Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Jiraya pondered what to do as he stood washing his hair. He had received Sarutobi's A-Class return order last night. Normally he'd have been able to return quite quickly as the toads were great at getting him in and out of where he needed to be but his current predicament didn't allow such action.
The toad sage was currently passing himself off as part of a traveling merchant caravan so as to infiltrate Iwa. Had the summons reached him a week ago, he could have passed off his disappearance as a wild animal attack and quickly snuck back to Konoha. That line of action was currently not possible as they were within a day's travel of Iwa, meaning that any dangerous animals were contained to an area far from merchant routes, and any attempt to abscond from the merchants would be noted as the caravan entered Iwa one person less than what records taken by Earth Country border patrols indicated. As it was, he would need to stay with the caravan at least until they left Iwa and were far enough such that leaving the caravan could be passed off as Jiraiya voyaging to one of the minor villages.
'What to do" mused Jiraya, rinsing his hair and heading back to shore to dry off from his bath in the river. he was tempted to blow his cover following the first part of the message. Anything unknown to The Professor was clearly something he should be worried about. Especially since he saw fit to leave the details out of a secure line of communication. The second line of the message was the only reason he didnt. Had the issue been malignant, the order would have been a S-Class return home directive, meaning he would be permitted to break cover in order to be as timely as possible. Tempted as he was, Jiraiya knew that it would be best to follow the Sandaime's orders as he had more information than Jiraiya and had always been better and weighing the pro's and con's of a action. That was, after all, the reason he had risen to be the second God of Shinobi and still stayed as such despite others like Minato.
'Well it looks like the gaki's gonna have to hold on just a bit longer.' Jiraiya thought as he made his back to the caravan before heading to where the women were bathing.
Naruto lay on his back looking at the blue sky while kicking his legs back and forth in the air, bored out of his mind.
"ARGH!" he shouted flailing his arms and legs comically before letting them collapse limply back on the ground."When is sensei gonna get here. He's already two hours late!"
"Shut up Naruto-baka! We already know sensei's late! We don't need you yelling that!" A pink haired banshee yelled back. glaring at the orange covered offender before going back to making doe eyes at a black haired boy sitting at the base of a tree.
Naruto tried to compress into the ground as Sakura yelled at him before glaring at Sasuke.
"Ne, Sakura-chan wanna go get some food after the test?" Naruto asked, getting up and walking towards Sakura as his stomach prompted the question.
Sakura's stomach growled as her mind processed the question. Blushing and angry at Naruto for causing her stomach to growl, in front of her beloved Sasuke-kun, as well as for reminding her that she was in fact very hungry, she clobbered him over the head and send him crashing into the ground. "Baka, who would want to go somewhere with you?" she stated, standing over a smarting Naruto. " Besides, I'm going with Sasuke-kun. Isn't that right?" Sakura turned and nearly begged Sasuke, hoping for a positive response. In return Sasuke completely ignored her. Not even deigning to reply.
Now with two of its members wallowing in despair, at being rejected, while the third was lost in his own thoughts, Team Seven lapsed into silence.
It wasn't until a little past ten that Kakashi showed up, chill as you please.
"Good morning" he said cheerfully, as if he hadn't been over three hours late.
"YOU'RE LATE!" was the indignant response from 2 of his 3 gennin.
"Come at you with intent to kill?" scoffed Naruto in response to his sensei's instruction to do so. "You couldn't even dodge my eraser prank. If we actually come at you with the intention to kill, you'll die".
"Sometimes the dogs with the biggest bark have the smallest bite" was Kakashi's lazy response, his posture and facial expression indicating that Naruto's words hadn't fazed him at all. "Isn't that right dead last?"
Dead last.
Internally Naruto wilted. Here was another person who didn't acknowledge him. It wasn't so much that Kakashi had said that Naruto was bad. It was more that he had identified him as dead last and not Naruto. Just like how the villagers saw him as the demon brat, Kakashi saw him as the dead last of the class and nothing more.
'Fine then", Naruto hardened himself. "If sensei won't acknowledge me, then I'll make him." Naruto grabbed a kunai from his holster leaned forward, about to charge his sensei and show him that there was more to him than Kakashi thought.
Just as he was about to push off, Kakashi disappeared and reappeared behind him, kunai to the base of his neck.
Naruto froze and then smiled. Kakashi may have stopped him before he began but at least he had used Jonin level speed and hadn't dismissed him. It was a step in the right direction.
"Calm down, I haven't even said start yet. At least it seems like you'll be coming at me with the intent to kill." Kakashi said with an eye smile while stepping back from Naruto. "Well it seems I might like you after all. Ready? GO!"
Naruto jumped away from Kakashi, watching as his teammates did the same. He contemplated hiding the woods as the other two were doing before shooting it down.
'No,' Naruto decided, taking an aggressive stance 30 feet from Kakashi,'if I want him to see me as more than just the dead last then I'm going to have to show him what I can do.'
"The basics of a Ninja is to hide oneself," Kakashi began, turning to face Naruto."You're doing it wrong..."
Naruto nearly snorted. He'd escaped from chunnin on a nearly weekly basis, If he wanted to, he was sure he could hide from Kakashi. Instead, he dashed towards him and prepared to engage Kakashi in a Taijutsu fight. Hesitating for a moment when Kakashi reached for his hip pocket, he doubled his speed when he saw that Kakashi had deigned it safe to read while facing an angry Naruto.
And he was right. No matter what Naruto did, Kakashi was able to flawlessly intercept him without looking up. What's worse was he was almost definitely actually reading the book, as his giggling at its content would attest to. Rage peaking, Naruto made a wild swing only to find nothing in front of him.
"You really shouldn't let your enemy get behind you," he heard Kakashi say from behind him. He froze for a second before he felt himself flying through the air, his mind not even letting him feel the pain the he should have been feeling as he splashed into the nearby pond.
'Dammit,' Naruto thought sinking to the bottom on the pond.'He's not even taking me serious!'
His mind flashed back to all the people who'd cast aside his existence. Now was the time he would have loved to start using some new and powerful jutsu, but, just like with Mizuki, he had nothing. Thinking back to that fight, he remembered the first part of the instructions for the Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.
Kakashi watched from the shore as he waited for Naruto to surface or try something. He was about to leave to deal with the other two genin when he felt the absolutely enormous amount of chakra being channeled beneath the surface of the water. Kakashi braced himself as he felt whatever technique Naruto was about to perform near it's completion. For a moment the world stood still as even the birds and bugs quieted down. In the next moment it seemed like nearly all the water in the lake exploded and rushed towards Kakashi like a miniature Suiton: Bakusui Shōha.(Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave) Quickly executing an emergency shunshin to a tree branch, Kakashi steadied himself and turned back towards the pond with a raised eyebrow.
Naruto panted at the sudden decrease in chakra running through his body. The first step of the Taju Kage Bunshin technique had called for pushing as much Chakra as the user could into their chakra circulatory system. Not knowing what to do following that, Naruto had chosen to continue pumping chakra until his pathways had started to burn. Naruto held on the the massive amount of chakra he had been channeling until he felt like it was about to slip out of his grasp. With a final push, he released what he had been channelling and hoped for the technique to work. What had happened instead was that his chakra had exploded outwards from him, taking the water around him with it to leave the pond near empty.
Climbing back on shore, Naruto finally caught his breath and looked around for Kakashi. He didn't see his sensei anywhere, but what he did see was a marshy training field, a glint of metal, and the rest of the pond falling from the sky in the form of rain. Registering the second thing in his mind, Naruto looked closer at the glint of metal to see one of Kakashi's bells on the ground near a tree. With an woot of joy, Naruto ran towards it and was about to pick it up when he felt the rope tighten around his ankle.
"Dammit!", Naruto shouted, swinging from the snare trap.
Naruto groused as the hung from the tree. Kakashi had left to take a look at the other two member of his team. Once he was sure that his sensei had left he had cut himself down from the tree only to get caught by the second snare that Kakashi had laid. Only this time, Kakashi had seen fit to make sure that his arms were trapped too; attached to ropes that were pinned to the ground*.
'And just after I had pulled of my cool new jutsu too,' Naruto complained. He had thought about doing it again, but he afraid the tree would go flying, thereby ripping him in half as his hands were still attached to the ground via the ropes. If only he could have the technique focus on the ropes without effecting the tree.
Wait a second.
Naruto closed his eyes and tried to see if he could have his chakra gather just below his wrists. Naruto focused and concentrated as hard as he could but he couldn't restrict the large amounts of chakra to his hands, let alone his wrists. The best he could do was keep the intensity focused in his arms. Pushing until he could feel the lines of pressure running down his arms, Naruto released his unnamed technique and watched as the ropes snapped as they were pushed away, and two overlapping craters form in the somewhat soft ground. Smiling at his success, Naruto bent up and cut himself down. Landing softly and leaving negligible prints in the soft ground.
Naruto smiled, 'back in business baby,' he thought to himself. Naruto turned and looked towards the bulging pack he had brought with him before the test had started,'and I'm gonna show Kakashi-sensei what I can really do!'
Kakashi walked back toward the tree Naruto was still strung up from. Compared to the massive jutsu Naruto had released, Sasuke's Great Fireball was hardly surprising, but the technique had prompted Kakashi to go check on what the Number One Most Surprising Ninja was up to.
He felt disappointed seeing Naruto still hanging from the tree with his back to Kakashi's approach. As he was about to lay a hand on Naruto to turn him around, Kakashi noticed the snare trap he had stepped in and jumped back,before it caught him, with a smile, enjoying the irony. As his back foot landed, he felt something snap around it and he looked down to see the dulled bear trap that had closed around his right foot. Eyes wide, he reached down to release the trap before he felt the eruption of chakra to his left.
Naruto felt giddy as he rocketed forward towards the stuck Kakashi, his left sandal left behind near the cratered tree he had used as a starting block for his new unnamed technique that was the cause his new, heightened speed. He saw Kakashi begin to turn, so as to keep Naruto from gaining the bells, before he brought down his right foot, cratering the ground beneath it and leaving behind another sandal, and rocketed forward and past Kakashi with two bells in his hand.
Naruto had a moment to appreciate his victory before he tried to stop with his chakra abused legs and ended up tripping and skidding across the ground face first, bells still clutched in a death grip.
Kakashi stood dumbfounded at the gennin lying on the ground. He had never seen anyone actually get the bells during the test. It was supposed to be impossible for gennin to get the bells, the true test being what came afterwards.'Your son's quite amazing Minato-sensei.'
Naruto smiled as he got up on still weak legs."Well done Naruto," he heard Kakashi say as he looked up."You've become a fine Shinobi."
Naruto's smile only got bigger as one more person acknowledged him.
Hearing the alarm, Kakashi turned towards the clearing where he had left Sasuke buried."I think it's time we get your teammate ne?"
Sasuke and Sakura sat down next the posts as Naruto sat atop one.
"Two of your showings were quite mediocre", Kakashi started, lightly scowling at the three genning, "while only the third was quite good, seeing as he got both the bells."
Sakura looked at Sasuke, sure that he had gotten the bells, while Sasuke simply looked confused. It took them a moment, but they realized that there was another male on the team and looked up incredulously at Naruto smiling like an idiot and dangling two bells between his fingers.
"Yes, yes, well done Naruto," Kakashi called attention back to himself," but I said you only needed one bell to pass. So who are you going to give the second bell to?"
"Give it to me dobe," Sasuke started quickly before Naruto could respond." There is someone I need to kill, and I can't waste my time by going back to the academy."
Sakura stayed quiet while Sasuke talked before speaking up as well. "Y-yeah Naruto-baka," she said, her voice slowly gaining confidence."Give Sasuke-kun the other bell. He needs it more than I do."
Naruto stayed silent, looking at his extra bell and then looking at his two teammates; Sasuke's determined gaze, and Sakura's matching one, before he looked to see Kakashi's patient one. Looking down at his extra bell once more he sighed before making his decision.
"I'll give it to you on one condition," was Naruto's response.
"What?" Sasuke asked impatiently.
Kakashi stayed silent, curious to see what Naruto's demand would be.
Sakura started to get angry. 'That baka! He's probably going to make Sasuke-kun beg on his knees or give him a lot of money or -'
Sakura's train of thought was ended as she caught the bell that was thrown her way. Looking to her right, she was able to see that Sasuke had received one as well. Now thoroughly confused, she looked at her third teammate for an answer.
His hands were behind his head and he had a wide smile on his face.
"Just call me Naruto." He said as he turned and walked away. Heading back towards Konoha Main.
The other two genin just stood there for a few seconds, watching their blonde teammate leave. As if struck by a bolt of lighting, they both ran after Naruto.
"Oi, Do-Naruto!" Sasuke yelled as he ran after his third teammate, Sakura a few steps behind him.
Back at the stumps, Kakashi watched as his team ran off.
"Well what do you know," Kakashi said to himself, once more burying his nose in and Icha Icha. "My first genin team."
AN: Didn't think I'd have a second chapter up so soon now didja?
Special thanks to KHARAKI TAKAN for the inspiration for the last four lines.
*= Kakashi is more cautious of Naruto following his exploding of the pond. Not wanting to risk another unknown jutsu, he makes provisions to keep Naruto from making hand signs.
Yes I realize that Naruto has yet to name his new technique. This is because both Naruto and I have yet to come up with one. So feel free to suggest some names and I'll probably choose the best one to debut next chapter.