Alrighty everyone, back with chapter 3. I made this one considerably longer to make up for the last one being so short. This should shed some light on things and the climax of the bell test is coming in chapter 4. Once again, I don't own squat, but I do hope you enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 3
Naruto tosses and turns as he sleeps, but no real nightmares spring upon him throughout the night. There was a strange dream where Madara appeared early and spoke with him. They exchanged their perspectives and he told Naruto that he was very similar to Hashirama, the Shodai Hokage, that he inherited his Will of Fire. He also said that he looks forward to facing him on the battlefield in the coming days. When Naruto awakens he is confused but pushes it aside in order to focus his mind on what needs doing. He quickly makes twenty clones and sets them to different tasks. Four groups of five clones with all different tasks. One group is to do his normal morning workout of push-ups, sit-ups, and each one is to run around the village as fast as they could maintain for as long as they could without taking any breaks. The second group is to read the scrolls he hadn't gotten to the night prior and take in as much about the different elemental styles as possible. The third group is sent to the training ground to practice wind jutsu in order to speed his training along. The fourth group also went with the third, but they were meant to practice taijutsu in a free for all style battle. The final group practiced chakra control exercises, such as tree walking and walking on water, as he was always miserable at control until close to the end of his previous life.
The original takes his time getting ready to face the day. He showers and brushes his teeth as well as getting dressed in another pair of the same clothes he wore the day before, but this time wearing his headband. He glances at himself in the mirror and smirks at how much better and older he looks in these clothes than he did in those horrendous orange clothes he used to wear. His hair was still wild and unruly, but the way it fell over the headband, nearly covering half of the top of it, he still looks much older than he did before. He wonders what could make him look so much older when he's still only twelve, but brushes it aside in order to get on his way toward the academy.
The familiar trip took only a few minutes, and when he landed in front of the gate, he noticed Sasuke also walking up. He glances at his rival and sees the crowd of girls following behind him. The first two in the group being Ino and Sakura, and Naruto frowns. He forgot how it hurt to be so alone and see Sasuke getting all this attention, but now it's very present in his mind. He decides to shake it off because he knows shortly Sasuke will leave and his fan club will be all but destroyed completely. All except for his former crush and the teammate who crushed him with her fist for no other reason than he liked and valued her. 'I'm not making the same mistake of standing on the desk this time. I still can't get rid of the image of kissing that bastard, even if it was by accident,' he thinks to himself and shudders in pure disgust. He walks in the door of the academy with his hands in his pockets and his eyes closed. His new behavior and style very Sasuke-like- well, if Sasuke wasn't some emotionally unavailable, revenge-driven loner by choice.
"Hey, Naruto! Come sit with us! We still have a seat open," Chouji speaks up and breaks Naruto from his trance-like state of self-inspection. He opens his eyes to see his friends waving at him, and he smiles brightly as he walks over to their table. He takes a seat beside Chouji and greets them with a warm smile, and even Shikamaru returns it. This is one of Naruto's real powers, making those he cares about truly happy at any cost. The idiot persona is gone, but the desire to make his friends' day better remains.
Soon students are flooding in, and several are standing around Naruto asking about Mizuki loudly. Naruto doesn't really know what to tell them, as he's certain they won't believe him. "Is it true you killed Mizuki-sensei?" One student asks.
"I heard you hated him all along because he failed you twice" Another accuses.
"Why did you do it? And how aren't you in jail?" Yet another great question from the inquisitive minds of Konoha's youth.
The questions became too loud and too much and Naruto stands, slamming his hands on his desk. "Maybe we should just wait for Iruka-sensei to explain everything, okay?" He asks rhetorically with a sarcastic smile on his face. The crowd and questions didn't go unnoticed by the other students. Sakura was annoyed that people were ignoring her precious Sasuke-kun to talk to 'the loser.' Sasuke was curious about the crowd but didn't truly care too much. Shikamaru and Chouji were confused, but had Naruto's back because they trusted him. And of course, Ino wasn't oblivious to all this. Something inside her is bubbling up inside and she isn't sure what it is, but soon she stands up and finds herself walking over to Naruto's desk.
"Mizuki-sensei was a traitor! He tried to kill Naruto. He said something about being a hero for some reason. I overheard my dad talking about it with my mom. So everyone just back off!" She yells, and everyone looks at her with eyes as big as dinner plates, especially Naruto. After a moment the crowd dissipates and everyone goes back to their seats. She then goes back to her seat and hides her face. She looks down and puts her hand on her forehead as if trying to hide from someone she knew in public that she didn't want to talk to. Naruto's eyes followed her back to her desk, however, with brow furrowed and lips pursed in contemplation. He couldn't figure out why she would stand up for him out of nowhere like that, but when Iruka enters the room he quickly cuts his eyes to the front.
The entire class is talking amongst themselves as Iruka clears his throat. The class doesn't quiet down, however, and a vein pops out on his forehead. He uses his specialty big head jutsu and shouts, "Quiet!" Everyone shuts up immediately and he clears his throat once more before addressing the class. "I'm sure everyone has heard some startling news about Mizuki-sensei. I would like to clear things up for everyone. He was a traitor and attacked Naruto. He was angry about all of his pranks he pulled and all the disruptions in class. Maybe he was under a lot of stress from something in his home life. I'm not sure. But he thought Naruto would be a danger to the village as a shinobi and determined it was best to eliminate what he perceived as a threat. Naruto caught him off guard using his clones. Mizuki was arrogant and thought he could just easily kill Naruto because he barely passed the exam, but he ended up getting himself killed. He attacked a comrade and got himself killed in the process. I hope that clears things up for anyone with questions," he states calmly, lying to everyone's faces under strict orders from the Hokage. "Now, to the reason, we're all here today. You will be assigned to teams today. When your name is called you may go to meet your sensei with your team," he starts and one by one the teams are filled until team seven comes up in the list.
"Team seven will consist of Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke. Your sensei will be Hatake Kakashi. He is to meet you at training ground seven. You are dismissed," the three of them get up to leave and begin walking out. "Oh, and Naruto?" He calls and the blonde turns to look over his shoulder. "I'm sorry you had to go through that yesterday. You passed your exam and haven't pulled any pranks or been disruptive in the last few weeks. You didn't deserve to be attacked," he says with a kind expression of sadness but pride in his student.
"Thanks, sensei. It's alright. I'm a shinobi now, so I should get used to being attacked, even by my comrades," he says and glares a hole in Sakura's forehead, who has already made Naruto a punching bag since the moment he expressed interest in her. She shudders and her expression changes to one of fear before Naruto drops his glare and resumes his cool expression and walks out right past her with his hands in his pockets.
Naruto knows Kakashi is going to be pretty late, so when he gets to the training ground he makes a few clones and begins practicing his taijutsu. Sasuke looks at him as if he's an idiot for training on a training ground, and Sakura is still shaken by Naruto's comment earlier along with that cold glare. She couldn't shake the feeling that Naruto could have the chance to save her and not take it in the coming days. Naruto, on the other hand, is countering all his clones' attacks as if he has the sharingan instead of the Uchiha boy who hasn't even unlocked it yet.
Approximately thirty minutes later Kakashi arrives in a cloud of smoke. He gives one of his trademark eye smiles and a little wave. "Yo! I am Hatake Kakashi, and I am the leader of Team seven. I know very little about any of you, so to start off we'll do an icebreaker exercise. Give your name, your likes, your dislikes, your hobbies, and your dream. After we're done, we'll start the real reason we're here," he says plainly, knowing full well who each and every one of these kids is. He read their files before agreeing to take these kids, and he already knew about Naruto. Kakashi was the ANBU assigned to keeping Naruto alive and stopping the villagers from killing him. Another part of his tasking was to keep a close eye on him to ensure the Kyuubi wasn't getting out of control.
"I'll start us off. I already told you my name. I don't feel like telling you guys about my likes or dislikes. I've never really thought about my future dream. As for my hobbies, I have many," he finishes, not giving up any information other than his name just like Naruto remembers. He smirks at his predictability and Kakashi points at him. "You seem eager to go first. Let's hear it," he says in a cool tone, and Naruto simply dispels his clones and takes a breath.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto. Likes are training, learning jutsu, and fighting strong opponents. Dislikes are fangirls, people who hate others for no other reason than it's normal, and those who abandon their comrades. My dream is to be Hokage, but I'm gonna be the best one this village has ever seen. Far better than even Yondaime-sama. As for hobbies, well I don't really have time for those. Free time is for improving my skill," he says in a tone very similar to Kakashi's.
Kakashi smiles behind his mask and examines Naruto up and down. 'So he wants to surpass his father, huh? Sensei he truly is your son. He even knows about the philosophy you taught us. You'd be proud of your boy,' he thinks to himself and nods his head at Sakura. "You next, pinkie," he says with a complete lack of effort or interest.
"Well, my name is Haruno Sakura. My likes are…" She glances at Sasuke and giggles. "My dislikes are Ino, and…" she then glances at Naruto, who isn't even listening to her. "My hobbies are spending time with my friends and my future dream is to…" She steals another glance at Sasuke and giggles again. Naruto rolls his eyes, not even caring if she notices his annoyance.
'Great, a fangirl who only wants to be here to be close to Sasuke,' he thinks and then nods at Sasuke. "You're the last one, so you're up kid," he says, slightly more interested in Sasuke's answers.
Sasuke scoffs behind his hands, sitting in a pose that his fangirls would think is cool, but really is just apathy to those around him. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I have lots of dislikes, but no likes in particular. And, I don't feel like summing up my ambition as just a dream… but I do have an ambition! The ambition to restore my clan and without fail to kill a certain man!" He finishes his speech with a cold chill in his voice. Sakura and Kakashi look at him in surprise, though Kakashi's is well hidden enough for all but Naruto to miss it. Naruto rolls his eyes again and sighs in slight annoyance.
"Right, well now that we're acquainted with one another we can get on with the real reason we're here. There is another test you must pass in order to truly be genin. It will be intense and most fail it, but if you do fail you will be sent back to the academy. Meet me back here early tomorrow morning, and you might want to skip breakfast. You'll probably just puke it up during the test," he says and waves once again with his eye smile and poofs away.
Sakura looks at Sasuke to see if he's concerned about the test but smiles when she sees his unfeeling expression remained. She thought about how cool he was, and how she can't wait to be the one to help him with the first half of his ambition. Naruto sighs and walks forward a few steps to be in front of the other two. He decides to give them a small warning about the test. "He probably told us not to eat breakfast in order to scare us. It would be foolish to come here in the morning with nothing for energy. He'll probably withhold lunch privileges unless you pass the test before then. I would advise you eat something filling but not too heavy," he says and has already started walking away by the time he's nearly finished speaking. He doesn't truly care if they take his advice, but felt the need to give it anyway.
He makes his way back toward his apartment, walking at a leisurely pace with his hands in his pockets through the main roads of the village. He spots Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji meeting with their sensei at the Korean barbecue spot Naruto has many memories of meeting Chouji and the others at. Ino looks up at the exact moment he's passing and they make eye contact. Naruto smiles at her, but keeps walking, causing her to blush and look away quickly. When she steals a glance back in his direction he's already gone, and her mind is racing. She can't put her finger on what is happening to her or why she suddenly cares for the dead last of their class, but she can't seem to shake it.
Naruto however is just getting home and beginning to prepare himself to make dinner for himself once again, but Iruka meets him at his front door. "Hey, Naruto! I was wondering if you wanted to get ramen. It'll be my treat! I just wanted to congratulate you on making genin. We didn't get a chance yesterday with all the excitement going on about Mizuki attacking you," he says somewhat nervously. He notices a change in Naruto's behavior but decides to leave it be, as he surely wouldn't give him a straight answer.
Naruto smiles brightly and nods. "Yeah, thank you, Iruka-sensei. That would be great, actually. I was just about to make dinner by myself again. You had great timing, sensei," he says happily and begins to walk away from the door he never got to open. Soon thereafter they're at Ichiraku's and they sit down and order their usual. Tuechi smiles at Naruto and tells him his is on the house. Iruka smiles at the man and inwardly thanks Kami herself that he won't have to pay for the bottomless pit beside him.
"So, Naruto. You passed your exam. You're officially a shinobi now. What are you looking forward to most?", he asks and just seconds later their bowls are placed in front of them. They say their thanks for the food and break their chopsticks apart in unison.
"Well, sensei, I'm really looking forward to getting into the swing of taking missions and getting stronger. You know my dream is to be a better Hokage than any before me. That's not something you can achieve and relax just because you passed an exam or completed a mission. I'm looking forward to getting stronger and taking on the chuunin exams," he says calmly and begins slurping up his noodles once finished with his speech. Iruka can't help but notice just how much more mature the boy beside him sounds. He has a sense of pride in his student, and also a belief that if anyone could achieve such a goal it would be Naruto.
"You only just became genin and you're already setting your sights on a promotion? You're a real ambitious guy, Naruto," he says with a gentle smile and a soft laugh. Soon after he begins to eat his own noodles and conversation is more or less forgotten for the moment. Iruka orders another bowl, and Naruto orders three more due to his heightened metabolism and excess chakra reserves require more food than the average boy would.
Upon finishing their food, Iruka pays for his own and they begin walking back to Naruto's apartment. "Thank you for offering to pay for my ramen, even if the old man took care of it anyway. It was very kind of you. I almost never have anyone to talk to while I eat, and I never have someone offer to pay for me to go with them. Thank you, Iruka-niisan. It meant a lot to me. I have to get some sleep now in order to prepare myself for Kakashi-sensei's test tomorrow. So, I'll talk to you later?" He asks, hoping not to offend his surrogate brother. He simply nods and smiles warmly.
"I'm glad to have gone with you, Naruto. Even if I had to pay for you I would be happy just to spend some time with you. You're a very special young man, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you'll achieve," he says kindly before he waves and begins to walk away.
Naruto walks back to his apartment and studies scrolls until it's late enough and he brushes his teeth and goes to bed. While asleep he sees all the events of the war, all of his friends he lost before he was given his second chance. He is painfully reminded of how Jiraiya passes after they become so close, and tears run while he sleeps. He doesn't dare wake himself up for fear he'd never see his master so clearly again despite knowing he'll pop up in a short while from now. The rest of the night goes smoothly enough for the jinchuuriki, and he has no more memories ambushing him.
When he awakens he quickly gets into his morning routine of clones doing some light morning training and studying while he gets ready to face the day himself. Today he puts on a black hoodie with the Will of Fire symbol on his back and another pair of black shorts, and he smirks at himself in the mirror. "Looking good, ne?" He asks his reflection rhetorically and laughs at his Jiraiya-like behavior. Shortly after, he dispels his clones and leaves his apartment for the training grounds.
He notices ANBU following him and sees a couple of the same people dressed as civilians following him as he walks, but decides it best to play it cool and not make a scene. Once he makes it to a lesser populated part of the village an ANBU pulls him into the alley he was passing and there is Sandaime waiting for him. "Hello, Naruto, I think we need to talk," he says in a calm tone, but the four ANBU surrounding them don't seem to imply he has a choice. Naruto scoffs and crosses his arms over his chest while waiting for whatever punishment he's sure will follow. "It is true that I promised your father I would care for you, but there is more you must know. Nothing will excuse my actions, but I beg you to listen carefully. Your father, Yondaime-san, was a war hero here in Konoha, but he had many enemies in Iwagakure. He was so feared by them that they issued a flee on sight order if anyone saw your father. That is why I never allowed anyone to tell you of your family. I wished to protect you from his enemies. If they had gotten word of your heritage, they would surely seek revenge by killing or kidnapping you," he says, his eyes tearing up slightly but he pushes forward.
"I put laws in place to not talk about you being a jinchuuriki to prevent the spread of that knowledge and the hatred it would surely bring on you. But the council refused to let me act in order to stop those that attacked you. They held resentment for your parents, and you held the Kyuubi so they thought it would make you strong, and you'd turn into their puppet. If the council would have allowed it I would have made an example of those who assaulted you. But the council threatened to try me for treason if I did or said anything. I couldn't say anything about this yesterday, because Danzo was in the room, and he made the council and myself swear this to secrecy. I did my best but my hands were tied and I apologize for that. You don't have to forgive me, but I just wanted you to know why I did what I did. I did try to protect you, but with both your parents dead and the council so against you there wasn't much I could do," he finishes and wipes his eyes.
Naruto is staring at the ground and his fists are clenched tightly. "They hate me because they hated my parents? My father was too young for that one-eyed psycho, Danzo, right? You know he has souvenirs from his orchestrated massacre of the Uchiha, right?" Naruto asks, remembering overhearing talk from Kakashi and Yamato after Sasuke killed Danzo about the sharingan in his arm. Sandaime narrows his eyes and waits for Naruto to continue. "Check his bandaged arm. Better yet look at his bandaged eye. You are Sandaime-sama so he cannot refuse your order. Make him take off his bandages and you'll see he stole many sharingan from the Uchiha after the massacre of their clan that he set in motion by having you put restrictions on them after the Kyuubi attack. He also attacked Uchiha Shisui and stole his eye. Might want to have a chat with him," Naruto says and turns to walk away. The ANBU goes to stop him, but Sandaime stops them, letting Naruto leave while he thinks about what he told him.
Naruto makes his way to the training grounds and sees the crowd of fangirls in his way, and rolls his eyes. He is not in the mood to put up with this shit so he walks up to them and does an impressive front flip over the entire group of them. He lands just past Sasuke, who huffs in annoyance, but Naruto pays him no mind. He simply keeps walking while the fangirls momentarily look at him instead of Sasuke. He feels their eyes on him and gives a little wave over his shoulder, a slight smirk on his face. Sasuke is a little more ticked off than he'd like to admit. He didn't enjoy the attention of his fan club, but that attention being split to someone like Naruto, who was dead last in his class, really pissed him off. Naruto doesn't care one bit, however, and just keeps walking.
When he arrives at the training ground, he scans the nearby area and finds himself alone. He sighs and slumps down against a tree as he prepares to wait for what seems like forever before Kakashi would arrive. Sasuke shows up next, with Sakura in tow. The fangirls all sent their different ways as he explained to them it was dangerous and that they should just go home. The peace and quiet Naruto was enjoying just a moment ago is completely shattered as Sakura won't shut up in a failing attempt at trying to get Sasuke to pay her any mind. He sighs loudly in annoyance, and she turns to look at him with a huge vein on her forehead.
"You got something to say, Naruto?" She borderline yells and he shakes his head with a small laugh. "Go on, get on with it. Spit it out since you clearly have something to say, dead last," she spits those last two words as if they were venomous, and Naruto brings his gaze up from the ground to meet her. His stare is cold and unfeeling and he says nothing, but she quickly looks away nervously and starts talking to Sasuke again. Sasuke meanwhile decides to figure out why the sudden change in Naruto's behavior.
"Ne, dobe (dead last). What happened to that loud, annoying act you used to give for so long? You trying to copy me or something?" He asks with a smirk on his face, thinking he caught Naruto in a trap. Naruto stands up, still staring at the ground with his head down. "Oh, did I strike a nerve? Sorry, dobe. Not like you could do anything about it, though," he says and Sakura laughs obnoxiously. Naruto's eyes slowly raise until he meets Sasuke's stare, his head still angled downward at the ground. This posture is to demonstrate to him that he wasn't worth Naruto's effort in moving his whole body to look at him.
"Why would I want to copy someone who could have all the attention and care he needs and shuts everyone out? You could take your pick of almost any girl in the village and yet you reject every one of them. Are you gay, or something? It's totally cool if you are. I won't judge you," he says with a smirk and turns his head to look at a flock of birds flying overhead. His body language was clear that he didn't care to continue the conversation, even when Sasuke nearly growled and clenched his fist.
"What the hell did you say, dobe?" He raises his voice from his normal 'too cool for anyone' tone.
Naruto turns back to see the effect his words had on the boy and his smirk widens. "Oh, did I strike a nerve?" He repeats Sasuke's words back at him and laughs softly. Sakura takes this opportunity to start marching over to him in an attempt to defend her idol. She swings her fist and Naruto catches her hand, glaring into her eyes. "Yeah, we're not doing that anymore. I don't know who you think you are that you can hit me and get away with it, but that's over. Try this again and I won't just stop you. I'll fight back. Oh, and I may be the dead last, but I could kill you just as easily as Mizuki if you continue to push me," he says with his voice mostly calm but a chilling tone added to it and she tries desperately to free her hand from his grip. He simply pushes her with the hand holding hers and releases so she lands on her ass a few feet from him. "I might not be your 'precious Sasuke-kun', but I'm your teammate now. If you want to survive through the first twenty missions as a team, I suggest you actually start training and stop worrying about winning Sasuke over. He doesn't give a shit about you or any of his other 'adoring fans.' And I've given up on trying to date you, so I actually don't care anymore. I just thought you should take yourself seriously or you'll end up dead, but it's up to you," he says and sits back down against the tree, looking up at the clouds.
'What's with this kid? He's totally different than he was a few days ago. What could possibly have changed him this drastically?' Sasuke questions in his mind. He has no idea why Naruto seems completely different, almost polar opposite, of the boy they've all grown to know and tolerate. Just three days ago he was loud, annoying, stupid, and hopelessly chasing after Sakura. Now he doesn't talk much, he's dressing completely differently, he knows how to handle himself, and he has a dark aura around him when he's irritated. Sasuke ponders on the matter and decides it best to sit back and try to find a weakness or reason for his change before he pushes him further.
Kakashi arrives just a moment after the altercation between the three and waves at them lazily. "Yo!" He says and Sakura glares and starts yelling about him being late. He never even looks away from his book as she screeches at him. "Hai, hai. I was helping an old woman cross the street. Sorry, everyone. Now to explain the test," he says and reaches in one of his pockets, pulling out a couple of bells. "You're going to have to take these bells from me. If you fail, you will be sent back to the academy. Anyone who doesn't get a bell will be sent back," he says plainly, and Sakura notices there are only two.
"But, sensei! There are only two bells!" She yells, and Kakashi nods unapologetically.
"Hai, which means one of you will be sent back to the academy anyway. So, come at me with intent to kill or you won't pass this exam-," he can't even finish his explanation as a kunai comes flying by his face and cuts the string on the bells in half. They fall toward the ground, and Naruto is already sprinting toward them. Kakashi however, simply grabs them quickly and waits for his approach. Naruto throws a punch, which is caught and he twists his arm behind his back to hold him with one arm. "You should have let me finish. Rushing me brashly won't work," he starts, but there is a kunai at his neck from the original Naruto, and the one in his grasp poofs into smoke. 'Hmm, he's better than I thought,' he thinks and suddenly he is replaced by a log, and Kakashi is gone from their view.
Naruto curses and turns back to the other two. "We're gonna have to form a plan if we're going to succeed. All three of us are needed to get those bells," Naruto says and Sasuke rolls his eyes and huffs in arrogance.
"You tried by yourself and he got away. That's because, no matter how cool you try to act, you're still just a dobe," he says and Naruto sighs.
"And there are only two bells, so one of us will fail anyway even if we do work together," Sakura says in a condescending tone, attempting to back Sasuke up.
"Think about it, they already passed us and gave us our headbands. We're genin and there is no demotion back to the academy. There is only the stripping of rank and being forced to be a civilian if you do something dishonorable or treasonous. He won't fail any of us. Why do you think he gave us a test like this where our opponent is a special jounin, who can captain his own ANBU squad? The objective of this test is teamwork, so shut up and listen. I have a plan," he says, an evil smirk on his face.
Man, that was a long one haha Hope you liked it, and I hope y'all come back for chapter 4. Things are only just starting to heat up for our blonde hero. Until next time!