Well, here is my new chapter. I tried to get it out as soon as possible. Not really. I screwed around a lot.
Thanks,
Caboosetrain.
Disclamer- Don't own anything.
Also note that there is only a single week until graduation.
Edit as of 6/24/14- This is becoming a bad habit huh. Well, I realized that this chapter was bad. Really bad. So I tried to make it more tolerable and added a bit.
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Naruto's Apartment-
The way back to Naruto's apartment from Root headquarters had been a quiet trip. Naruto chose to be quiet and followed his escort, Lizard, with no objections, while Lizard had been quiet naturally just because of his occupation.
Once the two got to their destination safely and most importantly undiscovered, Lizard nodded his head at Naruto and turned to leave. His work was done. Naruto thought otherwise.
" That's it? He's already leaving?" Naruto thought to himself. " HEY, GET BACK HERE"
Naruto would be damned if Lizard left so quickly. He had taken the liberty of thinking of a few questions on the way back to the apartment.
Lizard stopped abruptly and turned around. Under his ANBU mask, his expression would look somewhat surprised. Did the kid really just shout after him?
Naruto's mouth opened up again. Lizard wouldn't allow his cover to be blown. The ANBU disappeared with a burst of speed and appeared behind Naruto. Lizard then threw his hand across Naruto's mouth, effectively muzzling the shout to the minimal. Naruto not liking being silenced began to squirm, but was dragged into his apartment from behind before anything else could occur.
Once inside the apartment, Lizard tossed Naruto on the as ground and shut the door behind him quietly. Hopefully nobody got suspicious due to the yelling. The village would be on High alert because of the Uchiha incident.
" Are you trying to get us caught Uzumaki? Why the hell did you shout after me?" Lizard immediately asked the blonde.
Naruto sneered and sprang up from the ground.
"WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?" Naruto shouted, flailing his arms.
Lizard started to panic. "God damn it kid, you're going to get me killed. Stop with the shouting"
Naruto stopped his arm flailing.
" WHAAAT? What do you mean Lizard face?"
Uh oh. How was he supposed to explain this?
" It means… what we did to you… was illegal?" Lizard told the blonde. " If people found out about us, we could be in trouble". It was sort of the truth anyways, minus the genocide of the Uchiha clan.
It seemed a lot of lies were about to be told.
" ILLE-" Naruto began, but them remembered what Lizard said about the shouting. " Illegal? What do you mean Illegal? Why was it illegal?"
" The Philospher stone we gave you had never been tried on anyone before." Lizard lied. He Really hoped Danzo didn't kill him.
" SO YOU DECIDED TO USE IT ON ME?" Naruto shouted, forgetting about what Lizard had said. " HOW DO I KNOW THAT I WON'T MELT OR SOMETHING NOW? WHAT IF I GROW TWO HEADS? THEN HOW WILL I IMPRESS SAKURA-CHAN? HOW WILL THE VILLAGERS RESPECT ME WITH TWO HEADS?"
Lizard smacked Naruto's one head.
"The philosopher stone obviously worked. Danzo-Sama impaled your throat with a kunai and your still here to talk about it, so stop whining. He gave you a gift, WRATH." Lizard said.
Naruto stood there for a few seconds and let those words sink in. That was all true… and having two heads wouldn't really be ALL that bad now that he thought about it. He could eat double the ramen.
" What did you want me for" Lizard asked
Naruto looked up at the Root Agent.
"What?"
" When you were yelling after me earlier, what did you want?"
" Oh yeah, I almost forgot since, you know, you told me that what you did had never been tested and was illegal." Naruto informed the man. " I only had a few questions."
" Why didn't you ask Danzo" Lizard inquired
Naruto shrugged.
" I don't know. I didn't think of them I guess."
"Ask the questions then."
Naruto smiled at the ANBU's reply and asked away.
" Uhhhh, What do I do now? All Dango told me to do was Graduate and to go to him for training, But I don't even know how to graduate now since I don't have chakra anymore"
Lizard nodded his head at the question. It was a fair one.
" The academy rarely has students with no chakra registered into the Ninja program, but there is an Exam for those students that differentiates from the standard one." Lizard began. "Basically, you take all the tests that are in the standard exam that do not require chakra and are expected to get 95% or above. No exceptions."
Naruto felt his heart drop. How the heck was he going to accomplish that? He sucked with the academy's school work.
Lizard continued to answer Naruto's question. "The tests that you will be taking include the written test, projectile accuracy test, and the taijutsu test."
Naruto nodded his head at that. Maybe the exam wouldn't be too bad after all. The only test he really would have problems with was going to be the written test. While taijutsu was a minor problem due to his lack of form in the Academy taijutsu stance, it was nowhere near as bad as the written test. The projectile accuracy test would be not be a problem. That was about the only thing he actually trained in.
" Any other questions?" The masked ANBU asked, obviously wanting to leave as soon as possible.
" YEAH. Geez, hold your horses Lizard man. What about ANBU? How do I join that?"
HO HO. This was interesting. The brat wants to join ANBU.
" Ordinarily, ANBU are handpicked by the Hokage after reaching the rank of Chunin."
This caused Nauto's interest to plummet.
" AHHHHH, No way im going into ANBU then. Jiji would never let me join up."
This couldn't be more perfect.
" I said Ordinarily Uzumaki. There is another way."
Naruto's interest peaked again.
" Really? How? TELL ME!"
Lizard put a finger over his mask to where his mouth would be to tell Naruto to be quiet and continued.
"Danzo also could handpick you, same rules applying. You would still need to be a Chunin. This also would be done in secrecy of course. We couldn't allow the hokage to find out. He would worry about you. " Lizard informed Naruto. The last part had been a lie of course. The hokage would never allow the jinchuuriki to be a part of ROOT, mainly because of their type of missions they took up, but Naruto didn't know that. " Anything else?"
Naruto, who had been daydreaming about being an awesome assassin, shook his head.
" Good. Now, tomorrow, when you tell your instructor about your loss of Chakra, you need to act like you don't know about the new exam or anything you have learned tonight for that matter. It would look to suspicious if you did. Think of it as extra training. All Shinobi should know how to act and lie well." Lizard told Naruto as he walked towards the door.
" HA, That'll be easy lizard face. I lie all the time when people ask me about my pranks." Naruto replied shamelessly.
"Good. Don't forget to meet up with Danzo-sama after your squads Training sessions once you graduate."
" Yeah, fine. If you guys are going to help me be Hokage, then I wouldn't miss it for anything." Naruto said just as Lizard grasped the door handle.
The door swung open and lizard walked outside, only to be immediately cut off by a Jonin.
The man, newly promoted, stepped up.
" I thought all that shouting was odd. Well, I heard everything. You experimented on the jinchuuriki?"
Lizard remained silent. It would appear that the Jonin was the only one here. He would have to kill the man without making too much noise.
" Alright you ANBU reject, im going to drag your ass to the Interrogation force. Let's see how long you last with Ibiki." The Jonin said, reaching out for Lizard's arm.
What a mistake that was.
Lizard smacked the Jonin's hand away and jumped back a foot. In retaliation, The Jonin grasped one of his kunai, intent on gutting the ANBU like a fish, while Lizard went into the standard Root stance.
The Jonin shot forward and flung his kunai arm in an arc, releasing the sharp weapon swiftly at almost point blank range. Lizard dodged it and advanced toward the now weaponless Jonin and smashed an open palm strike on his jaw. The Jonin's head was thrown backward, and before he could bring himself into a stance of his own was struck again, only this time with a knee to the ball sac. There was no clean fighting in the Shinobi world.
"Ughghghghg"
The Jonin dropped to the ground grasping his nuts. It was truly a devastating blow. Not letting the chance slide, Lizard completed a set of hand signs and brought a hand to his mouth, similar to how Sasuke completes signature move, fire ball jutsu.
"Futon- Vacuum Sphere"
A row of small spheres of condensed air shot out of his mouth, blowing off his mask and pierced the man on the ground multiple times, much like modern day bullets. A handy jutsu for an ANBU because of its quietness.
Naruto watched in awe. The two men had moved so quickly. Was this what ninja could be capable of after a few years of training? And that jutsu was so Awesome.
Lizard turned to Naruto, who still was in the apartment.
" Go to bed Uzumaki, im going to have dispose the body and clear up any traces of blood before anybody realizes he is missing."
The blonde nodded. He wasn't going to argue with a man that just kicked in another man's nuts. What an interesting night.
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
The next day-
Naruto ran inside the academy as fast as he could. He was running because he was slightly late due to sleeping in on accident. No matter how much the blonde tried, he couldn't stop thinking about last night's events.
The hallways were empty, which was not a good sign. Class must have already started. Naruto sprinted to his classroom then stopped. What will happen once he steps through? Will everybody sympathize with him because he was missing an eye and couldn't use chakra? Would he finally get some attention? The anticipation was killing him. With no more thoughts tugging on his mind and a huge smile, Naruto kicked the door open.
"HONEY, IM HOMEEEEEE"
. . .
The reactions were not expected.
The class didn't yell at him like they usually did. They stared at him quietly. A few classmates even had tearful eyes. Odd.
"…Glad you could make it Naruto. I was just addressing the class about a classmate of yours. If you would kindly go sit in your seat." Iruka told Naruto, non-angrily, with his hand on his hips.
"Iruka didn't yell at me? What's going on?" Naruto pondered. " Uhhh, ok."
Once Naruto was situated, Iruka continued.
"As I was saying, Sasuke will not be in class until next week on Graduation day because of personal matters as im sure you are all aware of." Iruka told the class, glancing at the tearful pink and blond haired girls in the back corner of the room.
Naruto raised his hand
"What happened to Sasuke-teme"
Everybody turned and faced Naruto. Naruto could practically taste the hostility in the air.
"What? What did I say?"
Iruka sighed. "Naruto, almost all of Sasuke's clan was massacred last night. The only survivors were Sasuke and his brother Itachi, who luckily was on a mission when the massacre took place."
Naruto couldn't believe his ears. Sure, Sasuke was an arrogant prick sometimes, but having almost his entire family exterminated? That's tough.
" Erm, Is Sasuke ok?" Naruto asked carefully.
Iruka nodded his head. "Yes, Sasuke was able to escape the Uchiha compound and contact a Chunin, who in return contacted the Hokage."
"That's good I guess" Naruto told the Chunin.
" YOU GUESS. YOU GUESS?" Someone shouted in the background.
Naruto turned around in his seat just as one of the tearful girls, Ino, got up from hers.
" THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY AFTER SASUKE-KUN'S ENTIRE CLAN WAS NEARLY KILLED OFF?"
Gee. What did he keep saying wrong?
" Eh?"
" YOU BAKA! I BET YOU KNEW ALL ALONG AND WORE THAT EYE PATCH TODAY JUST TO TRY AND GET MORE ATTENTION THAN SASUKE-KUN!" The female blonde shouted, earning a few cheers from a few fan girls. " WHO KNEW YOU COULD BE SO LOW "
Naruto stood up from his seat. What is wrong with these people?
"I messed up on one of my pranks when I was using a seal. It took my eye." Naruto said, starting up his string of lies.
This seemed to infuriate the female.
"YOU LIAR! LIFT YOUR EYE PATCH AND PROVE IT" Ino Yelled, not realizing how ironic her statement was.
Naruto began to tremble with rage. Why is she acting so ridiculous? How can a person even act like this?
"No."
Ino grinned smugly. Her flow of tears had stopped long ago.
"I knew you were lying."
There were claps and shouts of more agreement around the room.
Iruka watched from afar, revolted. These children were psychotic. Was it even safe to send these kids off into combat? He had to stop this nonsense.
" INO. THAT'S ENOUGH. Kami. Let's just begin today's lesson"
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Naruto sat in his seat and zoned out Iruka like usual during the lesson. Instead, he thought about what had just unfolded. None of that was supposed to happen. Everybody was supposed to be nice and caring about his "injury".
Movement brought Naruto out of his thoughts as he watched students get up from their seats and line up in the front of the Classroom in an orderly fashion. That could only mean one thing. Jutsu review. Great. Now he would have to tell everybody he couldn't use chakra anymore. If Naruto had learned anything from Iruka-sensei's dumb lessons, it would be History repeats itself. It was almost guaranteed that he would be made fun of for not being able to use chakra anymore and questioned about being an attention hog. Nonetheless, Naruto stood up along with the rest of the students and got in the back of the line. Best for last, right?
" Alright class. Since Graduation is next week and I know you all have been working really hard, I thought we could do something fun and easy for the next ten minutes. I want you all to Henge into anyone you like." Iruka announced to the line of future Shinobi. " Choji, you're first".
The docile student nodded and put his hands into the respective hand sign, and with a big poof, turned into a perfect replication of Iruka.
" Superb Choji. The only mistake I can find is that the eye color is slightly off , but other than that, the henge is perfect. Return to your seat"
The big boned child nodded and went to sit down and another student was called up and until.
The line of students thinned and Naruto's turn with the Henge grew nearer and nearer. Notable henge's of student's incuded the Sandaime, Tsunade of the Sannin, and Sasuke.
Naruto couldn't help but find this situation amusing. The henge had been Naruto's best Jutsu if his Sexy-no-Jutsu was anything to go by. Hell, the Sexy-no-Jutsu had the power to rival the most powerful of all Jutsu. Naruto sighed in his head. He would miss it a lot.
" Naruto, you're up."
"It's show time"
Naruto nodded his head to Iruka and strutted to where he was to stand for the Jutsu. No fear.
10 seconds passed by with no Handsigns being formed.
"Naruto is there a problem " Iruka-sensei asked the Sin.
Naruto began to stare at the floor. The no fear policy had been discarded.
"Now or Never I guess".
" I can't use my Chakra anymore" Naruto said.
Groans arose from around the Classroom.
" Naruto, just do the Jutsu"
"Are you still going for more attention?"
"Hurry up."
Iruka blinked. He had never liked Naruto, choosing to ignore him on most occasions instead, but he was starting to lose his patience. First with the Eye patch nonsense and now a prank? Naruto did indeed have a trait that all Shinobi direly need. Perseverance.
" Really? Why don't you try anyways."
Naruto exhaled the air out of his lungs and looked up from the ground.
" OOOOOOOOK "
Naruto put his hands into the correct hand sign and… nothing happened.
More Seconds passed.
Iruka put a hand on his face, clearly trying to hide his irritation with the child.
Naruto decided to break the awkward silence.
" I SWEAR Iruka-sensei, I haven't been able to use chakra since I messed up on my prank." Naruto lied.
"Uh huh"
" It's TRUE" Naruto explained again. It technically is anyways. "I first thought that I wouldn't be able to be a Shinobi anymore, but someone told me that there was a Genin who wasn't able use Chakra. He had to take a different test right?"
This grabbed Iruka's attention. Only one student has ever graduated without Chakra, and he had been a student of his the year prior. That was a little too much information for a prank of Naruto's. Was Naruto actually serious?
"Are you talking about Lee?" Iruka questioned the Jinchuuriki.
Naruto shrugged his shoulders.
" Maybe. I was just told that there was a Genin with no chakra that was a year older than me."
"Naruto, Lee excelled in taijutsu to the point where he was at a Chunin level. He also aced the other two tests with 100%'s. Ive seen your performance, and while when you had chakra you had a chance to graduate, I don't think I can consciously let you go on through. Im going to have to hold you back a year."
Cheers erupted from a large quantity of the students. They had unashamedly listened to the entire conservation.
Naruto lost his composure. This also wasn't supposed to happen.
"WHAAAT! IM GOING TO BE HOKAGE THOUGH! GIVE ME A CHANCE SENSEI! PLEASE! YOU HAVE TO LET ME ATLEAST TAKE THE GRADUATION TEST! WHATS THE HARM IN THAT? THERES ONLY A WEEK LEFT IN THE SCHOOL YEAR! PLEASE" Naruto begged, almost falling to his knees, barely holding in tears. This wasn't acting.
Iruka stood there and thought about it. Naruto brought up a few fair points. If Naruto wasn't ready in a week, he wouldn't be able to pass the test. If he was ready, then be it.
" Alright Naruto. I'll let you take the Graduation exam. But yours will be slightly different from the rest of the students."
Naruto sniffed. That was an extremely close call. His dream of being Hokage was almost crushed in 20 seconds.
" For real?"
Iruka nodded. "Yes, but we'll have to talk about your exam after class. Ive wasted too much time as it is. Return to your seat."
Naruto nodded to show he understood and obliged Iruka's request.
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
*Ding* *DING* *DING*
The three bells that signified the end of the school day had rang, and the academy students got up from their seats and began to file out of the Classroom to head home, but not before muttering obscenity's to Naruto as they walked by his desk. Once everybody was gone from the room, Naruto stood up himself and headed down the stairs to where Iruka sat waiting.
Naruto was the first to speak.
" What's so special about my Graduation exam? " Naruto asked, getting straight to the point. He really needed to get out of here to train.
Iruka similarly needed to get out. He was needed for a mission. The Sensei began to put away student's graded papers. He would need to multi-task if he was going to make it in time for the briefing.
" Well, Because you have lost the use of chakra, you will not be taking the tests that need chakra. Instead, you will have only the written test, the projectile accuracy test, and the taijutsu test."
Naruto fist pumped the air confidently.
"THAT'S EAAASY. I'll have everything down pat by next week." The blonde shouted.
Iruka frowned. Naruto was too careless.
" It's not as easy as it sounds Naruto. You will need to be able to get 95% or above on all the tests." The Sensei said.
Naruto put his hands behind his heads.
" Well, Maybe I could use some help." The blonde said sheepishly.
" Naruto, I am your Sensei. Im here to make sure you're ready for any situation once you're a Shinobi. What do you need help with?"
Naruto sure was glad that Iruka was his Sensei now. Nobody really helped him before.
" I need help with my Taijutsu. I can't get the stance down, and I "lost" my taijutsu scroll." Naruto said. He hadn't really lost it. He burned it to a crisp when he tried out Sasuke's fire ball jutsu.
Iruka frowned and opened a shelf on his desk and took out a scroll and handed it to Naruto.
" Don't lose this one Naruto. You need to be more responsible. If that had been a report on a misson, you would be discharged."
" OK, yeah. Fine. I have to go Iruka-sensei. Thanks for the scroll."
Iruka nodded and hurried out of the classroom, determined not to be late, leaving the blonde to his thoughts.
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
God this whole chapter was horrible to type out. Jesus. I didn't know what to write at all. Worst case of writers block ive ever had ha ha ha. Anyhow, I hope the chapter was decent. Now, I guess I'll talk about the chapter. I know ive only given a week for Naruto to study and train for the graduation test. Honestly, I think that's perfect for him. In the anime/Manga, he mastered the Rasengan in record time compared to his dad, the Yondaime (who took three years to master it), and Jiraiya (Don't know how long it took him… Cough). That shows me he can master the academy's taijutsu that he has already had adequate training for in record time as well. The written test is no problem also. I can tell you from personal experience that Cramming for huge tests works out…most of the time. That's Naruto's plan. I imagine that Naruto was efficient enough in Kunai/Shuriken throwing in the anime by the time he graduated, so he's not too worried and that's what I'll roll by.
Im going to bed now. … Good Night.
Yours truly,
Caboosetrain