Naruto Age: 15 years and 2 months old
"I have nothing left to give" said Naruto from the ground as the Third Hokage looked over him. Naruto was clearly on the wrong end of a brutal beatdown, his right eye swollen shut and his clothes ragged and filled with holes.
"They say that the next generation is supposed to surpass the one that came before them, but you're making the author of that quote, a liar. Get up" said Hiruzen, who was in almost perfect condition minus his right arm guard that had a single scratch on it.
"No, I think that he is done for the day, old man" said a third voice, this one much more serious than Naruto or the Third Hokage had been.
"He still hasn't used it in combat therefore, he is to continue until he manages it, or I grow tired of using him as a punching bag" replied the Hokage without looking at the source of the third voice
"I said that he is done, if you want to pick a fight with someone, I have more than enough free time" said the third man
"No, it's alright. He wants to see it in action, he will see it in action" said Naruto as the cuts on his body hissed as they sealed themselves and his eye started to return to normal.
"Naruto, this isn't healthy. You can't carry on with this type of training" the third voice said, trying to prevent the training session from going any further.
"You used to like it when I was a slave driver, said you need to catch up to your teammates" said Hiruzen
"Yeah, but the difference was that we did that for an hour a week, not 10 hours a day, every day."
"Listen, either get on board Jiraiya or leave, I don't have time to be a teacher to anyone other than Naruto here" said Hiruzen before he turned his back on his student and told Naruto to get up.
"You know that Zabuza isn't dead right?" asked Kurenai to Kakashi and Naruto. I had been a day since they arrived at Tazuna's house and after some resting and being able to rethink the fight, Kurenai realized that there was no way that Zabuza was dead.
"Eh, I give it a 50-50 chance, the hunter ninja isn't exactly the bravest or boldest group of ninja. They generally don't fight their targets if someone else is willing to do the work for them." Replied Kakashi, using his time in the ANBU to recount his interactions with the Hunter Ninja corps.
"they only used senbon and they hit the neck. That means that Zabuza was put in a near death state, but nowhere near actual death. The appearance of the Hunter Nin was also a bit to convenient, if you ask me" added in Naruto
"So, there is a 50-50 chance that Zabuza used his partner to bail him out of situation that wasn't favorable for him. We need to plan accordingly, I say we break up roles. Naruto can go with Tazuna to the bridge and use his shadow clones to help speed up the bridge production. Me and Kurenai will alternate between watching over the family and training the other Genin in a single technique each. If we can give them a bit of fire power, they will have a better chance of defending themselves against any group of bandits that Gato may have hired." Planned Kakashi
"Hmm, it is a sound plan, but I would say that we have about 2 weeks for Zabuza to recover enough that he wouldn't just get outright defeated by Kakashi or myself. I say on every 4th day, we let Naruto watch over the family and recover from using so many shadow clones on the bridge."
Naruto shrugged to say whatever and Kakashi agreed on the plan, and they all quickly started to set it in motion.
8 days Later:
Naruto was a little bit bored, just sitting around waiting for someone dumb enough to dare make a move against the house that he was protecting. The rude grandson of the client was crying in his room upstairs while the daughter of the client was attending to some of her own needs in the bathroom.
The result of this was that Naruto could send 4 clones up to the roof to keep lookout while he was actually in the house resting. He decided that the best way to rest would to read about advanced Wind Chakra manipulation. His resting and reading was cut off by Hinata entering the house and sitting across from him at the table.
"You're inside earlier than the others, any reason for that?" asked Naruto
"I al already com completed the ex exercise t t today" responded the nervous Hyuuga
Naruto returned to his book, only to feel the stare of Hinata on him, "You shouldn't stare, it can be seen as rude or taken the wrong way like you're interested in me"
Hinata blushed a shade of red that Naruto had never seen and she pushed her index fingers together.
"I I I was j jus wondering if if y you were the s same N na Naruto that my c cousin n Neji s spoke a about" said Hinata
Naruto's eyes widen as he took at Hinata and he said, "I should have realized what I did to your cousin would be spread all throughout your clan."
"W what did y you do?"
"I guess if nobody told you"
Hinata just shook her head no.
"Well it is pretty interesting, it was about a year ago."
1 year ago: Naruto age 16
Naruto entered a clearing of Training Ground 9. In the middle of the clearing, there was a full Genin team. Their Jonin was a strange man, a tan man in his mid to late 20's. He wore a jumpsuit that was the ugliest shade of green, Naruto had ever seen. The green jumpsuit was paired with a Jonin vest, a red belt that held his headband as a buckle, and a pair of cool orange leg warmers.
The man himself had a bowl cut, and eyebrows so think that Naruto thought they were caterpillars at first. His team contained a boy who looked and dressed the same, minus the Jonin vest. A girl dressed a traditional pink combat shirt and standard pants and sandals, she also wore her hair in a set of buns. The last was male with long hair, white eyes, and what was clearly an attitude problem.
"Are you guys, Team 9?" asked Naruto as he approached the group of freaks.
"Yes we are, how could you tell? Is it because of how youthful that we are?" asked the Jonin as Naruto started to think that maybe he was better off without a promotion if this is what it led to.
"Err … no. You put in a mission request for an older Genin to spar with your team remember. You said to be here at 8:15 in the morning, it's 8:10 now." Explained Naruto
"Ah yes, my name is Maito Gai and this is my team." Said Guy loudly
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki" Naruto said introducing himself
"My name is Rock Lee, nice to meet you" said the Guy clone
"Nice to meet you, the name is Tenten" said the lone female in the clearing
"Neji Hyuuga" said the pale eyed asshole
Gai cleared his throat after the frosty words by his student and said "My team has been together for about 6 months now, they were part of the Spring Graduation. With the Fall class about to graduate, I figured that now was the time to show them a bit more about the Shinobi lifestyle"
Gai pointed at Naruto before continuing "That is where you come in Naruto. Anything that I tell them would be not be received the same way that something you say might be with you being closer to their age than I am."
"Ok, I see where this is going" Naruto said, understanding that Guy probably wanted him to give the trio of Genin a dose of reality.
"You guys can ask any question that you want" Naruto said, inviting the younger Genin to ask him questions while Naruto got a nod from Gai
"How long have you been a ninja for?" asked Rock Lee
"This fall will make 4 years?"
"What is the most difficult mission that you've done" asked Tenten
"I was once assigned to accompany a group of Chunin about 2 years back, we ran into a missing Nin from The Hidden Stone Village. He was an A ranked Jonin who had a serious case of PTSD and wanted revenge on our squad for things that happened in the last war. The 4 of us managed to defeat him, but it was the hardest thing that had happened to me so far."
"What rank do you hold?" asked Neji as he looked Naruto up and down
"I still hold the rank of Genin" said Naruto with a light blush on his face
Upon hearing Naruto's answer, Neji scoffed and began to tune Naruto out. Naruto answered a few more questions from Tenten and Rock Lee before Neji spoke up again.
"So, how does it feel to be a failure as a shinobi?" asked Neji. The clearing got insanely quiet and Naruto blinked in shock.
"Excuse me, I think that I misheard you" said Naruto, a look of bewilderment on his face
"I asked you how it feels to be a failure? To know that your destiny is to be nothing more than fodder to the people who destiny has blessed to be the best" said Neji
Gai coughed and said, "This line of questioning is really what I had in mind." He was trying to stop a possible conflict from happening, but it was already too late.
"No, Gai. Let him ask whatever he likes" said Naruto before he looked at Neji and replied, "It feels the same as you will feel like when my foot is buried several feet up your ass"
Neji growled and said, "I would watch the way that you talk to me. I am a Hyuug elite and you will treat me as such"
"Oh, I'm sorry did you say that you are a Elite asshole?" the taunt got the desired reaction that Naruto wanted.
"You are nothing but common trash, you shouldn't challenge your betters" spat Neji
"If you are so much better than me, fight me" said Naruto
"If it will remind you of your proper place, gladly" said Neji.
Gai upon realizing that he had lost control of the situation grabbed Lee and Tenten and jumped backwards.
"Gai-Sensei, do you think that Neji will win" asked Lee as he looked at Naruto looking down at Neji
"Neji is extremely talented for someone who has been a shinobi as long as he has, but Naruto is on a different level. Naruto could easily be a Chunin from the rumors that I have heard, but he never had a team to take the exams with. The only reason Naruto is a Genin is because the system has not been in his favor" replied Gai
Naruto slid into a basic stance and Neji just rushed forward. Neji aimed his open palm strike at Naruto's chest, clearly hoping to end it in one shot. However before the strike could hit Naruto's chest, Naruto lashed out and grabbed Neji's wrist and squeezed.
Neji gasped in pain as Naruto's grip became like tighter to the point that it felt like his bone was going to crack. Instead, Naruto kneed Neji in the stomach and threw the Hyuuga over his shoulder.
"Oof" cried out Neji as he landed on his back. His pride was more damaged than this body and he jumped to his feet and launched himself at Naruto's back. Naruto turned at the last second and allowed Neji to fly by. Neji slid to a stop and he growled at the ease that Naruto was dealing with him at.
"Byakugan" said Neji as the sides of his face tensed and veins could be seen.
"You're still trying to continue this fight? You're in over your head kid" said Naruto to the raging Hyuuga.
Neji slid into a fighting stance and launched himself at Naruto. Neji had stopped messing around and was now using the Gentle Fist technique that the Hyuuga Clan was famous for. Naruto smirked as he leaned to the right of the first jab.
Naruto continued to just avoid the jabs of Neji's Gentle Fist. This only caused Neji to get madder and madder as time went on.
"8 trigrams 64 palms" called out Neji as he used one of the Hyuuga's secret Justu. Naruto blocked the first 2 strikes by slapping the jabs away from the inside. The next 4 palms were met with more deflections away from Naruto's body. The following sets of 8 and 16 were just dodged completely. The rapid 32 hit nothing but air as Naruto jumped over Neji landing behind him. A simple chop to the back of the neck stopped Neji from trying to get to 64 palms.
"You have all that anger and you use it to fuel your attacks, but it clouds your mind. Shinobi rule number 3; No shinobi is to wear their hearts on their sleeve" said Naruto from above Neji.
"I don't understand, fate had decided that you were subpar. How can you defy where you are placed in life?" asked Neji from the ground
"Because fate has said that I have failed yet, just that my time hasn't arrived yet" said Naruto.
Hinata looked at Naruto with a bit of awe. Just then the door opened and in walked Kakashi with the rest of the Genin.
"You can sleep now Naruto, I got it from here" said Kakashi as Naruto nodded and went upstairs to sleep.
Later that evening when Kurenai arrived back at the house, her and Kakashi sat on the roof.
"So, tell me about Naruto" Kurenai said out of the blue to Kakashi.
"Naruto, huh?" said Kakashi, his lone visible eye showing a hint of amusement in it. "Naruto is different than anyone that I have ever met."
"What do you mean?"
"I've never seen someone who wasn't given any sign of better things to come and still be so ready to continue on striving forward. Naruto never knew that I was failing Genin teams until I could convince the Hokage to put him on my squad."
"That wasn't the right thing to do" commented Kurenai
"Eh, I've done worse" said Kakashi thinking about his time in the Hidden Mist Village.
On the day that everyone projected that Zabuza was be healthy:
They arrived on the bridge to find it completely covered in mist and nobody in sight. And by they, I mean, Kakashi, Naruto, Kurenai, Shino and Sakura. With there being 6 of them, it was decided that Sasuke, Kiba and Hinata would guard the house to prevent an army of bandits that Gato had from making a move on the house.
"This mist is filled with Chakra, that means that you were right Kurenai, Zabuza is alive." Said Kakashi as he raised his headband to reveal his implanted Sharingan.
"Oh, I am more than alive, I brought some friends." Called out Zabuza before he allowed the mist to fade slightly to reveal that it was more than just the fake Hunter nin that was with him. There was 2 other figures there, both of them wearing long black cloaks that were covered in red clouds and they wore bamboo hats on their heads.
The taller one of them tossed away his hat to reveal blue fish like face and a crossed out Hidden Mist Village headband. The shorter of the duo simply raised his hat to reveal a pair of Sharingan eyes.
"Allow me to introduce, Itachi Uchiha and my fellow ex seven swordsmen member Kisame." Said Zabuza
A/N: Kind of a short chapter but that's all I got for you today.
Deleted Scene: Kakashi and Kurenai on the rooftop:
"So, tell me about Naruto" Kurenai said out of the blue to Kakashi.
"Naruto, huh?" said Kakashi, his lone visible eye showing a hint of amusement in it. "Naruto is different than anyone that I have ever met."
"Really, how is that?" asked Kurenai as she looked up at the night sky.
"You know my sensei and how he ended up, well I didn't take it all that well. My sensei was gone, the last person who really mattered to me. Obito had fallen in battle over a year before that and Rin by my own hands not too much longer after Obito. Minato was basically all that I had left, and then poof he was gone.
It was really hard to deal with until a couple of weeks after losing him, I get a summons to the Hokage's office. I arrive there and our Lord Hokage was holding a small bundle in his hands. He's rocking back and forth with what I realize is a baby. It had tuffs of blond hair and wouldn't stop crying, which is why I was called in. Lord Hokage was too tired to continue caring from the baby and called upon an ANBU who he knew wouldn't try and harm the baby because of what it was." Said Kakashi
"The baby was Naruto?"
"Yes, the baby was Naruto, I can remember holding him in my arms for the first time and thinking that I had never held something so light, but so important. I had been waiting for Naruto for almost 10 months now, his parents being the only family that I had at the time. I remember putting my ear to Kushina's belly and trying to feel for Naruto, he technically kicked me in the face, but it was one of the most exciting things that I had ever felt. So, here I was holding this tiny Naruto and I have no idea what I was supposed to be doing.
I look down at Naruto who opened his eyes for the first time since I was holding him and I come face to face with eyes that were almost an exact copy of my sensei's. It was right there when I turned my life around, I had no time to be depressed, no time to mope around sad. I was barely 15 at the time, but I knew right then and there at some point I would be Naruto's sensei. I knew that I would make him into one of the best that had ever lived, because it was what his father would have done for me." Said Kakashi