Chapter Three
Eight in the following morning found Ken and Naruto waiting at training ground thirteen, a flat plain dotted with large boulders that ranged from the size of a bench to ones that could be mistaken for small cliffs. Having arrived quite a bit early, to Naruto's chagrin, Ken was taking the time waiting for the Academy instructors to examine Naruto's taijutsu skills.
Little more than a year into the curriculum, the boy's skills were predictably unrefined. But that actually suited Ken's plans perfectly; it meant Naruto wasn't too set in the motions of Konoha's Academy style. As the practice spar went on, he was utilizing one form of the Uzumaki style that he had learned from his grandfather: whenever Naruto came at him, he flowed out of the way like the wind or water, occasionally striking back at Naruto's unprotected limbs or back.
"Stay still!" Naruto shouted, his frustration making him even more sloppy.
"Why would I do that?" Ken asked rhetorically. "Your enemies definitely won't stay still and let you hit them. And so neither will I. The point of training is to get you faster, stronger, and more versatile than them so that you can hit them."
If Ken were being honest, he was actually a bit impressed with Naruto's work. Granted, he had no experience with the Konoha Academy style, but Naruto seemed to be a naturally unpredictable fighter. He never pulled the same trick twice, even with the long list of tricks he'd gotten up to. Tricks like kicking sand into Ken's eyes or attacking the legs.
"Well then stop dodging and block something!" Naruto shouted. He grinned a bit and added, "Are you scared?"
Naruto delivered another punch - and was stopped cold. Ken's open hand had blocked his fist as if it were nothing. "Maybe you're right, kiddo," Ken said with an unnerving grin. "Maybe it's time I stopped dodging."
Those words were all the warning Naruto had before Ken struck him with an open-palmed strike in the chest. A strike that sent him skidding back a good five feet to land on his butt. He had no time to shake off the dizziness before Ken's battle cry echoed from above. Naruto acted on pure instinct and rolled out of the way, leaving Ken's fist to smash into the ground.
Naruto could barely get to his feet before Ken was all over him, cycling through punches and kicks with blinding speed. Of course, unbeknownst to him, Ken was holding back. He was judging how well Naruto could keep his composure to avoid damage. His expression twisted into an unsettling mix of grin and grimace at the memory of his own taijutsu training at an even younger age. His grandfather had taken full advantage of the Uzumaki clan's naturally resilient demeanor and had pushed him to the brink over and over again.
Just as he would do with Naruto. Not out of cruelty, but necessity. Because he needed to learn … and because he knew that Naruto could handle it.
Naruto, on his end, could barely get a wayward thought in! This was nothing like taijutsu training at the Academy! A single distraction would lead to a nasty punch or kick, and so he had to focus utterly on anticipating what could be coming. The spar blurred by, a haze of adrenaline and reflex, until Ken leapt backward and motioned for him to stop.
"Not bad, kiddo. You've got the makings of real talent. We just need to draw that out."
Naruto nodded through his heavy breathing, trying to heave oxygen into his starving lungs. If there was any doubt in his mind that his new cousin could teach him well, it was gone. Well, at least as far as hand-to-hand fighting went. With ninjutsu, he still had yet to show any skills aside from sealing.
The distinct sound of clapping echoed across the field, the sound somehow … mocking. "Oh yes, sir Uzumaki," a voice familiar to Naruto called. "You can run circles around a year-two Academy student, very impressive. Perhaps we should just promote him to Hokage right now, eh, Iruka?"
Ken turned to find an unusual group coming his way. The two men taking the lead were clearly instructors judging by their basic chunin attire, one with shoulder-length white hair and a faint sneer, the other with a brown ponytail and a scar across the bridge of his nose.
The other two had more nuanced clothing along with the markings of jonin, or elite ninja. One had a high, spiked ponytail of dark hair and a goatee, stud earrings, and two scars across the right side of his face. The other jonin had silvery hair swept up to the left, his left eye covered by his headband and a mask covering the lower half of his face.
"Hi, Instructor Iruka!" Naruto shouted, his fatigue clearly forgotten. He ran to further greet the scarred chunin, who greeted him back quite warmly. The other instructor seemed content to ignore the boy, instead sizing Ken up. Ken nodded at him, the bare necessity of formality, and turned his attention to the two jonin.
"Ken Uzumaki," he introduced himself, holding out a hand for a shake. The scarred jonin grinned faintly and shook the proffered hand.
"I'm Shikaku Nara, Jonin Commander of Konoha," he said. "Those two are Iruka Umino and Mizuki, your examiners. And this here is Kakashi Hatake, who will be a second opinion from a jonin perspective."
Ken froze up at the mention of the second name, his gaze darting to Kakashi. "You're Kakashi Hatake?" he asked. "As in the Copy-Ninja Kakashi?"
"That's me," Kakashi replied lazily, arching an eyebrow.
Ken swallowed thickly as he tried to suppress his sudden excitement to a manageable level. He grabbed Kakashi's hand and began shaking it with vigor. "Oh man, I'm a huge fan!" he said, almost fanboying. "I can't believe I get to meet you!" He glanced down at his hand, still shaking Kakshi's. "I, uh, I'm shaking your hand too long." He released the silverette and put his hands in his pockets, face burning with embarrassment.
Kakashi snorted a laugh and shook his hand out a bit. "Guess it's kinda nice to be recognized by someone who's not trying to kill me," he commented.
"Aw, look at that. The cyclops has a new friend," Mizuki commented. The tone seemed lighthearted, but Ken distinctly heard a hint of malice in the words. He immediately decided he didn't care for this man.
"Well, if that's settled," Shikaku said, grabbing everyone's attention, "let's get this show on the road and over with." He gestured to the instructors. "Gentlemen, he's all yours." With that, he and Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves to reappear at the top of a nearby pillar of stone.
"Naruto," Iruka said, "perhaps you should back away, too. We can't have you getting hit by a stray shot, you know?" Naruto pouted for a second before looking to Ken for confirmation, an action that warmed his heart.
"Hold on, kiddo," he commented, crossing the first two fingers of each hand in a hand sign unique to a single technique. 'Shadow Clone Technique.' In a burst of smoke, another Ken appeared and tossed Naruto over his shoulder. In a swirl of dust, the clone appeared next to the jonin and deposited the boy before dispersing into another cloud of smoke. Ken grinned at Naruto's distant awed look.
"You know the Shadow Clone Technique?!" Mizuki shouted in surprise and … indignation?
"Yeah," Ken confirmed. "It was, uh, taught to Uzushiogakure by its creator, Tobirama Senju. As a thank you for some work the Uzumaki had done to improve Konoha's original security barrier." He chose not to bore them with the notion that it had become something of an unofficial rite-of-passage for mid-to-upper-level Uzushio ninja, the Uzumaki clan's naturally large chakra reserves being naturally suited to the technique.
"Very impressive," Iruka commended kindly. "But making shadow clones is not the only indicator of skill. A fully-developed ninja must have more diversity." Iruka continued by explaining that their examination would first entail a verbal quiz of various subjects covered in the Academy, such as geography, biology, and strategy. The Hokage had given them intel that he was already proficient in reading, writing, and mathematics.
After Iruka delivered the verbal test, marking down Ken's answers (that ended up being a perfect score) they moved on to the second phase: taijutsu and weapons skills. "Mizuki and I will take turns sparring with you, each barehanded and with weapons, then test your marksmanship."
Ken nodded his understanding and took on a stance unfamiliar to the instructors. Mizuki shrugged it off and got into the standard Konoha stance. With Iruka's command to begin, he launched forward — and met nothing but air. Like he had with Naruto, Ken had nimbly dodged the lunge and ended up at Mizuki's back to deliver a fierce strike.
Ken had to admit that it was more difficult to spar with a chunin like Mizuki, having to block more often … but not overly difficult. His grandfather, as a former Whirlpool ANBU in addition to seal master, had drilled him as hard as he thought Ken could take it since he was four years old. And it definitely showed. Going all out to show his examiners (and his cousin and one of his unspoken heroes) just what he could do, Mizuki could hardly land a hit even as he was slowly being covered with abrasions and bruises.
After several minutes of Mizuki growing slowly more frustrated and achy, and with that more careless in his tactics, Iruka stopped the spar and took his place. Ken had decided to go a bit easier on Iruka, but not by much. As the spar continued, he failed to notice that Kakashi had shifted his headband to reveal the red-and-black tomoe of a Sharingan eye. Shikaku, while lacking the famed copy-wheel eye, had excellent observation skills in his own right and was analyzing Ken's style. Naruto was too stunned to even cheer for his cousin, his mouth hanging open in awe and a grin ready to spring to his face at the thought of upcoming training.
About five minutes into the spar, Iruka called a break to take up weapons and brought out two kunai. Ken replied with a wakizashi short sword, the blade black as a shadow and inscribed with sealing formulae glinting in the morning sun. After several more minutes of sparring, Iruka backed off and motioned for the spar to end, casting a dirty look at Mizuki for not stopping the spar himself. Mizuki just shrugged unrepentantly.
Next came the marksmanship examination, for which Iruka unfurled a long sealing scroll and revealed a series of wooden posts and straw-filled dummies. Ken placed a hand on a sealing tag at his belt to reveal a collection of kunai and shuriken. With a string of quick movements, he had flung all he needed at his given targets with a rough nine-out-of-ten kill shot. More than acceptable accuracy.
"Well done indeed, Uzumaki," Iruka commended. On the inside, Iruka was even more pleased. He'd had his reservations about a complete unknown taking over Naruto's care and personal training, and he was glad to see that that latter part, at least, would be covered.
"Finally," he continued, "we'd like to review your general ninjutsu. As with our Academy students, we'd like to start with three standard E-ranked techniques. The Transformation, Substitution, and Clone Techniques."
Taking that as his instructions, Ken formed a hand seal and was replaced in a puff of smoke by a near-perfect copy of Iruka, followed by a copy of Mizuki, Shikaku, Kakashi, and Naruto. With a quick combination of seals, he disappeared to be replaced by a number of rocks, reappearing behind the instructors. And finally, with a hand seal, he repeated the Shadow Clone Technique. "Will that suffice for the Clone Technique?" he asked.
Iruka chuckled while Mizuki rolled his eyes. "I suppose so. Now we move on to something less traditional. What other ninjutsu are you familiar with besides the Body Flicker?"
Ken took a moment to consider his answer. "I am very well-versed in the sealing arts — it's a clan thing. I'll admit I'm no ninjutsu specialist, but I know more than a few. Mostly clan techniques, really, which I mastered Yin Release in order to use. I have an affinity for Earth chakra and have mastered a few of those, and I've begun work on Lightning Release, but have yet to learn any techniques for it."
"You're already working on your third element?" Mizuki asked. "Yeah, sure. Talk is cheap — let's see a demonstration."
"Mizuki!" Iruka scolded, but was stopped by an acquiescing open palm from Ken.
"That's fair. And I guess the appearance of the techniques will get out eventually." He glanced up at Naruto and the jonin. "But first …" He conjured a shadow clone, which then Flickered up to the observers and spoke with Naruto. The boy stomped his foot and cried out something illegible (and likely not complementary), but eventually covered his eyes with a huff.
After the clone had dispersed, Ken nodded with a grin. He didn't particularly want to hide his ninjutsu prowess from his little cousin, but he had a feeling that the kid would badger him incessantly if he caught a taste of what Ken could teach him. Besides, he wanted the debut of their secret clan techniques to be a more private matter. "Okay, gentlemen," Ken said, hopping backward to get some distance, "send a ninjutsu at me!"
Iruka hesitated, but Mizuki took his chance for payback. With a string of hand seals and the thought, 'Earth Release: Boulder Shrapnel,' Mizuki struck the ground to bounce up a large rock that he kicked and shattered into sharp smaller pieces that flew at Ken. But long before they could make their mark, a massive wall of earth sculpted to look like a brick wall and carved with the Uzumaki swirl rose up to intercept them.
"The Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall," Iruka commented, going through his own hand seals. 'Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique,' Iruka thought, spewing a stream of flames that dispersed against the barrier with barely a singe.
A faint rumble in the ground heralded Ken bursting from below them and dragging Mizuki into the ground up to his neck before rising up with a faint grin. "I know a few other Earth Release techniques, but not anything too flashy." He held up his hand and took on a look of concentration. His hand began to spark with electricity, visible currents flickering between his fingertips and along his fingers and palm. "And that's all I've got for Lightning Release, so far."
Iruka barked a laugh. "Well done, Mister Ken. There's no need to demonstrate Yin Release, this is enough for the exam's purposes. I must say I am impressed. But, it's not just up to us." He waved at the observing jonin, who appeared in another swirl of leaves with Naruto under Shikaku's arm, the boy crossing his arms in a huff at missing his cousin's ninjutsu. Shikaku pointedly placed Naruto on the ground before addressing Ken.
Or he would have, if Naruto hadn't beaten him to the punch. "THAT WAS AWESOME!" the boy cried at the top of his lungs.
"Calm down, Naruto," Ken and Iruka scolded in perfect sync. They glanced at each other in surprise and shared a chuckle at the boy's pout.
"I am rather impressed, myself," Shikaku noted. He kept it to himself that this boy of no more than his mid-twenties could probably give a tokubetsu jonin a run for their money, at least as far as raw power went. "I'll be making my report to Lord Hokage, of course. But he gave me the authority to name you a genin."
In spite of himself, Ken winced at the junior ninja title. His grandfather had, of course, covered standardized shinobi ranks during his education. The "junior" genin stood at the bottom of the totem pole, beneath the chunin "journeymen" and jounin "elite", with the tokubetsu or "specialized" jonin between the latter two.
Shikaku chuckled humorlessly at Ken's expression. "Sorry, kid. Frankly, if it were possible, I'd seriously consider promoting you straight to chunin. But village politics are village politics, and Lord Hokage can't be seen favoring a certain clan." 'Especially a newly-reestablished one that holds the Nine-Tails jinchuriki,' he mentally added. He did not envy this kid the flack he'd get at the Exams — genin his age were often marked out as weaklings. "But you're not held back at all from the Chunin Exams," he added.
"When will I be permitted to take the Exams?" Ken asked hesitantly. He hoped they weren't too close within the six month scheduling; he'd like to get a few months of training and missions to polish his fieldwork. But more than that, he really wanted time to begin Naruto's training in Uzumaki clan arts.
"The next set of Exams are in four months," Shikaku promised, "and you have until a week before they begin, the day you'll be leaving, to turn in your registration forms. Until then, you'll be assigned to fill out a different team who've lost a member to injury. They'll meet you here."
Ken swallowed and thought over the implications of that. He was invading a previous team? He was happy that whoever had left the team wasn't dead, but he was somewhat aware that teams like this tended to be made up of bonds forged over time. Did he really think he could take the former member's place? Well, he wasn't really being asked to, just to fill in, to re-complete the team. And besides, these were his orders.
"Yes, Commander," Ken acquiesced.
"Good man," Shikaku smirked, handing Ken a Konoha forehead protector on blue cloth. "As for the rest of you, you're dismissed for the day. Kakashi and I will be reporting to the Hokage." With that, the jonin commander vanished in a Body Flicker.
"I'll be on my way, too," Kakashi noted with a close-eyed smile. (Probably a smile. The mask kept him from being sure.) "Nice to meet ya, Uzumaki. See ya around." With that, he too vanished.
"Well, if that's that, I'm gonna go take a nice long soak," Mizuki grumbled, leaving without saying goodbye.
"I have lesson plans to catch up on, too," Iruka said. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Mister Uzumaki."
"Call me Ken, Iruka," Ken said. Iruka smiled and departed as well.
"Naruto, you've been awfully quiet," Ken commented.
"THAT WAS SO AWESOME!" the blond cried. "You totally kicked Instructor Mizuki's butt! And you beat Instructor Iruka, and you hit all the posts and stuff, and I'm still mad that I didn't get to see much awesome ninjutsu but it was still so cool! Like that super-clone thing you did, where they're actually solid! I wanna learn that! Teach me, teach me, teach me!"
Ken sweat-dropped at the rapidfire praise and demand, all delivered in one breath. "Naruto, calm down. I still haven't-"
A smoke bomb went off and rapidly cleared to reveal two ninja around Ken's age, a man and a woman, both dressed in the attire of a chunin. "Haven't what, Uzumaki?" the woman commented dryly. "Haven't met your team?"
"Yes," he deadpanned.
"Well hop to it, newbie," the man said smoothly. "Time to get to know one another and all that."
Ken paused and looked down at Naruto, who seemed to have wilted a bit. "Yeah, Cousin Ken. You gotta get to know your team. I'll, uh, I'll go back to the house and work on my kata stuff." He tried to hide it behind a grin, but Ken could already tell that it was a mask for the boy's loneliness. He straightened up and conjured a shadow clone, drawing a gasp of excitement from Naruto.
"Would you mind if he goes with you?" Ken asked his teammates.
Both chunin raised their eyebrows in surprise at the technique. They glanced at each other in silent deliberation. Both were familiar with the nuances of shadow clones in theory, even if neither had been deemed ready to learn it yet. They knew that anything this clone experienced would be passed on to the real Ken. "Fine by me," the woman smirked. "Aoba?"
"I have no reason to argue, Tomoko," he replied.
Ken nodded his thanks and looked at his clone. "You know what to do," he snarked.
"Of course I do," the clone replied, "I'm you." With that, the clone departed with the two shinobi, which left Ken free to spend the rest of the day with Naruto.
"So what're we gonna do, cuz?" Naruto asked, overjoyed at finally having someone to spend a Saturday with. "More training?! Because after all that I'm pumped up and ready to jump back in! I know with you to teach me I'll become Hokage ASAP!"
Ken smiled at his cousin's infectious enthusiasm, but the expression withered as he made a pressing decision. "Maybe this evening, if we get through everything else."
"Everything else? Like what? You're actually gonna teach me that super-clone technique?"
Ken shook his head, his solemn look finally getting to the boy. "No, Naruto, not for a while. Today, after some lunch that, as much as it pains me to say, will not be ramen, there are some really important things you need to know."
"Am I in trouble?' Naruto asked. It wasn't uncommon for him to get into trouble for things that either straight-up weren't his fault or he had no way of knowing not to do.
"No," Ken chuckled. "But they are very important." He paused, looking around and even taking a moment to use their clan's secret sensory technique to scan for chakra signatures in the area. Finding none, he pressed on.
"I'm going to tell you what the villagers have against you. And then I'm going to tell you the history of our clan … and maybe why it's down to just us."
Another new chapter. Looks like Tuesdays are my goal for posting new ones. Now for behind-the-scenes:
*I picked Earth Release for Ken because it is one of the rarest we see in the series itself. Again, I'm delving into lightly explored territory as much as possible here.
*I was originally going to promote Ken immediately to chunin way back when I started this work, as he certainly has the skills of one. But I thought that might be a little unrealistic for a military organization working with an immigrant. So, genin he is.
*I mostly stuck Kakashi in here because he's my favorite character. Ken won't be interacting with him much if at all anymore so I took a semi-excusable chance.
Finally, I really hope I've been portraying Naruto's personality well. It can be kinda hard sometimes, but I'm muddling through. Next chapter will introduce new characters, one a canon character and the other an original. Until then, hope you enjoyed it! And please leave a review if you like what you see - I love hearing what you all liked. May your inspiration flow freely.