Naruto had been sitting still, his feet slightly farther apart than his shoulders, and knees bent ninety degrees, staring at a leaf for about four hours. "UNCLE AKIHIRO! Why are you making me try to cut a leaf in half with chakra?! This feels pointless, and even worse, it isn't something cool that YOU said I would get from pranking a Jonnin before I was a Gennin." Akihiro's eyes snapped open once he heard this, and he shot up from his position laying down.
"So you did it huh? Well why didn't you mention that before, you dunce? I would have started teaching you sooner then. From now on, when your teacher gives you time to train 'one on one' with her, while she alternates around you three this is what you will be doing. When she sends you home, you will be with me and trying to learn how to make traps, as well as detecting them." Naruto's face went sour, and he breathed in to speak right before getting cut off by his uncle, whose eyes were shining in excitement. "And I don't mean the basic traps you learn in the Academy, I mean real stuff, as well as using your clones and henge to make better ones."
Naruto's eyes lit up upon hearing that he was going to learn something more advanced than the academy so soon, and his smile went wide. "YOSH, I got it Sensei Uncle!" Akihiro scowled at that nickname. "So this means I will get to learn something long before anyone else in the class will right?"
Akihiro looked at Naruto confused, "Dunce…. All I've been teaching you is advanced stuff. Once we get done with traps and the leaf, we have to go back to the beginning to learn all sorts of basic skills. Here I'll draw it out for you." Akrihiro drew a long a complicated chart that Naruto couldn't follow whatsoever, but when he was done Naruto saw a large circle with the words sealing techniques in it. Soon he saw the writing under it saying, 'A whole nother chart you won't get to see if you don't master these basics!' Akihiro spoke up, "So Naruto to make you understand, you should have started this…" Akihiro circled an area that said 'Strength Training' "... Before this." He then pointed at bothUzumaki Style: Force Clone Explosion and Uzumaki Style: Sticky Body. "But you got too excited and ended up learning both of these by accident before you were meant to. So now you get to work on the other three parts of the charts, before getting anything too cool, Got it?"
"But Sensei Uncle, you were the one that got excited and taught them to me before I was meant to." You could see a sweat drop from Akihiro's eyebrow.
"Quiet dunce! Go home and go to bed, you have your first mission tomorrow!" Akihiro smiled and was giggling to himself. "Little does this brat know that he's going to hell for a while." Akihiro thought to himself. Akihiro took a cigarette out of his pouch and lit it. "Damn I'm too nerdy to be a smoker." He thought as he caught up with the now running Naruto.
The next morning, Naruto had woken up late and ran out of his bedroom door, barely throwing on his newer vest and pants outfit yelling, "UNCLE AKIHIRO, WHY DIDN'T YOU WAKE ME UP!" At which point he heard a snickering along with the words,
"You're a ninja now Naruto, and that means you're an adult now too. Adults don't need someone to wake them up." Akihiro grinned at Naruto's scowl as the boy bolted out the apartment door.
Naruto ran his whole way to the training field that they were told to meet at. He ended up about 15 minutes late, which would have been bad if Shino also didn't turn up late. "Sorry, my bugs did not want to show up for some reason." If Shino wasn't wearing sunglasses you could see him looking at Naruto. Speaking of Naruto, he had walked up to Shino and put his arm around him, at which point Shino's entire body started to buzz and vibrate. "Please let go Uzumaki-San" Naruto let go and stepped away.
"What's with the formalities man? We're on the same team, we should be friendly with each other!" Naruto looked Shino up and down, thinking 'Is his whole body filled with bugs? That's kinda gross.' Shino looked at Naruto sternly, not that anyone could really tell.
"I'm sure you know Uzumaki-San." Hinata and Kurenai just kind of watched it unfold, Hinata just not knowing whose side to take if they fought, and Kurenai wondering just how Shino knew what he did.
"Well then on to our first mission. We are chopping wood for the elderly district all day today. They need to keep their rooms nice and toasty, while you brats need the exercise." Kurenai said smiling at all their frowns and Naruto's face of pure disappointment.
These kinds of small requests went on for about two weeks. They had done everything Naruto could think of. They cleaned the dog park, walked dogs, repaired old buildings, worked as pack mules for the laborers district, searched for lost cats, and everything else under the "Pre-Teens guide to make money". Cleaning out the Inuzuka's clan dog stalls was the last straw. Training-wise, Naruto hadn't made any progress, except understanding that different leaves feel different and how to tell them apart by feel and the very basics in physics that he needed to set traps on the fly.
As soon as they walked into the Hokage's office for their report and next assignment, Naruto spoke up. "LORD THIRD! I want a C-Rank. It's the only way I'm going to advance as a ninja! In fact I think my group will agree, right guys?" Hinata, who had gotten more used to Naruto, to the point where she was only faintly blushing red, spoke up first.
"I agree with Naruto-kun. We aren't gaining any more experience than we did at the academy this way!" This had been the first time Naruto had heard Hinata speak up louder than a whisper and he was impressed, so he gave her a thumbs up and a bright smile.
"I hate to agree with Uzumaki-San, but I too think that more practical experience in the field would be more valuable. We can not get better for the sake of the village by being shielded by it's walls at all times."
Kurenai just stood there shocked. They had all decided on this either on their own separately, or came to agreement without consulting her. The former would have made her proud, her team all being on such the same wavelength that they would go over her head in an instant of someone spoke up, but that latter is a completely different story, setting her into an unforeseen rage. She hit all three Gennin swiftly and bowed. "Sorry Hokage-Sama, I will escort them out and we will not be taking another D-Rank mission." The Hokage Smiled.
"If they all are willing, I will ask you. Do you think that they are ready for a C-Rank mission? Remember this will not be the same as your first C-Rank. This is a new Era of Peace and should be completely safe." Kurenai looked at the old man, now lighting his pipe and still smiling.
"They are Hokage-Sama." Kurenai shook her head, but in the back of it all she could think was, 'What if they get hurt?'
"Perfect. I have an urgent C-Rank that we happen to not have a team free for, Come on in Tazuna!" A man with grey spikey hair, small circular white glasses, a black sleeveless t-shirt and pants to match, with a bottle of Sake in hand walked in.
"What? These brats fresh off their mothers teat are going to guide me back home? I don't think you know how important my work there is ."
"I was fed formula." Shino spoke up deadpanned. Everyone gave him a not the time look.
The man known as Tazuna looked at Naruto. "Especially this pipsqueak! He's even shorter than the girl in the group!" The old man was most likely drunk and was definitely laughing. Naruto was fuming, but just cycled chakra under his feet to keep calm. He had found that just being connected to the ground beneath him calming. He had to keep his cool at least for now. Once the old man had left, he could go break trees or maybe look for Tenten or the weirdo Lee. Both were usually up for a spar. Although the downside to Naruto being mad, is he didn't hide it well. His brow furled and fists clenched. It didn't help that the wood around his feet was breaking from the intensive chakra flow. "Heh, brat's mad. We leave tomorrow morning. See you at the Gate." As soon as the old man left, so did Naruto but only out the window. Hinata gave chase to make sure he wasn't going to do anything dangerous, or do anything he may regret. Shino well, he just decided to stay out of it and go train.
Naruto had gone to the same training ground that he had beaten his first ninja, and broken quite a few trees. Once he arrived there, he saw a boy striking a tree in rotational patterns, and he had on a coat similar to Hinata's, without the white floof, and brown shorts. He also had the same eyes. "Oi! What are you doing here? This is team Guy's training ground." Naruto called out to the boy, at which point his fierce white eyes looked and the loud blonde.
"I am part of the guy, while I believe that you two failures are not. I know for a fact, that she is not a part of my team, nor should she be a part of any team." Naruto frowned upon hearing this, already disliking this guy's attitude.
"Why are we failures? Because you said so? Get off your soapbox and bring me Tenten or Lee. At least they know basic manners." While Naruto had a point, he completely blew his own point away by picking his ear while he said it.
"I think you should leave. Before I make you." At this point, the bots eyes were activated, veins showing around his face and eyes narrowed. Hinata tugged on Naruto's arm and tried to pull him away.
"Don't worry I beat one of his teammates, so this should be easy!" Naruto yelled, smiling back and the now cowering girl. He had only just noticed that. It made him furious. One of his teammates was at first being belittled by some random person in their clan, and now was showing signs of real fear after a threat? That was not going to fly under his watch. Whether it was Hinata, Shino or hell, even Kurenai-Sensei, if his team needed help, he would do what he could. Plus how hard could beating another team guy student be? He got into his Uncle's boxing style stance. "Bring it coward."
The boy ran forward, at a speed higher than he had seen Lee move, and struck this chest three times, and then followed up with two to the back. At which point the Naruto vanished in a puff of smoke. "Damn you are fast. Too bad I don't really enter a conversation with anyone myself anymore. Not since Tenten." Naruto's voice was coming from somewhere nearby, but was quickly found in the treeline by the Hyuga's Byakugan. At which point the boy again dashed in to strike Naruto, only to find out that he had traveled under the ground. At which point his hands popped up to, not only miss their target, but to be grabbed themselves. Naruto was pulled from the earth and slammed into the ground by the male Hyuga.
"Leave." He started to walk away as Naruto got up, blood leaking from his mouth.
"Fine, see you again sometime grumpy." Naruto started to walk away and Hinata ran over to him, acting as a human crutch. He smiled at her. "Don't worry, I'll kick his ass another time. But I got an idea after the fight at least." She was too busy trying to to pass out from being so close to talk.
This major defeat, to another Gennin no less, had shown Naruto that even if he was learning something more advanced than the other students from his year, that everyone else was ahead of his by years already. He had to put that to a stop. He had to train harder. If he was only going to study Physics for now with his uncle, that means all other time was going to the leaf.
The next morning, Naruto had not even slept. He had held onto the leaf and worked on channeling his chakra into it constantly. He tried again and again but to no avail. He left the apartment, no sleep and leaf in hand. He had packed his backpack the night before, and even packed extra leaves. No telling what kind of environment the Land of Waves had when it came to trees. As the boy walked up, everyone had already gotten there, except Shino. Although he arrived last, he still wasn't late. The old man looked at Naruto and pointed at the leaf. "What's the boy doing?"
"Training. I can't be out done by anyone. I need to prove that my clan can still be one of the best." Naruto said, focusing on the leaf. The old man just looked at him and shrugged.
"Just don't let me die or lose a limb and we will be fine brat." As Tazuna said this Kurenai came up to Naruto.
"Hinata told me what happened. Put the mission first and train on your free time. There will be tons of time where you can train during this mission. We are guarding him until the bridge is done, so there will be a lot of on and off shifts." Naruto put the leaf away and put his hands behind his head, where he had hidden another leaf. He kept at the training behind his teachers back, or rather behind his own.
Along the path they were on, Shino stopped the group and spread his bugs out. They landed in a puddle along the road, which quickly turned into a pair of men. The two men were bound together by a chain at the wrists, each with a large metal claw attached. The men closed in the Kurenai and wrapped the chain around her. The closed in and took her head off. At which point Hinata had run in, and severed their chain with her Gentle Fist. the men both charged her, without noticing the small group of Naruto's around them. They collapsed onto the men, and grabbed ahold of them. "UZUMAKI STYLE: CHAKRA BOMB CLONES!" The two men looked at each other before substituting out, and upon appearing in their new locale, they were immediately wrapped up in ninja wire. It was Kurenai, fine and dandy. The men looked at her then at the spot they had decapitated her. All that was there was a sliced log. They also noticed that the logs they had used when they ran, were in splinters. They both gulped at the thought of being caught in that. They thought in unison 'If that had been Zabuza or Haku, they would have been unharmed, but if we were in there, our skin would be in shreds.' What they hadn't realized is that they had said this out loud, and where in a light Genjutsu. Naruto did the honors of knocking them the fuck out and tied them to a tree with normal rope. "Don't underestimate, Naruto Uzumaki or I'll kick your ass. Believe it."
"So are you going to tell us why you have missing Nin after you Tazuna?" Kurenai looked at the man with a mother's glare. One of those looks that would not only kill you but erase your entire existence.
"To be entirely honest with you. I got a rich bastard becoming a tyrant in my own home. He set up his shops, took over the island's boats and killed anyone trying to stop him. So I am trying to stop him. As you know I'm building a bridge. That will allow vendors easier access to the island, therefore his iron fist will lose grip. He's willing to do whatever it takes to either wipe us off the map, or force us to be his pawns." Naruto could be heard gritting his teeth at the statement about being wiped off the map. He hated the thought that someone would do that at all. He hated the fact that it had happened to his family. He didn't even get to know his mother or father, and his Uncle wouldn't talk about them much. Only small tidbits.
"Don't worry you old fart, we will get you home and save however many people we can. NO matter the cost." Naruto smiled as he reached his hand out to shake the older man's. The man smiled back, tears welling in his eyes and he just said thank you over and over. The other team members looked at each other and nodded their heads. Kurenai just agreed with what choice her team made. It was her job to guide them and make sure they lived, not to make every choice for them. She knew that if they had to fight Zabuza, that she could make sure he was weak enough for the kids to be able to protect Tazuna. At worst it would be a one for one trade. Those were thoughts for another time, now it was time to set up a camp and sleep, on shifts of course. Although Naruto had chosen to train instead of sleep, and boy did he look tired.
(A/N)
So the reason the name keeps changing for the Clone Explosion Jutsu is that Naruto is trying to come up with a name for it. A cool one that is. Also if anyone wants to see the Physical chart Akihiro made, leave a review saying so, and I'll send you a link.
