Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I wish I did, because if I had Naruto would have grabbed Zabuza's sword like he did in this story!
Momochi… Naruto!
Chapter 3
I woke up the next day, aching all over. The man had had me perform some modified kata along with basic exercises in offense and defense. Not that a strong offense was difficult with this weapon, nor was a strong defense difficult. It was speed and proper sword technique that had been difficult. Therefore, in the name of speed, he'd given me double the Kubikiri Houcho's weight in training weights, and told me to wear them until I couldn't feel the weight anymore. Then, he had me practice each basic swing over and over until he was satisfied that I was getting proper cutting power from each.
Needless to say, even Kyuubi couldn't heal that much soreness in one night.
I had borrowed several scrolls on taijutsu from the Genin library, and I decided to use the yoga routines in one of them to help with the soreness. Half an hour later, and feeling much better, I dressed and walked out the door. There were five days left of our vacation from missions, so I was going to go training again.
Five Days Later
I was at the bridge where we normally met Kakashi-sensei. I was earlier than he'd told us, and so I decided to train while I was waiting. I stood by the water's edge, began exuding chakra from my feet, and walked out onto the surface of the slow-moving river. My sword was harnessed to my back, as usual, but I wanted to conserve my energy for now, so I began a Tai Chi Chuan routine to warm up for our mission. By the time Sasuke, normally the first one here, had arrived, I had been at it for a long time.
He watched me as I continued, and I saw out of the corner of my eye that he was about to activate the Sharingan before he recognized it as a basic taijutsu routine, done in slow motion. I could tell he was impressed that I was doing it on the water's surface.
When Sakura arrived, I think she was shocked at the transformation I had gone through, something Sasuke had largely ignored. I was no longer wearing a jumpsuit. I still was wearing an orange muscle shirt, but my pants were grey camouflage. Over the muscle shirt, I wore a dark green vest that matched well with the surrounding foliage.
What I think shocked her most was that I had beaten her here, and was ignoring her.
I finished my routine, feeling light and energized. I began to run on the river, doing half-kilometer laps. By the time Kakashi had arrived, I had run 25 km. "Yo!"
"YOU'RE LATE!" The normally stereo sound was absent, as I had not joined in.
"Well, there was this weird guy outside my door, so I went back to sleep to make him leave."
"LIAR!" Still I did not join in.
Even Kakashi was a little surprised by my changes. It had only been a week, after all.
Except, I was still practicing and hadn't noticed his arrival.
Kakashi. 'I wonder what's with Naruto. He's been acting oddly. And that sword… it suits him now. It didn't when he first grabbed it.' "Oi, Naruto, it's time for our missions."
"Huh? Oh, Kakashi-sensei. Okay, I'm done here anyway." I jumped onto the bridge and landed lightly, despite the weights and the sword. "What're we doing today Kakashi-sensei?"
"After the fiasco of the last mission, we're doing D-ranks for a while." Sakura groaned, Sasuke snorted, and I kept my face blank. "Let's go! We've got fifty acres of farmland to mow today!"
Break
Despite how boring these demeaning… I mean D-rank missions were, I appreciated them for the training they were. They were physically intensive in a boring way, forcing us to deal with boredom that comes from long waits during harder missions.
It took nearly four hours to mow the fifty acres of grass, as we were using push mowers. Kakashi refused to allow us a break, so I ended up tossing my sword into the tree he was sitting in to reduce the weight on my back. My teammates still did not know of my training weights.
Unfortunately, the next four months progressed much the same as the months before Wave country. We'd do two or three D-rank missions a day, ending at about noon, and were given instructions by Kakashi to go train by ourselves. 'Stupid lazy pervert. He's worse than Shikamaru in his own way.'
I spent most of my time working on sword forms. I did end up treating my teammates to lunch a couple times, as neither of them really wanted to turn down a free lunch.
I knew, though, that my fighting style wasn't perfected yet. I would probably end up facing Neji in the exams (I'm truly sorry to say I wasn't worried about facing Hinata), and I doubted that my Kirigakure technique could fool his Byakugan. Also, even if I could beat him anyway, I wanted to keep my fighting style secret even from my opponents.
So, I thought for a while and decided to add a genjutsu or two to my repertoire. First, I visited the Genin library, located on the third floor of the Academy (Note: if there isn't really a third floor to that building in the anime, just assume there is). Unfortunately, what little information there was about genjutsu wasn't much more informative than what we'd learned in the Academy.
However, not to be outdone, I took a few scrolls home and studied them, just to give myself an idea of what I wanted. Because genjutsu was supposed to affect the mind of the target in order to be truly effective, I spent most of my time studying that aspect of genjutsu. Finally, after a month of work and little results, I decided to get help.
I knew, from my knowledge of the Naruto that there were two powerful genjutsu users in Konoha: Yuuhi Kurenai, and Mitarashi Anko. Because I knew that Anko was at least mildly insane, I decided on Kurenai first. Unfortunately, I found little help.
Flashback
"You need help improving your fighting style, Naruto-kun? Why don't you ask Kakashi?"
I sighed. "I did. He told me flat out that he has little strength in genjutsu, and what little he does know won't help me."
"Oh. Well, I suppose I can help if it doesn't interfere with my time with my students. What did you need?"
"Well, Kakashi taught me the Kirigakure no jutsu recently, and I use it in conjunction with this sword and a silent-killing style. I've based this on a jounin my team fought in Kiri no Kuni. We beat him, but I admired his style, and I thought that his style would work for me with a few… improvements."
"Interesting. What did you have in mind?"
"Well, unfortunately I'm not as good at concealing my chakra signature as he was. This means that anyone with decent senses can get a general sense of where I am in the mist. I need a genjutsu to enhance the sight-killing effect of the mist, and also to cut my chakra resonance. I've heard of a genjutsu called the Hazy Field and I thought it might help. Do you know it?"
"Actually I do. This shouldn't take too long to teach you. But… why exactly do you need to improve such an effective sight-cutting jutsu?"
"Well… it has to do with the Chuunin exam."
"…Go on."
"Hinata and Neji are competing. I know enough about the Byakugan to know that the Kirigakure no jutsu probably won't stop it. I've been researching the Byakugan, you see, because I was looking of weaknesses in my fighting style."
"Oh. Well, I think I understand your problem. Their do-jutsu will allow them to find you in the mist much easier than anyone else. Since your fighting style depends on not being seen until the last moment, that they are able to find you, even if they only get a couple more seconds warning, interferes with your combat ability. More so because of how dangerous the Jyuken-fu is."
"Exactly. I'm sorry to say that I'm not really all that concerned with fighting Hinata. I've seen how she looks at me, and if she doesn't quit outright she will be in too much internal turmoil to put up a decent fight." Kurenai winced, seeing as Hinata was her student, but she agreed. "It's Neji I'm concerned about. He's a genius, and he's worked very hard to bring himself up to the level of the Main house fighters, so, he's really dangerous if he can find me."
"Okay, I understand. Let's get started."
End Flashback
Kurenai was helpful enough, but she admitted to me that her genjutsu required that she not move much while revving it up, and since hers were complicated she usually had to plan them out in advance. The Hazy Field was the only one she knew that would be useful to me.
The Hazy Field jutsu made it so that my body would have a hazy look, similar to strong heat waves passing through my image. This was an excellent counter to the Sharingan, and if I could master it to a high enough level by the time the Chuunin exam, I could spread out the image further.
I had discovered that it actually obscured my Inner Coil system a little, so I figured that, with enough progress, I would at least make it difficult to find me. Added on that I use Kage Bushins, Neji would find it easier to stack buttered marbles than to find me in that haze. Of course, that would only be true if and only if I practiced it enough.
One interesting trick I developed was the partial Kage Bushin technique. I could move fast enough now without the weights to leave mild after-images if I wanted, but it occurred to me how much more dangerous I would be if those after-images were solid. I ended up developing my Taijyuu Issen Rendan (Mass Critical Hit Combo). It involved me making dozens of semi-solid after-images (of course this was the Kage Bushin no jutsu at work) that could cut but could also phase through each other like normal Bushins. Think The Matrix agents dodging bullets, but make those images solid.
Also, when I swung the sword, I had several after-images follow the blade, meaning if I landed my strike, several more would follow in rapid succession with only one sword swing. Because they were semi-Kage Bushins, they could not be detected as easily, and this would give me an additional edge against people like Neji who could see me in the mist.
After some experimentation, I was able to send out the images ahead of the actual blade, so they would cut first, softening the target for my follow-up.
As said, Kurenai had little I could use. So, knowing I would likely die, I went to Anko.
Flashback
"Whatddya want, kid?" She seemed to be mildly drunk, but I decided it was an act as I couldn't smell any liquor.
"I was looking for some help with my genjutsu skills. I'm told that you are one of the best." Now I had her attention. I continued. "Orochimaru was a genjutsu master, or so I'm told. Since you were his apprentice, I was hoping you could spare some of that knowledge."
She looked at me appraisingly. "What's so goddamn important that you wanted to come to me? Most people are too scared of Orochimaru to ask what he taught me."
"Well, I think my instructor is going to enter my team in the next Chuunin exam, and there will be two Hyuuga competing. One of them, Hyuuga Neji, is supposed to be one of the most powerful Hyuuga ever for his age, and he's only a year older than me."
"But they got that damned do-jutsu. What good do you think a genjutsu would do against that?"
"Normal genjutsu would be useless. Using them at the level necessary to impair the Byakugan would take a lifetime of practice. However, I assumed that a sannin like Orochimaru would have considered that, since he was supposed to be a genius, yes?" She nodded, looking at me like I'd announced that water was wet. "I've heard stories of him successfully fooling Hyuuga using the Byakugan, including that Hyuuga nuke-nin (missing nin) one from twenty-five years ago. If that story's true, you have something I'd really like to learn."
She stared at me a long moment. "I'd heard that you ha the lowest scores among your graduating class. What made you so sharp all of a sudden?"
I grinned. She'd unintentionally confirmed the rumor. "I decided to stop playing around and take my position as a ninja seriously. In order to do that, I had to stop playing the fool all the time, and I discovered that I had a brain after all. Obviously, since you know who I am, you know about Mr. Furball, yes?"
She smirked, amused that I had the courage to insult a demon lord. "Yeah. That's why I was surprised. You're a lot smarter than your teachers gave you credit for."
"Why'd you pay so much attention to me and my life?"
She looked away a moment. Her face had softened. "I know what it's like to be ostracized because of circumstances you can't control, because of your association with… people."
"So, you'll help me?"
She smirked. 'Oh, fuck. I know what a look like that means.' "Sure, if you can pass my test."
"Okay, what's that?
"Fight me. You do well, I'll teach you."
I stared a moment. "You realize that I don't have enough control over my fighting style to hold back killing blows yet, right?"
"I don't care."
"Okay. I hope you've got some kind of armored arm-guard or something."
She looked curious. I grinned. And then I summoned the Kubikiri Houcho.
End Chapter
Author's Notes: Well, I didn't get to the Chuunin exam yet. I've got my own opinions about how various jutsu work, and you'll be able to glean the explanations from reading further. I make list of new jutsu at the end of each chapter to help you remember them, but I'm not making repeat entries.
I also fixed a few mistakes on this chapter with he reposting. Not much new, though.
Jutsu: Naruto:
Important note: All jutsu can rise in rank based on how much work the user puts into improving them. These are the base levels. I will list Naruto's mastery rank at the end of each list.
Kirigakure no jutsu (Mist Concealment Technique): B-rank technique. Only real weakness is the self-blinding effect of the jutsu, which requires specialized training to overcome. However, with the training, the low chakra-draining effect of continuous use raises it to A-rank.
Kage Bushin no jutsu (Shadow Replication): Kinjutsu. A-rank. Only weakness is the high chakra drain. With practice, the clones can be modified to take multiple hits without draining additional power.
Kage Bushin tai Bakuretsu (Exploding Shadow Replication technique): Kinjutsu. S-rank. No real weaknesses other than large chakra requirement. Kage Bushins explode when struck, can mimic real bodies much better until they do explode.
Taijyuu Issen Rendan (Mass Critical Hit Combo): Kinjutsu (Kage Bushin). S-rank. No weaknesses other than the level of chakra control required to make partial Kage Bushins and to modify them to phase through one another.
Hazy Field (I'm not going to end a technique I can't translate to Japanese with 'no jutsu'): B-rank. No real weaknesses, but it can be overcome by certain do-jutsu of comparable power, such as Sharingan and Byakugan (Others will be 'discovered' during the course of my story). Creates a haze around the jutsu, greatly obscuring their body.
Gen/ninjutsu combo: Kirigakure Haze: S-rank. With enough practice in using both techniques at once, th user can fully mask their chakra even from do-jutsu like the Byakugan that would normally be able to in them in the mist. Ranked so because it can entirely negate a very powerful kekka genkai (Bloodline Limit).
Naruto's mastery rank: Kirigakure: A
Kage Bushin no jutsu: S
Kage Bushin tai Bakuretsu: A
Taijyuu Issen Rendan: S
Hazy Field: B
Kirigakure Haze: S
Ninja "pentagon"Tool Skill: 5 of 5 possible points.
Ninjutsu: 4 of 5
Taijutsu: 4 of 5
Genjutsu: 3 of 5
Kekka genkai (Bloodline Limit): 0 of 5 (thus far)