The first chapter of my first fanfic was just uploaded not too long ago and I just have to say that the number of views it has gotten in the amount of time it has been up have been amazing and I just want to thank you guys for that and to say that for those who will continue to read the fic I will make sure that I keep improving.
I read a review that said that my dialogue was a bit jarring and I have to say that I agree, but I promise that I will try to make it better this chapter, if the same person reads this second chapter could you please tell me if that aspect improved or not, anyway onward.
Chapter 1: THE PHOENIX SOARS
Steps echoed throughout the cold hidden leaf forest as Naruto leapt from branch to branch, desperately trying to get away from his pursuers so that he could get even just a moment to collect his thoughts.
He had just learned about the nine tails and was now beginning to realise that mizuki sensei tricked him, but at the time he really had trusted mizuki when he told him about a secret way to pass, I mean why wouldn't he trust his teacher, the person who was supposed to guide him.
He supposed it might have just been that he just really wanted to pass and so threw common sense out the window, he was really kicking himself for listening to mizuki because after the meteor incident where he had almost frozen to death he had told himself he would always think things through more so that he wouldn't die but it was apparent he hadn't learned anything.
While thinking about his lack of better judgement he was also forced to think about what mizuki said about the nine tails which definitely was not helping his mental state, he supposed it explained why the villagers hated him, he had no knowledge about sealing so he really couldn't say if he was the nine tails or not.
It was really frustrating all around but his only hopeful thought was thinking about the fact that if he was the nine tails wouldn't he know? This thought was the only thing that kept him from losing it and allowed him to focus enough to be able to hop through the trees.
While he was having these thoughts he heard what appeared to be talking coming from a clearing he had already passed and so decided to check it out, he knew that it might be risky but he decided it was really worth it if it gave him the chance to hear what iruka sensei really thought of him.
He realised that it was kind of stupid to doubt iruka sensei at this point since he did take a fuuma shuriken in the back for him but he just really had to be sure, thinking that iruka sensei cared and then later finding out he doesn't would break his heart and so he found a tree that had a good vantage point and listened in.
Iruka was sitting with his back resting on what appeared to be a shed, he had just headbutted mizuki by transforming into Naruto and tricking him into letting his guard down but he knew that if he didn't get back up soon he was done.
Mizuki got up and glared at iruka, he just couldn't understand why iruka was protecting the demon child and so he decided to just ask him.
"WHY ARE YOU PROTECTING THE FOX IRUKA?" he bellowed "he killed your parents and you and I both know he is just like me, if he keeps the scroll he will use it to destroy the village hidden in the leaves."
"you are right the fox would do that..." iruka said, hearing this mizuki smirked but Naruto started crying thinking that iruka also hated him but iruka was not done.
"but that is not what Naruto will do because he isn't the fox, he is Naruto Uzumaki of the village hidden in the leaves and he is my favourite student." Iruka finished. After that little speech Naruto started bawling his eyes out, but mizuki immediately lost his smirk and took a shuriken from his from his back and threw it at iruka, Naruto seeing this leapt into action.
Iruka seeing the shuriken coming knew he was done for, he couldn't stand and even if he could he wouldn't be fast enough to dodge it and so he accepted his fate. The only regret he had was that he didn't help Naruto more but now it couldn't be helped and just as he was about to close his eyes he saw an orange blur stop in front of him.
Naruto had just landed in front of iruka and he was now looking at the giant shuriken protruding out of his chest, he vomited some blood and then turned back to look at iruka.
He couldn't believe it Naruto had just jumped in front of the shuriken to save him, after Naruto turned to look at him he could see that there were tears in Naruto's eyes and then when Naruto started falling back he pushed passed the pain and moved in to intercept him and then gently laid him on his back.
"ha ha ha ha ha" mizuki laughed, he couldn't believe it he had killed the demon child and now he would be thought of as a hero to the people of the leaf, he could have just taken the scroll and left then while iruka was distracted but he wanted to see the despair in both iruka and the demon when the demon died and so he decided to stay and watch.
"NARUTO, please stay with me, DON'T DO THIS" iruka cried, he just couldn't understand why naruto had decided to save him "WHY, WHY WOULD YOU THROW YOUR LIFE AWAY FOR ME?" he roared,he took out the shuriken and tried but failed miserably to stop the bleeding, he wasn't a medical nin but even he could tell that this wound was going to be fatal.
Hiruzen watched on from his viewing globe with tears raining down his face, he was kicking himself for failing both minato and Naruto and now thanks to him the brightest will of fire the village has seen since hashirama was no more, and there was also the fact that the nine tails will be free and even if it takes a while it will come back to finish what it started. He heard Naruto start to speak and decided to listen to this great fallen hero who protected their village for so long.
"because you are the first person to acknowledge me, to see me for who I am and not as the fox. That's all I ever wanted in my life, even being hokage was just a means to that end… you know I always wondered what it would be like to have parents and I think you have shown me a glimpse of that and I can't thank you enough iruka sensei." While saying this tears were rolling down his face and if one looked closely on his face they could see the fear and anxiety etched on it.
"Iruka sensei I don't want to die not when I still have so much i want to do in my life. " he said and iruka felt his heart break knowing that there was nothing he could do but comfort his student and so he hugged him close to him and started reassuring him, when he felt Naruto's body start to go limp he let go and looked into his eyes and saw that the light was fading.
Just as the light was about to completely fade from Naruto's eyes his body erupted into majestic blue flames that were a couple of shades lighter than his eyes, the blue flames were decorated with some parts that were golden.
All in all iruka would have been in awe of the beauty of the flames if he wasn't forced to jump away from Naruto to prevent himself from getting burned even though the fire was not hot but right now he had not realized that yet, and was just focused on seeing his students body burn but then something amazing happened.
Even after all his years alive hiruzen truly couldn't believe what he was seeing, when naruto had burst into flames he was surprised but now he was in awe as Naruto's body started to float up off the ground and the fire around him started to take shape.
Mizuki didn't understand what was happening, he had been happily watching the demon's death but now the demon was floating in the air and was turning into some kind of gigantic flaming blue bird?
Iruka was left speechless after floating up Naruto had started to change before their very eyes and now he looked like a giant bird made of blue flames that have golden parts scattered through out his body and also what looked to be golden chains as a part of his tail, he had never seen anything more imposing in his entire life, he couldn't even bring himself to ask if Naruto was okay because of the beauty before his eyes.
The bird or Naruto or whatever it was that they were seeing flew into the sky and released a mighty squawk and after circling the clearing once it landed and before their very eyes the flames started to recede and once they were all gone Naruto was standing in front of them without a scratch on him.
'What just happened?' Naruto asked himself, he knew he should be dead now but here he was standing in front of iruka and mizuki and when he looked down he could see that his wounds were healed. His memory was kind of hazy but he could remember feeling this tingling sensation spread throughout his body and then he started to float, he also remembered seeing the clearing from the sky but he couldn't remember why he had.
'I have never heard of a kekkei genkai that turns people into animals before, could this have something to do with the fox? But why would it save naruto when this was its chance to escape?' hiruzen was thinking, he just couldn't understand what was going on with Naruto but all of that would have to wait for later as he was just glad to see that Naruto was alive.
As everyone was having their thoughts about Naruto, in a cage in what looked to be a sewer a giant red eye opened and the creature to which it belonged snarled, he had been happy when it looked like that puny human had killed his container and he would finally be free but now it seemed like the seed planted that day so long ago had finally bloomed, well he supposed could be a little more patient and see how events will unfold for his container.
'why is the demon still alive and what was that with the bird just now?' mizuki asked himself, he just couldn't understand why the demon was still alive and decided to voice it "HOW COME YOU ARE NOT DEAD YET?" he roared already taking out another shuriken "IT DOESN'T MATTER ILL MAKE SURE YOU STAY DEAD THIS TIME, NOW DIE DEMON." And he threw the shuriken.
Naruto was pulled from his thoughts when he saw another shuriken flying at him but this time he was prepared and he caught it "YOU TRIED TO KILL IRUKA SENSEI AND FOR THAT ILL KILL YOU." He roared.
"OH YEAH YOU IN WHAT ARMY YOU FOOL? HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN I AM A CHUNIN AND YOU ARE AN ACADEMY REJECT?" mizuki mocked, he was insulted that the demon would even think he was a match for him even if he had some weird powers.
"THIS ONE, SHADOW CLONE JUTSU." Naruto roared back and the clearing was covered in smoke, when the smoke cleared the clearing was covered in Naruto's.
"WHAT IS THIS?" mizuki roared " I THOUGHT YOU COULDN'T MAKE CLONES?" he said to naruto.
"oh these aren't just your everyday run of the mill clones, let me show you…" he said and then he pointed at mizuki "SEEK HIM BOYS" he roared and all the clones charged at mizuki, what followed next couldn't even be thought of as a fight because the clones immediately overwhelmed mizuki.
"He he I might have gone overboard." Naruto said to iruka as they both sweat dropped at mizuki's mangled body, but iruka was more interested in the fact that Naruto learned a jounin level technique. He smiled knowing that he could now finally pass Naruto.
He started walking over to Naruto but immediately fell over, but naruto was able to stop him from falling. After all the craziness with Naruto he had forgotten that he had pushed his body to the limit to evade Naruto's bird of doom, he actually chuckled at that thought, only naruto would ever turn into a flaming bird.
After Naruto had helped him out he was now able to get on with his original plan and he couldn't wait to see the look on Naruto's face. "Naruto close your eyes." He said and after Naruto closed them he put the headband on him and told him to open them.
Immediately after Naruto opened his eyes he could tell that something was different about iruka sensei and he knew what it was but he didn't want to jump to conclusions and so he slowly inched his hands towards his head, when he felt the cold metal of the forehead protector he immediately knew he was right and proceeded to hug the life out of iruka sensei.
Iruka seeing how happy Naruto was also started to smile a bit but he still had one thing that he needed to know "Naruto what was that right now with you turning into a giant fire bird?" he asked.
Naruto was genuinely surprised he knew he had been covered in fire that oddly didn't burn him but he hadn't realised he had been a bird "I don't know, I didn't even know I turned into a bird until you just told me all I knew was that I was covered in fire and I flew." He said to iruka.
"So I was right even Naruto doesn't know what's going on, well that does make things more difficult." The third thought out loud, he had been listening intently to see if Naruto would have an idea of what was happening but apparently he didn't which didn't bode well for them.
After hearing that Naruto didn't know he had been turned into a bird iruka was at a loss for what to do next and so he decided that he and Naruto should go ask the smartest man in the village, the hokage. "well Naruto I think we should go talk to the hokage about this." He said to which naruto nodded and they set off.
Iruka and Naruto had just entered the hokage's office and were now sitting in front of him, he decided to address the most pressing matter first "Naruto I just want you to know that you are not the fox, you only hold it and before you ask why you? all I can say is that the fourth thought that you would be able to handle this great burden." He said to Naruto and watched to see how Naruto would react.
Naruto took a deep breath and let it out "I already knew I was not the fox, I think I would remember being a building sized fox at one point in my life." He joked which definitely eased the mood in the room but after it immediately got tense again as the third hokage leaned forward, this action immediately made iruka go into soldier mode and even Naruto sat up a little straighter.
"Now Naruto I would like to talk about this ability you displayed during the incident, has anything even remotely similar ever happened to you before?" he asked to which Naruto immediately shook his head no. seeing as Naruto didn't know anything he decided to share his hypothesis with him "This ability of yours reminds me of the legend of the phoenix." He said to which iruka immediately gained a look of understanding but Naruto looked lost.
"Seeing as you don't know what a phoenix is I will explain to you what a phoenix is, it is a bird that has only been described in folktales and legend, the legend of the phoenix goes like this when the phoenix is about to die it bursts into flames and is born anew from the ashes and from what I have seen your powers are eerily similar" he said.
Naruto started thinking about this and he had to admit they were similar especially if what iruka sensei said about him turning into a bird was true but what did this mean, was he immortal or was it a one time deal and if it was a one time deal how did he get it and he decided to voice this "so what does this mean? Am I immortal? Why do I have phoenix powers? Does this have anything to do with my parents?" he fired of.
Hiruzen had been thinking the exact same things that Naruto had been and for now he really had no answers and said as much to Naruto "I really don't know Naruto but I do believe we should not tempt fate by testing your mortality, however I think we should try to see if you can turn into the bird at will or not, I have a personal training ground that we can go to so that you don't burn down my office but first we will get iruka patched up and have a doctor take a look at you to see if your injuries really are all healed." He said to which both Naruto and iruka nodded as it made sense.
After their hospital visit they were now standing in the training ground and Naruto was about to try his transformation "Okay whenever you are ready just try to recall how it felt like back in the clearing." Hiruzen said to which naruto nodded and closed his eyes and started trying to get that tingly feeling again, after a while of trying he was starting to think it would not work but he started feeling like he felt in the clearing and then he heard hiruzen and iruka gasp and he opened his eyes to see why and he also gasped.
His hands had transformed into giant flaming wings and he was floating a couple of feet of the ground, that was a new experience for him and it initially scared him but after a while he started enjoying it and went up a little higher, when he looked down it almost looked like he was standing on one of the wings which just made him stare in awe at their sheer size as each one was at least 3 meters long, he also found himself mesmerized by the fire as he had never seen that type of fire before in his life and even if it made him sound narcissistic he had to admit he had never seen a more awe inspiring sight in his life and they also looked incredibly cool.
After naruto's hands turned into wings hiruzen immediately started to analyse them, he realized he didn't feel naruto using any chakra and the implications for that were huge as it meant that this was not a kekkei genkai seeing as kekkei genkai require chakra to work but he was not a sensor and so he could not be sure, it could be that naruto was using a minuscule amount of chakra, which he would not feel and so he had to get a hyuuga to confirm his suspicions on a later date.
while he was thinking about the chakra matter he realized the fire didn't feel hot which did not make any sense as a fire of that size should have felt hot and he knew how different flame colors worked and knew that blue fire would be even hotter than normal flames which just made it so that the whole situation made less sense.
while he was trying to determine why the fire did not feel hot he came up with another question 'If the fire does not feel hot then does that mean that it does not burn and if that is the case what is its purpose?' he wondered, he decided to confirm his suspicions about whether it burns or not.
He took a stick that was lying on the ground and pushed it into the fire for a couple of seconds and then pulled it out, there was nothing that had happened to it which confirmed his suspicions that the fire does not burn but that still left him with a burning question i mean what is the point of fire that does not burn and so he came to the conclusion that the fire serves some other purpose but what that purpose was he had no idea at the time.
He had thought that Naruto's bird form would be incredibly useful but now he was not so sure as like he had already confirmed the fire did not burn and when he looked at Naruto's wings some more he could see that they were massive which meant that they would be slow which would have been mitigated by the flames if they burned but now he did not see a purpose for them as they only sacrificed Naruto's speed without giving an equal boost in power which is a horrible trade off, perhaps once they determined what purpose other than aesthetics the fire served they could then determine how useful this form is in combat but for now it would not be wise to use it in a combat situation.
He decided to get another of his suspicions answered "Naruto are you using chakra right now" he asked and then he saw Naruto have a look of surprise on his face and he realized he was right but waited for Naruto to confirm it.
Naruto had not even thought about chakra ever since this whole thing started and now that the old man asked he realized he was not using chakra, but how that was possible he did not know as from what he knew about ninja techniques they required chakra and so if he was not using chakra right now what did that mean? "No i am not." he said and after he said that iruka gasped, he could not understand, how could Naruto do this without chakra?
Now that he was sure that Naruto was not using chakra he went back to his earlier hypothesis that this was not a kekkei genkai but maybe some kind of gene mutation.
"okay Naruto have you realized that your fire is not hot?" he asked.
After hiruzen said this it finally clicked for iruka that Naruto's fire should be hot but it was not and just like with the chakra it still left him with one thing what did this mean?
"No, I mean I realized it was not hot for me but that made sense as what would be the point of turning into a giant fire bird if it burned me but i did not know it was not hot for you." said Naruto with a far off look in his face, Naruto was at a loss, I mean what was the point of having the fire if it did not burn his enemies?
Seeing the far of look on Naruto's face Hiruzen decided to tell them his hypothesis "Seeing as the flames do not burn i believe they serve a different purpose that we will discover on another date as it is already very late and we have all had a long day, Naruto we can talk about this some more tomorrow and it will also give us a chance to think on this some more, oh and please turn off your wings, we cannot let anyone else find out about this until we know what we are dealing with, am i understood?" he said and they both nodded, after that everyone went their own way with quite a bit on their minds.
As hiruzen was walking home he decided to call back Jiraiya because he needed him to find tsunade seeing as Naruto's ability seemed similar to her mitotic regeneration and she might be the only doctor who could truly figure it out. He just hoped this new power didn't bring the child any more trouble.
While Naruto was walking home he had so many questions in his head that needed answers but he realised it would probably take him quite a while to get them and he was ok with that. Its too bad he never realised how much more pain he would have to go through to discover the truth of the power he now wielded.
I was going to have a part in my profile where I describe what kind of powers Naruto will have but i have decided against that as i realized that it would be more fun for those of you who do not know about the power to find out more about it at the same time as Naruto. As you can see with my Naruto or at least i hope you can see it he is not super smart but he definitely thinks things through more than cannon Naruto and i gave a reason in the chapter why he is a bit more like that because i feel like an experience where you almost die should change someone at least a little.
I am thinking of having him decide to change his outfit because of the fact that he has been 'reborn', I am leaning towards his 'the last' outfit because it is my favorite of Naruto's outfits but I do not know if you guys think that would be a cop out or what?
I would also like to get some ideas for what you guys think i should have Naruto call his ability.
