served and that only the country's royalty could bear. His eyes searched her again looking for an indication, which was beginning to turn into paranoia. Did she know? She was an adult. Does she know? Children don't know. She? But she's not from the village. Does she know? But she is royalty, even the old man had to obey them, shinobis were their military power. He is the village's military power, in more ways than others. He bit the inside of his cheek hard, not noticing until he felt the metallic taste of blood in his mouth. He forced himself to stop thinking again. "He's fine." he frowned as he felt the cat's claws digging into his arms as if it didn't want to return to her possession. With more difficulty than expected, he managed to hand over the animal, which was struggling to get away from her again.
He stared at them both while he and the rest of the team waited for sensei to finish the procedures and receive their payments. His silence continued even after the pair left, he could feel his colleagues looking at him. Probably wondering why he was so quiet since this was certainly not part of his usual personality. But he didn't know what he was feeling, what the scene with the cat had caused him. But he knew that it had moved him. And they couldn't judge him, they certainly wouldn't be acting 'normal' either if they were in his place, not with so much going on, not with what he knew now. The bitter thought almost made him laugh. He was pulled back to reality when his team was dismissed, but the Hokage asked him to stay.
"Danzo asked me to give this to you when your activities today were over," Sarutobi spoke indicating a simple gray parchment in front of him.
"About the beginning of the training?" the blond asked even though he knew the obvious answer.
"Yes. It contains the location and times of the sessions." the older man said, and the boy nodded and took the parchment.
"I got it. Is that all?" Naruto looked at the older boy, who looked at him with sadness and a bit of disappointment. Their relationship, which was the closest thing to a bond the boy had had until then, was getting weirder and weirder since the revelation. 'This is what you get for hiding things and lying to me,' the child thought angrily.
"It is." Hiruzen finally confirmed, feeling slightly defeated. After the boy had turned to leave, the man asked softly, but loud enough for the boy to hear. "Are you going to stay mad at me?" 'Will you forgive me?' he didn't say.
"I don't know," he answered in the same tone without turning to look at the other. 'You who betrayed me first, Jiji,' he added mentally before walking out the door. Outside, to his surprise, Kakashi and the others were waiting for him.
"You didn't do anything wrong this time, did you?" Sakura asked nervously. The Uzumaki denied it with a shake of his head.
"What's this?" the Uchiha asked, indicating the parchment in his colleague's hand.
"I don't know. Probably some absurd set of demands from the owner of the building I live in." the lie came out easily from his lips, and worse that it was something that for sure could happen counting that everyone avoided contact with him if possible. And he shrugged at the platinum man's inquisitive look, he was under no obligation to tell his sensei anything about his life. "He probably had a busy day and wanted to make sure I got this or whatever," he added as they were confused as to why they would leave something like this with the Hokage instead of leaving it in the mailbox or on the door. "Do we have anything else today?" he changed the subject.
"No, you're free today. Tomorrow we'll start an hour earlier, we'll meet in the same place as today." the adult answered.
"Ok. I'm going home, read this thing, and see if by any chance they raised my rent again," he said before leaving, being the first.
"Rent?" Haruno repeated a bit shocked.
"Rent is something people pay to live in a place they don't own." Sasuke looked at her as if she were an idiot for not knowing.
"I know, but does he pay rent?" she looked at the only adult present.
"Naruto has lived alone for a few years as far as I know, Sakura." the Hatake answered and disappeared before the pair could ask any more questions. Why did Naruto, a child like them, live alone? It was another unanswered question that was put on a list that was slowly beginning to form.
After discovering where he had to go, the young Uzumaki headed for the training camp where Shimura was waiting for him. It was located in a slightly isolated spot, on top of the mountain, well after the Hokages monument. A place that few knew existed, possibly. Or that they had ventured there since many inhabitants believed that there were only the carved faces, the archives, and the shelter built in there.
"Was this a test? To see if I could get here?" the boy questioned, looking and approaching the man standing in the center of a large clearing. The scroll he had left for him only gave a basic guide.
"You know the village better than most. Even our shinobi." was the answer he got, feeling the counselor's gaze measuring him. "You have potential." he declared, which unsettled Naruto. He hadn't expected that, how many times had he heard that? Has anyone ever said that? "That is, with the proper refinement. What I aim to achieve."
"Potential? Me?" he repeated, bewildered.
"Yes. It was so wasted..." the older shook his head disappointed. "You know better than anyone that the academy didn't work for you."
"How?" Naruto asked, his eyes widening in surprise.
"I've always been watching you," the senior ninja admitted, without taking his eyes off the boy. Satisfied that he had caught his attention. "Years with difficulty mastering a cloning jutsu, with negligent and incompetent teachers who were unable to fulfill their duties properly." he shook his head in disapproval. "A simple jutsu correction would solve everything."
"Correction? What are you talking about?" the boy looked at the older man intrigued, waiting for further explanation.
"The reason why you always fought with this jutsu is because you have too much chakra to perform a rank E jutsu. That's why your attempts ended in failure, you have too much chakra and too little control over it. Wanting you to be able to do jutsu that require little chakra is impossible if you aren't taught to control it first." he explained patiently to the smaller one, clearly shocked and a bit confused.
"Why?" he started, a bit unsure of exactly what he wanted to ask before giving up and changing focus. "How do you know this?"
"As I told you before, I have always watched you. When I saw you fail at this for the second time, I decided it was necessary to intervene," he said. "I couldn't let you fail again when I could change the jutsu to a similar one that you could learn.
"So the clone jutsu I do is not the Bunshin no Jutsu?" asked, since until then he thought it was the same.
"No, the jutsu you use is actually the Kage Bunshin." the man clarified. "A rank C jutsu that allows the user to create physical clones as opposed to the mere illusory ones."
"Isn't this taught at the academy?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer from the way it was being said. "That explains why my teammates were confused when my clone cut the ropes," he remarked more to himself than to the other.
"Exactly." the other nodded, pleased with the younger boy's thought process, an indication that he wasn't stupid as many had declared, just unencouraged. "Clones that have physical bodies are able to help you during a battle. Something you employed very well during the bell test.
"I did well?" he blinked a few times, pausing to mentally check if he had heard correctly, after all the two things were practically never in the same sentence. The adult nodded his head in confirmation.
"The academy only gives some hints on how and in what historical context situations it was possible to make use of clones. I must comment that you used them with extreme skill. Especially since you have never used the technique outside of the exams." complimented without stopping watching the boy, who clearly didn't know what to do when he received a positive comment, before adding. "That's why I say you have potential, almost untapped."
"And that's a good thing?" the younger boy asks.
"It depends. It means that you will improve a lot with the right training, but it's bad because having this neglected until now puts you in an unfavorable position in relation to your colleagues."
"They've always been ahead of me," he comments without thinking, particularly to no one.
"Not for long." the man replied even though it was not directed at him.
"Really?" the blond boy's eyes widen at the unexpected statement he received out of nowhere.
"If you dedicate yourself to training, I can guarantee that you will become strong," he answered, looking into the eyes of the younger.
"And what are we going to do today?" asked, confused for a moment, they were there for that, weren't they? Why was the man talking to him?
"It will be something simple. We will measure your physical abilities without the use of chakra to use as a reference for comparison the next day." Danzo explained calmly as he picked up an item from a storage bag he was carrying. "This bracelet was made with seals that will emit light if it notices that the wearer is using chakra." he quickly demonstrated by placing it on his wrist and making a clone, which instantly made the accessory glow. "We'll use this to see if you use your chakra at any time without realizing it, understand?" completed, handing the item to the boy who, after a brief moment of insecurity, put it on his wrist.
"Huh?" the boy exclaimed as almost immediately the object began to glow.
"I had my suspicions, but it seems that your chakra really is active all the time," Danzo spoke contemplatively but then continued because he knew what the boy was going to ask or was curious. "It's something that happens sometimes, some due to the amount that the individual possesses. Sometimes it can even be the result of generations of actively using chakra or training starting very early, as in the case of the shinobi clans. In theory, even a strong instinct can cause this. We can call it passive chakra."
"I understand..." answers the blond intrigued by the explanation and wondering which of the options would be his case. Maybe instinct? He always tried to trust it, after all. But soon his ponderings were interrupted by an explanation of the day's activities and a second bracelet to temporarily block chakra.
The exercises that followed were basic and physical ones to test speed (running), agility and reflexes (dodging objects), dexterity, and strength (throwing shurikens and kunais). All with varying levels of intensity and difficulty, which positively also served to measure the boy's stamina level. Fortunately for him, his new instructor gave him breaks and snacks during short breaks after some of the more intense activities.
"Let's stop for today. In the next session, we will redo them with your chakra released and compare the results." the Shimura stated. "Now take off the bracelets and tell me if you feel anything different." as soon as he did the boy's eyes widened, and for the first time, he felt his chakra flowing through his body so clearly. Such a reaction made the older man smile satisfied. "You felt it, didn't you?" he asked rhetorically. "It's like that popular saying 'you only miss it when you don't have something anymore.' Except that the most correct way to describe and compare it is because the senses have become sharper due to the loss of one of them, as in some cases hearing can become more accurate due to the loss of sight."
"Wow..." was all he could say, still surprised by the sensation.
"Since you put in so much effort and did so well in our first lesson I'm going to reward you with something that you might find interesting and that I don't think you've noticed yet," he spoke quickly gaining the blond's attention. "Make a kage bunshin, leave it here, then move so far away that you can't hear me anymore and undo the clone when I wave my hand," he instructed, quickly being complied with, as curiosity totally overcame the boy.
"I can remember what the clone lived through?!" the Uzumaki exulted in amazement after all the steps were completed, how did he not notice something so useful before? Well, it's not like he had used the technique that much or in situations where it would be obvious.
"Yes. And if you do as well as you did today in our next lesson I'll show you more interesting things about this jutsu." promised and purposely reinforced the compliment. He gave a few more brief warnings and then dismissed the younger.
At home, Naruto noticed that there were some bags with some supplies since Shimura wanted him to have a more adequate diet. He would receive one day's supplies always after his training, which for the time being would take place every two days, but could change as needed in the future. Of course, what he would receive would not be enough for every day, and he would have to try to maintain his diet on his own. 'A good shinobi should not depend on anyone,' was what was preached. Not that independence was a concept unknown to him.
"..." he looked at the food exhausted, pondering whether or not to eat, especially since he would have to prepare something. He sighed and put the things away. The bed was what was most attractive at the moment. He had no idea that having chakra circulating made such a difference in the level of tiredness someone would feel.
The next day he had a good (and healthy!) breakfast, something he couldn't remember ever doing before. It was also the first time in days that he had had a relatively peaceful night's sleep, thanks to the physical exhaustion of the day before. So part of him was hoping for a good day, for his luck so far. Too bad the village seemed intent on proving the opposite to him.
The mission they had to complete was cleaning an orphanage. Something completely basic, like all missions D. But the matron and everyone who worked there knew him, because of course it had to be the orphanage that the Sandaime wanted to put him in when he was little. Not that he counted or knew precisely how many Konoha had, but considering the number of orphans he could guess it wasn't just one. What mattered was that they had refused the mere idea of having him there after noticing the marks on his cheeks, which everyone quickly associated with the fox. And now he knew why.
So when she refused to let him in with the rest of the team he was not surprised. His colleagues were completely confused by the look on their faces. Since he was relatively accustomed to the villagers' behavior of wanting him as far away as possible, he 'volunteered' to weed the garden with the help of clones to be faster. This while reflecting on the village's contradictory behavior in firing glares at him and wishing him gone. He preferred only the second option, it was less bother than their eyes all the time. And he would have to go shopping later if he wanted to keep the diet they set for him. Which would probably be tricky since he had graduated the village seemed to have entered into a plot against him and decided almost collectively to be much more vocal about their displeasure. Not that it was going to change anything for any of them, except unsettling the blond. But it couldn't get any worse than this, right?
To be continued in part 2!