Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and gang. Just playin' with 'em ;P. Any OCs you see in the story are mine.
Notes: Sorry for the long delay. Been busy with school. Thanks to all those who replied. I'm not doing the usual one-to-one reply; instead I'm grouping them into one paragraph. Anyway, many of you raised issues about Oro summoning foxes. Sorry if this wasn't clear, but when I said summon, it wasn't Summoning no Jutsu. It's actually a ritual, with blood sacrifices and stuff. C'mon, if he can resurrect the dead, there's no reason for him to be unable to summon foxes, as long as there is blood. For deathtrap, you said that it's kinda pushing it for Naruto to be smart so young. Well technically, a six-year shouldn't have the capacity to be a chunnin at six, but apparently Kakashi did. I guess murder attempts can change one's mindset, eh?
Lastly, I dedicated this last part to Yale, the dumbass who read my note on the the first chapter, which had said that I may have grammatical errors with the japan language. Thus, he decided critique me based on that note, not my story, which is obviously less important. Next time, try reading all chapters first, so that you can notice the translation text beside the Japanese words. Thank you.
Anyway, enjoy this chapter. Thanks for reading!
Chapter Eight: Nins of the leaf, Genins with a blade.
The trees swayed when a slight wind breezed through them. Leaves shifted, slowly twirling on the ground. The bustle of the business sector was a faint echo, leaving only a strange, lingering silence.
Naruto sat atop the Hokage monuments, his eyes distant and contented as he peered at the villagers below. They hurried about their lives, pausing to browse through the good for offer, or to greet their friends with a polite "Ohayo!"
The sky was still blue, with a faint tinge of red. Clouds sauntered merrily across the vast heavens, basking in the warm glow of the rising sun.
It had taken him seven hours to barely move. Then, he took another two hours to stagger into the Hokage Tower, and demand an audience with the Sandaime.
For then on, it was simple to deceive the old man with a cleverly crafted story and nearly reduced him to tears. The old man, after that, had given him a pass, and allowing to take the genin exams with the other students the next day.
He chuckled at the memory. He was after all, the vessel of a fox. Conversing with a fox for the past eight years probably helped bring out his devious and sly nature.
Genins. Ninjas of. . .
The Hidden Village of the Leaf. Konoha.
My home?
Naruto frowned slightly while he thought about his "home". Even now, as he looked down at the busy town, he could only see flickering shadows of his younger self being chased and beaten up, being ridiculed and scorned.
His eyes refused to even glance at the old block where his apartment was. The solitary building was still there, and with every look at it, more vivid flashes of that night would play in his head.
He didn't know whether he had recovered or not, but that was one thing he did not care to find out.
Suddenly, the loud, dull clang of the school bell echoed across the streets. Children started filing out of their houses, waving goodbye to their parents before running excitedly to school.
The blond smiled sadly at the innocent scene, before twisting his sight towards the Hokage monuments.
"Watch me," he whispered, before disappearing.
---
Naruto sat silently in his corner, studying the other students. A dark-haired, brooding boy, about his age, sat in the second bench. His arms were folded, his eyes closed in annoyance as almost every girl fawned over him.
The blond chuckled, before scanning the rest of the students. A fat boy was constantly stuffing himself with chips while his friend just dozed away beside him.
Further down the benches, a blue-haired, nervous-looking girl sat quietly, twiddling her thumbs. A wild looking boy, with red markings on his face was constantly talking loudly, indirectly reassuring the blue-haired girl beside him. His snowy dog slept soundly, snoring in cute hiccups.
He could already imagine it. If the sarcastic deity he called his brother was here, he would take a good look at the people here and say, "Pansies. Don't become like them."
Naruto smirked, before looking out the window, into the blue sky.
I wonder what is he doing now?
HE'S DOING WHAT GODS DO, BAKA HUMAN.
Oi! What do you mean by that! Stupid fo---
WHATEVER. I BELIEVE YOUR EXAMINERS ARE HERE.
Huh?
The blond swivelled his head back to the door, where two teachers came into class, holding clipboards in their hands. The second one sat down behind the desk, leaving his companion to give instructions.
"Hello class," he greeted them, giving a small smile.
"Ohayo, Iruka-sensei!" was the loud, monotonous response.
Iruka scanned the class. A small burst of pride bubbled in him as he looked at his students. Mizuki would probably call him soft, but the man couldn't help but feel a bit sad when he thought of them leaving this classroom and becoming proper nins. Shaking his heading slightly, he grinned, and continued.
"From today onwards, after you graduate, you'll be a proper ninja of the Leaf. A year from now, you may be the same rank as me. Three years later. . .ANBU perhaps?" Iruka laughed. "Well, my little speech has ended. The Genin Exams starts now!"
---
It was a horrible day for Naruto.
First, the genin exam was so simple, it would have reduced even the most sarcastic god speechless. It was pathetic. It was overrated.
It was a Bunshin no Jutsu, something, due to Naruto's stupid chakra chaos condition, was unable to do.
Chakra confusion chaos is like a tumour. In most cases, it kills. It rare cases, it spares the life of the afflicted. Naruto was a special case. Due to his status as the vessel of an annoying, furry fox, his chakra was overwhelmed and heavily messed up as the alien chakra of the fox tried to merge with him. This condition makes it near impossible to perform jutsus with the conventional combination of seals, as the chakra doesn't flow out accordingly, like normal people. The good thing was that since he was not born with the condition, and it was artificially inflicted on him, Naruto would not die from the chaos. Unfortunately, it makes even the simplest jutsu extremely difficult for him.
So, here he was, a ninja, trained by an egoistical, slightly manical deity, failing some genin exam because he was unable to perform some stupid Bunshin no Jutsu, which was not even his fault in the first place.
The blond angrily kicked a stone on the floor.
Even now he could hear the cruel laughter that stung his ears when a fainted, tussled clone appeared next to him.
Iruka had merely failed him, explaining calmly and softly that one bunshin, even if it was in good condition, wasn't good enough. The rest made at least two. Mizuka, his assistant, was more callous, loudly proclaiming him as "dead-last", before calling him to learn how to walk before running.
Naruto idly wondered how it would feel like if he had grabbed Mizuka's hand and burned it off with his chakra. Sometimes, living with a deity does give you a strange, crazed sense of humor.
The blond looked at when he heard a loud commotion ahead.
Streams of joyful parents flowed through the gates, hugging their thrilled children. Sounds of congratulations could be heard as the adults ruffled the children's hair, promising them a good meal, or a kunai set. The younglings would laugh, and thanked their parents.
Naruto stared at them forlornly. The love of a parent was something he had long wished for. Blinking his eyes furiously, the boy whirled around and leapt away, unwilling to look at a scene he would never experience.
If he had stayed for another minute, he would have seen a short, raven-haired girl stroll into the school, greeting her blue and pink-haired friends excitedly.
---
"Narashi?! Kento Narashi?!" Haku exclaimed, surprised.
"Yeah, Kento Narashi," replied Sakura, looking at her friend weirdly. They had walked across the whole village, celebrating their passing for the whole afternoon.
Hinata peered at her curiously. Haku had a confused expression as she murmured to herself, "Narashi-kun? Here? But---"
"Oi, Haku! What's going on?" inquired Sakura after softly hitting the medic nin on the head. "What, he's your old boyfriend or something?" she asked, grinning widely as Haku suddenly blushed violently.
"N-no! Nothing of that sort!" she denied furiously. Sakura just laughed.
Haku turned to Hinata with a pleading face, but even the shy Hyuuga girl was chuckling. Haku tried to look angry, but failed as she started joining the laughter as well.
Suddenly, a loud clank of the village bell startled the three girls.
"Isn't that. . .an alert?" shouted Sakura while they stood up.
"Yeah," agreed Hinata. "I w-wonder what's going o-on?"
---
Naruto walked around the forest, admiring the array of colours that splayed themselves onto the trees as they basked in the setting sunlight.
The blond had just finished his daily chakra control exercises. He had spent the earlier afternoon exploring the village.
Despite being gone for almost 8 years, the village was still the same. He had found the same ramen stall his younger self had grown to love. The chef's daughter was helping him; his hair had whitened, but the ramen was still as good, if not better.
Sighing in satisfaction as he thought of the eight bowls of ramen he had for lunch, Naruto decided to cut short his sightseeing and return to the village for a another good meal.
Without warning, a man burst out of the side bushes. He was gasping erratically as he clutched the bleeding gash on his torso. The scar on the bridge of his nose was the only thing that clued the blond in onto the stranger's identity.
"I-Iruka-sensei?" stuttered Naruto in surprise while he hurried to the injured man's side. "What the. . .who did this?!"
"I did, shrimp. Wha'cha gonna do? Hit me with a Bunshin?" snickered a familiar nasal voice.
The blond spun around, only to see a leering Mizuka, with a bloodied blade in his hand. He narrowed his eyes.
"You."
"Yeah, me. Why? Gonna beat me up?" cackled the assistant, before pointing the blade at the boy. "Come then, come get me."
"I won't even a sweat," Naruto smirked, balling his fists as he readied himself.
Iruka grabbed his arm. "N-no! Y-you're no m-match for h-him!"
Naruto shrugged his weak hold off.
"I doubt that he'll be much off a match."
Mizuka snarled when he heard the insult being flung his way. "For that, I'm gonna cut off your lips, brat!"
Then the chunnin dashed forward, swinging his sword diagonally up, towards the left. Naruto leaned to his right, letting the blade narrowly slide over him. Enraged, Mizuka twisted his body in a circle. The sword twirled around him, lashing out at the blond. The boy jumped back, before rolling behind the mad nin to avoid the second swipe. Mizuka, pushing the effects of dizziness to the back of his mind, stopped his spinning when he was facing Naruto and lunged forward, hoping to impale him. The boy simply sidestepped to his right, letting the shinobi pass him.
"Oooo, cut off my lips eh? Didn't your mother taught you not to tell lies?" he smirked, taunting the enraged ninja with his cheery tone.
The chunnin's eyes saw red. Furious, he swung wildly, slashing empty air as Naruto ducked. The man thrust left, before whipping across to his right and sweeping downwards at the legs. Naruto twisted his shoulder back at the first thrust, bending backwards on the horizontal slash, before jumping up to avoid the last attack.
Mizuka, undeterred, continued his offense. He whipped the blade upwards, kicking stray leaves up. Naruto sidestepped again, calmly letting the metal edge cutting the air in front of his face.
Mizuka spun around, bringing the sword down in a powerful blow. Naruto bent over, letting it slide past him. Then he stood up, his back straightening as he brought his palm up into the chunnin's chest when he stumbled forward. Blue chakra sizzled and burned through the vest, sending an invisible shockwave through his body and shattering almost every bone.
His eyes widened in shock. Blood dribbled out from his mouth, dripping onto the forest floor from his stilled chin.
Slowly, Mizuka dropped onto his knees, his face still in disbelief when he fell face first into the leaves.
"Hah! Sucker!" laughed Naruto, sticking his tongue at the fallen ninja.
Iruka just watched, incredulous that a boy, who could not do the Bunshin no Jutsu,beat his assistant without trying. Suddenly, a pain shot through his chest. The gash was throbbing, sending waves of agony through his body.
"Uh. . " he grunted.
Naruto was instantly by his side. Iruka rolled his eyes, falling backwards. The last thing he saw was a frantic "Iruka-sensei!", and the frenzied bursts of green chakra enveloping him.
---
"Ugh. . ."
Iruka opened his eyes to pain. A cold fire burned his body, swarming over his chest.
"Iruka-san!" a female voice cheerfully chirped. "You're awake!"
The groaning chunnin rolled his head to the right, only to see a blond doctor hovering over him as she took his vitals.
"Tsunade-sama?"
The woman just nodded. Abruptly, someone on his left coughed. Turning, he saw the Hokage stroking his beard while giving him a polite smile.
"H-Hokage-sama!" he stammered, surprised that the old man would visit him. "What can I do for you?"
A deep rumble filled the room as he laughed. "You defeated the traitor Mizuka, recovered the Forbbiden Scroll of Seals. . .I am just here to see how our hero is recovering."
"Mizuka?" Iruka inquired before the events of last night was registered. "Wait! I never defeated Mizuka. In fact, I would have been killed if not for that new kid---"
"Kid?" asked Sandaime innocently.
"Um, he was the new citizen. Somehow, he managed to dodge every one of Mizuka's move without trying, before stopping him with just one hit!"
"One hit?"
Even Tsunade seemed surprised.
Iruka raised his arm to scratch his head, but winced with he felt pain coursing through the limb. "Yeah. One hit."
"Amazing. . .to think he's able to channel chakra like that," murmured Tsunade absently.
"Huh?"
The woman looked up, before explaining. "The boy has chakra chaos."
"But. . .but then he should be dead!"
"He's not," answered the Hokage quietly.
"Because of this unique condition of his, Narashi is able to do things with his chakra others cannot do. For example: normal chakra cannot exist for long in open air. It dissipates quickly. This is seen in visible chakra, which puts a constant drain on one's reserve unlike invisible chakra, which is used in conjunction with seals.
"For the people with chakra chaos, a strange side effect is that the chakra stays in open air without disappearing for a much, much longer time. No one has been able to explain this, and no one has been able to study this as those afflicted die too early.
"Most people with this condition are able to channel their chakra our of their body and into others easily. But, it usually results in the deaths of the two fighters, since the channeller is unable to control the amount he projects, causing a huge backlash. So for a boy to master his chakra to such a degree is quite astounding.
"But most in any case, using his chakra alone would injure him. It's a double-edged sword," she concluded.
Iruka raised his eyebrows, before an understanding look came over his face. "No wonder he couldn't do a bunshin!"
Tsunade nodded.
"But still. . .a ninja with a medical condition is unreliable. Should he really be a genin?"
"Do you not remember Rock Lee, Maito Gai's student? I believe he has a disability, but that still does not deter him," the Hokage chided the chunnin lightly. "Have faith in the boy. Besides, don't you have a team that's short of one member?"
Iruka looked troubled, but for some strange reason, he felt that the masked boy could be trusted.
"Acknowledged Hokage-sama," he replied, giving an affirmative nod before turning to Tsunade. "By the way, how did you know about Narashi anyway? What happened after I passed out?"
"Well, the boy alerted some chunnin, giving them a story that he saw you defeated Mizuka. As for how I know him. . ."
---