Shinobi of the Force

Naruto Uzumaki

Konohagakure: 31 May 129

It is a beautiful spring day in the Village Hidden in the Leaves, the sun is out, and the lush greenery of the forest is particularly verdant at this time of year. In the past two years, the village has been peaceful, with little strife happening to mar this time of tranquility. The near decimation of the Uchiha by one of its own was a wake-up call for the village, they had been relying on one clan to supply security to Konoha for way too long. Such an important responsibility should be shared by all shinobi in the village, now there were a few Chunin-ranked ninja and kunoichi, undergoing police training, which gave them something to do when missions were scarce. Some clans seemed to take to it surprisingly well, who knew the Inuzuka, with their inu-nin companions would be effective as police officers, yet with their sharp senses and innate grasp of teamwork, they were quite literally in their element as cops.

So, the police headquarters for the Leaf was moved out of the Uchiha compound, and into the village proper and was three times as big as the one the Uchiha worked out of, to accommodate the increased size of the new Police Force. Of course, the Uchiha were still in charge of training and deployment, they had the most experience with this sort of thing, and most Uchiha must go through the same law enforcement training when they become Chunin.

"Do you have a visual on the suspect," the Commissioner asked, as she walked into the command center, "we can't lose him this time? He needs to pay for his crimes!"

On the monitor was a visual of what crime she was talking about, it was a wide shot of the Hokage Monument, showing from left to right: Hashirama Senju, the Shodai and founder of Hidden Leaf Village, his distinguished figure covered in spirals on his cheeks making him almost appear to be blushing, and on his forehead was painted a hand giving the middle-finger to Konoha; Tobirama Senju, the Nidaime, had another hand drawn under the right-eye, like he was flicking his eyelid down, also at the people of Konoha; the Third's Head had a tongue drawn on it, obviously to symbolize sticking his tongue out at Konoha; and the Yondaime, the current Hokage, had what appeared to be a stream of snot running out of his nose.

"Yes, ma'am, units are in pursuit as we speak," came the reply of a Branch member of the Hyuga, sitting in front of a bank of TV monitors, showing various feeds from different placements in Konoha. "He won't get away this time, Uchiha-teichō," the Hyuga assured her, "there's no way he'll get away from us this time, ma'am!"

"We'll see, sergeant," Naori retorted with an evil grin on her face, "we'll see…"

There were several, small explosions off in the distance, from one of the residential districts of Konoha. It was off the main thoroughfare that led directly from the gate to the Hokage Tower, this residential district was mostly, two-story apartments and condominiums, with the occasional convenience store thrown in for diversity. On the roof of one of these stores, a blue-sandaled foot landed atop it, and attached to that foot, a bright, orange track-suit, was on a young man with spiky, sunny blonde-hair, and sky-blue eyes, wearing a pair of goggles on his forehead.

Naruto looked back toward the explosions and sniggered at the results, he knew the Konoha Police Force would come after him, once he finished his little, art project. So, before he even went to the mountain, to give it some judicious redecoration, he planned out his escape route, placed traps all along his path to be able to shirk any pursuit that could be after him. He looked back and saw several Inuzuka police dogs, sneezing up a storm, and their human partners rubbing their eyes to try getting the dust of the hottest chili in the elementals, known as the Kiri Reaper, out of their sinuses.

Naruto knew they would not give up pursuit that easily, so he jumped over to another roof, and sped away. He had no sooner resumed his journey, when the Force alerted him to another group of pursuers, coming in from the east. Naruto smiled viciously as he decided not to alter his course, he continued along the same path, until he came in sight of the cops closing in on him, then he at once turned away from them and high-tailed it due west. His pursuit party was composed of a phalanx of Akamichis, Naras, and Yamanakas, those three clans were always working together, they were closer than even the Uzumaki and Senju back in the day.

These officers were tricky, the Akamichis were not the most agile of ninja, they had the ability to enlarge parts of their bodies, or even all of their body to grasp at him from anywhere. The Nara were a bunch of lazy geniuses, and while they were nimble, in body and mind, they did not like exerting themselves more than they absolutely had to, so they had their shadows do it for them. They had the ability to turn their shadows from a mere by product of light, into solid constructs capable of ensnaring anything. The Yamanaka, however, were your typical ninja, with no outstanding physical characteristics, unless you counted their almost white, platinum-blonde hair. Their abilities allowed them to entrap the mind, in battle they were used to coordinate their forces, and relay information to battle-commanders. Naruto has often wanted to see if a Yamanaka's mental techniques, could get through his own Force-generated mental defenses.

Anyway, Naruto had a few new traps he wanted to try out today, so he led the platoon (9 ninja) into a specific area he had prepared if he came up against members of these three clans. The Akamichi would not be able to employ their full abilities, because of the proximity of buildings. This is where he descended to the street and ran into an alleyway, where he wove a Force Illusion that took effect right as he entered a darkened alley. The illusion made anyone watching him, see him melt into nothingness as soon as he entered, like he was melding with the shadows of the alley.

This was not the first time Naruto has run into these clans, since he has been evaluating the village's vigilance for almost a year and a half since the Uchiha Massacre. Despite his contributions, Naruto did not want to be associated with it at all, not out of shame or fear or anything, he just wanted to be left alone. He was more than happy to be around people who actually knew him, like his kichōna ane, Hinata, Hanabi, Neji, and their parents, even the Elder Sarutobi, and the Ichirakus, but he did not want to be friends with people who only wanted him for whatever status he may garner from being the ninja that killed Shisui Uchiha. He never did it for that, he did it because he wanted to save as many lives as he could, and maybe prevent two of his sisters from losing their entire family. He did it for selfish reasons, he did it because he did not want to lose any of his sisters, he loved them and never wanted to see them cry if he could prevent it.

Flashback: Kaishi

Uchiha Compound; 31 December 126: 21:00

The most unusual thing people would have noticed about that day, if they had been paying attention, was the unusual number of rabbits found in the compound. Rabbits are a nocturnal species, and unlike many examples in their specific phylum they do not hibernate, so rabbit activity all year round is not that unusual, especially in Konoha. So, nobody paid attention, not even when they began to accumulate in a well populated area of the compound, it was like nobody could see them, or most likely they were coaxed into ignoring them.

While it is true that unlocking chakra protects people from Force Compulsion, that is because Force Compulsion, temporarily overrides the part of the brain where long-term memory is stored. Why that makes a difference, between weak-minds and strong, Mara never explained to him, and of course some creature's brains work differently and thus the Force could never affect them mentally. Chakra protects long-term memory from the Force, because two major tenketsu can be found in the brain, one in the hippocampus, and one next to the pineal gland. The second one is inconsequential at the moment, but the hippocampus is believed to be the part of the brain where long term memories are stored. Which is said to aid in decision-making, without that part of the brain it is much easier for those strong in the Force, to override those with weak minds, and force them to follow the wishes of the user.

In the case of the civilian Uchiha, most of which were children, or elderly individuals who never unlocked their chakra, Naruto in the form of a rabbit, using a transformation technique from the Uzumaki called true transformations. Which instead of projecting illusions, morphs the body into any form the user knows, and since Naruto has hunted and eaten a lot of rabbits, he pretty much knew the transformation by heart. Any way, he used the Force to compel the rabbits to follow him through the streets of the Uchiha complex and take the place of any Uchiha that followed him, sort of like the Pied Piper. It was New Year's Eve, almost all of the Uchiha police officers and the shinobi were on alert in case they were needed out in the village, so those that did not were coaxed into ignoring their loved ones leaving, by using the Force to prevent their senses from recording their presence.

The rabbits would brush against each of those that were following Naruto, including the infants, went inside their houses to go to bed, before transforming into the person they were substituting with. The infants were placed into Force-induced sleep, to prevent them from crying out and ruining the whole operation. Once his charges were safely in his bowl, Naruto made it back to the Uchiha guardhouse, and switched tapes in the recorder. The tape they recovered, only had about an hour of December 31 on it, before the tapes were changed by the Uchiha guards at midnight, which was standard procedure. They probably would have noticed it too, except those guards were among the first to taste Itachi's blade when he began his devil's task.

Flashback: Toma

It was the original tape, and the audio-recording Seal of Shisui's rant about Izumi, along with his eyes that he sent back to Izumi-chan, to help her find closure with that chapter in her life. If not, he shuttered to think how much she would change if she went after Shisui.

Finally, two Akamichi appeared at both ends of the alley, they saw a figure appear in the middle, and thinking to use a standard tactic, "High-Five," they bellowed. Their arms shot forward enlarging at the same time, until they filled the alley, and met in the middle, sandwiching the figure between their now massive palms. There was a squeak of surprise, and the darkness within the alley, was not so oppressive anymore. A Nara had deduced that this was possibly one of the places their quarry was likely to go, so instead of chasing after him, he decided to set a trap, so he would not have to run as much. He thought he saw the suspect run into the alley, but for some reason did not remember him running by here.

As the Akimichi's arms filled the alleyway, the Nara barely had time to plaster himself to the side, before their arms pinned him in place. Before the two meaty arms could be retracted, several Seals on the floor and walls of the alley, began to light up with chakra. The large arms of the big-boned ninja – don't ever call an Akimichi fat – tried to retract but they could not, something was preventing them from even lifting their massive appendages, or even let go of each other. "We're stuck," one of them said, "something's on my palm, preventing me from letting go."

"Mine too," the other one said, "and I can't seem to lift my arm off the deck, it's like it weighs a ton more than it already does, just from being the size it is now."

The Nara remained pinned to the side of the alley, and he could see the glowing Seals on the other side of his own vantage point. He knew nothing of Seals, beyond the bare minimum needed to conduct his missions as a ninja, but you'd have to be an imbecile not to realize these glowing glyphs on the walls were somehow, a trap.

Naruto hopped up on a roof across the street with a clever smirk on his lips, he looked up at the sun and gaged it to be about an hour after midday, and it was a Sunday, no academy today. They would be fine, he had made all his traps non-lethal, if they figured their way out of the trap, fine, it would still take time to do that, time he could use to escape. Either way, the power for the trap was designed to run out at sunset.

He felt a tug from the Force, from two directions as two chunin from the Yamanakas rose from below, both at right angles from each other. One of them yelled, "Shinten Bunshin no Jutsu," and a stream of white energy shot at Naruto, who closed his eyes, while summoning his chakra and separating his In (Mind) Chakra from his Yo (Body) Chakra, and reinforcing it with the Force, coated his hands in it. He caught the white chakra in his hands, and performed a flying cartwheel, deflecting the man's Spirit Energy.

The other Yamanaka yelled, "Shintenshin no Jutsu," and his Spirit Energy charged at Naruto, who still had his own Mind Energy in play, and parried it toward the first one to fire his jutsu. Naruto actually employed a little of his training in Soresu with this tactic. Naruto took two shuriken from his pouch, with a special Seal etched into the metal and threw them at a building across the street, just before a shadow snapped out from the Yamanaka coming from the west and substituted with the shuriken in midflight. As Naruto appeared along the flight of his shuriken, his shuriken which had gravity-seals etched on them struck the roof with the two Yamanaka, and the now exposed Nara, activated creating a localized gravity well, on that roof, forcing every person on that roof to feel as if they weighed a ton. It was only in their minds though, because while self-created genjutsu was still beyond his grasp, fuinjutsu-induced versions were well within his wheelhouse.

Naruto oriented his body to impact the other building feet-first, and somersaulted to the ground, just as an Ino-Shika-Cho combo attack, was launched at him from all sides. Before they could though he sent Yo chakra to his entire lower-half, combined with a Force Jump that shot him from the pocket of their trap. He was practically flying, and as he leapt, he left a kunai with an explosive buried in the ground right where he had been. It went off a second after he was gone, but this explosive tag had a modification he wanted to try out, he had combined an explosive tag with a storage seal, which could only open when the extreme energy from the explosion triggered its release. When this happened, two things were forcibly expelled from the Seal reservoir, tar and feathers, and all members of this incarnation of Ino-Shika-Cho were covered in its contents.

Naruto landed lightly on another roof quite a distance away, and turned back to admire his handy-work, and had to hold back a snicker. All three of his tenants were laughing their asses off though, these little pranks of his were his way of getting back at Konoha as a whole, for their treatment of him during his time living in the village. Not to mention a way to assess his training, and see where he was in terms of skill, since the Academy was most definitely not a challenge for him. At most the only thing he was perfecting by attending the Academy was his deception skills, he obviously was a first-rate ninja given that he just totally humiliated two whole platoons of Konoha police officers, who were supposed to be Chunin-level ninja. Yet, at the Academy, he was dead-last, which was all show.

While, even with his current level of Chakra-control, he still could not produce an ordinary bunshin to save his life, his mother taught him to use the Wind God Avatar technique1. An avatar technique made entirely from his wind chakra. They were solid clones that could perform any physical feat their creator could, but were only able to perform wind-based, elemental ninjutsu. They were said to have inspired Tobirama Senju to create the Shadow Avatar technique. He still needs to work his body to get those benefits, though with his Uzumaki physiology, Force meditative healing, and Kurama, healing the damage from his physical conditioning, he always recovers faster and thus can exercise longer than almost anybody.

The only people Naruto has met, that can out work him is Neji's Jonin-sensei, Maito Gai, and his teammate, Rock Lee, but their hard-work fanatics, who talk about Flames of Youth, and being geniuses of hard-work. Naruto greatly admires Rock Lee, and considers him a friend of sorts, because he was not born with Naruto's benefits, and has deformed Chakra-coils, preventing him from performing jutsu greater than the Academy Three, but he still worked his ass off to be a taijutsu-specialist. They have had many spars together, and Naruto can happily say that Rock gives him an excellent workout with his taijutsu.

But the Academy training is a complete joke, even his mother said it was more challenging when she was a student, to graduate. He does not use the Force for anything while he is training the skills he needs for the Academy.

When at the school, he takes on a completely different persona, that of an unpredictable idiot, nobody there, except Hinata, his best friend, knows about his true skills, because she is doing the same thing, hiding her true skill and personality, behind a pale and timid façade. To hide his taijutsu prowess, Naruto has learned the Hidden Leaf empty-hand style, which is not bad at all, it definitely helps him learn the foundation for taijutsu, and he has practiced them using his Uzumaki Five Ring Luminesce Harmony Aikijutsu style, and like Hikari-Tsurugi and Go-Rin kenjutsu, they seem to flow together like the joining of two rivers. At school, he acts like nothing more than a brawler in taijutsu and practices the worst habits, a fighter could have in a taijutsu fight, only when he and Hinata, are behind the Hyuga estate walls, or up on his mountain, do they make sure these habits still are nothing more than a deception.

Naruto's throwing is second to none in the village, and anybody that has ever seen him throw anywhere but at the Academy, knows that he could hit a bird in the eye, while its flying. So, he refuses to compromise his throwing even at the Academy, therefore he decided to always get the score he wanted, whenever he is up at the range. For now, he just goes for the scores that will keep him dead-last, with an occasional, lucky seeming high-score, to prevent some of the more intelligent students, like the Nara in their midst from working out his ruse.

His fellow students know about the Force, but think of it, only as a sensor technique. His current outfit is what he wears to school, most of the time, he adopted it soon after the Uchiha Massacre. By now, Naruto has made it away from the residential area, and moved towards his apartment on the outskirts of the village's urban area. He could see his mountain from the back window, and still slept up there most of the time, but last year, his mom and Mara-sensei decided it was best to start living among people again, so he got a job collecting discarded weaponry and selling it to weapons shops. Though only one dealer was willing to give him the time of day, Shorin Tan gave him a fair amount of business, and bought most of what Naruto brought in, unless it was truly irredeemable. Those, Naruto would sell it to a scrap metal dealer, and that would get him plenty of rent for the month to pay the Sarutobi clan, who owned the apartment complex.

Naruto always thought it looked kind of like a man-made mountain, than an apartment complex, all tan walls and ascending to the pinnacle where his apartment was found. It had a nice patio that got lots of light, at all hours of the day, and as long as he watered them, as needed he had produce that he did not have to search for in the forest. Naruto came up to his floor and saw that he had a visitor, she had long purple hair that reached to her waist, and wore her normal kunoichi attire, with a haori and the words (Police Commissioner) written on the back.

Naruto smiled happily at seeing one of his loved ones in front of him, "Naori-nee," he exclaimed as he bounded over to hug her, she smiled back at him and returned his hug, there are few people she loves more in Konoha than her little Naruto. She, Izumi, and the Hokage are the only three people in the Leaf to know he killed Shisui, the night of the massacre and saved most of the civilians and all of the children. She had always looked at him as her little brother, but after that night as far as she was concerned, he is her brother, and she acts very much like a sister towards him. He is also her hero, and she would protect him with her life, she kissed him on his temple as she hugged him tightly to her, then she smacked him in the back of the head.

Naruto jumped back as if scalded, with a closed eye and a slightly pained expression, "that was for making my men look like rank amateurs out there today. Kami, I don't know what's become of the caliber of our ninja," Naori lamented by crossing her arms across her chest, then added with a stomp of her foot, "but if an Academy student can make seasoned Chunin look like rank amateurs then Konoha may not last very long as the strongest village on the continent."

"Well, I do have certain advantages they were unaware of," Naruto commented with a tap of his head, before heading for the door to his apartment.

"That's a lame excuse and you know it," she spat from behind him as she followed, "there are all kinds of ninja out there, with abilities as freaky as the Living Force, shinobi need to be ready for anything. Besides, you're not the world's only jinchuriki, there are eight others," they entered his apartment, it was a fair decent living accommodation. A one bedroom and bath, decent closet space, fold out sectional in the carpeted living-room, along one wall with a nice television set. The kitchen area was okay, with a sink, refrigerator, and a stove, all in a row, and a table with four chairs taking up most of the floor space.

Naori, after removing her shoes and haori, made herself at home on the couch, while he hunted up some drinks, he opened up the well-stocked fridge – shinhenge is a wonderful thing – and got two cans of tea. He went in and handed it to her, she smiled in thanks, and they sat together in silence for a few minutes, her snuggling into him with her head on his shoulder, his arm around her. This was all he ever wanted from life, just people who cared about him, as much as he cared for them. All of his kichōna ane were people he would give his life to protect, and he knew, that they would do the same for him in a heartbeat, he was so thankful for the Force, because it had given him, the one thing he craved all his life, a place to belong, and people to belong to.

They all had equal billing in his heart, but one of them had started to change, recently. Izumi-chan, whenever he was around her these days, something felt strange as if he were going to be sick, but not as intense. He found he would get nervous around her, even when he used his Force training to calm himself, it took all his concentration to be able to hold a conversation with her. He was ashamed to admit, but there were times when he found himself looking at her body, noting the shape of her muscles. Her rounded calf-muscles, supple and toned thighs when she wore her shorts, her firm glutes. He seemed to notice the sheen of her hair, falling like a silken waterfall down her back, the ebony windows of her eyes that bespoke of fierce intelligence, the invitingly, sweet lips from which came forth her angelic voice. Yes, even when she would stand in profile to him, he enjoyed looking at her, the firm shape of her breasts in profile, seemed to be able to turn his head, off. Unless they were in a spar, then he just looked at her to gage what her next move would be, even if, in the back of his mind, he was still admiring her shapely body.

Her attitude toward him had shifted as well, she was never a stranger to touching him, and she was always one to give him hugs regardless of the situation they were in. Now, the hugging was the same, if a little longer each time it happened, not that he was complaining about it, because the longer they hugged the longer she could press her body up against his, and that did funny things to him… funny, good things. What had changed was in other ways she touched him, nothing inappropriate, in his opinion at least, but if it were Izumi here tonight, instead of Naori, she would be rubbing up and down his arm. Lightly grazing her fingers up and down his admittedly sparse arm hair, soothing it down so it lay smooth along his arm. If they were out in public, at a restaurant that actually served him, she would always choose the seat, right beside him and make it a point to lean her shoulder against his or look over his shoulder at his menu. She sometimes even made her choice from his menu. One thing he loves the most, when Izumi and Naruto are laying the way he and Naori are tonight, she will put both of her arms around his waist and just hold him close to her. It felt good… really good, when she did those things to him.

Naruto and Naori were cuddling next to each other, doing nothing but being a family, when she asked, "So, are you ready to graduate tomorrow…"

Graduation

Spring Leaf Academy: 1 June 129

The next day, found Naruto walking into the Academy in his usual orange tracksuit. The classroom was laid out in a stepped-tier design, with eight tiers ascending into the back. Only seven of those tiers were occupied with desks for students, and there were three columns of desks, wide enough for three students to sit at. He scanned the other students, but only found about six of them, sitting in class at the moment, worth noting.

Sitting in the column closest to the door, was a cluster of three boys and a white puppy, one of the boys was asleep, but had shoulder-length, black hair pulled into a spiky ponytail. He wore a short-sleeved, grey jacket with green-edged sleeves, under which is a green-lined, mesh armour T-shirt, with brown pants, and a pair of silver hoop earrings. His name was Shikamaru Nara, this kid is a certifiable genius, like most members of his clan, and if he also was not as lazy as he is intelligent, Naruto would worry that he would have figured out his deception. He still might have if at any time he decided to put even a little effort into his work.

In the chair next to Shika, munching on chips was his best-friend Choji Akimichi, a rotund boy, with swirl-like markings on his cheeks, and spiky, light brown-hair. He wore a green, short-sleeved haori with a long, white scarf over a light-green shirt, with (食) shoku, the kanji for 'food' on it. He also wore black shorts, hoop earrings, and bandages around his legs and forearms.

In the desk behind them was Kiba Inuzuka, a wild-looking kid, with a personality to match, which was typical for most members of his clan, with messy brown hair, sharp black eyes with vertical slit-like pupils, pronounced canine teeth, and nails. Along with the distinctive, red fang markings of the Inuzuka clan on his cheeks, Kiba's attire consisted of dark, greyish pants reaching to his calves and a grey-hooded, fur-lined coat, with the hood usually placed on his head, to keep his inu companion Akamaru warm.

Sitting in the very last row, along the same column of desks, was another boy, sporting a similar style to the rest of the Aburame clan, Shino wore dark, round sunglasses, and a sea-green jacket with a high, upturned collar. The Force always made Naruto feel like he had a mass of insects crawling over his skin, whenever he and Shino were in the same room together. Hinata was sitting in the sixth row of the third column, her dark blue hair was in a hime-cut of different lengths. She wore a cream-coloured hooded-jacket with a fire symbol on the upper sleeves, and fur around the cuffs and hem, and navy-blue pants. When she and Naruto looked at each other, they gave each other happy smiles and winked at each other, today was the day they would finally drop their façade of weak and incompetent, and make these babies wake up to the reality of ninja life.

Sitting at the head of the third column, as far from everybody as he could be and still be in the room was Sasuke, the genjutsu Itachi put him under to witness the deaths of his entire clan, had turned the once bright and cheerful boy into a dour, broody person. He once idolized his older brother, now he only lived for revenge against him, nobody knows but Naori, Izumi, Naruto, and the Hokage, that Itachi was nothing more than a pawn in Shisui's twisted plans to possess the heiress of the Uchiha. Naruto has tried to reach out, a number of times over the years to try to be Sasuke's friend, but he has been rebuffed every time, Sasuke has begun the early signs of falling to the Curse of Hatred, according to Izumi, if something does not occur to snap him out of it soon. Sasuke may try to hurt other Uchiha to achieve his goals.

Deciding to try one more time, Naruto steps up to Sasuke's desk, who does not look up to acknowledge his existence, and if he was not well used to this sort of treatment from the rest of Konoha, would have been offended. "Oi, Sasuke-san, do you mind if we sit together today," Naruto asked, but before he could say anymore…

"No, dobe," he snapped, without looking away from the window, "just because my sister and Naori-chan have decided to take pity on a clanless loser like you, doesn't mean I will!"

Naruto sighed, it was pretty much the sort of response he was expecting, he was about to turn away, when he felt a tremor in the Force, and smiled because this one was very familiar to him. "Okay, see yuh, Sassgay-san, but don't say I didn't try to help you out today," Naruto said with a cheeky grin as he swept to the side and up into the room. He had no sooner taken a saved seat next to Hinata, who reached over to squeeze his hand, as she acknowledges what Naruto continues to try to do with Sasuke, when a rumbling sound filled the room.

It started small as if it was far away, but rapidly getting closer with every second that passed, there were trembling shouts of, "Earthquake," from many throats in the class. It was such an urgent situation that Shikamaru actually opened his eyes, and Choji stopped his ceaseless munching. The shaking reached its climax which was right outside the classroom door, Naruto and Hinata shared a smile, just before the door was thrown back with a thwack, and an "First, hah, I made it into the class before you, Forehead-chan," the platinum-blonde girl declared with girlish glee!

"Like Hell, Ino-pig," came the response from a pink-haired girl next to the first, "my toe was in the room before anything else of yours was."

Ino Yamanaka, heiress to the Yamanaka clan, wearing a sleeveless, purple crop-top to exhibit, without showing anything of her burgeoning bust, with similar colored capri-pants, and high-heeled sandals, over bandage-covered calves and midriff. "That's to be expected with feet as big as yours, Sakura," Ino snapped back, before sticking out her chest to emphasize her preteen boobs, "too bad your feet are the only thing about you that's big, that and your giant forehead."

"Wow, you know, before I met these two, I thought only guys liked to measure body parts," Naruto whispered to Hinata, who quietly sniggered, "and since when is having big feet an insult?"

"Really, Naruto-kun," she snorted, quietly of course, their deception was not over yet, "women compete with each other too, for the same reasons, attracting their ideal mate and their place in society. Most of the time our battles are a little more subtle, but those two could almost be men with the way they compete."

Ino and Sakura spotted the open seats next to Sasuke, with no other seats open, who spotted it as well, before giving Naruto a dirty look, who only shrugged his shoulders, I tried, right before the feminine bodies slammed into one side of Izumi's baby brother. They were screaming in his ears and cooing at him, and all Naruto could think was, thank the Redeemer, that I don't have two women pining after me. He would never want to have to choose, because most likely, the only women he knew were his kichōna ane, and they were all best friends, he would never forgive himself if he inadvertently or otherwise, came between them.

Naruto eyed Hinata carefully, "you're not crushing on me are you, Hinata-chan."

Hinata turned to look at him, before grasping his hand and smoothing her fingers over his knuckles, she turned her head away from his like she was shy, "I didn't want to say anything, because I don't want to change our relationship, but…"

Naruto could not believe what he was seeing, his best-friend was confessing to him, because he had found out about her crush on him. Well, now he was in a pickle, while he liked her and even loved her in a way, it was not the way he felt when he was with Izumi-chan…

"No, I don't have a crush on you, Naruto-kun," she said as she turned back to look at him with a look, like the cat that ate the canary, no guilt, just satisfaction, "I mean I love you, Naruto-kun, but it's the way I feel when I'm with Neji-nii, or Hanabi-chan, I guess the best way to say it is, that I love you like a brother. You're my kichōna ani, and I'm proud to be a member of your kichōna ane team," she finished answering, "mostly because I love you, my bloodless brother, but also, because I want to be a kunoichi like them," and I really don't want to get on Izumi-nee's bad side by going after the person she loves. She's a scary bitch, when she gets mad, Hinata's thoughts ran, remembering all the times she and her mother and sister would go to the hot springs and see, Naruto's kichōna ane dobutsu, lounging in the pool. While they loved going to Naruto's hot spring, there were times when they liked to just be girls, and they could never do that at their otōto's because of the swimsuit rule, and the only naked female flesh Naruto would ever see was Izumi's naked female flesh, as far as she was concerned.

Naruto just smiled as he put his hand on her back, "I love you too, my soul sister, and just don't follow their example," he said, wiggling a finger at the fan-girls sandwiching the last male, Uchiha shinobi, loyal to Konoha, "and you'll be well on your way. I can't see those four, fawning all over the same guy, hoping he picks them, like one would pick a rose over a lily."

"I hope whoever gets them, if they pass, will be a strong kunoichi," Hinata comments quietly, "so they can knock that fangirlish attitude, right out of them."

Hinata had just finished saying that when the door opened, one more time, with their class sensei on the otherside. Umino Iruka was the lead sensei, he was a man of average height and build, with black hair, kept in a ponytail, with dark-eyes, and a scar running across the bridge of his nose. He wore the standard Konoha uniform, with hitai ate, and the sleeves rolled up, a quarter of the way up his forearms. He was very fair, almost to a fault, he did not give anybody any slack, even when they had a very valid excuse. He neither ignored Naruto, nor gave him any special attention, he did not let him skate by as the class-clown.

The other teacher, however, Naruto did not need the Force to tell him how this man felt about him, and hatred was just one of the terms he would use to describe what he felt for Naruto. Even if his face was in a constantly, pleasant smile, Naruto's keen fox senses could detect the micro expressions, most people would fail to notice. Mizuki has long, white hair with a hint of blue, and also wore the standard Konoha uniform in class, including flak-jacket, his hitai ate was affixed to a bandana.

"Silence, please," Iruka-sensei asked calmly, when nobody paid him any attention, in a louder voice he yelled, "SILENCE, PLEASE!" Which brought some of the student's attention to him, Naruto, Kiba, and those in their respective groups, quieted down, nobody else seemed to even notice they were there. Ino and Sakura were among the most noisy in the room, finally, Iruka had enough and with the Big Head jutsu, said, "QUIET, YOU BRATS!"

Which cut sound in the room completely, "if we were enemy ninja, all of you would be dead now," Iruka lectured, "remember after today, if you pass, you'll be considered adults in the eyes of the law, and society, you'll have the same freedom every adult has, as well as the responsibilities. That means, you will be held to the same standards of conduct as any civilian adult, seventeen years and above, with only a couple of exceptions, one: you belong to the village, and are not allowed outside the village, without the Hokage's permission, unless you become a sage, then you are no longer bound by that rule, and may come and go as you please; two, while you may date and even be betrothed, you may not be espoused (married), unless you already are when you become a ninja for Konoha, you may not engage in sexual congress outside of wedlock, nor drink alcohol, until you become Chunin or turn sixteen-years of age. Other than those statutes, you have all of the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of adulthood, for example, you may operate a business, from a legal industry, and must adhere to all other laws set in place regarding said business, except age restrictions. Now, start acting like adults and learn to shut your mouths, when a superior enters the room," Iruka barked, "one more thing before we begin."

Iruka picked up a cardboard bound notebook, that everybody knew was his grade-book, he held it up before bringing it over to the trashcan, and letting it fall. The book landed in the can, and stayed there, as the deathly quiet classroom looked on, Naruto and Hinata's expressions of surprise were fake. Naruto learned about the final test, from his mom and Mara, with Minato's memories she would also know the criteria for grading of the final exam, and as Hinata's best-friend, it would have been wrong not to share this kind of information with her. In the final test, each student was given a clean slate, the class averages did not matter, which is why Naruto never, worried about being dead-last in the class, he would wait and show his true skill on test-day. No graduate had ever divulged that secret, because it was a test of trustworthiness, to see if they would giveaway, more vital secrets by keeping something to themselves that would not matter to Konoha's security. It also weeded out those with testitis, if the mild stress of the Genin Graduation exam was enough to throw them for a loop, then the extreme stress of a mission or the battlefield was no place for that person.

All of this was explained to the nonplussed, student body, by the two sensei as they were passing out the tests. It was when Naruto received his test from Mizuki that he began to smell a rat, it was a tough looking test, for a Chunin, these were questions that no Academy student, no matter how well read, would be able to answer. Things like code-breaking were not things an Academy student should be expected to know, and the written exam was worth half the entire score for the exam itself. I bet this test would give Shikamaru a challenge, if he were taking it, Naruto lamented to his tenants, how the Hell am I supposed to complete this test.

'It's really simple, baby, we're gonna tell you the answers,' came a disgruntled Kushina, 'if they're gonna use a test that no Academy student could pass, well then we're gonna make sure you pass it with flying colors.'

Are you sure, mom, I want to get my headband the right way, by earning it, Naruto asked hesitantly, you've never helped me in any of my class work before, what's the difference now?

'The difference is, before, they were not actively trying to make you fail, this is the same as an attack, Naruto, Mara chimed in, agreeing with Kushina, your mother is as intelligent as she is bad ass, and I have Minato's knowledge in my mind. His knowledge agrees with your mother, there is no way you will be able to pass this test with your own knowledge, so please let us help you on this.

Spring Leaf Academy Throwing Range: one hour later.

The entire class, gathered outside at the range for the next phase of the exam. The throwing skills challenge was pretty much the same set up Naruto remembered, all those years ago on the night he met his best-friend. A pair of human analogues, one for kunai, one for shuriken, the object was to score a 'kill' with five shuriken, and five kunai, you had to get 6 out of 10 to pass. The dummies were marked in areas that would be a sure kill for anybody struck in those places, but they were not just marked, each spot on them was drawn anatomically accurate, the larynx, heart, jugulars, lungs, kidneys, subclavian, and femoral arteries. Naruto guessed the brass wanted their new Genin, to know what they were about to get themselves into, so they emphasized what organs looked like while in the body.

Iruka and Mizuki to make things go faster, split the class in two, and Naruto was in Iruka-sensei's line, along with Shika, Shino, Kiba, Sasuke, and Ino. This was where he and Hinata decided to do some showing off, to begin dissolving the deception they have crafted since the beginning. Naruto as the loveable idiot, and her as a meek and timid, little girl, they will both shed their skins as weaklings.

Shikamaru got seven out of ten, which Naruto was sure was intentional, as did Ino which was not intentional. Shino and Kiba got a respectable, eight out of ten, and Sasuke got nine out of ten. Naruto stepped up to the line, with a calm swagger. He was making sure the Force was dormant for the test, because he very much was testing himself, to see exactly what he is capable of without his greatest ally. He flourished his arms like a magician, and three shuriken appeared in his right-hand, two in his left-hand.

"Oh c'mon, dead-last," Kiba jeered, "we don't have time to watch you suck at throwing like usual, there's no way you can out throw the Uchiha. So just make your throw and take your score like a man," Kiba growled, causing the other kids in his class to snicker, and Sasuke to give him a superior grin.

Naruto just looked back at Kiba with a bland grin on his face, and in a frequency too low for the human ear to perceive, he said casually, but a dog's sure can, "there is no dead-last, or head of the class right now, Kiba. Everything that happened in all our time in school is no longer valid," Naruto reminded him, before adding, "like it was a dream, an illusion, a lie." By now, Kiba's eyes had blown wide open, since when did Naruto know how to speak the secret language, but just as his confusion began to mount, Naruto spun a 360-degree turn and released his payload simultaneously. They seemed to move into some odd flight patterns, the two from his left-hand turned vertical, and arced downward, whereas the three in his right, stayed horizontal into a tight flight-pattern, one in front, two drafting behind it. The two arcing downward, struck both femoral arteries at the exact same time, while the three flights above continued to fly to their intended targets. Just before they struck, the back two, tapped the front, to give it more thrust, which caused them to yaw out, in a wide g-force turn, while the rest of it continued to spin in toward the dummy. This caused the back two, to veer in front of the first, and strike both jugulars, just before the last one struck the larynx.

"You should never use shuriken on a torso, if your intention is to kill your target," Naruto stated as if he had vast experience in killing, "it is possible to do, but it is much more likely that you will hit the ribs than the heart. If you want a torso shot, then a kunai is your best bet, they are heavy enough to go right through a ribcage and into some major organs," he continued as if in a classroom, "shuriken are best if you want death by exsanguination; the kidneys, and subclavian arteries, are also best to get with shuriken, but those are easier to hit when the target is running away or retreating."

As he was speaking, he brought out five kunai, this time three in the left, held between the fingers, and two on the right, also between digits, and with a casual flick of the wrist from both arms, he sent the knives at their targets. There was nothing fancy about how they flew, it was pretty straightforward, except with how close and even, the spread of the blades were. Not to mention, which knives from which hand, went where. Three in the left all went into the lungs, two in the right lung, one in the left, the two from the right-hand ended up in the heart, right next to each other, and perfectly in line with the kunai in the lungs.

Naruto looked at his handy-work with an appraising eye, his smile was satisfactory, as he turned back to the rest of the class, who were looking at him in wonder. "I believe that's perfect score, ladies and gentlemen," he said, while looking pointedly at Iruka, who was just as amazed by Naruto's throwing skill as his other students but jumped out of his torpor, as Naruto spoke to him, "ten over ten, Iruka-sensei."

"Huh, right," he exclaimed, then with more vigor, "quite right. That's a perfect score, Naruto," Iruka agreed, while annotating on his clipboard, then had to ask, "but something tells me, this isn't new found skill you're displaying, you've had this in you all along." Naruto nodded at his teacher's assessment, "then why not do it this way every time you threw, why the deception?"

"And how is it that you know about killing so much," Ino asked, "the way you talked, you've been killing quite a long time? I'm pretty sure there haven't been a sudden spate of dead bodies piling up out there, so how do you know which throwing implement to use on which part of the body to make it easier to kill someone?"

Naruto decided to answer Ino first, "if you think these shots in the targets are anything special, Ino, try when you're running after a deer or a rabbit, you're trying to make your dinner. A deer and a rabbit have all of the same organ systems that humans have, they just have different body mechanics. Deer, because of size are better taken with kunai, rabbits with shuriken," he concluded.

"How could you kill a cute, defenseless, little rabbit, you monster," came the reply of one of the other shōrai2 kunoichi?

Naruto glared at the obnoxious female, making her step back in fright, before answering, "if your only choice between living or starving to death, is a cute rabbit or an adorable deer, you'd understand. Would you ladies rather see me walking around naked, or wearing the skins of animals," Naruto asked, making many of them blush, "come on, you had to have noticed that for the first five-years of my time at this school, I wore nothing but the skins of animals. Where did you think those came from, the village market," Naruto asked derisively?

"But, why," Kiba asked?

"Why, what," Naruto wondered?

"Why would you need to hunt for food, when you were so little," Ino asked, she was not as squeamish about the hunting as her fellow, prospective kunoichi? She had known Shikamaru her whole life, and his clan raised deer on their lands for food, she has had quite a few venison dinners in her life.

Naruto laughed at her question, "come on, Ino-san, how many times, have every single one of you called me, a clanless, orphan loser? I don't live in any orphanage, I haven't since right before I turned four, from then, until I was eleven-years old, I lived by myself in the mountains and forests surrounding the Village." Naruto saw many of them, even Ino begin to look at him in guilt, for deriding him because of his orphan status, something he had no control over, and something all of them pray never happens to them. "Hey, don't worry I feel no ill will directed at any of you for the orphan stuff," he asserted, "because I am part of an elite group of people. Three of the most powerful ninja in our village's history were orphans," at their puzzled looks he told them, "Jiraiya of the Toads, Minato Namikaze, and Kushina Uzumaki, my mother. She was known in the Bingo Books as the Red Death; you can look her up in the library if you're curious."

"Now, Iruka-sensei," Naruto turned to face their teacher, who had remained silent as one of his students taught his other students a very valuable lesson, 'never underestimate anyone, because they will surprise you,' "you asked me, why I didn't show off my talents from the beginning, but I'll answer that by asking you a question that everybody here should know by heart, since it's a ninja's creed. If you think you know it, feel free to supply an answer," Iruka nodded his readiness to receive the question, "what is a ninja's most powerful weapon?"

"Deception," came the reply of many voices.

"Only a fool would show all of their talents, and abilities in front of strangers," Naruto elaborated, then added, "and a ninja should never be a fool, or he'd be a dead fool. Even here, for this test, I am only showing off enough of my talents to meet the criteria, and if I make Rookie of the Year while doing it, so much the better. It really makes no difference who Rookie of the Year or Dead-last are, since they don't mean anything, after we leave these walls, nor do they have any bearing on our careers."

"Says the guy, who was Dead-last only just an hour ago," a nameless student quipped.

"By design," Naruto reminded them all, which caused them all to blanche in embarrassment, then Naruto added, "but let us say you're right, and I earn my Dead-Last status once again, before the day is done. I'm sure you've all heard of the Sanin, Orochimaru-pedo, Tsunade-hime, Jiraiya-gama, I'm sure Iruka-sensei knows their class rankings, when they went to school here, right?"

"Yes, it's part of the training needed to become a teacher," Iruka answered with a sly grin, knowing where Naruto was going with this, with a pointed look from the same boy, Iruka answered Naruto's silent question. "Orochimaru, was Rookie of the Year; Tsunade Senju, was Kunoichi of the Year; Jiraiya-sama, was Dead-Last."

"So, a traitor was once Rookie of the Year," Naruto mused, "Tsunade-hime, while loyal, no longer cares about the village. I haven't seen her here at all, since I've been alive, twelve-years is a long time to shirk your duties as a ninja. Of the three, only Jiraiya-sama, seems to still be actively working for the village," Naruto pointed out, "even if he writes smut, he also runs an elaborate spy-network. Hey, there's nothing wrong with a side-line," Naruto granted, "even ninja here in the village, have a job they go to that helps them pay the bills, when missions are scarce."

Lunch

After throwing, in which Hinata also earned a perfect score, the class adjourned for lunch. The written test is meant to be a general knowledge exam, the questions are meant to be equal in difficulty to the graduation exam, administered at civilian, secondary schools in other parts of Konoha. The Will of Fire demands its adherents be intelligent, not ignorant, the Hokage will not deploy mentally challenged ninja on missions. That being said, it is not unheard of for teachers to have a favorite or least favorite student in their class, so to prevent teachers from giving students grades they did not earn, for the Genin Graduation Exam, each student is given a randomly generated number, by the Hokage and his staff. The test is given to another teacher, who will be able to grade it impartially.

That practice could not be more important for this test, because Konoha's least favorite citizen, was up for graduation today. He was given the number 9, ironically, and his test was given to a junior teacher, who was quite literally stumped about the test. He could not even complete the grading because he only knew the answers to half the Exam, but he was not a fool, no living shinobi was ever a fool. He knew that one of this class's teachers had set number 9 up to fail, why that was did not matter, because it was borderline treason here in Konoha to deliberately try to hurt a fellow Leaf-nin, outside of spars.

The junior teacher knew not to take it to any of number 9's teacher, because this test would surely standout to that teacher, because of how advanced it was, it would definitely be easy to spot. The school administration was answerable, directly to Elder Sarutobi, and since he did not trust any of his immediate supervisors, he decided to take it directly to the top.

A/N:

If anybody has a problem with me using 'Avatar' instead of 'Clone' for 'bunshin,' I invite you to type it into Google Translate: Japanese to English, to see which term pops up.

Shōrai means, prospective or future in a profession. Ex: A student in medical school is a shōrai doctor.