AURA
by Random Writer 46
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Thanks for all the reviews, people! I didn't expect this fic to get so much attention so soon. Thanks to each one of you, though I haven't gotten around to sending all your replies just yet. Please stick by with me through the rest of this fic.
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Chapter 2
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"Alright then..." Iruka-sensei said as he surveyed the clipboard. "That's all, isn't it? Is there anybody whose name I didn't call?"Nobody replied, and Iruka smiled to himself. Another job well done.
Mizuki stood off to the side, looking at the clipboard over Iruka's shoulder. Contrary to what a lot of people thought, Mizuki loved his position as a teaching assistant. As far as he saw, being a jounin would suck with all the high-class missions with high risk of death, and being a teacher wouldn't be the greatest job in the world since he wasn't exactly the forceful type, and as such didn't have the ability to control a class. He was perfectly happy with his position in the world.
He looked at the students in front of him, mentally counting off the ones that had failed and the ones that had passed. There had been only a few failures, which was quite the good thing, though he knew that some of them would still be coming back after all since some jounins posed ridiculous tests for the newly graduated.
"Alright, then. Class dismissed." Iruka said, and most students got up out of their seats and started stretching. "Remember. Those who passed will come here tomorrow and get their teams sorted out, afterwards they can meet their jounin instructor."
Within a few minutes most of the students were gone with only a few lingering behind, of which included Kiba and Naruto. Kiba was trying to wake up a sleeping Akamaru, and Naruto was just watching in amusement.
Soon the puppy woke up, and Kiba lifted it up from the desk and onto his shoulder. He then turned around to Naruto.
"Hey, wanna come celebrate our graduation?" Kiba asked with a sharp grin. "There's a couple of my buddy's that you might wanna meet, since you're probably going to be stuck on a team with some of us. Might help you with teamwork and stuff, you know."
Naruto thought about this for a second. Well, why not? And this is a chance to make some friends... And I can count the number of friends that I have on one hand, actually no, maybe less. And it's free food!
"Oh, by the way, we're going to someplace called Ichiraku... I heard they sell the best ramen there around."
That sealed the deal right there.
---
"So... Where you from, Naruto?" Kiba asked, curious.
They were walking down a street of Konoha, towards Ichiraku. Neither of them felt much like taking to the rooftops, and just enjoyed each other's company as they made their way towards the ramen stand. Akamaru was snoozing on Kiba's shoulder, and the eskimo boy had pulled the hood of his parka down.
"Well... My dad and I are travelling shinobi." Naruto explained, sticking to his cover story. "Yeah, but we were getting pretty tired of living by ourselves and scrounging for cash, so we decided to join a larger shinobi community, see. Konoha just happened to the closest one at the time."
Kiba nodded.
"So, how about your mom?"
"My mom? Well, I don't know really. I was adopted by my dad when I was a kid so I can't remember anything about my real parents. All I know is that my dad is a shinobi of the highest rank in Konoha, and... that's about it." It was a half-lie, not exactly the truth but not exactly false either.
"Oh, sorry." Kiba said.
"No worries. No point in worrying about the past, right? Anyway, you've asked me enough questions about myself, I wanna hear something out of you."
Kiba looked genuinely surprised to see somebody paying attention to him.
"Well, uh, what's there to tell?"
"I don't know... your family, techniques you use, hobbies?"
Kiba thought about this for a few seconds.
"I come from the Inuzuka clan... I guess you could say we specialize in beast-human jutsus, and rely on our dogs as ninja tools, though that's not really a bloodline. Just more of a family specialization kind of thing..."
They conversed with each other for a while. Naruto was glad for the companionship that his new friend was showing. To tell the truth, he had never really had a friend before except for his dad, and this feeling was something that he never wanted to end. It was a sense of camaraderie, a sense of worth, a sense of... belonging.
---
"Alright, here we are." Inuzuka Kiba said as he pushed aside the blinds that covered the doorway. "Hey, yo!"
In front of them sat several other people from the class. Naruto mentally noted the people that were here. There was Sakura and the other blonde girl that had been fighting with her, and now they were all buddy buddy. It was kind of wierd. There was no Sasuke to be seen, and several other new graduates turned around to see the newcomers.
"Kiba." The guy with the collar and the sunglasses acknowledged. It was the same guy from before that had been sitting on Kiba's side.
"Yo, Shino," replied Kiba, and sat down beside him. He waved at Naruto to follow, and Naruto complied. "This is my new buddy, Naruto. He and his dad just joined Konoha, so they probably have tons of techniques that we've never seen before!"
Naruto felt Shino look at him for a second or two, before he spoke.
"Aburame Shino, pleased to make your acquaintance."
He put a hand in front of him, and Naruto accepted it, giving him a hearty handshake.
"Yaiba Naruto, same here."
Suddenly, he felt pinpricks poking into his skin, and withdrew his hand, looking at it strangely. There, in the center of his palm, was a bug of some sort that he had never seen before. It wriggled its feelers and hopped off his hand and into Shino's. When he looked at the silent boy with a questioning glance, Kiba felt prepared to answer for him.
"Yo, those are his family's specialties. Kikkai bugs. They let them live inside their bodies and feed them with their chakra, and in turn they have to listen to him when he orders them to do stuff." Kiba explained. "Don't be freaked out by those guys, you get used to them quickly enough."
"You have bugs living inside your body?" Naruto asked Shino, who nodded. "Wow, isn't that kind of weird?"
"No... Not really." The usually silent boy answered. "The Kikkai bugs were given to me at birth. You have no problem with them?"
Naruto shook his head.
"Nah, not really. Everybody's got their own ways, I respect that."
"Thank you."
"No prob."
It was then that Shino's order arrived in the form of a bowl of pork ramen. He took a pair of chopsticks from the container on the table, and silently broke them down the middle, and prepared to eat. Naruto noticed that several of Shino's Kikkai bugs had suddenly popped out of his skin and into the broth, as if they were feasting as well. Though it might've been disturbing to other people, Naruto wasn't bothered one bit by the sight.
"Hey, Ichiraku old man!" Kiba yelled. "I want a bowl of beef here and, uh..."
He looked at Naruto, who grinned and pointed at one of the items on the menu.
"...and a miso here!"
The old man replied with a hearty laugh and started making the orders. Within a few short minutes two bowls of ramen were sitting on the table in front of them, and both Kiba and Naruto dug in. Though Shino had started before either of them, it was Naruto that finished first, followed closely by Kiba, who gave a loud belch as he inhaled the rest of the broth.
"Man, that was some good stuff!" Kiba grinned, and reached for a tissue to wipe his mouth with. Naruto just sat back and laughed. Shino was already retrieving the bugs that had come out for the feast. "So, what do you wanna talk about?"
"Who, me?" Naruto asked.
"Well yeah, duh! Shino here's about as responsive as a wall."
Naruto looked at the silent boy, who just shrugged.
"Well... I don't know."
"Hey, why don't you tell us about your dad?" Kiba asked, curious.
Naruto was caught by surprise.
"My dad? Well... I heard he was raised by a family of ninja here in Konoha, but then he ran away when he was twelve because they were being really horrible... That was before he became a genin, so he couldn't be counted as missing-nin. He's what you could call a wander-nin, I guess. When he hit the road he began to hone his skills, and became pretty good at what he did. As for his level... I guess he's around upper chuunin?"
And they talked about a few things here, and a few things there for the rest of the time. Kiba introduced Naruto to the other graduates, and Naruto managed to befriend a few of them. There was laughing, jokes, and talking, but all good things come to an end, and before he knew it, Naruto was walking out of the ramen stand. There, in front of him stood Akira.
"You done, hmm?"
"Yeah, I had a good time." Naruto said, with a smile.
Akira looked at his adopted son, and returned the smile.
"Good, good. A kid your age should hang around kids like you, not spending all day with your crotchety old father."
Naruto sighed.
"Tousan, you're not that old."
"Oh, that's what you think, that's what you think..."
And with a hearty laugh, Akira took a running leap, and he was on the rooftops. Naruto followed a second later, not missing a beat as both flew into the air. The pale moonlight illuminated their features, and the cool night air was as calming as could be. Both had a sense of peace that neither had felt for a long long time, Akira since the last time he had been in this village, and Naruto since he was a baby before the sealing.
Konoha was home, and both shinobi could feel it deep within their hearts.
---
Naruto arrived the next day at the academy pretty early in the morning. Both Kiba and Shino were already there, and Kiba waved at him to come sit by him again. Naruto obliged, and jumped into the seat beside the dog-boy with an early-morning smile. They began to converse, and the other students began to arrive. Naruto could see soon who had passed the exams, and who hadn't. The class size had been effectively reduced by a third of what it was before, and now there was a lot more empty spaces.
Pretty soon all the graduates had arrived, and Iruka called for everybody to calm down. Mizuki suppressed a grin as he watched the young chuunin teacher practically hyperventilate at Sakura and Ino once again. Soon, everybody had settled down in their seats (with Sakura being in the closest seat available to Sasuke).
"Alright then!" Iruka-sensei roared. "Mizuki here will tell you which jounin instructors you'll be assigned to and your teams, when he calls your name please go the appropriate room. Remember, some jounins may be a little late, as many of them have important missions to accomplish."
Mizuki took his cue, and stepped up, looking through the list of names that made up the clipboard.
"Okay, Team 1. Kazama Heihachi, Kusanagi Kyo, and Ayanami Rei. Your jounin instructor is..."
Naruto tuned the rest of the thing out, and concentrated on his conversation with Kiba. At the moment they were talking about the best way to enhance a kunai with chakra. It seemed that chakra control was quite necessary in the Inuzuka family techniques, as inaccurate amounts of chakra could usually do harm to their partners instead of helping out, and thus Kiba had plenty of practice infusing chakra onto kunai. At the moment Akamaru was lying down on the table, napping once again.
"...Team 7... huh?"
Naruto looked up. Mizuki looked a little surprised before turning to Iruka, who then gave him a gesture to keep on reading.
"Oh, there seems to be a small change this year." Mizuki said. "With Naruto's arrival there seems to be an extra spot, so it's been decided that this year there's going be a four man team amongst you. Alright, Team 7. Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata, and Yaiba Naruto! Your jounin-sensei is Hatake Kakashi, and you'll meet him down the hall in room 115."
Naruto and Kiba looked shocked, before grinning at eachother and patting themselves on the back. Shino did nothing, and just got up and started walking down the ledges. On the other side of the room a girl also got up from her sitting position, and Naruto realized with a shock, she had white eyes.
Mizuki gave Naruto a smile as the blonde foxboy walked out of the door, which Naruto returned. Nice kid, not like the other little monsters. Gives respect to his elders that they deserve... Who does that nowadays?
The newly formed Team 7 walked out of the classroom, and Kiba gave a whoop. He turned around to Naruto.
"Man! Who thought that I would be with both of you?" Kiba grinned. "That's goddamn amazing! There hasn't been a four man team for as long as I remember!"
Naruto returned the grin, and Shino just nodded. The girl that was accompanying them -- Hinata, was it? -- just looked at the floor. Naruto could tell that she probably felt like she was intruding on something, and it would probably be a good idea to make friends with her. She didn't seems to be all that popular, anyway.
As Kiba conversed animatedly with a still Shino, Naruto slowed his pacing until he fell beside the white-eyed girl.
"Hi, my name's Yaiba Naruto, dozo yoroshiku."
The girl looked up with a start. It didn't seem like she was expecting anybody to just come up and introduce themselves like that.
"A-Ah, I'm Hyuuga Hinata, pleased to make your acquiantance." She said with a small bow. Naruto just raised an eyebrow at the gesture.
"No need to bow, Hinata-chan." Naruto said politely. "Thought I might get to know my teammate, you know."
"T-Thank you, Naruto-kun." Hinata said with a small blush. "I'm not sure that I'll be good for anything, though."
Naruto shook his head, and smiled.
"Nonsense, everybody's good at something. How did you pass then, if you aren't good for anything? You're just being modest."
Hinata's blush deepened a little, though Naruto didn't notice.
"N--no. I can't actually fight that well... I think the teacher just passed me because of my heritage... That's probably why." Hinata said, though the last part was mostly to herself. Naruto managed to hear the whole thing though, due to the training that his father gave him.
"What do you mean?"
Hinata seemed mortified that he had heard the rest of her monologue.
"I can understand if you don't want to talk about it." Naruto grinned. "But I don't think that Iruka-sensei would do something like that. He's seems tough, that I can tell, but he's really fair. He's a great guy."
"T-Thank you, Naruto-kun." She said with the smallest hint of a smile.
"No problem." Naruto said, and picked up his pace to join his two male friends.
---
"GAH!" Kiba roared. "We've been here waiting for how goddamn long and he still isn't here yet!"
They were sitting in an empty classroom. Their jounin-sensei still hadn't arrived yet, even though it had been at least two hours that they had been told they were to be a team. Hinata sat near the back, looking through a small book that she had found somewhere on the teacher's desk. Kiba and Akamaru were sitting near the front, grumbling. Shino stood near the window, looking out at the sunny playground. If anybody saw his expression at the time, it would be of the utmost boredom. Naruto was just sitting with his leg up on the table, trying to catch a quick nap. The atmosphere was comfortable, and the sunlight streaming through the window was warm.
"M-Maybe he has something important to do, Kiba-kun." Hinata said, stuttering.
"There's a possibility." Shino said.
"Goddamnit! I hate late people!" None of their words seemed to reach Kiba, who stood yelling righteously.
Naruto gave a muffled snort and tried to get comfortable.
Then, Kiba had the great idea to freeze the floor in front of the door with an ice jutsu. Where he learnt the jutsu, one couldn't be sure, but from what they could see all it was good for was turning water to long-lasting ice, and lo and behold, there was a bucket of water right by the teacher's desk. When Kiba had finished with the deed, he was sniggering. Shino just ignored it, and Hinata just blushed. Naruto didn't even notice the prank, as he was already deep in sleep.
After aroudn thirty minutes had passed, and everybody was actually wondering if the jounin was going to show up, the door opened. Out popped a jounin wearing his hitai-ate like an eyepatch. He casually stepped forwards, and was sent immediately flying. Kiba's sniggering turned to all out laughter, and even Shino had to smirk. It was his fault for making them wait like that. Shino was patient, not a statue for the Shodaime's sake.
The jounin sighed, feeling the ice melt into water and seeping into his clothes.
What a day, what a day...
"My first impression... is that I really don't like you guys."
"Well, who said we liked you either!" Kiba yelled.
---
After the jounin had dried himself out with a low-level fire jutsu, he ushered them onto the rooftop, and looked over at them.
"Well then... How about you guys tell me about your names, likes, dislikes... hobbies, dreams for the future?" He asked. "Since we're going to be working together we might as well know each other, right? Hey, you. The one with the sunglasses, you first." He pointed at Shino.
He took a moment to think before he replied.
"Aburame Shino. I like researching various types of insects. I dislike flytraps, aerosol, anything that is designed specifically to damage or to hurt bugs. My dream is to acquire a Kikkai bug that surpasses my family's version completely and utterly. My hobby is to collect insects for my collection."
"There are different types of Kikkai bugs?" Naruto asked Kiba.
"Yeah, Shino's is one of the most basic, that's what he told me." Kiba replied.
"Admirable." The jounin said, and turned to Hinata. "And you?"
Hinata blushed, before starting to speak.
"A-Ano, I'm Hyuuga Hinata. I like my family, and my little sister Hanabi. I dislike people that hurt others for no good reason. My hobby is origami, though I'm not very good at it, and my dream is to become a ninja that my father will be proud of."
This is quite a first... A person with a Bloodline not being an arrogant jackass. Though she might need a little boost in confidence... I can deal with that, and her teammates would probably help her.
"Very nice. Next, you." He pointed towards Kiba, who grinned.
"Inuzuka Kiba! I like steak, biscuits, and pointy things! I hate cats, goddamn sissy things, prancing around all the fucking time and admiring themselves..." Kiba muttered, and everybody sweatdropped. "My hobby's taking walks with Akamaru here, and my dream is to become the best man-beast team in Konoha with Akamaru!"
The jounin nodded.
"And, lastly, you." He said, turning towards Naruto. His teammates also started paying attention, wanting to know more about this mysterious newcomer. Naruto smiled and scratched his head.
"Ah, well, I'm Yaiba Naruto. My like's include ramen and being with my friends, and the wind here in Konoha, it's really peaceful. My dislikes include... well. I don't really dislike anything, except maybe pain." The jounin groaned internally at this. What kind of ninja was afraid of pain? "My hobbies includes reading books and playing some chess. I don't really have any dreams... except protecting people that are precious to me. Now enough about me, what about you, Kakashi-sensei?"
The gray-haired jounin's single visible eye widened in surprise.
"Oh, so you know about me."
Naruto shrugged.
"Well, all my dad talked about with me was that you're really tough, and you've got this Bloodline that's not really yours underneath your headband. I mean, you're the only guy I've seen so far that fits the description." He explained. "Copycat Nin Hatake Kakashi."
Kakashi smiled, though how anybody could tell underneath that mask was really a mystery. His eyes curled upwards.
"Yeah, yeah, sensei!" Kiba called. "You haven't told us anything about you yet!"
"Alright, alright." Kakashi said. "My name's Hatake Kakashi, like you heard the kid. My likes and dislies... well, I don't want to tell you. I have a lot of hobbies, and dreams, well..."
Naruto shook his head. Kiba groaned. Shino did nothing. Hinata giggled.
"C'mon, sensei!" Kiba yelled. "You've only told us your name!"
---
"So, how was your day?" Akira asked his son as they sat around the living room of their new house. It was still rather bare, but that was only because he hadn't gotten aroudn to it yet. After all, with Kage Bunshin even the mundanest of tasks became easy as pie. "What do you think of your team?"
Naruto looked up from the scroll that he was pouring over. It was the last of the Yondaime's scrolls, and it was the only one that had talked about his Bloodlines. He had just recieved it a few days ago on his birthday, and hadn't had the chance to study it yet.
"Well, it was pretty good. I got put into a four man team, my teammates are Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata, and my jounin-sensei is Kakashi-san."
Akira whistled.
"An Inuzuka, Hyuuga, Aburame, and the Copycat Nin himself. Whoa, you lucked out."
Naruto grinned.
It was night time now, and they were sitting around the fireplace, lit alight by one of Akira's fire jutsus. They had just finished training, and then had a bit of dinner. Now they were just sitting around fireplace, talking to each other about their day. It had become a bit of a tradition now, as it was something that the Yondaime and Akira had both done in their youth.
They conversed for a while, not talking about anything really important. Akira talked about all the paperwork that he had to go through to get both of them to be accepted as Leaf-nin. Naruto talked about how they waited for Kakashi, and Akira just chuckled. Being a friend of the Fourth's, he knew the kid was usually incredibly late, and he knew the reason for it. It was sad really... to lose both a friend and a teammate all in one day.
Suddenly, they heard knocking on the door. Akira swore and got up out of the chair that he was sitting in and opened the front door. Standing on the other side was a bunch of Leaf-nin. Akira imediately got serious, as the shinobi weren't looking like they were here for fun.
"Somebody's stolen the Forbidden Scroll!" The nin on the other side shouted. "Come on out newcomer and give us a hand hunting him down! He can't have gotten really far, the scroll's theft was reported only a few minutes ago!"
Akira had a look of shock on his face.
"What? But the Scroll... isn't that under Hokage-sama's protection?"
"The culprit slipped a drug into Hokage-sama's tea when they were talking." The ninja said. "Then he locked him up with a binding jutsu, and started looking for the scroll. The secretary came in right when he found it and he ran off!"
"Who? Who is it?" Akira asked.
The ninja had a completely serious expression on his face.
"Arashima Mizuki, the teacher's assistant of Umino Iruka from the academy!"
Akira's eyes widened, and he turned around.
There, where Naruto had been sitting, was nothing but air.
Akira swore.
---
There has to be some mistake! Mizuki-sensei wouldn't do something like that!
Naruto flew along the treetops. He had to get to Mizuki before the rest of the ninja did. There had be to some mistake... He wasn't a bad judge of character, even his father had said so. It was a part of his Bloodline Limit... He could tell good people away from bad people. It had saved both him and his father a whole lot of times when he had started taking missions with him. He had seen Mizuki-sensei's soul, and there was no way that he would just up and steal away something as important as the Forbidden Scroll.
There definitely had to be some mistake.
It was thoughts like these that nearly caused him to miss the demonic chakra that he felt, rather than saw, a few meters away from him. He stopped immediately, trying to find the source of it. He looked left and right a bit, before feeling the source of the chakra right underneath him.
He silently peeked over the branch, and nearly gasped at what he saw.
Underneath him, on the forest ground, was Mizuki-sensei. His bandanna was gone, and he was bound by chakra strings and his mouth was tied with a gag. He was obviously awake, though in a lot of pain. Kunai and shuriken, Mizuki's own, had been stuck into him around the torso and the limbs. His right arm was broken, and there was a massive gash that went from the right side of his body all the way down to his thigh, and Naruto couldn't help but wince at the amount of damage that had been done. But what had obviously done the damage took the cake.
In front of the helpless teacher's assistant, stood another Mizuki, this one smirking, holding a large scroll on his back.
Naruto's eyes widened in surprise.
That's Henge! I knew it! There's no way that Mizuki-sensei would've stolen the Forbidden Scroll...! The imposter took Mizuki-sensei's identity to talk to the Hokage, and this probably happened right after class. Judging from the damage done to Mizuki-sensei, they probably had a fight. Probably somewhere in the forest, since if it happened in Konoha itself people should notice.
It wasn't hard to figure out what had happened after that. The imposter then bound Mizuki up, and had left him here while he went to seek an audience with the Hokage, probably using some kind of teaching issue as an excuse.
Naruto's eyes narrowed, and his hand fell to his weaponry pouch. Taking a kunai out, he tied an explosive note around it, and launched it into the air. Five seconds after, at the height of its way up, the kunai blew up in an awe-inspiring flash of light.
Naruto grinned. That was my custom-made flashbang signal note, imposter. If you were able to take on Mizuki-sensei, a chuunin, that means I probably won't be able to deal with you alone, but I'm not stupid. United we stand, divided...
He watched as the fake Mizuki turned around and look at him, surprised. But he wasn't there anymore. In the second that the imposter had turned around, he had flown off the branch and landed on another one. Rapidly, he flashed through a series of seals.
"KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"
Three Narutos popped into existence aroudn the original, and each launched towards the faker, rebounding off the branch they were standing on. The real Naruto flipped into the air, and landed on another branch higher up. He watched as the faker regained his posture, and answered to the attacking clones by taking out a fuuma shuriken. With a swing, the large black flying disc of death tore through one of the clones, but missed the other two by a hair.
Naruto began to flash through another series of seals. The Kage Bunshin alone wouldn't do in this battle.
"KATON: TSUIN SHINSEI - KAGAMI KOURIN!" (Fire Style: Twin Nova - Fire God's Advent)
Suddenly, as the imposter duked it out with the two clones, a spot of the sky above them started turning red. As the battle raged on underneath, the red spot seemed to shrink, yet as it did it seemed to grow in intensity. When the imposter had finally finished off the rest of the clones, he finally noticed the gathering of chakra, but when he looked upwards it was too late.
A red pillar of fire shot down from the large red spot, and hit the spot where he had been standing. The surrounding area suddenly burst into flame, ignited by the sparks that had hit the ground when the pillar of fire had touched down. Naruto grinned from his position on his branch, though he knew it was far from over. A person capable of defeating a chuunin with barely a scratch wouldn't... couldn't be so weak. But he couldn't feel their presence anymore... They had probably ran.
Well... Now that the guy's gone, the first thing I should do is free Mizuki-sensei, and then i'll be able to tell the hunter-nin what had just happened. Naruto decided. The imposter could wait... The Forbidden Scroll isn't as important as somebody's life, and Mizuki-sensei's injuries look pretty serious.
Mizuki wriggled around a bit, as if he was trying to tell him something.Naruto quickly ran over to his side, and ripped the gag off his face. Mizuki gave a sharp gasp, and yelled out his warning.
"NARUTO-KUN! HE'S RIGHT BEHIND YOU!"
It was right at that moment that a kunai pierced straight through the blonde foxboy's heart.