Yugao was nervous, a feeling she was finding was becoming more and more normal over the last few months, something she knew wasn't a good sign. Tora-san's deadline to prepare her teams had arrived, the man gathering all of his captains together to drop the bomb which was his testing plan, and it had been one hell of a plan.
Over the first three days Tora had drafted several Jounin to help him as he tested all of his captains in every skill and field he felt like testing, which whilst gruelling hadn't been particularly challenging for her, though one of the other captains hadn't been as lucky and had been demoted ahead of the next stage of testing, which lead her to where she was now.
8 of the captains were currently on shifts protecting the Hokage, whilst she and the three remaining captains were in charge of leading and assessing mixed groups of ANBU on a rotating schedule to their different training zones. She had assessed two different groups through five different exercises thus far, ranging from a series of written and information gathering exams to physically gruelling assault courses, but now at the end of the three week period her first group was going into what Tora called 'the big test'.
Her groups were the last to face it, and absolutely nothing was known about it as the other groups seemed to have been sworn to secrecy, and given the state some of the other ANBU had come back in it certainly stoked the imagination. The only thing she knew was that they were to head to Training ground 3, which was one of the largest training grounds outside of the forest of death, and contained enough varied terrain to make it impossible to guess what was in store for them.
"Don't know what the others were so worked up about, this is probably just a big psychological test to try and psych us out after the debacle with Masori." The rather cocky but irritated tone came from one of the youngest ANBU in her group with a chameleon mask, who whilst one of the more physically fit members of the group had an overconfidence that was almost painful to listen to.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that swirly eye-chan..." Across the large field, which contained the official entrance to training ground 3, came a voice that had Yugao look up in shock from reviewing her notes.
Stood in ANBU training clothes and with the Kubikiribocho buried in the grass next to him was Naruto of all people, looking across at them with the wide smirk that she knew meant he was plotting something, though what she wasn't quite sure. His appearance provoked quite a reaction, though most of the ANBU were merely confused as to what a Genin was doing at their training.
"What are you doing here stunty? Get back to playing hired help with the other Genin rather than bothering us ANBU..." Obviously Naruto had hit a nerve with his taunt as chameleon was doing his best to look intimidating, reaching for his sword as the rest of his team drew up beside him.
"Stunty? Now that's not a good attempt at trying to aggravate your target swirly-chan, though given the number of times I've run you guys around in circles like a pack of academy students, I can understand if you have degraded your vocabulary to match..." Yugao would have interfered physically at this point, if it wasn't so clear that Naruto was aggravating the man for a reason, though what his end game was wasn't so clear at this point.
"Naruto, what do you mean when you say you are our target?" Her question cut off what would have been a rather impolite reply from chameleon, though Naruto didn't seem to notice the man's barely restrained frustration as he raised a hand and waved heartily at her.
"Neko-chan! And I would have thought it was obvious what I meant. The purpose of today's exercise is simple, all you have to do is subdue me and my genin team mates who are currently elsewhere in the training grounds and you all will be considered to pass the training exercise.. Well I say simple, did that make sense swirly-chan? Or do I need to use smaller words..." If she didn't think that something was off before, Yugao definitely did now, the sight of Naruto then sitting down with his back to the kubikiribocho was setting all sorts of alarms off in her head.
"You brat, your arrogance is almost as much of a joke as you are, let's end this now then and find his team so I can beat some respect into them." Chameleon had fallen headfirst into whatever Naruto was planning and seemed to be dragging his team with him as he started running across the field towards Naruto, the other three following behind as the other ANBU seemed torn between waiting for her orders or expecting something to happen.
"My arrogance? Arrogance is charging off towards an unknown enemy because of your injured pride, assuming victory simply because of a difference in title." The suddenly serious tone in Naruto's voice made the four pause for a moment, but when nothing seemed to happen they shook it off and started moving once more, albeit more cautiously.
"Some lessons can not be merely taught, they have to be ingrained through pain and costly mistakes. For example..." Naruto raised his hand and everyone froze, the four of them half way across the field whilst the rest watched with almost trepidation sinking into the back of Yugao's mind, she had a feeling where this theatrical move had been inspired and it was not a comforting one.
"Pride cometh before a fall." *click* Naruto clicked his fingers and Yugao's eyes widened as she suddenly heard a tell tale hissing sound, three of Chameleon's team jumping away in the fraction of a second before the telltale flash of Naruto's take out tags in action.
"Bastard..." Chameleon's growled comment came even as the other two members of his team were checking the fallen Ox masked ANBU.
"Possibly, I will never probably know whether I am or not. I would be more concerned about your anger however." Naruto's calm tone seemed to just infuriate Chameleon even further, as the ANBU gestured to the others and they started towards him once more, the genin having produced a hot cup of tea from behind Kubikiribocho.
"The only one who should be worried about my anger is you when I take it out on your cocky hide."
"Anger impedes intelligence and situational awareness, leading to stupidity such as charging across an open field towards an obviously prepared ninja." Even as Naruto paused to take a drink from his tea, the air was filled with the twang of bow strings being released, half a dozen nets made of ninja wire came flying through the air a moment later with their corners being pushed forward by arrows.
As the nets covered the dog masked ANBU and sent him sprawling to the ground, Naruto carried on speaking as Chameleon covered the final few yards towards him with fists raised.
"Anger also impedes judge..." Chameleon's fist broke off Naruto's sentence with a full on haymaker, though Naruto's voice continued without a noticeable gap as he appeared almost a hundred yards from where Chameleon very nearly got knocked out by another group of tags that went off when Naruto's clone dispelled.
"ment, no tactically aware ninja would walk into that trap, or leave his comrades in the open, vulnerable to capture and torture..." Hands came up from the ground and grabbed the two downed ANBU, dragging them into the floor before anyone could react.
"You probably thought that this would be a relatively easy exercise swirly-chan, and now two of your comrades have paid for your mistake. So, are you going to go all in and risk everything? Or are you going to back down like the craven mutt you actually are?" The bluff, or at least Yugao thought it might be a bluff, would have made a normal ninja cautious, but Chameleon instead shushined towards Naruto whilst drawing his tanto.
"You again charged in recklessly, thinking I wouldn't have a clone waiting in the shadows..." Naruto's tone was harsher now, his clone appearing in front of him to block Chameleon's strike with a swing of the Kubikiribocho, the force of the block sending Chameleon skidding back a few inches before he dug his feet in and matched the clones strength.
"But now I have called your last defence into the open, and I have an ally who can now strike at you whilst you are all alone!" And it was as the rabbit masked ANBU took the opportunity to try and blindside their erstwhile opponent that Yugao realised that Naruto knew this would happen, banking on it in fact to further intimidate them with his next statement, a solitary call from the rat ANBU still stood with her trying to alert their comrades.
"It is a trap!"
"Who says I am alone?" Usagi, caught in mid air and mid strike, was blindsided by a vicious grab to the back of his head before being pile drived into the ground.
As Kakashi, dressed in his old ANBU captain's gear, lifted himself from the now motionless body of Usagi there was an outcry from the assembled ANBU.
"Kakashi-taichou! Here? I thought you retired!" As Kakashi glared at the now nervous stance of Chameleon as he readied his blade, Naruto gestured dismissively at the ANBU then back to the assembled group.
"Get over there, we will begin the exercise properly now that you have finished embarrassing the entirety of ANBU, unless you want to try and beat Kakashi-sensei and myself at the same time?" Obviously something similar had happened on previous exercises, as Naruto was now entirely at home with glaring down a seething ANBU, Chameleon backing down a moment later and shushining back to the group.
"You are all elite ninja, or at least that is what everyone thinks of ANBU when they see them out on the street. If that is the case, I definitely shouldn't be a Genin anymore as I have now managed to take out 9 of you without having to lift a finger, not the real me any way." Naruto's voice from behind them shouldn't have freaked Yugao out, after all it was clear he was trying to add shock and awe to his speech by being unpredictable, but she couldn't ignore the small jump that allowed her to spin in place or the hand that twitched towards her tanto.
"And I suppose it is true, each of you has enough skills to gain the attention of either the Hokage or one of the ANBU captains, but those skills mean little out in the field if you do not act like a ninja. You are all probably capable of trouncing me in a straight up fight, but why should I or any of your opponents play fair like that? If an opponent knows you are coming and has time to prepare like I did, do you think rushing into close combat is a clever idea?" The answer was obvious, but as Naruto pointed back to the field Yugao was slightly awed almost half of the field exploded from the activation of seal tags that had obviously been there the entire time, it seems that Naruto would have been prepared even if all of them had tried to attack him at once.
"Tora-sama asked me to create an exercise to test you beyond that of just 'how fast are you?' Or 'can you beat someone of a set skill level in taijutsu?' So, welcome to the Naruto Uzumaki exam of awesomeness... The objectives are to capture my two team mates, who as I said earlier are hiding somewhere in Training Ground 3. The only rule is that you have a total of 2 hours to find them, otherwise you will all fail, and remember there is a captain position open for those that impress... If you manage to survive at all that is..." And with a speed that showed obvious practice, Naruto then shot through 3 hand seals before exhaling a mist so thick that Yugao heard several of her ANBU coughing from the sudden change in air temperature and humidity.
"You have 3 minutes to discuss strategy before Kakashi and I start... Well, discuss strategy, run for your lives, cry like little swirly-chan will when I am finished with him... it's all the same to me..." The deeper and almost demonic tint that Naruto used was actually unnerving, especially when joined with the ominous sound of Kubikiribocho spinning around and cutting through the air...
"When did Naruto-kun become so... ninja like?" The thought went unbidden through Yugao's head even as she gathered herself, she could worry about her former charge later, for now she had a exercise to win...
*line break*
"23 ANBU needing to be treated for injuries ranging from 3rd degree bones to stab wounds and broken bones, another 15 classified as 'killed in action' and 30 considered injured or killed by traps..." Tora's emotions were unreadable behind his mask so Yugao couldn't tell how he was reacting to the information in front of him, but chances were he was not smiling.
The results of team 7's 'torture test' spoke for themselves really, with over a quarter of the ANBU considered casualties over the four different tests, 14 of those having been 'KIA' before the tests even started. It had made it very clear to Yugao that the traditional measures of a ninja's strength were either grossly inadequate or just not suitable for testing ANBU in such a way, something Tora seemed to believe as well as he pointed to the scrolls in front of them with their team scores.
"Every ANBU passed my other tests, admittedly with some being borderline cases, which were more than I would expect from the average operative. So I found myself at a loss as to how a Genin team, plus a special Jounin and a retired Jounin, could give results that proved otherwise." There was a pause, as everyone seemed to be trying to determine if that was a rhetorical question or not, before Yugao decided to bite the bullet and speak up.
"We allowed Genin Uzumaki to play to his strengths, and then were blindsided by the arrival of the others and unprepared to adapt to the change in combat styles." Which was very true, and proved that basing Naruto's actions on his rank alone was a big mistake, something even she had fallen for at first.
"The fact that Hatake-taichou taught him the hidden mist jutsu is just insane, with the boy's chakra reserves the mist was so thick even our sensors were useless."
"The boy's clones outnumbered us, and each one had those seals active when they were destroyed!"
"He is a container, of course he is going to overpower us with the Kyuubi's chakra!"
"He had Kakashi-taichou with him, so surely this should be based on fighting a former ANBU captain!"
Her comment seemed to unleash the torrent of comments from the other three captains who were leading the teams, Yugao countering each and every point with almost one mental reply.
"And who is to say some of our enemies will not have the same abilities? I can think of missing ninja who far outrank Uzumaki in terms of power and have at least one of those abilities that you mentioned, in fact I can think of a couple who could be considered to have at least three of them. Are you saying if one of them were to attack Konoha directly that we should just accept that we cannot beat them and let them wreak havoc?" Tora's comment, which was close to what Yugao had been thinking if not word for word accurate, brought the 'reasons' to an abrupt halt.
"So in light of this embarrassment, which I have thankfully been able to persuade team 7 to keep quiet about, I want to hear what my captains are planning to do to rectify these issues..." And though Tora didn't say it Yugao couldn't help but get the feeling that, if the ANBU commander didn't like what they had to say, he might organise another rematch with team 7 to prove a point...
*Line Break*
The knock at the door would probably have annoyed Naruto less than a year ago, especially given that it was 2 am in the morning and it was the third time in four days, but given the still fresh memories of his own demons Naruto was far more forgiving than he would have been before the night of graduation.
"I will be there in a minute!" Shifting from his bed, Naruto created 3 clones to disarm the traps he had set in his apartment, whilst he made sure he was presentable.
The increase in traps were a mixture of his own paranoia, he had just spent two weeks humiliating the entire ANBU department and they wouldn't be above petty revenge, but also practicing the new traps that Kakashi and Anko had shown team 7 as part of the Hokage's new training requirements. Happy that there weren't any potentially embarrassing wardrobe failures for him to worry about, Naruto walked the now clear path through his apartment towards the door, one of his clones already boiling the kettle on the oven hob whilst the others had dispelled.
"Hey Sakura-chan..." The sight of his team mate and crush stood outside his door, clad only in her basic sleepwear and shivering despite it being a warm night, still managed to bring a concerned smile to his face as he opened his arms in time for the hug that the pinkette rushed into.
"Sorry Naruto-kun, I just couldn't..." The rest of her apology went unspoken as Naruto ushered into the apartment, given that they had discussed Sakura's nightmares and fears at length on the first night she had almost knocked down his door.
"Not a problem Sakura-chan." He probably would have said more, but he was only half awake and he didn't want to ruin the moment with a half baked comment that could just make Sakura's mood worse.
He didn't have to speak to move them through to the lounge, Sakura responding to the slight pressure that he exerted with his arms to start shuffling inside, only letting go of him in order to let him close the door before clinging to his left arm like a lifeline. Or, more likely she was worried that if she let go he would disappear, given that several of her worst nightmares involved him cleaved in two back on the bridge it wasn't entirely implausible.
"Tea? Or straight to bed Sakura-chan?" Given the the zombie like shuffle of the girl he imagined she would prefer heading straight to bed, but she shook her head a little defensively as the sound of the kettle boiling pervaded the apartment.
"Tea would be good, see how I feel after that. Hopefully I will be able to get back to sleep by myself..." Whether it was Sakura trying to prove to herself that she was recovering, or it was because she was worried about Umi's reaction, Naruto couldn't quite work it out but he wasn't awake enough to argue.
The two 'girls' had been a lot friendlier since the meal out and Sakura's treatment of his injuries, though it had been clear even to Naruto that Umi had not been happy when she had found Sakura in his bed when she had come round to cook breakfast the morning after. She hadn't said anything to either of them as far as he was aware, but there were moments where conversation between the two of them became strained.
"No need to rush yourself Sakura-chan, nobody is going to judge you after that mission, if they do I will I will deal with them no matter who they are." And if that meant having words with his somewhat AWOL clone he would do so, Sakura's mental well being was far more important than whatever scheme his female clone had in mind.
His words seemed to reassure Sakura as the last clone brought through the two cups of tea, handing it to the two of them with practiced ease before dispelling, the two sat in silence for a few minutes apart from the sipping sounds they made as they drank their tea.
"Naruto, I..." The interruption, with a second knock at the door that Naruto definitely wasn't expecting, made both of them freeze in place as their still razor like instincts threatened to kick in.
Palming the kunai that he deliberately kept in a special container down the back of the sofa, Naruto handed the container to Sakura to open and keep for herself whilst he created three clones, one to go open the door whilst two others waited in the shadows in case whoever it was happened to be hostile. The two sat in silence for several long moments before the almost silent sound of the door opening made them tense up once more, before the clone called through to them with a slightly concerned tone.
"It's Umi-chan boss..." The tell tale puffs of smoke made it clear that his cowardly clones were going to let him deal with Umi if she was upset, Sakura still frozen in place as his disguised clone entered the room after closing and locking the door.
The delay in the time it took Umi to arrive was explained by the fact she had obviously changed from whatever her night gear was into a jumper and some warm trousers
"Sakura-chan, are you okay? I heard Naruto call out to you and wanted to come by and check myself." The concerned smile as she rushed forward to check on the pinkette was not what he was expecting, though given the minor jerk from Sakura as she flinched as Umi knelt in front of her Sakura hadn't been expecting genuine concern either.
"I-I'm fine Umi-chan, sorry for disturbing your sleep..." The timid response, as well as the flinch had obviously not gone unnoticed by Umi as she drew back a little cautiously before sighing and holding her hands up passively.
"Sakura-chan, look at me..." It took a moment, but Sakura looked up cautiously and Umi put on her best smile.
"I will admit that I was a little upset when I first found you two, but I know that you have just been through one hell of a mission together, and that this idiot wouldn't understand cheating if it stripped naked in front of him..." The comment caused a smile on both girls lips even as Naruto resisted the urge to rise to that very obvious bait, something Umi obviously caught onto as she patted his knee approvingly
"So you can learn..." His barely audible growl at being patronised effectively by himself only made Umi giggle a little more before she turned back to Sakura.
"So whilst I can't approve of you sleeping with my boyfriend by yourself, I am sure there will be no complaints from anyone here if we came to some other arrangement..." And now his clones plan started to make sense in Naruto's head, and he was unsure whether he should be mentally seething or cheering for the outcome.
On the one hand, it meant that Sakura would be a lot less worried about upsetting Umi if Umi was already there. On the other, if his clone was planning this far ahead on it's own now, what the hell else did it have planned?
A/N: So we have the training session with the ANBU, which I know quite a few people have been looking forward to. Given how easily Kabuto and other character's go through the supposedly 'elite' ninja I hope people aren't too surprised that my Naruto and his new team creamed them.
Kakashi by himself could probably down a squad of normal ANBU without too much difficulty, and the number of Naruto's clones removes any potential numerical advantage the ANBU possessed. Too many fics focus on Naruto learning super destructive moves and having massive fights with everyone, but I prefer Naruto with a pranking mindset which involves traps, planning and not fighting people head to head all of the time.
The scene with Sakura is to further along the plot of the story a little by slowly moving Naruto\Umi to Naruto\Umi\Sakura without just pulling it out of the blue, and also to show that the character's aren't just walking through everything without being affected by it mentally, and I hope it wasn't too cheesy or anything like that...
So, what has Umi got planned? Will Sasuke ever get more than a minor mention in this story? Who shall I have beat down Naruto when he gets a little too cocky for his own good? All these questions and more shall be answered at some stage!
Let me know what you think guys!
Defias