Life Revisited Chapter 2: Second Chances
SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't been keeping up to date with the Naruto manga and haven't read up to chapter 277 then there will be atleast one thing that you don't know about yet.
Sakura--
I was walking home the field where Ino and I like to pick flowers, a bunch of pretty flowers in hand for my mother. It was a nice day, the sky was mostly cloudless and was brilliantly blue. I turned into an alley to cut across to my street and there they were. This alley was home to a group of genin ninja's who like to pick on everyone, thinking that they were stronger than everyone else. They gave me a hard time a lot, so I tried to avoid them whenever possible. I quickly ducked back out of the alley, hoping that they hadn't seen me.
"Oi, big-forehead girl!" The leader of the gang called. I started running. "Oi! Get back here, who said I was done talking to you?"
"I did. stop picking on Sakura-chan." I stopped running and turned around to see who had said that, who had dared to get in between the ninja and his fun. There, in the middle of the street and in front of the genin boy stood a boy I recognized but couldn't remember the name of. He was short with unruly blonde hair, a lot of people picked on him and called him names.
"Hah! Who do you think you are? Get out of the way before I pound you!" I was worried, from what I remembered the boy wasn't that strong and got beat up a lot.
"Try it, I dare you." I didn't know what he was thinking, if he kept that up he would get beaten up.
"Fine, I think I will." The ninja punched the boy, but it didn't even seem to faze him.
"I'm sorry... was that meant to hurt?" My jaw dropped. Not only did it not seem to faze him, he was taunting the ninja about it?
"What the fuck? Get him guys!" All the ninjas jumped out at the boy. One second he was standing there, the next he was running fast, surrounded by yellow light, beating down each and every one of the bullies. Within 10 seconds they were all on the ground nursing bruises or other injuries.
"If you don't stop picking on Sakura-chan, you'll get more where that came from. So says the future Hokage, me!" He walked up to me. The boy looked at me.
"If these guys give you a hard time, tell me and I'll take care of 'em for you" I nodded, unable to say a word. "Oh... and if you could... please don't tell anyone about what happened?" He looked at me with the bluest eyes. He had just saved me from those thugs, so I agreed. "Thanks Sakura-chan!" He flashed me a foxy smile and jumped up to the roof of the building next to me and was gone. Then it clicked.
Flashback--
I was staring around a corner at a boy surrounded by a crowd of the villagers one day, coming home from playing with Ino. His deep blue eyes showing proud defiance.
"You can't beat me! I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I'm going to be the Hokage some day!" All the villagers surrounding the boy started laughing.
"You're nothing but a demon! You will never become the Hokage. Ever!" One of the villagers said, the rest nodding in agreement.
"You wait and see! I'll be the Hokage some day!" The villagers seemed to be annoyed by his persistence and they started to beat him. By the time they were bored of beating him he lay on the ground, bleeding from his nose and several cuts that were inflicted by the crowd. I was amazed as he stood up and ambled away. As he limped home, I could hear him mutter under his breath.
"They'll see, I'll be the Hokage some day and then they'll have to recognize me."
End Flashback--
This couldn't be the same boy, could it?
Naruto--
I was running to the training grounds while analyzing that fight. My technique was extremely sloppy and I couldn't even pull off the speed to make the illusion work right yet. This was partly because of my current chakra control which needed a lot of work.
'Damn my blood-limit for requiring such good chakra control!' Naruto thought to himself.
Flashback--
Mastering the Kirameki took a little longer than I would have liked, I'm terrible with genjutsu, but I mastered it fairly fast anyway. The trick was that you made a flash and if your opponent saw the flash, it would disorient them slightly and cause them to be less resistant to other forms of genjutsu. The main effect of the Kirameki however is the fact that it makes anything reinforced with chakra from the person who made the flash look like it was just a flash of light when moving. The Shunshin on the other hand was much more difficult. In order to use the Shunshin you need to focus chakra to your entire body simultaneously. Members of the Kazara clan have special cellular structure causing their speed and strength to be increased upon contact with chakra, the chakra is distributed to the rest of the body from the eyes.
"Now, the Shunshin is the closest thing to a doujutsu as you can get without actually being one." Yondaime told me. "I say this because the Kazara eyes are special in their own way and they are the key to using the Shunshin. Make the dragon hand seal and concentrate chakra into your eyes, you only need to make the seal once, after it's activated it constantly takes a minimal amount of chakra. To stop the effect simply cut off the chakra flow. Forcing more chakra into your eyes will increase the effect. It is important to remember that although your eyes are more resistant to chakra damage and can handle a lot more than normal people, that you still have limits. If you use too much chakra you can seriously damage your eyes causing temporary to permanent blindness."
End Flashback--
I quickly decided a training plan and started into action. I would need to get faster though, and it would involve stealing, but it was worth it.
Three weeks later--
I had increased my speed and chakra control to the point where I could use Kirameki better and Shunshin atleast a little. I had also tried some of the jutsus that I knew, trying to get my body used to doing them again. The best thing about jutsus though is that I didn't have to relearn them, I just needed to have the chakra capacity and I certainly had the chakra. The skill that I most wanted to be able to do, the one that would let me actually be able to steal what I needed to train was the Kage Aruku no Justu (Shadow Walk). It's basically just a teleportation jutsu without the loud poof, but is restricted to shadows. Kage Aruku required a lot of chakra control. I had gotten enough chakra control to be able to go about five feet. I trained until dark, it was time to do it.
I went home and changed into all black and crept out towards the store I needed. The store was completely dark and empty, the owner had gone home for the night, so I quietly walked up to the window to look inside. Spotting what I needed on the shelf I did the hand seals and whispered "Kage Aruku no Jutsu." The next second I was on the other side of the glass and beyond the display on the other side. Quickly I grabbed the special training weights and with another Kage Aruku I was outside and running home.
Sakura--
It had been two weeks since Naruto had saved me from the bullies, I was out playing with Ino in the flower field. This place had been our favorite place to play because not a lot of people came here and we would be able to sit and enjoy the rainbow-colored sea of flowers. I sat down and leaned against a tree and just gazed out at the flowers.
"Hey Sakura-chan?"
"Yeah Ino?"
"What's gotten into you recently, you're always sitting and staring."
'Is it safe to tell her?' Sakura thought. "Can you keep a promise Ino-chan?"
"Depends," Ino replied with a wink.
"Seriously Ino?"
"If it means that much to you, yeah, I can keep a secret."
"I think I like a boy, he saved me from being beaten. He beat up a group of bullies that were going to beat me up."
"Was it Sasuke-kun?" Ino looked worried.
"No… it was Naruto." What was once worry became incredulity.
"Naruto? That loser?"
"Yea… that loser. He just beat the crap out of the entire group of bullies that like to pick on me in less than ten seconds. All of them genin ninja."
"Are you sure that it was Naruto and not someone else?"
"Positive. He made me swear not to tell anyone… but I think I can trust you."
Inwardly Ino made a point to never assume Naruto weak again, a point she would forget in the weeks to come.
Naruto--
It had been five years since I woke up a five year-old again, and my power had increased significantly. My training had gone well and I had succeeded in getting powerful, and I was powerful enough to be at Kakashi's current level. The only problem left was that the training no longer held enough benefit to make it worthwhile. It had finally come time for the Genin-exam, and I decided that I would let on a little hint of power. Two words, Kage Bunshin. The entire class lined up and came forward down the line to show off their skill in front of the class. Everyone was impressed by Sasuke's four (can't remember how many it actually was) bunshins but I knew that they'd probably piss themselves when it was his turn.
"I know that no one wants to follow such a perfomance, but who's next." No one moved, so I raised my hand, "Ok, Naruto, you next." I slowly walked up.
"Why are you going so slow Naruto, afraid that you won't be able to do it?" I heard Kiba taunt, but just grinned my fox grin. When I reached the front and turned around I was still grinning. I counted the people in the class. Twenty five not including Myself. I brought my hands up and made the familiar seal.
"Kage Bunshin!" There was a loud 'poof' and when the smoke cleared there stood twenty-four Naruto Kage Bunshins. Everyone who didn't catch the differnt wording were in awe in the sheer number of the clones, but those who also caught the name of the jutsu were even more so. I looked at Iruka. "Do I pass?"
"Naruto... how did you...? There's so many... where did you?" Since Iruka wasn't able to put a coherent sentence together, I walked over to the table and grabbed a forehead protector and switched it out for my goggles. I turned around and gave the class a big peace sign and then sat back down in my seat. Collecting himself, Iruka shook his head and continued. "Well... Naruto, are you gonna get rid of the clones?" I had forgotten about them, and they had all taken to pestering one classmate each, all of whom were confounded by the fact that the bunshins could touch them and they could touch the bunshins back.
"Oh, sorry" I said and scratched the back of my head, the next instant the bunshins all 'poof'ed back out of existence.
"Very well. I'd like to see you after class, but for the time being, let's continue."
A/N: So sorry about the wait. Life has been kinda sucky as of late, so I've not really had the time or the creative inspiration to write, but I hope I'll be able to work more and get this thing out faster. 'Til next time Kreekoh