Look what someone said about the last chap:
DD- So Naruto is some kind of necromancer with lame lines and no intent to kill?
You'd think they show some originality, I mean, come on! They even used my name! yes he is some kind of necromancer but Edgar Alan Poe is not lame and he's seven, just summoned a shit load of bone soldiers after suffering from emotional trauma. He passed out before he could give the order to kill! I feel better now…I don't plan on doing that for every flame, but that was just too….idiotic to go uncriticized. Any flames actually pointing something out that I messed up on will be appreciated, but flames such as the one above will be ignored. Plenty of people like this story and I don't care if idiots don't like it. So there. Now, let's get to the thing your actually here to read…the story!
"Is everyone here? We need to do team placements now." Iruka called to the class. Neji Hyuuga stood up.
"I believe Naruto isn't here yet." He sat down as soon as he answered the question.
"We'll wait a few more minutes for him then." Iruka missed how the boy acted a few years ago, when he was still friends with Hideaki. Back then, even though he was quiet, he still talked. But now, you couldn't get Naruto to talk for anything; he went completely mute after that day. After numerous days of having to look for Naruto in the crowd of kids, taking time out of teaching time to do so, Iruka had assigned Neji to speak for him in class. It saved quite a lot of time when he was taking roll.
Even though no one had heard his voice in years, he was still a good ninja. His grades in the class were only second to Neji himself and even that was by a small margin. Iruka wouldn't worry for him when he became a true ninja, but he was worried about the mental stress of going a missions. His Watchers still come with him everywhere and the dog even growls at anyone who gets to close to Naruto. Iruka has even see the snake bite someone for glaring at the boy. The whole class soon learned that he wasn't someone to mess with.
"Here we are. Sorry Iruka, I just needed to borrow Naruto for a bit." Iruka turned to see an ANBU in his doorway. He didn't bother to ask what the ANBU had needed Naruto for. He had once asked the Hokage where Naruto went when he wasn't at school. The aging man had told him that the ANBU would bring him down to Ibiki if he had a criminal they couldn't crack. Iruka could see the effectiveness of the tactic; he still flinched every time he saw one of the skeletons move on their own. Which they did a lot.
"I don't mind, but you almost caused him to miss team placements." The ANBU scratched at his head in an embarrassed way.
"Well, let's hope I don't make being late a habit. Anyway, I've to go now. Nice job on him Naruto." The ANBU reached up to pat the boy on the head and received a snake bite on the hand for his trouble. He walked out without a word as Naruto calmly walked over to his seat with his dog right behind him.
"Okay, now that everyone is here, we can begin. Team 1..."
'I hate it when they touch me.'
'That's why I bit him.'
'Thank you. Whose team do you think I'll be on?'
'The practice is to put the two highest with the lowest.'
'I'm lowest.'
'How do you figure that?' Crow finally stuck her beak into the conversation; Snake talked the most, while Dog and Crow only spoke unless they were overly curious or answering Naruto's questions. Snake was the one who liked to talk, he could start a conversation over anything and hold it over nothing.
'Your scores are very high Naruto.' Dog added. His "voice" was full of the care he felt towards his charge.
'Yes, but I missed part of the exam and barely passed it. Those are the only grades they look at.' Naruto had been called out after he was done with the accuacy portion of the test, leaving the jutsu and most on the written tests incomplete. On the other hand, the prisoner was easy to break though. All he needed to do was walk in, have Snake slither off of him and onto the enemy nin and walk out. By the time the snake had wrapped around the mans neck, he was screaming like a little girl. Ibiki even commented that he was even more ruthless that day, but Naruto took no notice of him as he was guided out.
'Then you'll probably be paired with the white eyed kid.' Snake didn't see the point of learning Naruto's classmates' names.
'Neji? He's not that bad.' Neji didn't seem to mind Naruto and Iruka had assigned him to answer for Naruto, which he was very grateful for. Naruto didn't see him as a friend, he couldn't have another one of those, but he was glad he wasn't forced to talk.
"Team Three; Hyuuga Neji, Tenaska Tenten (that's a lot of tens!), and Uzumaki Naruto. Your sensei will be meeting you at Training Ground 12 and whishes you to go there immediately." They got up and left as soon as he was done talking. As they were walking, Tenten got to examine the mysterious boy that was Naruto, who she had never really taken a good look at. He did nothing to harm anyone who didn't mess with him, but she feared him enough to stay away from him. The skeletons were odd to say the least, he even had a 5' body and thin frame that made him look like a skeleton himself.
Naruto didn't wear normal shinobi gear, except the headband that hung around his neck. Instead of light weight clothing and equipment pouches, he wore a thick black coat, buttoned all the way up, black pants, and boots. His snake was slung over one shoulder and wrapped partly around his left arm, the bird was standing on his right shoulder, and the dog walked right behind him. Tenten had to admit that she liked the dog the most, but only because it was completely bone, the other two still had flesh connected to them. She found it extremely creepy.
While Tenten was examining Naruto, Naruto himself was examining the other two with him. The girl wore a pink shirt, that obviously came from overseas, green capris, sandals, and her hair pulled up into two buns. Overall, Naruto thought she looked like a panda. Neji was wearing a very nondescript beige coat, black shorts and wrappings on his right arm and leg. Overall, Snake thought he was boring.
"This is the place." Neji stopped them at the edge of a large training field. It was like most of the fields in Konoha, a patch of land surrounded by dense trees and a creek running along one side. In the middle stood two jonin. As the team walked up, they got a better look at the men. Because they stood shoulder to shoulder, Naruto thought they were twins. But upon closer examination, Naruto could see that one looked sickly while the other looked full of life. They both wore the standard jonin outfit, the only difference being the senbon in one's mouth and the katana strapped to the other's back. The sickly one spoke first.
"Hello, my name is Gekko Hayate." He settled himself down on the grass and motioned for the others to do so as well. When they were all sitting in a loose circle, the two took stock of the genin. The other jonin was the first to notice that Naruto sat away from everyone else, it wasn't a large distance, but it was enough that he wondered if the boy didn't like his teammates. He also noticed the animals were sitting around him in a way that they were closer to the team then Naruto himself was.
"I'm Shiranui Genma."
'What can you gain from them Crow?' The bird had very good eyes and had taken to describing people's personalities based on how they acted and what they wore. She had yet to be wrong about any of the ones she had judged.
'Hayate looks pale and sick with those dark circles under his eyes, but he doesn't feel sick to me. He gaze is strong and stern, they hold no anger or expectations. He is one who rules by his own judgment and will not be swayed by others words.'
'I can't sense any physical ailment in his system. What of the other one?'
'I can't get much from him, but he wears his headband backwards. That expresses a free-spirited and easy going attitude. Although, when push comes to shove, he gets serious and will not hesitate to kill.'
"Okay, together we will be training you until another teacher can be found." Genma stopped when he saw Tenten's hand go up and allowed her to ask her question.
"What do you mean?"
"We will only be temporarily teaching you. Normally, a jonin will take command of a squad and teach them while taking missions. Lately, the village has been getting higher missions and all of the jonin are needed to take them. We will teach until a more permanent teacher can be found. Now, I want you to introduce yourselves." He motioned for Neji to start.
"I am Hyuuga Neji. I specialize in the Juken and poses the Byakugan. I-"
"That's all we need." Neji looked angry at being interrupted, so Genma tried to pacify him. "This cell won't be like most, some days I will be teaching, other Hayate will be teaching. It will go like this for days to even months, until another teacher can be found. We are here to teach you, not get attached; we only need to know how you fight." While he was talking, Genma's eyes grew hard and his voice lost its carefree sound. Neji knew he couldn't argue with that.
"Well, I'm Tenaska Tenten. I specialize in weapon and my family's taijutsu."
"What is the -cough- style based on?" Hayate's cough threw Tenten off, but she recovered quickly.
"Um, mostly flexibility and fast movements. The whole point is to avoid injury and gain enough space to pull out a weapon."
"So -cough- it is only used -cough- when you become disarmed?"
"Yes. Sensei, are you okay? That cough sounds bad."
"It's just a cough."
"Will it effect your ability to fight?" Neji broke in this time. He was curious to see if he would have to watch after his own sensei if he got sick during a mission.
"In a very -cough- serious fight, maybe."
"Liar." Everyone turned to find the source of the raspy and weak voice; it was Naruto. The first thing that they noticed was his eyes. They had turned a more violet color and were trained on Hayate. The jonin under the scrutiny of Naruto's gaze looked surprised at what Naruto had said. "You are perfectly healthy. Liar." His eyes went back to blue and his Watchers got even closer to the team.
"How…w-what happened?" Hayate and Genma were both staring at Naruto, "How could you tell?" Hayate spoke without the cough this time. Naruto didn't speak.
"Well, are you going to answer?" Genma's raised voice caused Dog to walk forward and Snake to move up into a striking position on Naruto's shoulder.
"Um, sensei? You might want to back up and calm down." They both looked over to Tenten. "Naruto's Watchers, the skeletons, will attack if they feel you are a threat to Naruto. I've seen the dog rip someone's throat out for throwing a rock at him." The two surprised jonin lowered their voices, but refused to sit back.
"How can he control bone?" Hayate asked.
"Why doesn't he answer?" Genma asked at the same time.
"It's a bloodline." Neji decided to speak this time. "On the first day of the Academy, he explained that they, the animals, are his Watchers. They were formed from his bloodline and protect him. As far as I can tell, he can control any dead bones and he can also summon things from another plain of existence."
"What kind of things?"
"All we have seen was a squadron of soldiers, but he may be able to summon a lot more things. We just don't know."
"I understand so far, but why doesn't he answer?"
"A few years back, his only friend was killed, and he went mute. That's the first time I've heard him talk in a long time." Tenten had answered, and Genma noted the sadness in her voice.
'So someone actually cares what happens, how surprising.'
"That doesn't explain how he knew the cough was fake."
"That's just another thing we just don't know. One time when Iruka was sick, an older shinobi taught us instead. Naruto told him that he had less than a week to live. Two days later, he passed away from a heart attack."
"That's kinda creepy" At this, Dog growled at Genma. "How can it growl if it doesn't have a throat?" Tenten and Neji just shrugged, but they didn't look surprised.
"Well, I think we should talk more about the training of this team. There will be no secondary exam, but we want to see your skills. So we will have a fight. Hayate and I against the three of you."
"Sensei, what do you mean 'secondary exam'?" Tenten asked. She had never heard of a secondary exam.
"Usually a secondary exam is held to weed out anyone not ready to be a genin. This year, it will not happen because only enough people to make three teams passed this year. If we were to lose anymore genin, we would be weakened. The Hokage saw it fit to allow all teams to go forward with training without a secondary exam."
"Let's start." Hayate said as he stood. As soon as they had all risen, they were gone. Genma and Hayate were left alone in the center of the clearing. "Who do you think will come first?"
"I don't know." They got their answer when the sky rained senbon and kunai. Genma dodged as Hayate deflected the ones after him with the katana he drew from the sheath on his back. The weapon shower soon stopped and the two faced the direction they came from. Genma jumped forward into the trees and faced Tenten. She looked scared but oddly secure at the same time.
'They can't use lethal force, but there is no way I can win.' She dodged to the left to avoid Genma's own kunai and came face to face with Hayate. She was surrounded, Hayate in front and Genma behind. She took that only way out she saw; down. She viciously stomped the branch under her and with a loud crack, it fell. Twisting wildly, she managed to jump off of trees to slow her decent, but she still hit the ground with enough force to make her lose her breath. Spots appeared in her vision, but she could still see Hayate and Genma land beside her and help her up.
"That was foolish. But you have potential, that's for sure." Tenten didn't hear the complement though, as she had blacked out. "I didn't expect her to have the strength to break the branch." Genma just smiled.
"Her leg is going to give her a hell of a problem when she wakes up." They walked back to the middle and deposited Tenten in the middle behind them. They waited for ten minutes for the next attack, this time from Neji. He ran at Genma and engaged him in a taijutsu match. 'He's pretty good.' Genma found that he was fast enough to dodge the genin's strikes, but he couldn't land any strikes of his own. Neji would twist and turn to dodge the blow and use the momentum to add more speed onto his own hits. The bout ended when Genma jumped back from Neji's juken strike and Hayate ran forward and held his blade to Neji's throat.
"Yield."
"I forfeit."
"Good." Hayate pulled his blade back and motioned for Neji to sit next to Tenten who had awakened at this point. Genma decided to talk while they waited for Naruto to attack.
"So, do you two have any idea on how Naruto fights?"
"No. I've never seen him fight before. His Watchers seem to have minds of their own but still seem connected somehow."
Suddenly, the ground beneath them began to shake and a loud thumping sound could be heard. To Genma, it sounded like a heard of horses were galloping and he ended up being half right. To their left, three skeletons busted out of the underbrush and headed strait for them. The skeletons didn't look like anything they had ever seen; they had the haunches and back legs of horses, the chest looked to be from a dog, as did the head, but it had , and were around the size of a large wolf. The oddest thing about them though was their front two legs, they were a long bone that was sharpened at the end. The creatures were surprisingly fast despite their oddities.
"What are those things?" Genma asked as he threw kunai at the things, hoping to at least slow their charge down. Unfortunately, it didn't work and the beasts were soon on them. They acted as one and jumped towards the two jonin, slashing with their front legs. Hayate managed to parry one's slash, but another came up behind him and head butted him in the back. As he fell, Hayate stabbed the creature in the forehead and it let out a loud whine before it fell to the ground. The one that came up behind him stood on top of him and was about to rip his throat with its teeth when it whined as well and fell to the side. Genma stood over him with a kunai in his hand and helped him up. The third one had seen what happened to its pack mates and decided to back off.
"It seems that you have to hit the skull with a lot of force to kill them."
"Very deadly." From behind them, Tenten let out a scream. Genma spun around while Hayate kept his eyes on the pacing creature in front of them. He saw Naruto's snake wrapped around Tenten's chest. It's head was near her neck and it looked ready to strike.
"G-g-get this thing off of me!" Her yell only caused the snake to tighten even more. Genma turned to Neji, to ask him what had happened, but saw that he was in trouble as well. The dog had him pinned to the ground and had its jaws close enough to his exposed throat to cause him to sweat. Genma heard a screeching sound and looked up to see the bird coming towards his head, it talons were aimed right for his face. He jumped back to dodge, but ran into Hayate's back in the process. The swordsman stumbled, and the creature used the opening to hit the jonin a glancing blow on his arm. Right before the beast was about to rip out Hayate's throat, it suddenly was absorbed into the ground. Genma was looking at Neji and Tenten, so he saw the bones quickly get away from the genin and slither/run off into the bushes.
"Okay, I'm confused. Why did they go away?" Naruto walked out of the bushes at that time. His eyes looked a little tired, but his Watchers were back to their normal spots. Naruto held up his hand and showed them a paper pad he was holding.
"I won." was printed on the top sheet in big letters.
"I guess you did." Genma and Hayate were the first to recover from the fight. Tenten and Neji needed a few more minutes before they could stand up and join the other three.
"Okay, Hayate and I will think of a way to train you tonight. Tomorrow we will start. For now, go home and recover."
--
Naruto slowly walked to his tree house. He wouldn't dare call it a home, it was just the place he slept. It held no more value than a spot on the ground. He moved aside the piece of bark that served as a door, it never stormed in Konoha so he didn't need a heavy door, and walked into his main room. In the middle of the room stood his only friend.
"Hello Hideaki. I became a ninja today, just like you wanted to." His raspy voice echoed slightly in the hollow tree. Hideaki was the only one he didn't mind talking to. Everyone one else would only hear his voice if he absolutely needed to say something. The only reason he became a ninja was for Hideaki, it was his dream. It was the least he could do for the boy he killed. Hideaki, as if sensing his thoughts, reached over and hugged Naruto around the waste.
"I remember when I was shorter than you Hideaki. Now, you only reach up to my waist. Anyway, I'll be going on missions now, so do you want to go with me?" He nodded and Naruto swore he would take him wherever he went. He couldn't leave Hideaki alone anymore. After all, the last time he left him alone, he died. 'No, I won't think about it.'
Later, Naruto collapsed into his bed, sobbing. He had run out of chakra and Hideaki had collapsed. After all, skeletons can only move so long as energy was given to them, and Naruto had no more. "Hideaki…I-I'm sorry…"
Wow, that was sad. The scene was supposed to be like Sasori and his parents' puppets, sorry if it didn't work out. Anyway, Hideaki is back so stop crying, Dark Orb is alive! (kinda…) There's a poll on my bio that has to do with this story, so VOTE! Please? Don't make me use the puppy eyes no jutsu!
Ax