Woot! 80 reviews! And only one of them was criticism and picking out my flaws! Of, course, I have no flaws (being perfect and all). My goal for now is to get to 100 reviews. Anyways, on to the next chapter! New characters will be introduced new friendships will be made and a conspiracy unfolds!
The Academy Escapades Part 4
The fourth and final year of the ninja academy couldn't have been any weirder. For one thing, there was an increasing amount of new students and all of them seemed to come from very significant ninja families, thus pressuring the school to perform at its best. Iruka now had to deal with double the amount of students that he had the previous year. At first he felt up to the job but lately, he had been seen dragging himself around Konoha half dead because of exhaustion.
"It's just too much!" Iruka whined while lying on the floor of the teachers lounge after school ended. "It's nearing the end of the year and they just keep getting worse and worse!"
"C'mon, Iruka, they're just kids. How bad can it be?" said a white haired teacher named Mizuki.
"How bad can it be?" Iruka repeated, "Hell, before this year even started, I was having trouble with one of the new girls."
Flashback…
Suddenly, the classroom door opened and a small girl entered while bowing, "Ano… I'm here for Iruka sensei's class. I'm the new student."
Kiba looked at the girl strangely, "You're kinda late to be joining a class, ya know?"
"Thanks for stating the obvious, baka." The girl said as she raised her head. The kids gasped when they looked into her eyes. They were dark red eyes that spelt doom to whoever looked into them.
"Woah! Dude, she's like a red eyed freak!" Shino shouted.
The girl closed her fists in anger.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that those are eyes only a mother love!" Kiba said as he laughed.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" the girl shouted. She raised her hands in a seal and shouted, "Nousaibou nenshou no jutsu!"(1)
A spear of chakra erupted from the girl's hands and shot Kiba in between the eyes. He froze for a minute, then another and another. The other kids stared at him before they realized that his ears were bleeding and he was drooling uncontrollably.
"Kiba!" the class yelled as they tried to get his attention.
"Who the hell are you?" Ino shouted when she pointed to the girl.
"I am Yuuhi- I mean, Yumi Karin! But you will refer to me as Karin-sama!" Karin said while standing triumphantly.
End flashback…
"That girl's genjutsu was so powerful it left Kiba in a coma for half the summer!" Iruka said.
"Well that's sure interesting. What about your other students?" Mizuki asked.
"Well, some of them have powers I never would have believed existed. The first one is this emotionally unstable fat kid…"
At that exact moment outside the school…
"I'M NOT FAT!" yelled an obviously fat boy.
"Well if I say you're fat, then you're fat and that's that!" Karin said as she chuckled at her own rhyme.
"Why you… I'll kill you!" The fat boy was about to charge when two other boys grabbed him, one with blonde hair and the other with black.
"Choji, don't do it! It's not worth the trouble." Naruto said.
"Yes, Choji, remember to respect your fellow comrades!" Sasuke yelled.
"Choji, you're so troublesome." A voice said from out of nowhere.
The three boys and one girl froze at the sound of the voice and turned towards an alley way. Standing in the shadows was a tall boy who wore all black and was half covered by the shadows.
"Are you really going to let some egomaniacal girl get the better of you? I thought you had more balls than that." The mysterious boy said as he stepped out from the shadows. He was wearing a large trench coat that seemed to sway back and forth even though there was no wind. He had black jeans and a grey vest that he wore over a fishnet shirt. His face displayed pure laziness but at the same time irritation, like he was doing something that he didn't want to do.
Choji was released from Naruto and Sasuke's grasp and he knelt down in front of the boy. "I'm sorry, Shikamaru. I know you've been teaching me to control my emotions but it's just hard with her around here." Choji said as he glared at Karin.
"No, Choji, it's not her fault. She merely says the words but you react in a harsh way to them. You only have yourself to blame!" Shikamaru said.
"Shikamaru! Stop it, you're too hard on Choji!" a female voice said. A girl was standing outside the front door of the academy glaring at Shikamaru. The girl had blue hair and lavender, pupil-less eyes
"(sigh) Hinata, you'll never understand how the inner workings of Choji work. He gives into emotions too easily, although his anger could be used as a weapon it could also backfire on him and get him killed."
Hinata walked up to Shikamaru are stared into his eyes, "At least let him keep some of his original personality before you turn him into an emotionless drone!"
Shikamaru stared at Hinata with a smirk, "Look at you, Hinata, you try to stand up for your friends but really you're embarrassed to do so. You may have guts, I'll admit that, but you're just too much of a weakling to do anything. I bet that deep down, you also see Choji as the fat boy he is."
Shikamaru barely had time to blink before Hinata's fingers jabbed him in the neck, hard. "Try talking big when your secondary air pipes are blocked. In fact, try talking at all!" she said before she stomped off.
"Tch, troub-(gasp!)" sure enough, Shikamaru could no longer speak and only emitted short gasps or wheezes. "Aw, great, now I can't speak. This is so troublesome." Shikamaru then preformed a seal and melted into the shadows. Choji quickly stood up and ran to where he thought the shadow was heading.
"Well that takes care of one problem." Said Naruto.
Sasuke, however, pointed an accusing finger at Karin. "If I ever find you bullying another classmate, I'll report you to Iruka-sensei!"
"Oh me, oh my! What ever shall I do? I'm just quaking with fear!" Karin said sarcastically while laughing and walking away. She then turned around and yelled, "Naruto-kun! Wanna go on a date?"
Naruto was about to answer 'No' but a figure jumped out from the trees and landed in front of Naruto. The person flicked their wrists and two fifteen inch blades appeared from under the person's sleeves.
"You leave Naruto-kun alone, you wench!" shouted an enraged Ino as she stood in an attacking pose.
"The bitch returns to claim her precious, ah well. Byyyeee, Naruto-kun." Karin blew a kiss towards Naruto and walked away. Ino flicked her Katar/Qatar blades so that they came back into her wrist guards.
"Grrr. That Karin, she thinks she owns everything! This is the tenth time she's asked you out. C'mon, Naruto, you're taking me shopping!" Ino then pulled Naruto by the wrist towards the market.
"I'll tell Okaa-san that you'll be home late!" Sasuke yelled after them. "Well I got some free time now. Hmm, what to do?" Sasuke then pulled out his blue cape with the Uchiha symbol on it and quickly tied it around his neck, he flicked up a hood that covered his hair and eyes, "It's time to clean up evil, Sasuke style! Blue Beast of Konoha… awaaaaayyyyyyyy!"
Walking into the classroom, Iruka knew that he was going to regret giving the kids their next assignment. So many things could go wrong. And by wrong he means that he would be giving that Uzumaki kid another chance to show off his skills.
"There must be something I can do to minimize his chance of success." Iruka thought.
After their lunch break, Iruka led the class out to a training area. The students could see a dark ditch that extended a very long distance. In front of them was a ladder that led to three zip-lines.
"Here you will use what skills you have to complete this mile long obstacle course. Use whatever weapons or jutsus need. And just to make this more difficult, you will need to collect ten flags that have been placed around the course. Some will be easy to find, others, not so much. You must collect only the colour of flag assigned to you. If you pick someone else's you will be counted as cheating and disqualified. You have no time limit but I suggest that you go as fast as possible, this course has some timed obstacles that may activate before you reach them. We'll begin at the top of the list with Aburame Shino, you will have to get the yellow flags."
"Dude, this is gonna ROCK!" Shino said as he climbed a ladder.
Once he got to the top, he heard small clicking noises. He looked down and saw two rows of automatic kunai launchers. Instead of holding onto the zip-line handle, Shino pulled himself on top of the ropes and placed his right foot in front of the left. Slowly but surely, Shino began sliding down the ropes on his feet. Suddenly, the kunai launchers clicked to life and began doing what they did best, launching kunai.
Thinking quickly, Shino jumped to the rope on his right and gained speed. By now hundreds of kunai were whizzing past Shino attempting to hit him. But he was too good to get hit. With a series of impressive flips, spins and occasional handstands, Shino was able to reach the end of the line and collect his first flag.
"Success in the first degree!" Shino shouted triumphantly. He then turned around and saw a pit of needles and large spikes. There were no ropes or even a rickety bridge to help him get across. "Bummer…" Shino said.
The rest of the students began taking their turns and, in their own way, collected their flags. Shikamaru used the shadows to travel through the entire course and get his flags.
Choji tucked into a ball and preformed his Sonic Dash attack (yes, just like from the Sonic games) and ripped through the field, stopping only to grab his flags. Sakura used the kawarimi technique to poof to her flags. Hinata used her Byakugan and amazing speed to get past everything and even deflect that large boulder attempting to crush her. Karin didn't use any ninjutsu or taijutsu to pass, thinking she was too good for the course. Instead, she merely walked through the entire thing taking her sweet time. Somehow she passed it but no one wanted to ask her how she did it. However, the real champions were just about to show.
"…Uchiha Sasuke." Iruka said.
"Finally!" Sasuke was about to climb the ladder but someone grabbed his wrist and then an odd clinking sound was heard.
"You will complete the course while chained to your little 'nii-san'." Iruka said with a smirk.
"Nani?" Naruto looked at his wrist and noticed a handcuff attached to his wrist, the chain attached to it led to Sasuke's wrist.
"You've got to be kidding me, Iruka-sensei." Sasuke said.
"Well, you two are the top students so it shouldn't be a problem. Now go before I disqualify you."
Naruto and Sasuke then climbed the ladder together and looked over the course.
"This will be our greatest challenge yet! Naruto-nii-san, let's do our best!" Sasuke shouted.
"For the Uchiha's!" Naruto shouted, as he and Sasuke each jumped onto a rope. They passed the first part easily with Sasuke copying Naruto's movements since he was more flexible. Little did they know that someone was watching them.
"Hmmm, that demon spit is better than I thought. This will make my job even harder." A female voice said while taking notes.
Back in the classroom, the kids were gathered around Naruto and Sasuke congratulating them. They had cut the fastest time in half and collected all their flags while still being chained together. The door opened and everyone stopped to see Karin running up to Naruto.
"Naruto-kun! Congratulations on that course!" She screamed as she hugged him, "As a reward, I'll let you go out with me, okay?"
"How about 'No!'?" Naruto said as he softly pushed her away.
"(sniff) You're so mean!" Karin said as she ran away crying.
"She'll get over it." Ino said, "So, Naruto, how about that date we planned for tonight?"
"I got it all set up, don't worry."
It was indeed a dark night that night. No stars and no moon. "This is just my kind of night." Thought a white haired chuunin standing on the roof of the academy.
A small sound behind him alerts him to someone's presence. "Did you get any new info?" he asked no one in particular.
"Yes, however, it is not much." a feminine voice said, "That child refuses to reveal himself in front of others; even when he's alone he won't show anything."
"We must be patient; we don't want to go rushing into things too quickly."
"I know that, I am jounin after all." The voice said. "Also, I was thinking, maybe we should let Iruka in on this. We all know he hates the boy as much as we do."
"No, Iruka could never bring harm to one of his students even if he does hate them. Besides, he will be our decoy incase we get caught. Remember, he's been caught by the hokage himself when he tried to make the demon fail. He will be one of the first suspects in the boy's disappearance."
"(sigh) Well, I'd be more comfortable if it weren't just the three of us, the boss included."
"Relax, my dear, once we complete our mission, we can safely escape to Him."
"Very well, then." The feminine voice said, "I just hope I don't regret this later on." She thought as she jumped away.
"Thirty minutes… Only thirty minutes left until lunch… Then I can get back to watching the clouds… Why can't Iruka-sensei make his lessons go by faster?" Shikamaru thought as he stared blankly at his teacher.
His gaze was dropping slightly from sleep when he noticed something. There, one row in front of him was Karin. As usual, she wasn't paying attention to Iruka. Instead she was writing something down in a small red notebook.
"She's probably drawing unicorns or something. But, knowing her, they'll probably be unicorns of hell. Tch, that's just like girls these days, why can't they be smart like m-" Shikamaru stopped his internal rant when he saw what Karin was writing, "What the hell is this?"
He leaned over his desk to get a closer look at the notebook. "She can't be serious…" he thought as he read, "'Naruto-baka has a tendency to pretend to be nice to others. Possible reasons: To gather allies for his army? Start a cult of suicide ninjas? What can he be up to? He is a great actor though, he pretends like he doesn't even know about the K-'"
"Oi! Karin, will you stop writing love notes to your boyfriend up there?" Iruka shouted.
Karin turned around suddenly to see Shikamaru leaning over is desk reading her notes. Her eyes flashed fear for a split second before it turned to rage. She stuffed her notebook into one of her pockets and took out a rubber eraser.
"Gomen, Iruka-sensei, I didn't realize that someone was reading over my shoulder." Karin said innocently.
"Just consider yourself lucky that I don't read your notes out to the class. Now, please pay attention to this lesson. That goes for you too, Shikamaru."
"Hai, sensei." both Shikamaru and Karin said.
Karin then placed her eraser on her desk and charged her finger with chakra. She flicked it and watched as it bounced backwards off her books and smacked Shikamaru in the forehead, effectively knocking him out. No one seemed to notice though.
"Looks like Shikamaru decided to fall asleep again." Choji thought as he saw his friend's head hit the desk.
"That concludes this lesson for today. Remember, your genin exams are next week! I expect you to study hard and practice all your jutsus." Iruka said as the students fled the classroom.
Sasuke caught up to Naruto and gripped him in a head lock. "So, nii-san, ya think you're ready to take on the genin exams?"
"Of course Sasuke, but if you don't loosen your grip, I might not live to see tomorrow." Naruto said as he was quickly loosing air.
"Oops gomen, Naruto…"
"That's okay, C'mon, let's get home so we can spar with Itachi-san."
"Naruto, wait up!" a voice shouted.
"Huh?" Sasuke and Naruto turned around to see Shikamaru running towards them while holding his head.
"What do you want Shikamaru?" Naruto said he didn't particularly like Shikamaru because of what he was doing to Choji and some of his 'advice' was very questionable.
"I want to tell you something about Karin." Shikamaru replied.
"Forget I'm not going out with her!" Naruto said.
"No, it's not that, baka. Shikamaru said, "I saw her notebook and what I read surprised me a bit. It was about you."
"Let me guess, she thinks I'm a god among men and wants to get in my pants right?" Naruto said.
"Quite the opposite of that. It seems that the only reason she wants to go out with you is to learn more about some sort of secret. She thinks that you're making friends with everyone in order to build an army."
"Why would Naruto-nii-san want to build an army?" Sasuke asked.
"I don't care he you does, but I think that this girl has some serious problem with her. Or she may be working undercover. Either way, it's troublesome. But I think something big is about to happen that may involve you, Naruto. I've heard that many of the adults want you dead."
"No surprises there." Naruto muttered.
"Just stay on your toes, Naruto." Shikamaru said, "I don't normally say this but you're a good ninja and it would be a shame to loose you." He then made a hand seal and melted into the shadows while grumbling about a headache.
"Well that was weird." Naruto said, "Let's go home Sasuke."
"What do you think about Shikamaru's info?" Sasuke asked.
"I don't know yet. I don't trust him much but just the way he said that made it seem like he wasn't lying. Ah well, let's just go see if Itachi is home yet."
One week later…
Four shadows streaked through the forest at high speeds towards their target. Suddenly they stopped and bent low to the ground.
"What's the situation Red?" the team leader said.
"Explosive notes, lots of them." One team member said, known as Red.
"Kuso, we only have five minutes left. Defuse them as fast as you can, Yellow."
"Sure thing Blue. White, give me a visual."
"Hai." White made a seal and her eyes glowed white. "Okay… we got three wires leading out from the trigger. One blue wire, one green and one red. The green is triggered to go off at the slightest touch. So the blue or red one is it. I can't see far enough and there's something blocking my view, my best guess would be to cut the blue wire but I'm not sure. Red, see what you can do."
"I don't need you telling me what to do." Red said but nonetheless scanned the area with her red eyes. "As I thought, there's a genjutsu covering the area. Give me a minute… Okay, White, I think you're correct about the blue wire but I think that we should cut the red one."
White gave one more check and said. "No, it's definitely the blue one, I'm sure of it this time."
"No, it's the red wire!"
"Blue wire!"
Yellow spoke up, "C'mon, we only got three minutes! Which one is it?"
"Red wire!"
"Blue wire!"
"Blue, what do you think?"
"I don't know!"
"Two minutes left! Which wire?"
"It's the red one!"
"The blue one!"
Yellow yelled in frustration and closed his eyes. He brought his kunai up and thrust down on one of the wires.
"No!" Red yelled.
The blue wire snapped and everyone tensed waiting to see what would happen next. Yellow still had his hands on the kunai and was frozen in place. Thirty seconds later, nothing happened. The entire team breathed a sigh of relief.
Yellow slumped down on the floor, "Explosive tags defused, Blue, go retrieve the target and let's get out of here."
"Roger that." Blue walked up to a small clearing past the now useless explosive tags and found a red firework. With a simple jutsu, he lit the fire work and shot it into the sky.
About a mile away, a brown haired chuunin saw a firework that exploded into a colorful mix of red, yellow, blue and white. He looked at his clip board and began checking off names. "Team 3, Uchiha Sasuke (blue), Yumi Karin (red) Hyuuga Hinata (white) and… Uzamaki Naruto (yellow) all pass the practical field test. Mizuki, go retrieve Team 3 and make sure they get some rest." Iruka said.
"Sure thing, Iruka." Mizuki then jumped down into the forest carrying a survival pack for four people.
"Damn that fox, he got past all those traps I set up! He passed the written test with75 percent and even won thetaijutsu tournament. (sigh) And the final test is to make a pair of bunshins. He'll definitely pass that. I guess it was written somewhere up in the heavens that he would become a shinobi." Iruka thought, "I wish that something would happen to make that kid fail."
Mizuki had to do a bit of searching before he found Team 3 in a large clearing. "Here you kids are!" he said happily, "Congratulations on passing the test."
"It was easy Mizuki-sensei!" Naruto yelled. He was obviously exhausted and he had taken off his orange and black jacket.
"Well, if this was easy for you, then the final test should be a breeze! But remember, it's worth a big amount of your final marks so don't take it lightly, alright?" Mizuki said as he slapped Naruto on the back. For some reason, Karin began to smile with a wicked delight.
"C'mon put your jacket on and eat this." Mizuki then started handing out food rations to the four genin hopefuls.
After they ate, they were sent back to the academy to do their final test. The kids were called in one by one to do the test. After Shino walked out, he told everyone in line that the test was just to make a few bunshins. "Dude, ya just gotta do that and they give you this shiny thing." Shino said as he held out his headband, "Well, seeya I gotta find my otou-san."
The kids were all called in and came out with their new headbands. After Sasuke stepped out he wished Naruto good luck. "Thanks, Sasuke." Naruto's name was then called and he stepped into the room.
"Alright, Naruto, you know what to do, you have three tries."
Naruto put his hands in a seal and said "Bunshin!" a cloud of smoke appeared and quickly dispersed. Iruka was shocked to find only one Naruto standing there.
"So, do I pass?" Naruto asked.
"Um, Naruto, you didn't even make a clone." Iruka said.
"Nani?" Naruto looked around himself and didn't see anything at all. "Okay, my mistake, one more try. BUNSHIN!" More smoke appeared and still no clones were seen.
Naruto began to panic, he summoned as much chakra as he could and focused it into his seal, "BUNSHIN!" he yelled. The entire room was covered in heavy smoke.
After the smoke cleared, Naruto looked around and saw only Iruka and Mizuki behind their desk, no clone was present.
"NO!" Naruto mentally yelled. "Bunshin!" more smoke still nothing, "Bunshin! Bunshin! Bunshin! Bunshin!" still nothing happened.
"Naruto stop!" Iruka yelled. He could feel the raw chakra coming from Naruto, which surprised him. With that much chakra, he should have been able to create thousands of clones yet, none ever appeared. However, if Naruto continued to build up his chakra it would severely harm him, "Naruto please stop!" Iruka jumped form his seat and pulled Naruto's hands apart.
Naruto's chakra level slowly receded but he was still whispering "Bunshin" every two seconds. He fell to the floor and started crying. "I failed them. Otou-san, okaa-san, Itachi and Sasuke-nii-san, I'm sorry… I'm sorry for failing you." He looked up at Iruka's face, "Iruka-sensei what did I do wrong?" he asked.
Iruka couldn't help but feel pity for the boy. He let go of Naruto's arms and let the boy cry. In his mind he added up Naruto's marks. Since he failed the final part, his mark was dropped to a 61 percent. The required mark for passing was at least 70. He should feel happy that Naruto was unable to pass but all he felt was sadness. His next words barely came out in a whisper, "I'm sorry Naruto, you…fail."
To Be Continued….
What happened to Naruto? How was he unable to make a bunshin? What will happen next? Wait around to find out.
A/N: Sorry to leave a cliff hanger but I need time to do my exams and such. I assure you that the next chapter will come out later this week.
Jutsu list:
(1) Brain cell combustion technique: pretty self-explanatory right? Doesn't really do internal damage but make the body react like the damage was taken in full force.
plz continue to vote for pairings for Naruto and Sasuke (remeber no yaoi, naru/hina or naru/saku) also vote for other recmomended pairings.