Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape or form. As far as I remember, there are no OC's in my fanfiction to date (all of one chapter), so I don't own those either. In fact, I should just write what I do own, it would take less time, even with my rambling.
Edited 23.4.07 Once more, the spelling thing.
Please enjoy this chapter, if the site ever lets me post it. Damned Internet hates me so much – I return the favour.
Naruto awoke in the morning as is the norm for him (the expression 'at sparrows fart' have any meaning to you?), had his Ramen with a muttered 'itadakimas' and much slurping of noodles, various disgusting grinding sounds. He then did his usual morning activities before locking up his apartment, despite the rather large hole that had been previously knocked into it and went to train outside the forest of death.
"Ah this is the life, nothing to do today, as it's a field day for the Chunnin teachers. (Days in which the teachers participate in normal missions so they keep in shape both physically and mentally).
Yep, things are great," exclaimed the hyperactive shinobi as his jacket split at the seams from his light warm up stretches. To which Naruto loudly and vehemently yelled
"Oh no, no no no, this is just bad, now I will really have to go shopping today. Damnit, thought it could wait for a few days."
During his running he failed to take note of his surroundings – a basic skill taught to shinobi of all rank. The glint of sunlight, such as that of a telescopic lens went unnoticed by the young academy student.
After he had completed his three-kilometre sprint around the forest, he did some more light stretches, accompanied by more ripping and tearing of his already tattered jacket. Naruto then sprinted off to the village to find the appropriate shopping area for food and shinobi ware/gear.
"Hey there is the Ichiraku ramen stand!" Naruto loudly exclaimed to himself as he was walking through the village.
"I guess it would not hurt to get some food and ask them if there are any good places for shopping for allot of Ramen ingredients.
I might as well try making some Ramen myself, surely it could not cost more than the usual instant junk." As he said this, he was thinking
'Wont be able to buy any non orange clothing this time around, there will not be enough money, but it does not really matter, its a good training exercise wearing the hideous colour.'
After being unceremoniously kicked out of two stores, Naruto found the perfect place. Well it was small, dank and tucked away into a seemingly forgotten corner, but he was admitted in. The reason for this became apparent when the owner, an old lady with clouded-over eyes, welcomed Naruto in.
'Yep she must be blind, poor granny' he thought.
"Yo, do you guys stock shinobi uniform for children?" Naruto loudly inquired, to which the blind lady replied
"Yes young man, in the back on the left are some such garments. They are not the height of fashion these days, but are made to last." Naruto thanked her then went to inspect the stock. There were the average items, but what caught the orange-hating young boy's eyes was the fishnet uniform, with a durable looking tan trench coat (think mini-anko outfit).
He liked the outfit, because the fishnet could be adjusted as he grew, and would be easy to clean (he has no access to a washing machine, and washes his clothes in the sink) and the trench coat he could buy it long now and use it till it became ridiculously short. Another major plus in his eyes was that the entire outfit, with two spare fishnet sets in larger sizes, was only 350 Ryo, roughly one third of the money he had to spend. Not to mention the drab tan, black and lack of orange would make getting around the village at night easier (or so he fondly believed).
Lugging the gear up to the counter, he told the old lady what he wanted, and she went through the tags on the clothing to make sure, which had differing patterns stencilled on them so she could differentiate the items. Being as there were literally hundreds of items in the small clothing store this demonstrated the woman's mind was still sharp, despite the years (presumably) robbing her of the sense of sight. After she counted the money and bagged the shopping, Naruto ran off energetically, bags waving all around the place in search of a place to buy Ramen kits/ingredients.
He stopped at a store that had the look of being newly built and opened. The sign above the door read:
Akimitchi Gourmet cooking supplies, with a small slogan underneath 'There is no substitute for good Ramen!'
Naturally he was interested, as Ramen was the only food he could generally afford, so he went into the shop and up to the counter. A rather Large, happy looking woman, whose face tightened momentarily upon setting eyes on her latest customer said icily "May I help you... sir?" To which Naruto cautiously replied
"Yes, please do you sell ramen supplies, or kits to make ramen? I have been wanting to experiment with different flavours for a little while now."
The Woman's eyes immediately lit up, and she loudly exclaimed
"Of course, dearie (to which Naruto mentally inclined an eyebrow) we have some new make-it-yourself Ramen kits, as new as the store is, only 350 Ryo for a one month kit, and being as you are our first purchaser of the kit, Ill throw in another monthly kit for free! How does that sound?"
Naruto was almost stunned, from the woman going cold over seeing him (as did everyone in Konoha), to her giving him a brilliant deal, usually one months supply of instant Ramen cost him over 550 Ryo (surprise surprise eh?). He gladly accepted, paid for the Kits, and left with a "come again soon, dearie" from the now beaming woman, carrying them ponderously in his small, yet strong (for a ten year old kid that is) arms. He managed to get home although not without incident, he had politely declined the less than sincere offer by two young Shinobi (late teens of the Chunnin rank) to help him carry the kits to his place. The shinobi, not about to be outmanuvered by the demon, as they thought of him, asked him again, ever so politely (and insincerely) to help him with his shopping.
Seeing that the men would not back off, Naruto decided to use his new secret anti-pervert (in other words breathing adult male) Jutsu. He quickly set the boxes down, performed the appropriate seal (right hand in a fist with index and middle finger pointed up, other fingers grasping left hand in the same seal as the right) and cried out...
"Henge!"
In a flash of smoke, a stunning young pig-tailed blonde now stood before the insincere Chunnin... wearing nothing but her skin, with only a few insubstantial wisps of cloud covering her 'assets'. Suffice to say twin Geysers of blood propelled the two young men to the wall on the other side of the street, where they lay, twitching and bleeding. The expressions of their faces were identical - unfiltered, unconscious joy. Naruto was then to be seen jumping up and down in the air in equal (although non-perverted) joy, screaming out at the top of his lungs
"Yata It worked, now I can henge properly and all of those hours sneaking in and 'reading' at old man Teuchi's book-store was so worth it, believe it!" (Had to put it in once)
The boy suddenly stopped, glanced around to the left and right thinking 'danger, danger Will Robinson (well not quite), but where from?' He had his answer as he observed the surrounding populace. Around twenty females, some Kuinoichi, others civilian, were giving him powerful, yet decidedly twitchy blank looks. One of them took a step forward once, twice, three times... That being enough for the jailer of the mighty Kyuubi no Kitsune - he grabbed his shopping and fled the scene at top speed, with an enraged mob of women chasing madly behind him chanting for the blood and execution of the 'perverted one'.
Thinking fast, Naruto used 'Fox release' with Kawarimi on a garbage bin as he fled. It started to glow blue as he passed by and as the enraged women ran past he relaxed concentration on the Karana seal, imploding the bin and sucking all the women in its general vicinity towards the previously occupied space. The end result was a tangled pile of disorientated women, a now safe yet still retreating child and a number of dumbfounded onlookers. As thee boy fled the scene a flash of purple could be seen, flitting across the rooftops in the general vicinity of training area 44. The owner of said purple flash thought to herself
'Hmm, so that is where the gaki went off to today. What an interesting kid, not even sure what that last technique was yet it certainly worked. I might have to make my presence known next time he comes near my home, as he has been doing lately. Although he managed that scene well, I know there must be some resentment towards the village lurking behind those innocent blue eyes. It will be enjoyable to see if I can bring some of it out in the open, for a little fun.'
Naruto, sneezing repeatedly as he fled knew not of the possibly sinister plans the mysterious woman had in store for the near future. He thought that the women must have been cursing him as they recovered from his surprise tactics. He mused 'hmm, might have to rename that one, to Gravity no Jutsu or something. Truly, it would not do to have anyone who did not clearly see it understand from the name how to copy it. A shame that I have to concentrate to hold the Fox release while doing the Kawarami seals, makes it hard to accomplish while moving like that, oh well practise makes for an easier escape route.'
Then once he was moderately safe, locked in his apartment, doing what was becoming easier and easier for the lonely boy, he started talking to himself (with his usual volume of course).
"Yosh, now I have ramen for two months, and clothing. Do not really need any more Kunai or Shuriken at the moment, there was about half a set thrown into my windows over the course of the last month. That makes almost all the Kunai and Shuriken I need now, knew it was a great idea to paint big bullseyes outside my western windows.
All right that is the necessary shopping done for today and (as he looked at the setting sun out of a window) it is getting late. Time for dinner, so time to make some Ramen!"
He opened one of the kits, saw the instruction book and recipe book, which he skimmed over before beginning. He tried several unusual things in his ramen, from new lean chicken to little white meadow mushrooms. The young Jinnchuriki usually was too afraid to eat mushrooms because of not being let in the library to see which were safe to consume. Despite his usual loud appearance, Naruto is not a fool, and he realised it would be very easy for a storeowner to sell him deadly mushrooms by 'mistake'.
The homemade Ramen was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted, putting the 'instant crap' to shame. Which he loudly proclaimed to the night at large, luckily for him his apartment block was empty of other perhaps intolerant neighbours, due to it being in a small condemned section of town that had been damaged and never fixed in the Kyuubi attack ten years previous.
After dinner, and the arduous process of cleaning up which consisted of washing, drying and putting away the various dishes that had for the most part gotten little use over the years, Naruto collapsed onto his 'bed' to think. Even though it was merely a poorly constructed frame padded with years worth of newspapers scavenged from local garbage bins, complete with a moth-eaten sheet and blanket, it was what he had.
"Yosh, time for training tomorrow, then there is the idiot barrage at the academy, at least Kiba-teme wont be as loud as usual, bet that ankle of his will shut him up. Hmm, 'twas actually kind of satisfying to injure the arrogant fool, this must be what all Shinobi feel while on missions, its going to be fun indeed."
Naruto did not even realise that he had spoken his thoughts aloud (and he is, as you no doubt all know, loud). This might worry the average person, if they realised they were talking to themselves, but not the energetic boy. No, he would simply think, and likely say that he is glad to not be talking 'with' himself, as well as 'to'. It is hard to make the young Jinnchuriki down, he is like an emotional freight train, and no amount of loneliness can slow his progress through life. Of course, being alone is not desirable, nor is it easy, but Naruto had simply given up on the idea that there would be anyone in life who could and would actually want to be there for him.
Even among those who would talk to him as a human being, instead of a demon (now numbering the sandiame, The ramen stand owner and his daughter, the old woman at the shinobi store and the homely woman at Akimitchi Ramen supplies) the young boy never thought of them as a family. He merely thought of them as friends, people whom, for whatever reason, acknowledged his existence and worth in life. He had no concept of a family, and thus did not desire one. Seeing the other children with their families did not make him jealous, as it did the other orphan in Konoha. It made him relieved, these 'mothers and fathers' only delayed their children from growing up and learning to truly live faster.
So Uzumaki Naruto at age ten, eight days into our observations on his life is somewhat of an enigma. No close friends, with only five people in the world who even talk to him civilly, and no desire for those true friends or a family. His career choice is the life of a Konoha Shinobi, the reasoning being that he wants to be able to injure others, without punishment and in the back of his mind lurks a desire to be strong enough to punish those who currently try to make his life a living hell. Those people he wishes to return the favour to, becoming a shinobi is in his mind the perfect way to accomplish this goal of not revenge, but retribution. It is as they say " Do not get angry, get even." It is for the same reason he does his little pranks, not for attention, but to make the life of those hated individuals difficult.
//A.N. (Author's note) I love Easter eggs, cannot eat much chocolate but its great for an occasional treat, ne? Hope yall like the story so far, not sure about my own opinion, better get back to it ja ne.)//
After his usual nightly activities, Naruto settled down for sleep and his usual impersonation (henge) of a rock, albeit a snoring, Naruto shaped rock, but a rock nonetheless. This was done so to ward against possible stealthy night visitors stabbing him as he slept. The disguise was nowhere near perfect, but he did pump a little fox release into the henge beforehand. This made what was once a simple optical illusion into a semi-solid shape. Because it was made out of Naruto's own Chakra, he could feel if the shape was damaged or disrupted. This should, in theory give him enough time to wake up and dodge/counter an attack, or at least shift position enough so that it is a less fatal attack.
Naruto could have set traps around his apartment, or even the building; he had learnt plenty about proper placement and execution in his pranking time. The truth was though, that he did not want to blunder into those same traps himself if he forgot their exact location, or hurt another person who happened to be innocent. There was also the feeling lurking in the back of Naruto's head that if anyone could get in undetected to kill him, that it would not be a bad thing to die. He may have had definite goals to work for, and be working hard to accomplish these goals, but the boy had no happiness in his life, no true joy. He found pleasure in watching others be embarrassed by his traps, or wounding others in combat. Something in his mind recognised this as unhealthy and surmised that perhaps it would be better off if the name Uzumaki Naruto drifted into fate. This does not mean he wanted to die, or be killed, merely that he had no fear of the unknown, as for Naruto, it could not get much worse, physically or mentally.
Naruto did believe in fate, strongly so as well, but not in the way Neji does (everything is pre-determined. I shall win because it is fate, etc). His thoughts on the subject revolve more around that the past is fate - written unchangeable fact. He knows that he was going to be born alone, with the hatred of the villagers and Shinobi alike something to live with. However the view in his mind is that the past may influence the future's course drastically, but so do the decisions that people make. For example, if he were content to be a civilian, some of those who 'actively' hate him would be more content, not seeing him as so large a threat. However Naruto will be a Shinobi, because he shall not stop until it is so, come hell or high water.
Tuesday morning 6:00 AM. With the dissipation of Naruto's 'Rock Mirage', the boy in question literally rolled himself out of bed. His fading henge propelled him into his roll, making sure of his awakening on time. He rushed through his morning activities (including dressing in his new clothing), and his last cup of instant ramen (with a mental grimace, the home made ramen is much better, both in taste and nutrition) before locking up and leaving for training area 44. Once there, he started the usual laps around the forest after the usual light stretches. Only half way around the first lap, several Kunai attached to a bundled-up sheet shot out from the forest, as the kunai landed and unfurled the sheet a young woman unfurled with the sheet.
"Yo gaki, what brings you to my home?"
She was young, in her mid twenties and wore the most... coincidental set of clothing. Tan trench coat, fishnet undershirt, the same leggings, a light brown short skirt and metallic ankle/shin guards. Minus the guards and replace the light brown skirt with black shorts, and you have Naruto's attire. Suffice to say Naruto merely stared at this woman, who looked like she had bought the exact same clothing at he. They both did the staring thing for a bit, then at the same time, yelled
"Why are you wearing my clothes Gaki/lady?" Which was followed by another good old mutual staring contest. The woman finally broke the now awkward silence with a surprisingly soft
"Yo, I am Mitarashi Anko, you are who?" To which the boy replied
"Uzumaki Naruto, in response to your other query, I am here to train my body, the other training areas are too... frequented for my tastes. The clothes are new, purchased them at an old store yesterday when I could afford something other than an orange jumpsuit." (Insert involuntary shuddering here, I do not mind orange, but not as the main clothing colour.) Anko made a sceptical noise and slowly intoned
"So, you like my clothing style and my home... though you really are not training rough enough. I could teach you to be strong... if you want." Although her seductive tone had little effect on the ten-year-old, he did wish to be strong, for the sake of justice. So he said
"Hai, I would be grateful Anko-sensei."
Those words sealed the fate of a certain Uzumaki. Two hours later he was running laps around the forest of death... faster than ever before, while Anko ran behind spouting encouragement, along with snakes, Kunai and just about every other dangerous object under the sun.
"Come on, Naruto-kun (the seductive voice still had little effect on said boy, but added to the intimidation factor, which was the whole point), you need to be faster or my snakes will catch..." The momentary silence was intimidating, just to fill it Naruto hollered out
"Ah no no no, teme snakes! You are so evil hebi-sensei! Time to run shan'aro, not fast enough, time for a Kitsune Kai."
With those words Naruto formed his Fox Release seals (One handed Ram and Karana) and pumped his purified Chakra into the legs. Stomping sounds could be heard, and every step the boy took smashed irregular indentations into the land, but the backlash for the force-injected Chakra did speed Naruto up to about 200 of his normal sprinting speed. The sheer amount of Chakra used was astounding for an academy student, who is not supposed to have enough Chakra to use a basic Katon Jutsu (see Sasuke vs Kakashi genin test) yet here he was, using twice that amount with every stop (giant lumbering hop) that he took. Anko decided to keep up the pressure for a while, to accurately gauge his Chakra reserves.
It took half an hour of constant running and using Jutsu for the reserves to fall below 10 and for the high stamina person in particular to be forced to stop, or face a loss of consciousness. Anko called out to Naruto
"Ok kid, time for a well earned breather." Naruto turned around in mid-leap and reversed direction, bounding back to his new sensei's point of forced rest, then just about jumping out of his skin with nervous tension. He yelled out energetically as Anko thought 'He has the stamina of the demon he is named for, well it does make sense, having to deal with it day in and out that he has such an abundance of stamina and Chakra'.
"Ano-sa ano-sa Anko-sensei, you were totally correct; this training is awesome, I am really pushing myself to outpace those damn hebi-things you can summon with that cool Jutsu. Can we keep this up for a while? I like that I had to think on my feet and adapt my new Jutsu to fleeing, it was originally only a control exercise after all."
Naturally Anko was intrigued with this new Jutsu, so Naruto explained why he had made the technique, and how it had aided him in the flight against 'the insane females' although he neglected to mention the reason for the formation of said insane female mob. Anko smirked at this, also neglecting to mention that she had been scouting the boy out, she had seen the entire incident. In truth, she found it highly amusing the ease with which the simple henge had soundly defeated two mid level shinobi. They discussed the various effects the 'foxed' Kawarami Jutsu had on items of differing sizes and qualities. They found that while it would work on living things, the Jutsu took a prohibitive amount of Chakra to do so, and the 'defending' Chakra system could easily fight off the massed, yet poorly concentrated Chakra. Anko stated, just to see if she could rile up the young Jinnchuriki
"You know Naruto-kun, you fight like one of the tailed demons, they use huge blasts of Youki (demonic Chakra) to crumple things, even though only the Kyuubi was said to use unformed or 'raw' Chakra like that effectively. Its a bit funny really, you do have good reserves, but some already call you a demon, what do you think they will say when you fight like one?"
Anko was also testing Naruto, to see if the Youki that was no doubt lurking under his skin somewhere was effecting his brain, and subsequent actions. She understood being considered a monster, as she still used the techniques of Orochimaru, she former Jounin-sensei, who is now a missing-nin (Anko herself is Chunnin level at the moment). Because of her reliance on the Jutsu she learnt from the Hebi-Sannin himself, she is an outcast even among the other Shinobi; few there were who would participate willingly on missions if Anko was with them, due to her past.
The only one she really associated with was Morino Ibiki, and that was because he did not care about her past, only her current usefulness to Konoha. As the covert intelligence expert Ibiki coincidentally happens to be the best Torturer, physically and mentally there is. He expects the full effort of all Shinobi in intelligence missions. Because of all this, she preferred to go on solo missions, and often got the 'fun jobs', as she liked to call them. Specifically the assassination and spying missions. Although only Chunnin rank, she regularily completed A-Class missions on her own, and was expected to take the Jounin test soon. Although some wished it were so, it was unlikely she would tolerate failure. Naruto, after some deliberation opened his mouth and engaged his voice box while expelling concentrated bursts of air in order to communicate verbally with his Sensei.
"Well, I would like to think the villagers would be happy, me acting like the biggest and baddest demon would give them the perfect excuse to bring out the old pitchforks. However that shall not happen, they will not have the chance. This is the style that is being created by and for myself, called the Seppeku Fist.
It is not a clan based style, or one I expect anyone else to be able to learn - simply because it is like committing Seppeku for anyone who does not happen to bear the name of Uzumaki.
I heal fast, and by concentrating Chakra, with practise my probable healing rate should be near-instantaneous by about the age of twenty one. With this style based completely on taking and surviving any and all hits aimed at the body, then using that inevitable attack to launch my own Rendan (combo) this will make the Seppeku Fist Taijutsu style a powerful and unpredictable asset during missions.
It is understood that this style will never be flowing, like a perfectly learnt style hundreds of years old, or even graceful, as the Hyuga's Gentle Fist is rumoured to be. But it will work, and work damn well, and it will be a purely original style. Frankly, who cares what anyone else thinks, they all shall be able to see that I am not a demon, as using Youki as a demon would, it becomes visible to the eye, and red. Even if I ever ranked up there in the power department, I know that human Chakra is blue (and feels like normal energy), not red (which feels truly malevolent). Even stupid villagers will be able to tell the difference, if they cannot, no big deal.
I will simply force them all to see that I am Naruto, not the demon they currently see."
After this lengthy explanation, Anko was happy, although she could not quite pin down the why of it. Setting that aside for the moment...
"Hey gaki, you are two hours late for your little academy you know" Anko stated smugly, trying to make Naruto panic then blindly flee the scene, so she could sort out her conflicting emotions. The boy in question merely calmly yet seriously answered
"That is fine Anko-sensei. I am used to their punishment, if I do not let them get me for something, they ask a question that no genin could hope to answer. I will learn allot more here talking to and training with you. Also this is strangely... pleasant. More so than eating Ramen, meditating (yes he does that voluntarily) or dreaming of beating that stupid Inuzaka into the ground."
Anko was touched, to think the little gaki would enjoy this training session, which had been a physical and mental torture for many aspiring Shinobi. Specifically when she had attempted a brief stint as an academy teacher a year previously (brief due to the complaints of the student's parents that their kids were coming home with hebi bites and moderate cases of poisoning). She was also a little pissed off at the current teachers, while she understood the entertainment of mental torture, it should be dealt evenly out to a class, not singled out to a single boy. She dealt with these emotions the same way she dealt with most things since she herself was dealt with in the same fashion. She shoved the problem away and hollered
"Yosh, then go to the academy now to keep up appearances, then you can train here in the week-day mornings with me while I am not on missions." Contrary to popular belief Konoha does not get ten thousand assassination missions every day, or advanced reconnaissance missions. Anko was off-duty as much, if not more than on. Somewhat similar to the life of a soldier, much of the Shinobi life is spent waiting and also similar to a soldier, the fast times are usually spent dying.
With a "Arigatou Anko-sensei, ja ne" and a bow, Naruto exited the scene, with much running and flapping of arms. The day at the academy was about what he expected, the teacher (today a reasonably fair young man named Mizuki) singled him out only as he came in. Naruto was given one shiftily difficult question and one subsequent hour of detention, and then Mizuki turned his attention back to teaching the class. It was quite amusing to see an uncharacteristically quiet, even sullen Inuzaka clan member in the seat the longest distance possible from Naruto's own. Which happened to be situated next to two female students, (Narutos seat this is) one brown haired girl and another girl with pale hair, similar pupil-lacking pale eyes and a seemingly permanent blush, as she looked (stared using byakugan!) at Naruto, or noticed him glancing in her direction.
The now tan wearing boy was thinking 'hmm that is Hinata I think, she seems less arrogant than most of her family, those cold Hyuga. Come to think of it although she does not talk much, I have never heard her utter a bad word about me. Not even a single muttered demon spawn. I might try and do that friendship thing Anko was talking about.'
While Hinata was trying to control her fluttering heartbeat, at the blonde boy's proximity to her own seat, she caught a look at his new attire. The open Trench coat did little to hide his thin body and the fishnet clothing left even less to the imagination. He was not muscular, as ten-year-old kids rarely are, but there was not an ounce of fat on his skinny carcass either. This 'tantalising' sight proved too much for the young heiress, as she proceeded to swoon and then faint - unfortunately while leaning over slightly to get a batter look at Naruto's chest. An unsuspecting blonde found himself knocked to the floor, with a smiling Hinata asleep in his arms (complete with a single miniature blood trail from her nose). After setting the both of them back on their respective seats, Naruto was confused, but resolved to befriend the girl later; she seemed to be good for a laugh at the very least.
This new schedule went on for the rest of the week, with the incredibly draining training sessions with 'Hebi-sensei' to the boring yet important academy lessons and finally back to the apartment for more Jutsu experimentation. On Friday night Naruto was practising more on one handed sealing, getting the repetitive academy lessons of the week out of his system.
His attempts to befriend the Hyuga heiress had finally met with some success. The girl in question could now communicate with him for a full two words, or three syllables (whichever takes less time) before blushing and looking away.
They now had lunch together too, which was only slightly awkward. This was due to the both of them wanting to eat more than talk, or stare and blush respectively. Although Hinata ate like a lady, whereas Naruto consumed until no more food could be crammed in, they both ate large quantities with equal focus on their food. The boy found it easier to focus on the academy instructors now, even the droning intonation of Iruka's voice during lectures could not send the boy to sleep. After all, he did not want to look lazy or stupid to his new friend, like a certain pineapple hair styled young man in their class.
As Naruto had succeeded in using one handed seals for the Fox Release, the boy now experimented with using one handed seals in his general academy level Jutsu.
Unfortunately for Naruto, the seals required a much higher level of concentration to work at all and required complete mastery of the Jutsu In question, meaning that its every possible use and subtlety had been planned out with time and effort. As Naruto still could not use a conventional Kawarami Jutsu (although he could heat and implode various things with the modified version), the attempt to use one-handed seals with the aforementioned technique did not go according to plan.
Imagine smashing an egg in half and holding the halves in each hand. Now grasp if you can, not spilling any yolk, diving that same yolk equally among the two halves and reattaching the halves together perfectly without spilling the precious viscous liquid. This is a reasonably accurate explanation of one handed sealing, compared to two. Naruto realised the difficulty of his newest endeavour as he attempted the one handed Kawarimi, right before he disappeared, only to rematerialise inside his wall. A shame that one of his legs was still outside that same wall.
The now disembodied limb in question slowly squelched its way to the floor, wiping a trail of blood on the wall's rough surface as it did…
Total silence was heard in the condemned apartment block. For all of two, perhaps three seconds. Then, those as far as the hidden Waterfall village felt more than heard an agonising scream. The boy really let his lungs loose, unfortunately though most felt his agony on some level there was nobody close enough to hear and render him aid. That is assuming any of the village's general populace would have helped him in the first place.
After letting out some of the expression for intense pain, sobbing like a baby, Naruto smashed his way out of the flimsy Jib wall (a kind of crumbly concrete looking material used allot for Australia's walls). He then promptly fell down, having no wall to support him, or two feet to stand on for that matter.
Clutching the amputated limb, the boy dragged it, in between sobbing fits, towards his stump. After feverishly attempting to ram the leg back onto its proper location, he passed out due to blood loss.
Until next time folks…
Ah whom am I kidding, cliffhangers (even ones as poorly executed as my own) were always a sore point for me, good marketing that they are, so back to it:
Naruto awoke in the morning at the usual early hour, got up off the floor wondering what he had been thinking, sleeping there with a semi comfortable and warm bed in the same room. He proceeded to do his usual morning activities, not noticing the missing fishnet legging on his left leg, nor the pink line running concentrically around the same point on his leg.
As he left for the park, to unwind and see if he could find Hinata for more of 'that befriending thing' to occur, the boy never noticed the blood splattered on the wall, puddled over the floor, or the large paw print smack-daub in the middle of the same puddle.
Poor naive Naruto... Will he ever find out about Hinata's 'slight' crush (not to mention the anime/manga stalking she does)? What is with the mysterious footprint, and the recovery of the missing leg? (No kyuubi did not help out, nor could his usual healing power reattach or grow a full leg.) Tune in next time, perhaps you shall find answers. Also next time - some other characters get some screen time, specifically Sasuke (duck butt hair himself), Sakura, Shikamaru, Choji and perhaps a further mystery character.
Anko will still be there too, she has her intimidating eyes set on the young Jinnchuriki... in a completely non Orochimaru way of course (cough little boy fetish cough). Will Anko be arrested? Will Naruto ever stop eating Ramen (sure, like that could happen on this side of hell)? Will I ever write a decent length and content chapter? Once again, tune in next time for all those answers+ an imaginary chopstick. That is right, One - singular imaginary chopstick. Tune in promptly, stock is limited. I still have no idea as to the pairings (if any). Always liked NaruHina but it has been done to death. Never liked Yaoi or NaruTsunade so do not ask please. Other than that I am open to any and all suggestions, feel free to fire away. Please review, I would like to see opinions on my meagre efforts. Goodnight people, even vampires need to sleep and I sure as hell do too.
Forgiveness please for any mistakes or errors. Point them out if you feel so obliged. It all helps to improve my many weaknesses when it comes to the verbal art of writing.