CHAPTER SEVEN – Present day, human world, Village of Konohagakure
(The page is stain free, merely dusty and slightly ragged on one edge)
Naruto stood in one of several standard shinobi sword fighting stances. His focused eyes seemed to correlate with the rest of his driven expression. He merely awaited for a signal, whether verbal or gestural, that started the combat. Hayate, his nerves tempered by decades of specializing in swordsmanship, stood in a stance that he knew to be a superior starting stance than his younger opponent's. Neither devoted any attention to anything except for their opponent, and the moves they believed their opponent would utilize. The slightly sickly looking ninja predicted that his foe would make use of an opening move graceful, yet still inexperienced.
He found himself slightly impressed. The blonde shinobi ducked beneath a mid-section horizontal slash, and came up with his blade aimed at the apex of the neck where the head ended. Hayate, in an almost inhuman display of flexibility, bent his torso nearly impossibly back to avoid the slash, and in a proportionately unbelievable utilization of speed, spun around with sword drawn, stopping just an inch or so short of the back of Naruto's neck. Tapping flesh with the blunt face of the steel, the first bout officially came to an end.
"Wow," Hayate expelled, in between gasps for air. The precise movements and use of agility and range of motion required by proper swordplay, wore one out quickly. He wasn't panting too hard, but it had drawn energy out of him. "For a relatively young chunin you are damn good with a sword. I still have a lot to teach you, though, as you saw from how quickly I brought this combat to a close." A sword battle in the shinobi world always differed slightly from a samurai swordfight. Because samurai only utilized swords, and their rules of engagement limited them to attacking with blades, they could devote all their energy to the blade itself. A shinobi, on the other hand, never had the limitation of sword only combat; the honor system that all samurai seemed to follow did not exist in the ninja battle. A ninja could do absolutely anything if it meant winning combat effectively, including use of other weapons, and taijutsu combat even. As a direct result, shinobi very seldom devoted all their energy to the blade, and had to devote attention to the surroundings.
"You are absolutely incredible, Hayate-sama!" Naruto tested out a variety of sword stances. "Which style will we use next?"
Hayate could scarcely contain his amazement. You mean he was using his own style! The blonde chunin had his own sword style that belonged to the Uzumaki clan. One reason that Hayate had a bit more trouble than he otherwise would've was due to the fact that he couldn't expertly predict ahead of time what moves were coming next. "Well, how about snake style?"
Naruto bowed, accepting the new combat rules, and drew backward into a typical snake stance. Being a chunin, he knew that his opponent chose snake style for a reason, and the reason likely was that it was Hayate's best style or favorite style. Extra care would have to be taken. Naruto preferred freestyle, which had been the previous combat.
When Hayate kicked off battle, it went remarkably quick in the jounin's favor. Two separate slashes on Naruto's part, a block on Hayate's, and three dodges on Naruto's part, and the blonde shinobi attacked downward with a diagonal slash stopping short of the jounin's left leg. "That was good, Naruto, but if you'll notice my blade placement. In a real combat situation I'd have cut off your head. Try again."
Naruto and Hayate engaged each other several times in the next couple hours. The results could only be described as predictable: the jounin won each combat. What he noticed, though, was that Naruto seemed to improve slightly with each coming confrontation. The rumors and reports he'd heard all held true; the boy had exceptional talent in the field of combat.
The mood inside the fourth meeting room in the Hokage's palace had been somewhat tense. Yondaime had a very important discussion with several important delegates from the Land of the Waves. Kyuubi sat immediately to the right of the Hokage, and provided moral support if necessary. The governor of the Land of the Waves had several issues on his mind, and many of them had to do with the situation that had occurred with Tazuna.
"Hokage-sama," the governor explained. "I'm sure you've recently heard about my decision."
Yondaime gathered his thoughts. "I know of your decision. Are you absolutely sure? I mean, if you make this decision, there's no turning back. You'll notice your populace change dramatically in just a handful of years."
The governor understood. "I stand by my decision completely. I've sent my letter to the government and filled out all the necessary paperwork," he uttered. "In a month we'll be receiving our charter from parliament; we'll officially be a shinobi nation." He sat a piece of paper in front of Yondaime. "And I wanted to sign a treaty with your country."
Yondaime cleared his throat and looked into the eyes of the governor. "What terms were you planning on imposing on this treaty?" He knew that a new village forming would cause a shift in the power balance, even if a small one. It meant he would have to work quickly if he was to achieve a friendly fellow nation.
"We want seven jounin to train a select number of candidates who already have some basic grasp of ninja arts, and approximately twenty ANBU operatives who can create for us an organized defense force." Yondaime scratched his head in response to hearing the terms requested. So far, nothing really demanding had been asked. "You see, Hokage-sama, when we become Namigakure—the Village Hidden in the Waves—we want to be off to a good start."
"Well, Governor, it sounds like you don't make any extreme demands," Yondaime began. "I see no reason to deny you any…"
The governor cut him off. "You haven't heard all of my requests," he explained. "We have one more, and this one is possibly the most important."
"Go on."
"Well, two years from now we want to host a chunin exam. At that time, we want your son to be one of our elite ninja."
Yondaime almost choked on the water he was drinking. Coughing until he cleared the liquid from his windpipe, he shook his head, wiped his eyes and composed himself. "Um, Governor, can't you pick from a more qualified shinobi to train your people than my son Naruto? He's not even a jounin yet."
"He's in training, is he not? And his performance in the Tazuna matter was exceptional. We will not budge on this issue."
Well fuck. Isn't this a bitch? Yondaime had no idea what to do. Kyuubi, despite her best efforts to prevent displaying such manner, felt much more concern than her husband. The matter of importance could not be overlooked. As the Hokage, he had to make a decision. On one hand, he could keep his family perfectly safe and together without any separation whatsoever, and on the other hand he could potentially risk losing a friendly village. He knew very well that many could die if the man sitting across the table from him presented a similar treaty of alliance to a village known for being unfriendly.
"Yondaime-sama," the governor reminded, "we need an answer now."
Yondaime knew what he had to do. He had no reason to believe his son was being sent into any sort of bad environment, and he could not risk losing a newly-forming shinobi village to his personal beliefs. "I….alright." He composed himself into a full Hokage manner. "Governor, we will sign your treaty." Kyuubi wanted to protest but knew she could not. In matters of politics she dared not interfere.
CLANG! Metal hit metal as two shinobi stared each other down on opposing ends of steel katanas. The jounin, in between various slashes, parries, and thrusts, analyzed perfectly his opponent's attack style. He had seldom seen such a skilled opponent as Naruto. From genin to jounin training he spent every day amazing everyone who ever trained him. Such a reputation the blonde ninja lived up to quite well.
Naruto found himself carefully maneuvered into a trap in which Hayate tripped him and ended the confrontation with a sword to the throat. "You're dead, Naruto," the sickly jounin firmly stated, in between coughs. "But I'm impressed at your ability to predict. You avoided three other traps before falling for this one." The blonde ninja grinned as he stood up.
"You're not so bad yourself," he joked. His opponent had a simply immense amount of skill. Yondaime did not kid when he spoke of Hayate as the most skilled shinobi in the village when you put a weapon in his hand. Still, he kept analyzing the various stances and styles that the sickly jounin utilized in combat. Naruto slid to the right a bit, falling downward into a predictable stance. He had a special surprise for Gekkou this time.
The combat kicked off with Hayate parrying a slash from Naruto, then spinning and making a vicious attempt at his young student's neck. Naruto ducked and blocked at the same time, making use of his speed to pull his sword away. He poked Hayate in the lower left leg, and spun around to stop with his sword an inch from the back of his foe's neck. When the jounin vanished in a puff of smoke it only confirmed what Naruto believed; this was another lesson.
The real Hayate materialized instantly, jousting for his young opponent's back. In a startling display of situation analysis, Naruto grabbed the blade with his left hand and pushed it aside, whirling and placing the sharp end of his sword a millimeter from his superior's neck. Hayate was amazed. "Naruto, I am amazed at how fast you're progressing. Just a few days ago when we started the ninja-to unit, you were somewhat decent at the blade. Now you're progressing at a rate I couldn't have imagined."
A few days passed and inevitably, the blonde chunin mastered the blade. Hayate had taught him just about everything he knew about weaponry, and the boy startled him. It was a good thing that he could now pass the boy onto the next unit, because Iruka would require a significant more amount of blade time than the younger chunin. He would likely know a lot about the other weapons, though.
Naruto soon found himself in the room of Morino Ibiki. Interrogation training. One of the last two units in the lengthy jounin training that he would receive. He sat down across from the man himself. "Alright, Naruto, it's about time we get started."
(A/N: I'm sorry about the shortness but I really wanted to get SOMETHING up.)