As Mizuki's chakra touched down in a tree above Iruka-sensei, he launched a barrage of kunai and shuriken at Iruka-sensei and Naruto. I channeled my nature chakra to change my right arm into a type chakra-arm cannon and blew the kunai and shuriken off course with my chakra. I jumped from my spot and landed right behind Iruka-sensei.
" I don't think so, Mizuki!" I yelled at him," I won't ever let you harm Iruka-sensei or Naruto! You tried to get Naruto in trouble!" I glared at the man, making my right arm turn into a form of scythe.
" Oh? I see we did indeed have a little spy when we were talking Naruto." Mizuki chuckled darkly," It doesn't matter anyway. You need to give the scroll to me Naruto. Iruka and Aya just don't want you to have the power that's within it."
" Wait, what's going on?!" Naruto asked," Mizuki-sensei, why'd you hurt Iruka-sensei? And Aya..." He looked at me sad and hurt," Were you really spying on us?"
" Naruto, we'll talk about that later," I told him," I swear it! "
"Just never give him that scroll, Naruto," Iruka-sensei told him," Mizuki used you to get the scroll for himself, for his own dark ambition. It contains many forbidden jutsu and secrets that must not get into enemy shinobi hands!" A thought occurred to me.
"Iruka-sensei, I don't you're entirely correct!" I told him," Mizuki himself would never know where the scroll was, but he told Naruto exactly where it would be... I think he's working for a traitor!" Mizuki chuckled darkly again
" So, you have it all figured out, do you Aya-chan?" Mizuki cooed, causing a shiver down my spine at his voice," Even if you were right Aya-chan... Even you don't know why Naruto seems to be hated by the entire village now do you?" I glared at him, narrowing my eyes, but even I couldn't deny my interest was piqued. I saw the glares that Naruto got, and I heard the whispers. As well as my first time going to the bank with Naruto.
"Well, then, listen up!" Mizuki started, chuckling as he spoke," You see, they've been lying to everyone of your generation. Particularly you Naruto. Ever since the decree 12 years ago."
"No Mizuki!" Iruka-sensei shouted," You can't tell them, it's forbidden!"
"Shut up, Iruka!" MIzuki growled at the man," Now, you see, everyone knows that kyuubi was destroyed 12 years ago right?" We both nodded our heads," Well, you know nothing! The kyuubi cannot be destroyed, so guess what they did?"
" They sealed the fox inside a little child, the only one born that night in the village." Mizuki purred darkly," That child... was you Naruto! You are the kyuubi no kitsune!"
" NO!" Iruka-sensei and Naruto screamed at the same time, though for different reasons.
"LIAR!" My voice changed as I yelled this, completing a transformation I never made before. Rage filled my mind as I thought of nothing more than to murder the liar before me," Naruto is kind! He is strong! He is nothing more than Uzumaki Naruto!" I growled at him
" It seems more than one demon is present today," Mizuki sniffed," No matter, I'll take care of both of you now! " He grabbed the two fuuma shuriken strapped to his back," Die Demons!" He threw them at me and Naruto. I used my chakra arm cannon to blow the one heading for me off course again, and I charged at Mizuki. I stopped dead in my tracks as I saw that Iruka-sensei was pierced by the shuriken hunched over the prone form of Naruto.
"Iruka-sensei!" I yelled, and glared at Mizuki as he disappeared, and I turned my head back to Naruto and Iruka-sensei, to see that both of them were gone too. I calmed my mind and felt for their chakra signatures. Iruka-sensei was running, but his form was cloaked, and so was Mizuki's. Naruto was a few meters ahead and hiding in a tree. I sped over to follow them. Iruka-sensei's signature went straight into Mizuki's as I had landed around the same tree that Naruto had, though I was above him this time.
" Why are you protecting him Iruka?" Mizuki growled at my sensei," He's probably already long gone by now with the scroll and the girl as well. Now that he knows though, I'd bet that he plans on using the power in the scroll against the village. That's what monsters do, you know."
" You're right." Iruka-sensei said quietly, and I gasped quietly, ' Iruka-sensei... Don't tell me...' " That is what a monster would do."
" But that's not who Naruto is!" He called out to Mizuki," He may be a knucklehead, but he's no monster, and he's damn sure not the fox. He's Uzumaki Naruto of the hidden leaf!" I smiled brightly at this proclamation from my sensei.
"Whatever, first I'll take care of you then." Mizuki said," And then I'm gonna kill Naruto and Aya and pin your death on them. I'll be touted as a hero! Now Die, Iruka!" As Iruka closed his eyes in preparation for the death blow from Mizuki, Naruto and I jumped out of our hiding areas and struck him.
" If you Ever harm our sensei again," Naruto and I both growled, me shifting into my rage form as I said it," We'll kill you!" Mizuki only laughed.
" You two, take on me!?" He scoffed," Please, if she were working with someone more competent, Aya might stand a chance. But you? There is no chance in hell you can beat me."
" Touch Aya or Iruka-sensei, and I'll put pain on you a thousand fold!" Naruto claimed. He then put his fingers in a cross seal," Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" Soon the trees and the rest of the forest were filled with Naruto's and judging by my chakra sense, which I had regained due to my shock of Naruto making clones forcing me out of my rage state, they were all solid!
I smirked at Mizuki's fear ridden face. " Naruto's! " I called out to all of them," Charge!" Mizuki was overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of Naruto that he couldn't even make a move against them. His final look after Naruto was done was merely a black and blue unconscious body.
" Oh yeah!" Naruto cheered," Did you see me Aya!? I made clones, and did you see how many I made?! Oh man, I'm going to be hokage for sure!" He was practically doing backflips, he was so proud of himself. I giggled happily, and clapped." Great job, Naruto! I knew you could do it."
We heard coughing, and we both got reminded of Iruka-sensei being injured from Mizuki slightly prior. " Yeah, great job Naruto!" Iruka-sensei praised, and we rushed to him with a shout of " Iruka-sensei!" I began channeling nature chakra to my palm, on a hunch, and forcing it into his body. To my wonderful relief, his injuries began to close up. " Wow, Aya, I didn't know you knew medical ninjutsu, though it doesn't feel like normal healing chakra."
I sighed, suppose if there's anyone I should come somewhat clean to, It's Iruka-sensei. " Truthfully, Iruka-sensei, I don't know any medical ninjutsu, and this isn't normal chakra." I confessed to him," This chakra comes from Nature, my body passively absorbs it. I suspect it's partially the reason why I can transform some parts of my body to augment my battle strength. I think the only real limit is my imagination."
" I was reading up on nature chakra a few months ago," I explained to him, without him asking," And I read that there was a clan who could do the same, but the suffered from violent rages from time to time because the nature chakra made their minds unstable. So far, tonight is the closest I've gotten to that rage, but I still had control unlike them."
" I see." Iruka-sensei muttered," That explains a lot. Normally only sages, like Jiraya-sama of the denetsu no sannin, can use nature chakra and it took months to learn that, and the only that transforms his is face to more toadlike features. You're something really special Aya-chan."
"Naruto," He said as I finished healing him with nature chakra," Close your eyes." He did so, as I watched Iruka take off his headband and place it around Naruto's head.
" Alright, open them up." Iruka-sensei said, " Congratulations Naruto! You graduated.
The next morning, Naruto and I had gone to get our ninja registration ID's completed via filling our required info and taking the picture. I was trying to convince Naruto to not wear his ridiculous paint thing that he wanted to do saying it would show off his, 'uniqueness.'
"Naruto, clients won't request you for a mission if you like a clown! Not to mention, hokage-sama would just make you take it again." I explained to him, and he started to pout.
" But Aya!" He pouted," This is how I'll stand out to clients! The more that see my photo, the more we'll get missions! Believe it!" He yelled this loudly, and I knew a vein was popping out of my forehead out of frustration. Channeling some chakra, regular chakra not nature, to my fist, I bopped him on the head.
"Idiot!" I yelled at him," The clients won't take you seriously if you look like a clown!" I reiterated this," You'd look weak! Not to mention, your furry issue will already drive clients away as they have driven away most others." I explained this, not to hurt him but to make sure he understood," Listen Naruto, whichever team you end up on, clients will already have a hard enough time accepting you as one of the ones fulfilling the mission, don't make it harder than it has to be okay? I'm not trying to be mean, I'm just trying to look out for you, Okay?"
Naruto nodded sadly, he hated being reminded of the fox, he really did," I understand Aya-chan. " He said," Do you not think we'll end up on the same team? We do so well together!"
I nodded," True, but team placement is decided by two factors: the jonin-sensei's preference in what they want their team to be, and how well you did in the graduation exam. Guaranteed, you'll be the dead-last in terms of ranks, that's just the cold hard truth. Sasuke or I will be rookie of the year, and if Sasuke gets rookie, I'll get kunoichi. As I did better than the other girls in class in general, barely due to Hinata-chan on the taijutsu. Though, if I missed even one question on the written exam, Sakura will probably be the Kunoichi." I explained to him.
We won't know yet for sure who landed where on the graduation rankings until it comes time to get our teams, which would be tomorrow, but I was sure of the placements as stated. Naruto nodded his acceptance of the explanation.
" I hope you and I are on the same team at least," Naruto said," I'd even take that bastard Sasuke as a third if it meant being on the same team as you Aya!" I smiled, flattered that he and I were so close together as friends that he'd want to be on the same team as I am, even willing to put up with his so-called rival Sasuke to do so.
Huh... Friends. How I wish we could be so much more
If only he'd notice.
"Alright Naruto, we'll see what happens tomorrow, but we got to get to the hokage tower to get the ID photo taken before it's too late. No ID photo, no missions, no genin team." I said, and he nodded and we left the apartment through the balcony door before jumping off.
" Hey Aya!" He called to me with a cheeky grin," Race ya!" He shouted this as he already took off full speed. I laughed heartily at his playfulness
" You twerp!" I called out to him," Get back here!" I raced after him, not bothering to channel chakra into my legs to make myself faster as due to my height, my stride was longer and my feet hit and come off the ground faster than his does normally. I soon caught up to him, stuck my tongue out as I ran up beside him and zoomed past him," Nyeh!"
" Hey!" Naruto called, and I could sense that he had began channeling chakra to his legs to begin moving faster. I smirked as I could feel him getting closer. ' Alright Naruto,'I thought to myself,' You want to play that game?" I channeled Nature chakra to my legs, which increases my speed more than normal chakra. Basically, if I had wanted to, with nature chakra, I could jump on top of the Hokage tower without an issue. Instead, I became a blur to the average eye. My normal vision became tunneled, but I didn't run into anything due to my chakra sense, because everything has chakra, I could actually sense everything. Even rocks and walls technically have chakra due to the fact that most walls were made of wood, a living thing that has chakra, and anything stone had chakra due to the small residual beings that reside on it, such as ants.
"HEY!" Naruto called again, laughing," That's not fair! Nature chakra's cheating!" I felt him channel more chakra and was quickly catching up to me, but I beat him to the tower by mere seconds. As he landed right beside me, I stuck my tongue out of him again," All's fair in love and war, Naruto-kun." He mock-pouted.
I gave him a side hug to 'cheer' him up," Well, at least you're officially a ninja now right?" I asked rhetorically, he grinned and gave me a thumbs up," Yep! No more boring academy for us!" We laughed as we walked to the top of the tower and stood to wait for the photographer to finish with his current one. I went before Naruto as he actually was a gentleman on the etiquette that he did know, which 'ladies first' was one of them. The photographer took my picture, I was quickly moved to the side to allow him to take Naruto's photo as well as fill out the required information, which was my name, age at the time, birthdate, blood type for medical purposes, and so on.
After we had finished, we went to Hokage-sama's office to chat and visit, I talked to him about other goings on in the village, dreadfully dull stuff for the most part, and Naruto tried to get him to tell him the team assignments, or influence his decision of such anyway.
Soon the door slid open, in what was a horribly obvious attempt at being quiet ( it wasn't.), and a little kid, no older than 7, ran through the door and screamed," Alright old man, Time to give up your hat!" He yelled this as he ran holding a cardboard shuriken, ' Does he really think that'll do any damage?' was my thought as he ran and tripped over his scarf, which was way too long to be any good. He fell flat on his face and all of us stared at him as he continued laying face down on the floor, quietly groaning in pain until he picked himself up, and looked around, alert. " Hey! Who tripped me?!" He called out, not really realizing that he had tripped over his own scarf," You did it, didn't you?!" He yelled at Naruto, and a drop of sweat rolled down my forehead at his ignorance, or his want to blame others for his own mistakes.
" No you idiot!" Naruto yelled back at him," You tripped over your own scarf." The boy continued to yell at Naruto, up until Naruto picked him up by his scarf and glared at him in the face.
The door slid open to reveal a man, 'Jonin level chakra... barely' I thought to myself, a drop of sweat rolling down the side of my face. " Honorable grandson?" He asked hesitantly as he looked inside the room, then he looked at Naruto, whom held the boy, " Gah! Brat!," The jonin said loudly," Put down the honorable grandson this instant! He's the honorable grandson of the honorable third hokage!"
" See? Now that you know who my grandfather is, you won't do anything will you?!" The boy said confidently.
" I don't care if he's your grandmother!" Naruto yelled, dropping him and hitting him atop the head, effectively knocking him out on the ground. I looked at Naruto," Are you sure that was necessary Naruto?" I asked him confused," He's just a kid after all."
" Well, he shouldn't be such an overconfident brat just cause of who his grandfather is! Believe it!" He said, and started walking out the door. I followed with a shrug, and felt the chakra of the little boy beginning to follow, and I smirked,'Looks like Naruto's got a fan.' I thought to myself.
About 4 meters after leaving the hokage tower, Naruto noticed our tag-along, who tried to be sneaky. " What's this brat doing now?" He asked, frustrated that this kid was so bad at being a ninja, despite being the grandson the the touted god of shinobi.
" He's just a kid Naruto," I reminded him," He's probably, what? 4 or 5? He'll learn, or he'll die as a shinobi." It was dark, but true. If you couldn't, at the very least, hide well as a ninja, you were nothing more than cannon fodder. Very rarely did anybody who had no skill in any area of shinobi matters live past two years of being a genin.
" That's dark, you know!" Naruto yelled at me, ever the optimist, Naruto hates it when I'm morbid, even if he's irritated by our little wanna-be spy.
" It's the truth," I told him," Lord third did not get to where he is, hokage twice over, by being weak, and definitely not by having a wood panel sheet sideways against a fence. Even you have better stealth skills than that, Naruto, and you wear 'kill-me!' Orange. People should spot you from yards away, but you manage to remain hidden." Naruto sighed, but nodded, accepting the truth of the situation.
" You know!" He yelled at the boy, who still hid behind a sheet that was sideways against a fence," We know you're there!"
The boy barked out a laugh," Just what'd I expect from my boss and his girlfriend!" He called out, dumping the sheet. My face practically radiated red light at the girlfriend comment
" I'm not his girlfriend, dingbat!" I yelled, punching him atop the head.
He glared at me," Good! You look like a boy anyway!" He said angrily, and I felt a vein pop," Your chest is too flat and you're too mean!" I felt nature chakra flood me as my right arm turned a dark grayish color,
" Brat!" I yelled at him and was about to punch him when I felt Naruto touch my shoulder," Don't Aya! You'll end up killing him!" Naruto stopped me from punching him, and my rage ended. I began to focus my mind and calmed down as I dispersed the nature chakra from my system, and I saw that the boy was looking at me in fear.
" Next time," I warned the kid," Don't insult girls. We get very particular about our looks sometimes, especially when insulted by a boy." He nodded frantically.
" Who are you anyway kid?" Naruto asked, though he didn't really seem particularly interested in knowing the boy. " My name is Konohamaru! " The boy responded loudly," My parents named me after the village. Not that many people really know my name! " The boy pouted, and Naruto and I looked at each other with deadpan looks.
" Your grandfather is the third hokage, they should know who you are!" I mentioned to him, and his pout deepened.
" See?" He said," That's part of the problem! They only see the honorable grandson, and not me as konohamaru."
" And that's why you want to become Hokage huh?" I asked him," To gain recognition as Konohamaru and not as the grandson of Lord third."
Konohamaru nodded," Yeah!" The boy giggled lightly," You're pretty smart you know that?" I raised an eyebrow, and shook my head.
" Konohamaru," I started," Being Hokage is not about gaining respect of the villagers, it's a side benefit." I explained this to him," The Hokage is the most powerful, the most strategic, the most diplomatic shinobi of the entire village. Those are the traits required to be a leader, period. But, the hokage is about so much more."
" What do you mean?" Konohamaru asked me, and I shushed him," I'm getting to that." I told him," The hokage is the one who has to protect the village. He's the last shinobi to stand between the village and her enemies. That's where the strongest part comes in. He sees the whole village as a family. And who do you protect, if not your blood?"
" I think I see now." Konohamaru muttered," That changes nothing! I'll become hokage one day!"
I giggled at his flamboyance, being reminded of my blond friend next to me," Well, you have a long road ahead of you. Your jonin tutor, Ebisu, tells you about these 'shortcuts' to being hokage right?" Konohamaru nodded in affirmative to my question.
" Well, he's lying to you." I affirmed," There's no shortcut to being hokage. Even if you have all of the qualities that I listed, you may still be passed over for the title. A hokage may name their successor, yes. But, if the hokage dies before they can make the name public, it's up to the shinobi council as well as the civilian council. If they can't decide, it's up to the fire daimyo."
" That being said, Naruto can teach you a trick that'll allow you to ditch the dipstick sensei of yours whenever you want." Then, throughout the day. Naruto showed Konohamaru the Oiroke no Jutsu, or sexy jutsu. Had I been a normal girl, I would've taken offense to that. But, it was very useful all things considered. For everything from persuasion to just plain knocking perverts out from bloodloss.
The next day, we had gone to the academy, for the last time. We were just chatting idly, even Sasuke joined in on a couple conversations, though they were rare. Everyone was excited about the team assignments, everyone was early, even earlier than Iruka-sensei. That's was a tough feat, I'd think he lived at the academy if I didn't notice his chakra move on occasion.
I sensed that there were multiple strong signatures in Lord Third's office, about 9 roughly jonin level outside of the third himself. I imagine they were making up the team assignments on the spot.
About an hour later, the door to the room slid open, and in popped Iruka-sensei, " Good morning everyone!" He called, and everyone hushed, eager to listen to that goodbye speech.
" Congratulations, Genin of Konoha!" He called out," This will be your last day in the academy as student. I'm glad to say that all of you are qualified to be genin. But, make no mistake, If you wish to advance to Chunin, you'll need to up your skills by a lot. You have a long and arduous road ahead of you."
" Now, time for team assignments!" Iruka called out," Team 1: Tai lee, Mai, and Daisuke. Team 2: Satoru, Haruno Sakura, and Mitsuki. Team 3: Ren, Rin, and Pakura. Team 4: Haku, Yuki, and Hamura. Team 5: Daichi, Kazuma, and Jin. Team 6: Michi, Misako and Shiro." He listed off the names for the first 6 teams. ( Cannon fodder really.)
" Team 7: Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Aya" He finished, and Naruto cheered until I elbowed him and he sat down. ( A/N Teams are the same from there on. Except, I might have Sakura go in reserve for medic-nin training.)
A/N: That's all for now! Sensei's will be assigned next chapter... Will probably do the same, but you know... who knows. Feel free to comment on how you think I'm doing. Good? Bad?... Ugly?