Chapter 2: Meeting the Fuzz, and Graduation
(Mindscape)
Naruto groaned as he began to come to. "Dear Kami, what the hell happened? Last I remember was practicing my Chakurachēn - Bōseki chēn [Chakra Chains – Spinning Chains], and then I passed out, and then woke up in a sewer. Beautiful, just beautiful," Naruto mumbled to himself. He checked out his surroundings and noticed there were multiple paths to go down, but there was one question on his mind.
"Where the hell am I?"
Hm. So you have finally arrived. I have been wanting to talk to you for a while now. Come to me so we may talk more.
"Um. Ok," was the best that Naruto could come up with at the moment, so without a moment of hesitation, he went to where the voice directed him to. When he arrived in the opening he was shocked at what he saw. There was a large 60 foot cage in front of him, but that wasn't what surprised him. What did was what was in it.
"Kyuubi no Yoko…"
(Outside Naruto's mindscape)
As Naruto was dealing with his own things in his mindscape, Tsunade and Shizune were worry and fussing over him wonder what happened. What was freaking them out the most was the fact that even though he had even breathing, and he was fine, he wasn't waking up.
"Tsunade-sama, what is going on? I have never seen anything like this before in my life," Shizune asked. The only thing Tsunade could reply was, " I don't know Shizune, I don't know."
With that, they took him inside and laid him on the couch
(Back Within Naruto's Mindscape)
About time, I have been trying to get a hold of you for years. Do you know how hard that is?
Naruto was still in shock, so he was finding it hard to even say anything. After about five minutes of standing there in shock, he played through his mind at what Kyuubi just said to him.
"So you mean all this time that I have been feeling a tickling sensation in my brain, it has been you attempting to get into contact with me?"
Haha, you're a clever brat, you know that? I didn't even tell you how I was trying to get into contact with you.
Naruto didn't know if that was a jibe at his intelligence, or what, but decided to listen because he figured it was important. He noticed the fox's face get serious, so he knew something was about to happen.
Anyway on to more important things, more so the reason I brought you here. We need to talk about something important. Very important. It is vital that you listen to me without interrupting me, okay?
Naruto became serious and nodded.
First off, my name is Kurama. Kyuubi no Kitsune or Kyuubi no Yoko are just titles I have been given throughout time. To start off I want to tell you more about me and the events that led up to me being sealed within you.
To start off, we have to go back nearly 400 years ago. The time of the Sage of the Six Paths and the beginning of ninja, and the discovery of what is today called chakra.
Back in this time, there was a beast of massive chakra called the Jubi. The Jubi, otherwise known as the ten-tailed demon, used to march across these lands wreaking havoc and destroying villages. The Sage at time who had the Rinnegan, fought the beast, and managed to seal it within himself, becoming the first even jinchuriki. At the end of his life, he deduced that if he died, the Jubi would be set free, allowed to wreak havoc on the Elemental Nations once more. With that knowledge, he used one of the ultimate jutsu of the Rinnegan, Banbutsu Sozo [Creation of all things] to split the Jubi into the nine Bijuu you know today.
Naruto's eyes widened at this. He had never known any of this. He could only imagine the other things that Kyuubi had to tell him.
The nine Bijuu are the Ichibi no Shukaku, Matatabi no nibi, Isobu no Sanbi, Songoku no Yonbi, Kokuo no Gobi, Saiken no Rokubi, Chomei no Nanabi, Gyuki no Hachibi, and yours truly Kurama, the Yoko.
After that the Sage left us with some parting words. As time went on, we observed the livings of the human world periodically, until THAT day.
[1]Somehow, humans were able to make summoning contracts of demons, and summon to try to do their bidding. We of course would not do that because we were the watchers of humanity. Shukaku through Gyuki had been sealed either into a human vessel, or into jars, depending on how may tails they had. Then, my day came. I was originally summoned by Uchiha Madara, and forced under the effects of the Sharingan to attack Senju Hashirama. The unique thing about Madara and Hashirama were that they were both descendants of the Sage of the Six Paths.
This again shocked Naruto. He had not known this. But wait he had to know one thing.
"Kurama, I am sorry for interrupting you, but I have to know. I have read in history books that the Uzumaki's are related to the Senju through Hashirama and one of my ancestors, Uzumaki Mito, is that true?"
I will get to that, as this gets more into that. As I was saying, Hashirama and Madara fought for two days straight, as I was restrained by Hashirama through his Mokuton [Wood Release] jutsus. Uzumaki Mito, who was Hashirama's wife, sealed me into her after the fight and took Hashirama back to the village, believing Madara to be dead.
At the end of her life, I was sealed into her granddaughter Kushina, or more importantly, your biological mother.
Naruto looked in shock at Kurama. "My kaa-san was your previous container?!"
The Kyuubi nodded in affirmation.
[Sigh] Yes kit, your mother was my previous container. We talked a lot from the time she was little until THAT night.
Naruto looked in confusion at Kurama. The way he said it so venomously, made him wonder.
Me and Kushina were talking while you were being prepared to be born. When she began her contractions, that was when I cut off my link, to help with healing her, and making sure you and her would be okay. That was when it all went downhill. A masked man came into the cave you were being born in, and grabbed you away from your mother and attempted to stab you. At that point, Minato teleported you away from harm to the hospital where you would be safe.
While this was happening, the masked man took your mother to a lake with pillars. After that, he extracted me and put me under the genjutsu of the Sharingan, making me go into the rampage. After that, everything was blank, until I was sealed into you. That is everything that has happened and the history of me and the other jinchuriki.
Naruto was absorbing all of this. It was something that you don't hear everyday. As he was thinking things over, he thought back to everything he has heard.
"So, I am a distant ancestor to the Senju clan, which would make Kaa-chan my baa-chan. Hehe, the irony. On a serious note, it is troubling that there is someone out there who is powerful enough to control the bijuu. Also, it brings up the question as to why this man was trying to get Kurama. This leaves so many questions unanswered.'
Kurama could tell that there were a multitude of thoughts going through the child's brain right now. 'Hm. I honestly can't wait to see his reaction to this next piece of information.'
Also, kit, there is one more thing I have to tell you. It's about the seal and also about my chakra.
"Huh? What would that be?"
The way your father made the seal, it slowly leaks my chakra into your coils, making it where it steadily transitions into you chakra, making it easier to draw upon my chakra and power. Another thing is that instead of the seal limiting your chakra control, it will actually help your chakra control, considering you won't have to worry about all of the drawbacks of the chakra of a bijuu. What this means is that for example, you got your chakra up to med-nin levels, with your chakra being at low jounin due to me, by the time you are 15 or 16, you would be able to have an all out ninjutsu war using all mid b-rank or lower, and not even come close to being exhausted for hours.
"Wow…," was all Naruto could reply. He could only imagine the possibilities of this. He figured that by that time, he would have near kage chakra levels, depending on what Kurama said about his chakra levels right now.
'Wow, that is just amazing. The possibilities are endless almost. That means I better start doing chakra control exercises out of the ass after I am done talking with Kurama. This makes so many things possible.' Naruto thought with glee, as evident by the excited/glazed look on his face.
But enough about that. The last thing I want to tell you before you leave here is about mine and your future. When you turn 16, I want to start training you on how to use my chakra modes. I know it may seem like an older age than some villages would, but at a young age like 8 or 9 like some villages do, it drives the host to insanity. Waiting until you are sixteen allows your body, mind, and coils to mature, so when the time comes, it won't take a lot for you to begin mastering my chakra modes.
But alas kit, all good things must come to an end, as I can sense that our time is coming to an end in here, but I have established a mental link so we can keep in contact, and see what you see.
Naruto looked at Kurama, and smiled at him. "Kurama, thank you. Thank you for telling me all of this, and for trusting me with your history. I promise I won't let you down! I will become the strongest, because the strongest bijuu deserves an equally strong host! That is a promise!"
At that, Naruto disappeared from his mindscape.
Heh, kid is a good one. Kushina, would you be proud of your son? You're going to be huge one day kit, and I look forward to it
(Outside the mindscape)
Naruto's eyes began to slowly flutter open. As he did, he took in his surroundings. He saw that he was back inside the house on the couch in the living room. He looked to his right and his eyes softened at the sight. Tsunade was passed out on the chair next to him. Her appearance was a bit distortional from what looks like stress, worry, or both. He saw Shizune walk back into the room and smiled at her.
"Hey Shizu-nee-chan."
(Shizune POV)
Shizune was having a long day already, and it was still early. She woke up, and found Naruto was gone already. That had her worried since he was training a lot. As she made her way downstairs, she saw that her master was stressed about something, but didn't know what until she heard the calls of 'Damn brat throwing away my sake'. Shizune just let out a chuckle and kept walking to the bathroom to take a shower. After she got out and got dressed, she made her way to the kitchen to make breakfast.
'Oh I wish Naruto would hurry home soon. He still needs his breakfast.'
After that she heard Tsunade shout for her, and she ran to her right away, seeing Naruto passed out the way he was. They took him inside and let him rest up after they found he was okay. They had been waiting for nearly six hours now, and Tsunade looked rough.
"Tsunade-sama, you can go to sleep if you want, I will watch out for Naruto until he or you wakes up."
She didn't get a response, so she checked on Tsunade to find her passed out in the chair. She sweat dropped as she saw this.
'Wow, I wonder how long she has been like this for.'
She went to the kitchen to get a small snack and some water. As she walked back into the living room, she heard a voice call out to her.
"Hey Shizu-nee-chan."
(Normal POV)
Shizune looked over to the couch and saw Naruto up and smiling at her.
"NARUTO!"
She ran over to him and began hugging him and making sure he was okay. During the noise, Tsunade decided to wake up. That was when she groggily asked, "What's with all this racket, I was sleeping peacefully." A young voice replied back to her, "Hello to you too, kaa-chan."
She looked over to Naruto who was smiling at her. Oh it's just Naruto waki-
"Naruto! Are you alright? What happened? Does anything hurt? Did someone say or do something to you?"
Naruto chuckled at her as she was checking him over. "Hehe, kaa-chan, I'm fine, but I did meet someone while I was asleep."
Tsunade's demeanor went from happy, to shocked to serious.
"Explain."
So Naruto did, he told her about how he had met the fox, and how he learned about the past of the bijuu, and where they came from, and how jinchuriki were made. She was also shocked to find out that an Uchiha, albeit an obviously rogue Uchiha, was able to control with a genjutsu from the Sharingan. It worried her also, making her wonder if this man was going to come after he sochi anytime soon.
She would kill someone in a heartbeat if they attempted to hurt her son. After they finished talking, they sat in silence, until Naruto looked over at his mother nervously.
"Hey kaa-chan?"
"Yes," Tsunade replied
"I was wondering if after classes during the academy, if you could help me out with my chakra control, and help me learn some medical techniques. I really want to learn."
Tsunade pondered on this. Naruto had been in the academy for a year now, and was learning some things, but apparently, the standards had fallen following the years she graduated.
She looked at Naruto and smiled, "Of course, but only after dinner, and only for an hour a day. I want you to go out and meet some friends. I don't want you to just train. I want you to at least enjoy some part of your young life until you graduate."
Naruto replied back with a grin, "You got it! Hehe."
(3 Years Later)
"Uzumaki Naruto, if you don't wake up and get your butt down hear this instant, then I will come up there and punch you out the window to your graduation."
"Yeah yeah, grandma, don't fall out of your rocker."
Tsunade looked at Naruto with a murderous glare, and Shizune couldn't help but laugh. It was funny!
Tsunade then said with an even voice, "Granny, huh? I will show who's a granny!" With that, she poked him in the forehead, and he flew into the bathroom.
"Now don't come out of there until you are finished cleaning up!"
"Yes granny."
With that, Tsunade and Shizune left and went back downstairs.
(30 minutes later)
Naruto was out of the shower and getting dressed. He had grown quite a bit over the years, now standing at 5'6, though he was still shorter than a lot of people in his class. His hair also grew, and now had two bangs framing his face. The only difference with the bangs was that they were died red, to honor his mother. The hairstyle was done to honor his father. 'Tou-san, kaa-san, if you can here me, I am going to make you guys proud of me!'
Naruto smiled, and walked down the steps to the kitchen. He was dressed in a pair of black ANBU style pants, black shin-obi sandals, a long sleeve black shirt with two bands at the wrist and upper forearm, underneath a gray short sleeved shirt with an orange stripe down the middle. On his forehead rest a black headband with the leaf symbol engraved into it.
As he walked into the kitchen, he was greeted by a voice. "So you finally decided to wear the clothes I got for you, huh?"
As Naruto looked over, he saw his godfather, Jiraiya, standing there looking at him.
"Hey ero-sennin! I wanted to say thanks again for the clothes!"
At that Jiraiya face-faulted. 'Damn brats and no respect'. As he continued with his train of thought, he looked over Naruto, and thought to himself 'If I didn't know any better, I would say he was just a normal genin, but we all know he is about mid-high chuunin level. With experience, he would be at high chuunin bordering low-jounin. Damn brat finding out about shadow clones.'
(Flashback)
A 10 year old Naruto was walking home after another day at the academy. 'Stupid sensei's not listening when I say I can't for a bunshin because of my high chakra levels'. As he was grumbling, his tenant decided to let Naruto know something.
Hey Naruto, you do know why you won't ever be able to do a normal bunshin, right?
"Honestly I don't, I bring my chakra down as low as possible, and try to make only one, but when I do, it looks like me when I'm nearing 200!"
Well, the reason is because of your chakra reserves. If you had normal genin level chakra reserves, this would be no problem, but due to your parent's, plus me added into the mix, it makes it to where you would have to make 100 bunshins to evenly level out your chakra.
Naruto thought on this. 'It makes sense actually. With my chakra levels as high as they are, I would never be able to do a normal clone, but I would be able to do more advanced clones, due to them costing more chakra, therefore, meaning I would still be able to do an elemental bunshin, but not a normal bunshin.'
Kurama smirked at that. Heh, I guess being around Nara's so much made it to where your analytical and deduction skills have improved. But enough of that. I was wondering if you knew of a clone jutsu called the Kage bunshin no jutsu [Shadow Clone Technique]?
Naruto shook his head in negative at that. "No, I can't say I have heard of the kage bunshin no jutsu. What does it do?"
Well, what it does is it split's the users chakra in half. This may sound drastic, but the benefits of it are amazing. When a shadow clone is dispelled, the user gains any information that the clone gathered before being dispelled.
Naruto thought about that for a second. "So, if a shadow clone's memories go back to the user after they dispel, and the user gets that information, then that means ANY memory would be transferred back to the user. So does that mean that if I were to send a clone to do tree climbing, and he was able to do it, after it dispels, I would get the memories and know how to do it properly?"
Precisely kit. With your chakra reserves, you could easily make 30, but not more without starting to tire. You still have to train yourself physically. You have to be able to move if you want to train.
(Flashback end)
Jiraiya just shook his head at his godson. 'That boy… He is going to be great just like his father.'
"Ero-sennin? Ero-sennin?! You there? Hellooo?"
Jiraiya jumped from the sudden voice. "Huh? Oh hehe, sorry Naruto, got got in memory lane." Naruto just shook his head at his godfather's antics. "It's ok Ero-sennin, I know you were thinking about getting laid. We all know you haven't been laid in 20 years."
Jiraiya flushed at that comment. He knew it wasn't true. Hell, he had just gotten laid last week! And this brat dare try to shoot down his accomplishment. "Oi! I will have you know I just got laid last week!"
"Blow-up dolls don't count."
There was nothing he could say to that. Well, more like he couldn't say due to being in shock at being outsmarted by his godson. 'You win this round Naruto, but I will win next time.'
"Well, anyway ero-sennin, I have to get to the academy for graduation. Wish me luck!"
Jiraiya smirked at that. 'Hehe payback time!' "I hope you fail!"
Naruto could only face fault at that comment. "Dammnit ero-sennin."
Tsunade, who had just been standing by the coffee pot this whole time, was staring impassively at the 'conversation' between her teammate and her son. She had a tick mark on her forehead, showing her ever growing irritation at the comments being thrown back and forth. Naruto cursing finally caused her to snap.
"Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto. If you don't get your ass to the academy this instant, I swear, I will punt you as hard as I can, and ban you from eating ramen, ever again. Am. I. Clear."
Before Tsunade finished, Naruto was already gone. Jiraiya was laughing at his godson's misfortune. That was before he felt a chill go down his spine. He looked over to see Tsunade standing over him, with a visage showing the shinigami behind her.
"So, Jiraiya-chan, What shall I do with you."
The only thing heard after that was a crash, and the screaming of a man. If one were to look up in the sky, they would be able to see a man flying.
(At The Academy)
Naruto sat in his seat, just relaxing, but if one were to look close, they could see he was shaking and looking for any signs for someone.
'Okay, crazy kaa-san's are gone, whew.'
As he sat there, he heard the door open and some of the kids began filing in. Some of them were clan heirs, and some of them looked like they could have potential. But he was more focused on the clan heirs.
He could tell who they were. By name, they were Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, Akimichi Choji, Nara Shikamaru, and Yamanaka Ino. These were some of the best students in his class alongside him. He was friends with all of them, except two. Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke. Sasuke was a brooder, a brooder with duck-butt hair. The reason why he was always brooding was because his clan was killed off except him by his older brother. He stayed distant from everyone and for the girls in the class, it made him seem dark and mysterious, thus gaining him a fan club, one he hated with a passion.
Haruno Sakura was a different story. She was a book smart girl, but when it came to doing physical exercises, she vehemently refused to do them, stating that she couldn't be bothered to do such dirty things that would make her appear unclean to her Sasuke-kun. She was delusional.
Ino had been one of the Uchiha's fan-girls, but she realized that by being a fan girl, she would be bringing down her chances of being a genin, and possibly bring shame to her clan. She most definitely did not want that.
As the students all filled in, they began chatting it up with each other until the instructors came in to proctor their graduation exams.
(30 minutes later)
As the students were enjoying conversations with each other. [Just a heads up, everyone will be in there canon uniforms, except Naruto of course. This will change soon.] The teachers were Umino Iruka and Touji Mizuki [I believe it's Touji, please correct me if I am wrong]. Iruka then tried to get the students attention. "Alright class settle down." Only two students heard him. "Ahem, I said students, please calm down." This time, no one else quieted down. So without further adieu, he resorted to his last resort.
Mizuki looked over to Iruka. He had felt the build up in chakra. 'So,he is going to use THAT jutsu.' After Iruka had the jutsu prepared, he launched it. His head became the size of the human body, and his voice carried all through out the room as he shouted with is Big-head jutsu, "ALRIGHT THAT'S IT! IF YOU GUYS DO NOT SHUT UP RIGHT NOW EVERYONE FAILS!"
At the proclamation, everyone quieted down. You could hear the sound of a molecule moving through the air.
"Ahem, as I was trying to say earlier, today is the day of your genin exams. This will determine your adequacy rate and if you are prepared to move on. The test will entail three different segments. The first being a written segment of roughly 15 questions, which will last for 30 minutes. This will test your mental capacity and your analytical skills.
The next part will be taijustu. In this segment of the exam, you will be required to display your taijutsu style, being a clan style or academy style, on a series of wooden practice dummies that have been incorporated with seals that will read your strikes in strength, fluidity, and follow though.
The final portion of the test will be the ninjutsu section. In this part of the exam, you will be required to perform a substitution, a henge, and a bunshin. Also, if you are from a clan, you have the choice to perform a clan jutsu. Although it is completely up to you. If you are not from a clan, but know any jutsu, then you may use it to show us what you have learned, but like I said, no one is forcing you to. Does everyone understand, and are there any objections?"
It was a lot to take in, but the students knew they could do it. They all nodded their heads in affirmation.
Iruka saw this and replied, "This without further delay, Mizuki will pass out the tests to you. After you have all received them, The time will begin. Good luck!"
As Mizuki passed out the tests, Naruto noticed something was strange about the way he was carrying himself. He was tense, like he was wanting something to happen, or waiting for it to happen.
'Nah, Mizuki-sensei is probably nervous. He wouldn't do anything to us here.'
After clearing out his thoughts, he looked down at his test. 'Wow, these are some pretty tough questions. Iruka-sensei wasn't lying when he said he was changing it up a little.'
(20 minutes later)
After the 20 minutes was up, Mizuki came back around and picked up the tests one by one. He took them back up to Iruka to be graded. As he was grading them, the students were nervous. Iruka-sensei was grading them with passion. After 10 minutes of grading, he stepped from around his desk and began presenting his results to the class.
"Alright class listen up. In my hands are the results of the exams. So I will begin reading the results off." Iruka was reading through the names. Some of them were scoring in the 70% range, some 80 %, and one 90%, but then things started getting interesting towards the end of the tests. These were the ones with the clan heirs and Naruto.
"Aburame Shino: Pass - 94%. Akimichi Choji: Pass - 89%, Haruno Saukra: Pass - 97%, Hyuuga Hinata: Pass - 92%, Inuzuka Kiba: Pass - 82%, Nara Shikamaru: Pass - 71 %, Uchiha Sasuke: Pass - 96%, Uzumaki Naruto: Pass - 99%, and Yamanaka Ino: Pass - 98%. I want to congratulate you all on a wonderful performance. Now onto the taijutsu test, please follow me outside."
With that everyone followed him outside to the taijutsu exam area. This section was dominated by the clans who all scored perfects. After this part, they went inside to begin the ninjutsu segment of the exam.
As they all went inside, they were told to line up along the side of the hallway, and that they would be called in alphabetically. On this part, once again the clan heirs/heiresses, dominated the top of the boards. They all performed the jutsu that they had been taught from their clan as a little bit of extra credit to their standings.
After all was said and done they went back to the classroom where the students began mulling over the results of the exams. Out of the 45 people that had started with them, only 27 had passed.
"Man, this exam was so troublesome. But I had to do this or else my mom would kill me for being lazy, and I don't want to die unless I have a family. *sigh* Oh well." This was Shikamaru being, well, Shikamaru.
"Bah you lazy bum, you should be happy that you passed. I mean all of us passing means that we will get to stay together. I, for one, am looking forward to being with you guys." This came from none other than Naruto. No one knew of his heritage or parentage, or even any of his skills. He didn't want to flaunt them off, knowing that people would get jealous, and people would try to break into where he lived to learn his secrets, so he kept everything he knew under a farce, one that no one knew about, and wouldn't until he was with his team.
But as this was going on, no one noticed the dark smirk coming from Mizuki
'Kukuku, this ought to be interesting. Maybe I can use one of the failures to steal IT for me.'
A/N: Okay Okay! I am sorry for not posting when I said I would, but outside sources prevented me from doing so. Also, I got a review that said it seemed rushed. I will not lie, these first three chapters are going to cover a lot, but after that, it will slow down a lot.
Also another thing. I know I went into a long description on the whole exam and made it sound exquisite. I know its different, but I wanted to try something new. And I am sorry for not writing out the taijutsu or ninjutsu exams. There will be a flashback to those two that will come later in the story, so be patient. Also, I know you are wondering about the whole Naru/Ino pairing and why there hasn't been any dialogue between the two of them. All I will say is this. Everything will come to a head next chapter. So… Ja ne!
Next Chapter - Scroll thieves, secrets revealed, and a hidden surprise Oh my?!
