I don't own Naruto! Credits go to Masashi Kishimoto. I don't own our dear Doctor either! His credits go to Disney! (I think)
Thank you all for tuning in as well, this may actually be a two part story! Or I could just leave it at this and leave you all with the cliffhanger. I'll see how I feel. Make sure to tune in again! For more stories!
"Come one! Come all! For we have something for all to see!"
"Who wishes to try? To show off for all! Who will it be!?"
"Don't worry ninja! There's a prize! Though not without a teensy weensy fee!"
A tall, lanky man called out with a mic from a pedestal before a large crowd.
Team 7 were walking down the streets of Konoha.
Completely bored out of their minds.
They had a mission today, nothing special. With the help of some clones, they finished their D-ranks early. So they were now looking for something to entertain themselves.
Naruto was grumbling as they walked. Hands in pockets. He was brought out of his musing by a crowd of villagers running past them and ahead, a few of them nearly running him over.
"Hey!" Naruto shouted. "Watch where you go running in crazed groups!"
The three genin watched them disappear into the distance, wondering what that was even about.
Noticing a (notably) smaller crowd by a nearby wall, Sakura made her way over to see what they were all looking at. Reaching them, all she saw was a flyer. How disappointing. She was about to turn around and head back to the others, until she actually caught what the flyer said.
Running back to the two boys. She couldn't contain her excitement. "Guys! There's a talent show for the ninja of our village! We gotta join!"
"Hn."
"This is no time for stage fright! We gotta do this! If we win… oh the prize is sooo much! C'mon you two, we have to! It gives us something to do!"
"Well…" Naruto was thinking hard.
Sakura switched tactics.
"Think about this Naruto, think about the ramen, and scrolls you could get. Think about your supplies Sasuke, your tomatoes. If we win the first prize, we could get a ton of those without any problem!"
"I'm in." Piped Sasuke.
Naruto glared over at the other boy for making such a quick decision, though he himself already knew what would be his answer.
"I'm doing it for the ramen." Naruto stated. "What are we waiting for then? Let's sign up and figure something out!."
Sasuke and Sakura nodded, and the three took off towards where they thought the sign ups were.
Looking at the man in charge, the three genin waited for his attention.
The talent show host looked to his right, there were three children there. He grinned, genin. Turning to them and crouching down from his pedestal, he asked, "You three here for the talent show? You can pay the fee and sign right on up!"
Naruto and Sakura signed them up while Sasuke paid the fee. They felt uneasy around the man, and wanted to just hurry up and sign in. "Yes, we're pretty excited to try this."
Naruto put down the pen, and the man had pocketed the money. Leaning his tall body over, he chuckled. "Such cute genin, it was nice to meet you. I'm sure my ah, friends would love to meet you too. If ya ever wanna have another chat, just ask around here for 'Doctor'. They'll know."
He laughed as the 3 shivered. This man gave off bad vibes.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura bowed their heads in thanks and took off as fast as they could. The sooner and further away, the better.
Straightening back up, the Doctor looked at the fleeing genin. "Such cute little genin indeed." His happy grin widened to a more creepy one. "I really should introduce them to my…
friends."
He laughed and went backstage, while shuffling a deck of cards.
"Okay guys, this has to be perfect!"
Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke have been practicing a combination of jutsu, but more for show purposes. Sakura using a little knowledge of water jutsu to send it spiraling upwards, and Sasuke doing the same with a fire jutsu. Naruto would catch both attacks with his wind jutsu and cause a spiral between the two to move around the area. Their idea was to go for flashy, not difficulty.
"I bet many ninja are going to be doing jutsu, not many might be willing to do other talents. They may go for difficult ones, but we want to go for flashy right? We need something that impresses the people, and something the impresses, the uh, Doctor." Naruto cringed at the last part of his statement, not wanting to think about the man.
The other two couldn't help but feel with Naruto. There was something not right about him, but they would find out, and win that talent show!
Knowing it was just in a few days, they continued on their practice. Not knowing about the shadows.
Out of the shadows, a figure crept along the streets of Konoha. Careful to avoid the ninja on patrol, he made his way to the talent show stage. He proceeded to go backstage to where an office was located. He sighed, and took off his coat, revealing the Doctor.
His tall, lanky frame fell into the office chair, and he pulled out a bunch of cards. The cards in fact, were the ones he was playing with earlier. Spreading them out on his table, he began flipping them over.
One by one, all the ninja who signed up for his show appeared, including team 7's genin. The Doctor looked them over, only coming to grin at one. It would be perfect. He picked up a choker, and laughed.
His friends laughed silently behind him.
Come the day of the talent show, Konoha was buzzing. It seemed like at least half the village wanted to see what was going to happen. The crowds gathered around the stage, sitting on the benches and bleachers placed around for seating. The Hokage himself decided to come watch, partially due to the insistence of Naruto. He could never just say 'no' to the boy, could he?
When the crowd was settling down, the Doctor came waltzing out with the sly grin of his. People were in awe with his outfit. An open suit and top hat with a feather, wearing purple seems to suit him too. He walked out with his staff this time, rather than the mic, but it didn't seem to really matter.
"Welcome all!" The Doctor called into the staff. "Welcome to the first Konoha talent show!"
The crowd cheered and clapped, the Hokage smiling along. Though something didn't seem right.
"Today we will have multiple categories. To keep it fair, it's by rank. We got the jounin, chunin, and genin performing today, as ANBU can't, and our dear Hokage is in the audience! What great support!"
Sarutobi nodded his head in acknowledgement, and the Doctor took that as a cue to continue.
"We will start with the jounin, and make our way to the genin, we will choose two winners from each category to compete for a final round, and we will end off with our three winners!"
The Doctor slinked off the stage as the first jounin was invited up.
Team 7 was backstage, waiting for their turn to come up. Having completely forgotten the event that happened barely an hour previous.
The Doctor had approached all the performers backstage, and proceeded to hand out black chokers with a clear gem in the middle. Passing them to each performer, he said he'd explain them after. Each act got one, and he had handed the last to Naruto.
Clearing his throat, he called for attention. "Alright guys, soon you will perform, and you will compete. Whoever I gave the chokers to, must wear them. They will turn green during the judging if you pass to the next round, and will glow red if you don't, ok?"
After a series of head nodding, the Doctor told them to put them on and proceeded to set up for the show to start.
Team 7 jumped when they heard their names. Is it time to perform? Great!
Making their way out, they performed their starter act. Sakura started by making an earth pedestal in the shape of an open hand with a large hovering rasengan. While what appeared to be lightning strikes shoot out, courtesy of Sasuke. It was hard yes, but mighty impressive. Quite flashy too.
The Hokage smiled. They sure have grown, especially Naruto. Though he couldn't help but frown at all the chokers he had been seeing the ninja wear, which he now notices is around Naruto's neck as well.
Team 7 knew they had this in the bag, nobody could stand on their level! Their own friends didn't bother to join, so it was just a bunch of random genins.
Team 7 kept this confidence as everyone was called back for the judging.
As they walked back up on stage, they could see the cheering crowd, while listening to the Doctor explain the colours of the choker's gems to the audience. So the audience watched closely, seeing which gems turn green.
One by one, the jounin's turned red, until a duo's turned green as well as a solo. Two solo chunin got their wins, and for the genin, Team 7 cheered in delight to see theirs glowing a bright green as well, they looked to see another genin, who had caused a child sized tornado to fly around the stage, get a green gem.
So the Doctor took back the red chokers, and the performers went offstage in defeat, but staying to watch the end. While the others went once more backstage, and prepared themselves for the final round.
Once more the performers went up, and once more Team 7 were the final ones to perform. Having perfected their favourite trick, Sakura and Sasuke shot their water and fire at Naruto. As the audience gasped, Naruto used his wind manipulations to begin the spiral of the two jutsus, and control it around and above the audience and stage. It ended high up in the air as an explosion of colours, courtesy of some (ahem) useful and not at all prank materials.
To combine water, fire, and wind. At the genin level. The other ninja, and the Hokage, were indeed impressed by the skill.
The three genin grinned.
"Alright everyone! Come back on stage, it's time to choose the winners of each rank!"
The six performances walked back up in front of everyone, their gems once more blank.
The audience cheered as the winning jounin was chosen, when the winning chunin was chosen, and when it came to the genin, went nuts as Team 7's choker flashed an emerald green.
The Doctor then ordered the jounin and chunin performers offstage, and held Team 7 back. He had a few words to say.
"When I first met these cute little genin, I can admit I didn't see much in them. They were no more than little kids to me. Well I was proved wrong!"
The audience clapped and hollered.
"It was only through dedication and hard work that these three had put in, and I must admit, great control from little Naruto here."
There were a few uneasy glares, but respectful claps nonetheless. The Hokage was curious about the singling out of Naruto.
"So that's why I decided..." The Doctor's smiled grew.
"I'm letting Naruto here..." The Hokage jumped up, calling for the ANBU to step in. He could feel the building magic power. He had to stop this!
"Naruto!" Sarutobi yelled, as the choker's gem around Naruto's neck turned purple, and an eerie mist to roll around, blocking everyone's vision.
A pair of glowing masks was seen in the distance, as the tall figure of the Doctor leaned forwards, his skeleton mask all the more terrifying.
"...Meet my friends."
Sarutobi could only watch helplessly as Naruto laughed along with the Doctor, his own mask showing off his glowing purple eyes.
The Doctor stopped laughing and grinned at everyone.
.
.
.
"You're in my world now."