DON'T OWN NARUTO
Author's Notes: Edited July 20, 2005.
Rising Phoenix
Naruto left the exam room and went back into the classroom. Naruto showed his forehead protector to Shikamaru and Choji. The two of them smiled at their new friend. Iruka entered the room a couple minutes later with some cotton stuck up his nose. Everyone in the class noticed it but didn't ask what the cause for the cotton was.
"Okay class; meet me here in one week to be assigned to your Genin teams, dismissed." Iruka instructed to the class.
Naruto left the class followed by Shikamaru and Choji. The two of them soon met up with their parents and Naruto decided to split up before he could possibly cause some trouble with their parents. Naruto went over to a set of swings in which he used to sit in when he was younger and sat alone. A minute later, Itachi, in his disguised form, showed up beside Naruto.
"Congratulations." Itachi said to Naruto.
"Thanks. Have you seen your brother yet?" Naruto asked.
"I've seen him. From the way he is right now, he is still too weak to take on Orochimaru. I just hope that he realizes that one gains true strength when one protects the people who are precious to him instead of gaining strength through solitude." Itachi replied in his calm voice.
"I must be rubbing off on you." Naruto said with his trademark grin.
Itachi grunted a reply and started to head away from the swings.
"I have to visit the Hokage now. I'm sure you can find something to do before dusk hits." Itachi said without looking back at Naruto. Naruto nodded his head and started to wonder around the village.
About ten minutes of wondering, Naruto found himself at a training area where a boy with a weird hairstyle and some thick eyebrows was kicking a log.
"Hey." Naruto said to the boy.
The boy looked at Naruto and replied.
"Hello." The boy replied.
"Are you practicing Taijutsu right now?" Naruto asked.
"Yes I am. With the flames of youth, those who are hard workers shall surpass those of geniuses."
'Okay, I remember Shinta-sensei telling me before that there was a Taijutsu master here in hidden leaf with a weird hairstyle and some thick eyebrows. That person also rambled on about the flames of youth or whatever. This kid must be a student of his. I wonder how I would fare against him.
"Do you wanna spar?" Naruto asked.
"I don't know." Lee said a little hesitantly.
"I want see how a hard working type person would fare against another hard working type." Naruto said to Lee.
Naruto could tell in an instant that Lee was the hard working type of person like he is.
"Alright then, a spar it is." Lee said with plenty of vigor.
Lee moved into an offensive stance while Naruto went into a defensive one.
"Tell me; are you a practitioner of the Lotus style?" Naruto asked.
"Why yes I am. The flames of youth is strong in you, um what's your name?" Lee asked.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto; I am the last known practitioner of the Phoenix style of fighting." Naruto announced.
"My name is Rock Lee. Shall we begin?" Lee asked.
The two started to spar and they were having a lot of fun doing so. Every time one person lands a blow on the other, the other would counter and give the other person a direct hit. According to Shinta, Shinta told Naruto that the only fighting styles that could defeat the Phoenix style of combat are the fourth Hokage's family fighting style and the Lotus style.
Thirty minutes later, the two were very exhausted. The two of them looked quite beat up and were panting heavily.
"That was a good match." Naruto said, panting as he spoke.
"That it was. I would like to go all out against you someday." Lee replied.
"Same here, the only reason why the two of us were at the level we fought at is because we both are carrying weights." Naruto said to the panting Lee.
Lee was surprised to hear that Naruto was wearing weights and that Naruto was also wearing weights.
"Hey Lee, are you able to use Ninjutsu or Genjutsu?" Naruto asked when he checked to see how much chakra Lee had, he couldn't find any.
Lee shook his head.
"I can't use either Ninjutsu or Genjutsu. This is why I fight using Taijutsu. With Taijutsu, I can prove that I can still become an excellent ninja. That means everything to me." Lee replied sincerely.
Naruto smiled.
"That's a great goal. Tell you what, whenever I'm available to practice, I'll help you. It's a promise." Naruto said, using the nice guy pose and looking cool.
"That would be great." Lee said with a smile.
"I have to get going now. Talk to you later." Naruto said, waving his hand as he left the training field.
Right after Naruto left, Gai appeared behind Lee and was wondering what happened.
"Lee, who is that kid?" Gai asked from behind Lee.
"Oh Gai-sensei." Lee said turning around and looking at Gai. "That kid, he's Uzumaki Naruto, another practitioner of hard work." Lee replied.
'Uzumaki Naruto, so you're back in the village.' Gai thought.
"Gai," Lee said, interrupting Gai's thoughts, "he promised me that he would help me achieve my goal to become an excellent shinobi. He even used the nice guy pose." Lee said with a smile.
"The flames of youth run strongly in him." Gai replied to Lee.
'I wish to see how great a ninja both he and Lee will become' Gai thought.
"Alright Lee, tell me everything about the fight you had with him." Gai ordered.
"Yes sensei. Naruto came to me and asked if I wanted a spar. I accepted and he asked if I was a practitioner of the Lotus style." Lee started out.
Gai was shocked at what Lee had just said. The Lotus style was a very rare fighting style and if Naruto had heard of the Lotus style, Naruto must've trained under a powerful taijutsu master.
"After I acknowledged that I was a user of the Lotus style, he said that he was the last known user of the Phoenix style. Gai, what is the Phoenix style of combat?" Lee asked.
'The phoenix style, that style of combat was thought to be lost after the entire Phoenix clan was wiped out. That style of combat is the exact opposite of the Lotus style.' Gai thought.
Gai heard Lee repeat the question of what was the Phoenix style and answered.
"Lee, the Phoenix style is the style that is the opposite of the Lotus style. With the Lotus style, we rely heavily on speed and use the eight celestial gates if we're forced to. The Lotus style is an offensive style of combat. The Phoenix style also relies heavily on speed, but what's different about the Phoenix style is that the Phoenix style is a defensive style. A person who uses this style also has a high amount of chakra which makes the style hard to use unlike the Lotus style which uses pure stamina." Gai explained while Lee was writing down everything on a small notepad.
After Naruto's spar with Lee, Naruto ventured into the forest more and saw that one of the instructors from earlier, Mizuki was the name that one of the students said, was carrying a giant scroll and was heading away from the village.
"Where do you think you're going?" Naruto said to the Mizuki.
The instructor looked back and saw that it was only Naruto.
"Well if it isn't the demon. I better dispose of you quickly otherwise, the others will find me real soon." Mizuki said to Naruto.
Mizuki threw one of his larger shurikens at Naruto and smirked when the shuriken made contact on Naruto. The smirk disappeared almost instantly when Naruto's body turned into mud. Mizuki looked around to see where Naruto was and couldn't find him. When Mizuki couldn't find Naruto on the tree branch he was on, he went down to the ground to look. Right when Mizuki touched the ground, he was sucked under and at ground level, only his head was visible.
"And to think you were an instructor." Naruto said in a taunting voice.
Naruto grabbed the scroll that Mizuki was carrying and dropped when he went into the ground and check to see what type of scroll it was.
'I don't believe this. This is the Scroll of the Forbidden Seals. I wonder what kind of techniques are in it.' Naruto thought to himself.
Naruto checked out several of the techniques that were listed in there and saw a few interesting techniques that he would like to study. In the scroll, there was also a technique that was called the Demon Unsealer and Naruto thought that would be a good technique to start on. The Demon Unsealer bypasses the Dead Demon Seal which holds Kyuubi inside Naruto and gives her free reign over Naruto's body for a limited time. Also, Kyuubi's chakra would be much easier to access when Kyuubi is in control of Naruto's body. Only those filled with pure intentions have the ability to use the seal, but because the seal has the ability to bypass the Dead Demon Seal, it was classified forbidden.
Naruto noticed not soon after that Mizuki was still awake and hit him in the back of the head rendering him unconscious.
An hour later, Naruto learned the Demon Unsealer Technique and was at the point of chakra exhaustion. Naruto was about to learn a second technique when Iruka appeared from the bushes nearby.
"So this is where Mizuki went." Iruka said in an annoyed tone.
Iruka noticed that Naruto was there and that he was holding the Forbidden Scroll.
"Naruto, where did you get that scroll?" Iruka asked.
"I found him," Naruto then pointed to Mizuki, "trying to leave the village with it a few minutes ago. He seriously underestimated me and I used the Inner Decapitation Technique to send him as he is now." Naruto explained, purposely leaving out the fact that he was learning a technique from the scroll.
"Why don't we head back to the village and I'll treat you to some ramen." Iruka said in a warm voice.
"Oh yeah." Naruto said in a loud tone.
After Mizuki was taken care of, Naruto and Iruka sat down at Ichiraku's and ordered some ramen. After about twenty bowls of ramen from Naruto, Iruka looked at his empty wallet. Naruto used up all the money that he had.
"So Iruka, so you know what they're going to do to Mizuki?" Naruto asked.
"I think that Mizuki is going to be sent to Special Ninja Felony Prison." Iruka answered.
"I have to get going now. See you later Iruka." Naruto said in a cheery voice after looking at a clock nearby.
Iruka smiled warmly as he watches Naruto head off.
During the next four days, nothing special really happened. Naruto was true to his word and helped Lee out whenever the two of them had some free time. On the fifth day, Naruto had to have his picture taken for the Ninja registry. Naruto decided to change his hairstyle a little to stir up some trouble and when he had his picture taken, he was almost mistaken as the fourth Hokage.
After Naruto showed his info to the third, the third's grandson appeared and was challenging the third to another battle. Later during the day, the third's grandson, Konohamaru, asked Naruto to see if he could learn the Sexy Technique: The Ninja Centerfold. After a couple hours passed, Konohamaru's tutor, Ebisu arrived and fell victim to Naruto's Sexy Technique: Harem. After that incident, Naruto and Konohamaru became rivals for the title Hokage.
One week has now passed since Naruto passed the Genin Exams. During the last couple days, he looked at his father's scrolls that were previously inside the chest and Naruto started to learn the basics of the taijutsu style as well as the Yellow Flash technique, which was a technique where his body produces yellow flashes of light, and the Body Flicker Technique.
After Naruto was done eating breakfast, which was at Ichiraku's, Naruto started to head for the Academy. When he entered the Academy, he saw that there were two girls that were blocking the door into the classroom. A few seconds later, the two were in and were saying that they won the race.
'Girls are weird.' Naruto thought.
'What are weird?' Kyuubi asked in an icy tone from within Naruto.
'Nothing' Naruto thought back quickly.
When everyone was assembled, Iruka entered the classroom and started to make a speech about how they were only Genin and that they have to have a Jounin teacher. After Iruka finished with the speech, he started to announce the teams. After he said team 5, he skipped team six and went on to team seven.
"Alright, now for team 7; Haruno Sakura,"
Sakura's ears perked up at the mention of her name.
'Let me be with Sasuke-kun.' She thought continuously.
"Inuzuka Kiba and Akamaru, and finally Uchiha Sasuke."
"Yes!" Sakura said out loud.
Most of the girls in the class were shooting death glares to Sakura because of having Sasuke on her team. Sasuke was the most popular boy in the class and most of the girls in the class had a crush on him. Both Kiba and Akamaru groaned when they heard that they were going to be on the Uchiha's team and were about to protest but decided against it.
"Next, team 8. We have Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, and Uzumaki Naruto." Iruka continued.
After hearing his name, Naruto looked around the room to see who his teammates were and saw that Shino was the quiet, non-talkative type and Hinata was shy.
'This is going to be interesting.' Naruto thought loudly, filled with excitement.
'Don't think so loudly' Kyuubi complained.
'Sorry' Naruto thought a little quieter.
While Naruto was talking with Kyuubi, Iruka stated the names for team nine and is proceeding to team ten.
"And finally team ten. We have Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Choji."
After everyone got settled down from the team listings, Iruka made another announcement.
"Alright class you'll meet your Jounin teachers later this afternoon." Iruka finished.
Naruto decided to head out and see what was going on in the village. Naruto decided to see where Lee was and see if he's available to spar. When Naruto entered an area where there are several restaurants, Naruto saw that one of the buildings looked decimated. Naruto checked to see what the source of the destruction was and saw that Lee was being restrained by an older version of Lee and a person who he hadn't seen yet.
"Neji, make sure that you can hold him securely now." Gai ordered to Neji.
Neji was having some serious trouble holding Lee's legs while Gai was using a full nelson to retrain Lee's upper body.
"Excuse me." Naruto said to a girl that was nearby. The girl had two buns on her head and was wearing a pink Chinese outfit.
"What's going on with Lee?" Naruto asked.
"Instructor Gai took us out to celebrate the completion of Lee's new move when he mistaken Gai's sake with water." The girl replied.
"Oh great, a Drunken Fist fighter." Naruto muttered under his breath.
Naruto went up to lee while Gai and Neji were holding on to Lee and pressed a few pressure points that were on Lee's chest. Lee fell asleep a few seconds later and Neji released his hold on Lee while Gai placed him down gently to the ground.
"Thanks." Gai said, panting a little.
Gai looked at who the person was that sent Lee to sleep and saw that it was Naruto.
"What did you do to Lee?" Neji asked after he saw that Lee was quite asleep.
"I pressed a few pressure points on his chest in which drunken fighters are weak against. When those points are pressed, they instantly fall asleep." Naruto answered.
'Thank god that Shinta taught me those anatomy lessons.' Naruto thought gratefully.
"Seeing that Lee is unavailable for now, I'll take my leave." Naruto said aloud, looking at the sleeping Lee.
Naruto started to turn around and leave when Neji decided to speak again.
"What is your name?" Neji asked.
"Ask your sensei, he was there when I sparred with Lee a few days ago." Naruto answered, leaving the scene to head to the academy.
Gai looked at Naruto and was shocked that Naruto knew of his presence during the spar with Lee.
Naruto made it to the academy not long after and saw that he and his team were supposed to meet their instructors in about an hour. Naruto decided to enter the classroom where he was assigned to wait for his instructor and started reading one of the scrolls his father left him. In this scroll, it was the instructions on how to do the Yellow Flash attack. The attack states that while the body produces yellow flashes when the attack is used, this attack can also be used to temporally blind users of any Doujutsu, or eye techniques.
Naruto read the scroll and saw that there were a total of ten seals that need to be performed for the attack to work. The scroll also states that if a user practices this technique enough, it is possible to use the technique without any hand seals, but that was only in theory because no one in the clan was capable of doing so. Naruto speculated that the forth might be able to do so, considering that he was known as Hidden Leaf's Yellow Flash, but the forth died before the scroll was updated.
About forty-five minutes later, Shino appeared and Hinata followed not long after. After the two of them showed up, Naruto continued to read the scroll while practicing the hand seals. He figured that if he practiced the technique for most of the night tonight, he would be able to use it. Twenty minutes of pure silence later, team 8's instructor arrived.
"Hello, I'm Yuhi Kurenai and I'll be the instructor for team 8. Why don't we start things off with an introduction so that we can get to know each other first?" Kurenai suggested.
"Why don't you start things off then?" Naruto asked.
"My name is Yuhi Kurenai. I just recently was promoted to Jounin. I like dango and rice cakes. I dislike perverts and I wish to be the best Genjutsu master here in Konoha." Kurenai introduced. Kurenai then pointed to Naruto.
"Alright, I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I like learning new techniques and training. I also like to eat at Ichiraku's ramen and I dislike the three minute wait for the ramen to finish. I also dislike perverts and I plan on being the next Hokage here in this village." Naruto said loudly.
'Interesting' Kurenai thought.
"Why don't you go next?" Kurenai said looking at Shino.
"Name's Aburame Shino. I like bugs and I dislike people who don't like bugs." Shino said in an emotionless voice. "I also like to collect different species of bugs and hope to collect every type known."
'Weird' both Naruto and Kurenai thought.
Hinata then started to introduce herself.
"I'm H-Hyuuga Hinata. I l-like people who are precious to m-me." Hinata started with a quiet tone and stuttering. "I-I dislike people who a-are mean. I h-hope to take over the r-role of being t-the head of my family someday."
'This is just great. First, I have a loud boy who's basically an enigma, a boy who likes to collect bugs," Kurenai suppressed a shiver at the thought, 'and a girl who has a serious confidence problem.'
"Alright team, meet me at training ground 21 tomorrow and we'll start our duties." Kurenai replied to the Genins.
"What kind of duties?" Naruto asked.
"Survival training. Out of the twenty seven people who graduate, only nine of them will become Genin. That means that this test has a failure rate of 66.6 percent. The details can be read on these pamphlets." Kurenai said, handing out a pamphlet out to each of the Genin. "I also suggest that you don't eat tomorrow or you'll throw up." Kurenai then disappeared with a teleportation technique.
"Guess I'll see both of you tomorrow." Naruto said, looking at Shino and Hinata.
Naruto left the room before the others could respond.
'What do you think this exam will be about will be about?' Naruto thought telepathically to Kyuubi.
'I don't know, probably something to do with teamwork.' Kyuubi replied.
'Do you think you can help me out with this technique?' Naruto thought to Kyuubi.
'Give me a body and I will' Kyuubi answered.
Naruto created a modified Shadow Replication and transformed it into Kyuubi's form, just without the tail or ears, much to Kyuubi's disappointment.
"It's great to be finally out of that cage after being inside for a week." Kyuubi said happily.
"Why don't we head over to my house and start practicing the Yellow Flash Technique?" Naruto asked, walking towards the direction of his house.
At Naruto's house, Naruto practiced using the Yellow Flash technique. Naruto managed to get a weak version of the flash, but he wanted to try to at least get the full version once so that he could use it for whatever his instructor has planned the next day.
The next day, Naruto was tired from attempting to do a full version of the Yellow Flash Technique. He managed to make a complete version of the technique, but fell asleep almost immediately due to chakra exhaustion. Naruto woke up feeling alright because Kyuubi used some of her chakra to help heal Naruto.
Naruto decided to go against Kurenai's orders and decided to eat breakfast at his favorite place. After Naruto finished eating, he went over to the training ground as instructed.
At the training grounds, Naruto saw that Shino was already there and that he was looking at some bugs that were located inside a rotted log. Naruto decided to take the time to look around and see what the training area looks like. He saw that the training field has three logs sticking out at one part of the region and a lake that was beside the training field which would be perfect for his water techniques.
5 minutes had passed and Hinata showed up followed closely by Kurenai.
"Okay team, this is what you're going to try to do. I've hidden two items somewhere inside this training area. What you're going to do is find those two items before the timer here," she holds a small timer and places down on a nearby stump, "reaches noon. You have four hours to find those items. The person who doesn't have an item by noon fails and gets sent back into the academy. Also, I'll be your opponent during the four hours just so that it will be harder for the three of you to find the items. When I say start, you can begin." Kurenai instructed.
A few seconds later, "Start." Kurenai said out loud and vanished using the same teleporting technique as yesterday.
NEXT CHAPTER: THE GENIN TEST AND A C CLASS MISSION
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