A Touch of Death
By: I.K.A. Valian
Chapter Three: Team Seven
Summary
Uzumaki Naruto was blessed three times the day he was born. His father blessed him with the power of human sacrifice. His mother blessed him with her love. The Shinigami blessed him with a shard of his own soul.
A Soul Blade.
Last Time
Naruto got his forehead protector from the Hokage and officially became a Genin. After visiting Iruka in the hospital and worshiping the ramen gods, Naruto went home knowing a kinship he'd never felt before, with Iruka his 'brother-from-another-mother' and Ayame his 'terrifying-with-a-soup-ladle' sister.
Later that week, the day before team assignments, Naruto handed in his Ninja Registration papers to the Hokage, and in the process, met Sarutobi 'badass-in-training' Konohamaru. Konohamaru was yearning for recognition, just like Naruto. Both of them sought the prestigious honor of getting to put on that fancy hat that the Old Man wears like a BOSS. Konohamaru begged and begged, and finally, Naruto accepted Konohamaru as his Apprentice for the day. After teaching Konohamaru the Sexy Jutsu, Naruto proved he was on his way to becoming a BOSS himself by defeating Konohamaru's Jounin Tutor with his brand new Harem Jutsu. After that display of power, and with the day nearly over, Konohamaru declared he was no longer Naruto's Apprentice, but his rival for front cover of Badass Weekly… and the title of Hokage.
The next day…
Naruto sat in class, chuckling to himself with a huge grin on his face. Today would be the day. The day that he finally got his team and took his first step toward becoming a ninja. Toward becoming Hokage.
"Huh?"
Naruto looked up at the kid, a young man who he clearly recognized as one of his tormentors, and tilted his head in askance. The kid in front of him, brown hair and one ugly face, always seemed to take pride in calling Naruto names and laughing at his misfortune in class. Naruto, of course, did his best to make people think he was an idiot and overacted all of the time to keep anyone from noticing how lonely and sad he was.
"What are you doing here, Naruto?" the kid asked, as if Naruto's name was insulting enough by itself. "This place is for people who graduated, not losers like you!"
"Hehe," Naruto chuckled and grinned up at the kid. Smiling, he'd found out, was the best way to deprive these assholes of their victories. You won if you didn't show them that they had hurt you. No matter how much they hurt him inside, he just grinned back at them like he won the lottery. Still projecting his happy face, he lifted his hand up and dinged his fingernail against the metal of his forehead protector. "See that? I graduated alright."
"Hmph," the kid muttered. "I guess they'll let anyone graduate now. You probably cheated."
Naruto scowled. He'd won the first round, but there really was no way to beat someone who openly doubted your claims without getting up and defending yourself. "I didn't cheat!" he shouted. "I passed fair and square!"
"You can't even make a decent clone! Not even one!" the kid shouted back. "How the hell could you have passed?!"
"I can too make clones!" Naruto shouted, shooting to his feet to prove it. He never got a chance because right at that moment, the girl of his dreams grabbed the kid by the back of his shirt and tossed him bodily out of the way. Pink hair, handsome kissable forehead, sparkling green eyes, yep, it was Haruno Sakura.
Naruto grinned as Sakura moved closer to him. Maybe, if this was a dream come true, she was going to hug him or give him a kiss. As soon as Sakura got close enough, her eyes hardened, and Naruto felt a thrill run up his spine as she reached out to grab him.
'Duck!'
His body acted on whatever command that had been and he ducked right underneath Sakura's grab. She clearly wasn't expecting this. Having missed Naruto, she was thrown off balance, and began to windmill her arms and teeter back and forth dangerously.
"Ahhh!" she cried out as she fell forward, right on top of Naruto's crouched form. Miraculously, she didn't hurt herself. Naruto, for his part, was simply too stunned from ducking for no reason and because Sakura was now on top of him. "Naruto!" she screamed as she struggled to push herself off of him. "Get the hell out of my way!"
"Huh?" he asked, a dimwitted blankness stretched across his face.
After finally pushing herself back into a standing position, which wasn't easy considering the space between one row of seats and desks was barely wide enough for only one person to move around, she put her hands on her hips and glared at him. Her cheeks were tinged red from a combination of the exertion to get back up and embarrassment from what happened. "Get the hell out of my way! I'm going to sit next to Sasuke!"
Naruto slowly stood up from his crouch and looked behind him. Black fowl hair, onyx eyes, pale face, perpetual scowl, and a blue shirt with the red and white fan symbol printed on the back. Yep, there was that broody Bastard. Capitol B. Uchiha Sasuke. Why Naruto hadn't noticed him before now, he didn't really know, but now that he did, he wished he'd have sat somewhere else. Naruto quickly looked around the room and found… no other empty seats. Every one of the seats were taken except for the seat he was in, the one next to it along the aisle, and the one next to the window that Sasuke occupied.
Before Sakura could reach for Naruto again, he hopped up onto the desks and got right in front of Sasuke. The Uchiha was staring straight ahead with his arms resting on the desk and his hands clasped together in front of his face. Naruto got in real close, crouched down, to stare into Sasuke's eyes.
"N-Naruto!" Sakura screeched. Other girls quickly noticed the brazen act, and started shouting at Naruto as well. "Get away from Sasuke-kun, you idiot!" Sakura shouted. The other girls also were shouting things along similar lines.
Naruto glared at Sasuke. Sasuke, the petulant Bastard that he was, glared right back. They both stayed like that for several moments, just glaring at each other. It was almost as if both could feel the tension growing in the air around them.
"Dead Last," Sasuke sneered finally.
"Bastard," Naruto snarled right back.
Unknown to Naruto, the kid sitting in front of Sasuke leaned back in his chair. It was something the kid had done a lot and gotten in trouble for. It couldn't be helped that the kid liked leaning back on only two legs of a chair. Since none of the teachers were here right now, and the boy was enjoying his conversation with his friends, he just did it subconsciously. Having leaned back, the kid bumped into Naruto's butt.
Naruto, shoved forward, wouldn't have been able to avoid the lip smacking kiss with his hated rival were the voice from before not to have shouted, 'Jump!' at that very moment. All of the girls stared in horror as Naruto came within five centimeters of actually kissing their wet dream guy, Sasuke. They all simultaneously sighed in relief when Naruto jumped straight up and over everyone.
Sakura, not caring about Naruto any longer since he wasn't in the way now, quickly assumed the seat she wanted. There, she proceeded to give the boy next to her googly eyes as she obviously tried to woo him with her 'cuteness'. She failed spectacularly, as proven by how Sasuke turned his head slightly to watch the scenery out of the window to his left.
Naruto noticed all of this before he safely flipped and landed behind the final row. Now in a stable crouch, he breathed deeply, from both the adrenalin coursing through his body and the shock of what had just happened.
Nearly kissing Sasuke? Yuck. Jumping for no apparent reason, just like he ducked for no apparent reason moments before? So weird it was beginning to scare him. "What the hell?" he asked in a low voice.
"Quiet down, class!" Iruka announced from the front where he'd just entered. "I'm glad… wait, where is Naruto?"
"I'm right here," Naruto said, quickly pushing aside any of his thoughts on the weird things happening to him at the moment. He stood up and raced down to the seat next to Sakura. Seated there, he grinned down at Iruka who was giving him 'the look' which indicated his displeasure at Naruto for being out of his seat.
"Beginning today, you are all real ninja," Iruka said once Naruto was in his seat. "But you are still just rookie genin. The hard part has only just begun. Soon enough, you'll be assigned duties by the village. Right now, you'll be put into three man Genin teams that will be taught by a Jounin Sensei. You will follow that sensei's instructions as you complete your assigned duties." Iruka coughed into his hand, taking note of the disinterested looks of every boy in the class, and how every girl was now looking in Sasuke's direction. Iruka grinned as he prepared to crush almost every girl's dreams. "For the sake of balance, you have been sorted into teams that even out your strengths. Team one…"
Naruto yawned as he slumped forward on his desk and half dozed, half paid attention. He really hoped he could get into a team with Sakura. But then again, as long as he didn't get into a team with that Grade A Bastard, then he'd probably be alright, even if he still wasn't with Sakura then. Maybe Shikamaru and Choji would be good teammates. They had cut class with him before along with Kiba. Kiba was really into his macho man thing though, so he didn't think the dog boy would be a good teammate. Maybe Akamaru?
"Team Seven," Iruka announced. "You will consist of Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura…"
Naruto jumped to his feet and shouted "Yes!"
Sakura slumped in her seat and muttered "Damn!"
"…And Uchiha Sasuke," Iruka finished.
Naruto felt whatever happiness he was experiencing being ripped away like a too thin blanket on a cold night by an evil orphanage nanny. It was almost like he could hear that vile bitch's cackling laughter echoing through the room as despair settled into his heart. He fell back into his chair and stared ahead with an open mouth, not completely able to comprehend what had just happened. It was like his worst nightmare and his dream all rolled together into some kind of fucked up super nightmare.
Next to him, Sakura was now on her feet and dancing. She mixed it up by spinning around and pointing victoriously at each of the other girls in the class, who were either glaring hatefully back or just moaning in despair. One girl got an, "In your face, Ami!" and Yamanaka Ino, in particular, got a rather obnoxious 'V' for victory sign.
Naruto ignored this in favor of letting his imagination conjure up all the horrible images of working together with Sasuke, who'd just constantly belittle him and do everything alone. The images made his hands curl up in anger. Like hell he'd let Sasuke get all the glory!
Naruto looked sharply to his left and found that the Uchiha hadn't moved much. In fact, it appeared that Sasuke hadn't moved at all the entire time. He was still staring straight ahead. Naruto narrowed his eyes and tried to guess what the glaring Uchiha was thinking about. From the dismissive way he was ignoring everyone around him, Sasuke was probably thinking he was better than anyone else. That line of thought only made Naruto's blood boil hotter.
"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shouted, jumping to his feet. "Why the hell does someone as awesome as I am have to be stuck on the same team as a bum like that Bastard!"
"Shut up, Naruto!" Sakura bristled.
"Naruto," Iruka said, putting his hands on his hips as he leaned forward and glared. "Sasuke's grades were the highest amongst all twenty-seven students of the class. You were dead last. I already told you that the teams were balanced according to strengths and weaknesses."
"Hmph," Sasuke grunted. "Just don't get in my way, Dead Last."
"What did you say?!" Naruto shouted, snapping his head around to glare at Sasuke. "Say that again, you Bastard!"
"Give it a rest, Naruto!" Sakura shouted as she stood up and got into Naruto's face. "Just shut up and leave Sasuke-kun alone!" Before long, the two were having a rather loud argument.
Ignoring them, Iruka continued to announce the rest of the teams. After that, Iruka told the class, "Your Jounin Sensei will be by this afternoon to pick you up. You should break for lunch now."
Naruto sat atop the academy's highest roof top eating instant ramen from a small cup. As he slurped down the last of it, he let out a contented sigh. A grimace quickly found its way onto his face as his thoughts went back to the nightmare of the day.
"Damn that Sasuke. He went and ruined my good day!" Naruto grumbled. "And then Sakura had to go and start hitting me like I did something wrong. And what's with all those weird things my body was doing, moving on its own?" Naruto lifted up his arm and legs one at a time, looking for something that might stick out. "What the hell is wrong with me?"
After nothing presented itself to answer his question, Naruto groaned and slumped his shoulders dejectedly. He quickly brightened up again when, from his high vantage point, noticed a pink shade of hair sitting on a bench just a ways down the road at a park. Really, the bench was attached to the wall that surrounded the park, making it a seat right across from the Academy entrance. The park, technically labeled Training Ground One, was close enough that students sometimes ate their lunch there.
Naruto grinned as he hopped to his feet and ran along the roof to get closer. Maybe he could impress her by jumping down from the roof of the Academy and surprising her. As Naruto got into position and prepared to jump, he noticed someone approaching Sakura and froze stiff.
"What's he doing here?" Naruto questioned under his breath. He leaned down low on the roof, hoping to blend in as much as possible when wearing an orange jumpsuit on a deep red tiled roof.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shouted as she jumped to her feet. Whatever kind of sandwich she was holding was quickly forgotten on the seat next to her. "You… um… you came to find me? You… You wouldn't want to… say something… to me? Would you?"
Naruto could just make out what they were saying. He scowled and wanted to turn away, not wanting to be around to listen to this crap. For some reason, though, his instincts told him to stay and listen.
In response to Sakura's question, unseen to Naruto, Sasuke scowled. "Where's Naruto," he asked. "It's time to go."
"Naruto?" Sakura said, recoiling slightly having said the name. "Who cares about Naruto?" On the roof, Naruto grit his teeth. Sasuke snorted loudly and started to walk away. "All he does is pick fights with you," Sakura continued. "Well… I guess it's not surprising, since he didn't have a normal childhood. He doesn't have any parents."
At this Sasuke stopped walking and glanced over his shoulder at Sakura curiously. Seeing this as some kind of interest in her, or more specifically, her knowledge, Sakura happily went on gossiping about Naruto. Shrugging and lifting her hands into the air dramatically, she said, "He can do whatever he wants. If I acted like him, my parents would get really mad at me." Sighing, still hamming up how dramatic she could be in her gossip, Sakura rolled her eyes and shrugged as if to say, she sort of envied Naruto for not having parents. She backed up her excessively expressive body language with, "He's so lucky, all alone, parents never getting on his case over any chores or bad behavior. I'm almost envious of him."
Sasuke looked away from Sakura and muttered, "All alone?"
"Huh?" Sakura took a step closer to Sasuke, hoping her precious Sasuke was speaking to her.
"The pain of having a parent yell at you is nowhere near what he feels," Sasuke said darkly, looking back at her and glaring.
Sakura gasped and began to shake. Such an intense look was usually only directed at Naruto, when he was being an idiot to Sasuke, as far as she knew. "Wh-what's that… look for?" Sakura asked, her voice wavering.
On the roof, Naruto narrowed his eyes. "What the hell is he doing, that Bastard?" he asked. "And how the hell does someone like him think he knows anything about how I feel?"
"Sakura," Sasuke said, narrowing his eyes further and looking down right venomous. "You're annoying."
Having said that, Sasuke looked away and walked back into the academy. Naruto stayed where he was, despite his gut telling him to drop down on top of the Bastard and kicking his ass for doing whatever it was he did to Sakura. Instead of doing that, he settled for growling lowly as he watched Sasuke re-enter the Academy, leaving Sakura behind. With a final glance at his new pink-haired teammate, she didn't look like she wanted company right now, Naruto went against his instincts and left as well.
Sakura stood where she was when Sasuke left, her mouth hanging slightly open, her eyes wide. She couldn't imagine what she must have said to have generated that kind of… anger? Hatred? Such a hard, venomous glare directed at her by the guy she liked the most. Then he told her she was annoying?! Of all the things he could have said to describe her, such as cute, pretty, beautiful, or something like that, he instead calls her annoying?! She was annoying?! Why?!
All she did was talk about Naruto, the pest that he was. Sasuke was the one who brought him up in the first place. Why would he get angry at her because of Naruto?
She wasn't quite foolish enough to believe that this was Naruto's fault, despite how much of a gut reaction she had to resist to acknowledge that to herself. She could recognize that Sasuke, as perfect as he was, had simply come out to find them so they wouldn't be late to meet with their new sensei. Still, she couldn't quite grasp why Sasuke was angry at her for talking about Naruto being an orphan.
'The pain of having a parent yell at you is nowhere near what he feels.'
The words played over and over again in her head. It took nearly a full five minutes before she remembered that Sasuke had lost his parents too. Both he and Naruto didn't have any parents at all. By insulting Naruto's parentless status, she'd insulted Sasuke as well.
Having finally figured it out, she felt even worse. Now she knew that she had not only been rejected by her crush, but she'd insulted him at the same time. She wondered, idly, if this was how Naruto felt all those times he asked her out and she brushed him off as if he were the smelly pile of dog doo that she'd stepped in.
Sitting down on the bench again, Sakura dipped her head and sighed forlornly. Images of Naruto and Sasuke flew around in her head. "Maybe," she said to herself, "I can be a little… nicer."
It happened again!
The first time it happened, when he ducked under Sakura's grab in the morning, he was just confused. He didn't know why he ducked, just that he had. The second time when he'd jumped right over Sasuke was a godsend, saving him from potentially kissing the bastard, but before he could think on what had happened beyond his life being saved, Iruka had come into the class room and all worry had been forgotten. Now it had happened again, his body had moved on its own.
Naruto probably should have been really, really bored at this point. It was now three hours after the appointed meeting time and no one had shown up to claim Team Seven. All the other teams had Jounin come in and call them away by this point. Even Iruka had left.
Instead of being bored, however, Naruto was starting to freak out. He was staying as still as possible with his forehead pressed against the cool, smooth wood surface of a desk. He had his eyes closed and was trying to keep his body as relaxed as possible. His hope was, if he stayed as still as possible, his body wouldn't move unless he actually wanted it to.
After re-entering the Academy following lunch, Naruto had felt the urge to wipe that sneer off of Sasuke's face. He'd tried getting the jump on the pretty boy Uchiha, but Sasuke had seen it coming and jumped right over Naruto's tackle. Sasuke then lashed out with a kick aimed at Naruto's head, but Naruto's body turned his failed tackle into a body roll and easily evaded.
The fight, not that it could really be called such a thing, ended after that. Sasuke disappeared into the classroom and left Naruto lying sprawled out on the floor, staring up in surprise at the ceiling. Once was weird, twice was nuts, but three times?! Three times now, Naruto's body had just moved on its own.
As soon as Naruto got back into the classroom, he put his head down on a desk and tried to not move at all. If his body was going to do things without him wanting them to happen, then he would do nothing and make every attempt to spite whatever the hell it was that was doing this. He was Uzumaki Naruto, not some puppet.
"I wonder where our sensei is," Sakura wondered with a sigh. She was seated in the row behind Naruto and hadn't really moved much except to go to the bathroom once. Sasuke had taken up residence on the other side of the room as far away from his new teammates as possible.
Daring to hope nothing weird happened, Naruto lifted his head up to look back at Sakura. She shrugged and swung her hand around to indicate she was talking about the empty class room. "Everyone else has gone already. Could our sensei have forgotten us? Maybe something bad happened and they had to call all of the Jounin in to deal with it."
Just as Sakura finished speaking, the door slid open and admitted a rather tall man. He didn't look very imposing. Aside from his height, he had a shock of silvery hair and a mask that covered the lower half of his face from his nose down. His left eye was covered by his forehead protector which was slanted in a form of a makeshift eye-patch. It was easy for Naruto to tell that he was a Jounin from his flack-jacket because he'd seen enough Jounin on his trips to the Hokage's office to know the difference between the rank's apparel. The flak jacket of a chunin was shorter and had less protection, pockets, and scroll sleeves. Also, this guy must have been in some kind of special forces position, because Naruto had only ever seen those kinds of metal-backed gloves on ANBU when they were chasing him after one of his 'liven-up-Konoha-with-fun' projects.
"Ah, sensei!" Sakura stood up and made a short bow. "It is good to meet you." From the twitching her lips made as she tried to maintain her smile, it was clear she really didn't feel as magnanimous as she was letting on.
"Hmm…" their sensei said. "How can I put this?" He crossed his arms and glanced at each of them in turn. He tilted his head as one might see a dog do when it doesn't fully comprehend what it's seeing. "My first impression is… not very good."
The three new genin returned their new sensei's bored look with a flat one. After several seconds they watched the man smile… with his only visible eye-lid. "Meet me on the roof." The man brought his hands together and with a small clap, vanished in a swirl of leaves.
Naruto glanced at his teammates and saw that they too weren't sure what they'd just seen. "Did he just smile with his eyeball?" The other two glanced at him but remained silent. With a weary, bored sigh, Naruto stood up and started for the roof. He hoped he could get through the rest of the day without his body rebelling against him again or anymore creepy Jounin smiling at him with body parts that were not supposed to move that way.
"So how about we begin with introductions."
"What do you want to know, sensei?" Sakura asked. She was seated in between Naruto and Sasuke. They all sat on a set of steps in the middle of the roof garden on the Academy. The breeze blew gently through the trees planted on either side of them and the sun was at the perfect angle to be blocked by most of the leaves. Their sensei was across from them, leaning against the railing that ran along the edge of the roof.
"Oh you know," the man said. He waved his hand lazily about in the air. "Your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future. That stuff."
"Hey!" Naruto said. "Why don't you introduce yourself first?"
"Yeah…" Sakura said. Then she muttered, "You look kind of suspicious."
"Oh… me first?" the man's half lidded visible eye blinked once, but other than that his facial features and posture never budged. "Well, my name is Hatake Kakashi. I have many likes and dislikes… that I have no desire to tell you. Dreams for the future… Hmm." Kakashi paused, almost as if he were considering what to say. Instead, he continued speaking. "I have lots of hobbies."
"So all we learned," Sakura summed up, "was his name."
"Okay, enough about me," Kakashi said with another one of his impossible eye smiles. "You first, blondie."
"Yosh!" Naruto said. All fears about his body acting without guidance left his mind as he felt excitement rise up inside of him. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. What I like is cup ramen. What I like even more is when Iruka-sensei buys me ramen from Ichiraku. What I don't like is the three minutes it takes for cup ramen to finish heating up.
'Does he think about anything except ramen?' Kakashi wondered.
"My dream," Naruto said, reaching up to readjust his forehead protector, "is to become Hokage and surpass everyone that has come before me and get the people of the village to acknowledge my existence." The silence that followed was only broken by the waving trees in the wind. With the dramatic moment over, Naruto finished his introduction with, "And for hobbies… pranks I guess."
"Alright," Kakashi said. He pointed at Sasuke. "You, the brooding one."
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke," Sasuke said quickly and precisely. "There are many things I dislike and there is nothing I like. I don't have a dream, but an ambition that I will make happen. I will resurrect my clan and kill a certain man."
Naruto grimaced. "I hope he isn't talking about me," he muttered under his breath. Beside him, Sakura had her hands clasped together in front of her and was openly staring at Sasuke with her mouth open.
"Alright…" Kakashi said. By his tone of voice, it was clear he wasn't entirely sure how to take such a morbid self assessment. "Lastly, Pinky."
"Oh, um…" Sakura coughed into her hand in a futile attempt to regain her dignity. "My name is Haruno Sakura. I like…" She trailed off to slowly glance at Sasuke. Catching herself, she force herself to look forward again and said, "I mean… the person that I like is… Err…" Sakura force herself to face forward again. "My dreams for the future…" Sakura trailed off as she imagined hugging Sasuke while several pink haired children ran around their feet. Sasuke would tell her that he loved her, would do anything for her, take her on enormous shopping sprees, and tell her she was perfect in every way. "OH YEAH!" Sakura shouted with a fist pump.
"O…K," Kakashi said. "Any dislikes? Hobbies?"
"What I dislike is N-… err… something," Sakura mumbled. "And my hobby is…" she glanced at Sasuke again. "Hehe…"
Naruto looked at Sakura with a mixture of confusion and worry. He was sure that she was just about to say she didn't like him. In fact, he was used to her saying things like that. Now that she seemed to have stopped herself, he could only wonder what had made her stop.
"I see… well, now that introductions are complete, here, take these," Kakashi pushed off of the railing and handed a sheet of paper to each of the genin. "These are instructions for our first mission. It will be a team mission, with just the four of us."
"What kind of mission, sensei?!" Naruto asked. All thoughts about his previous involuntary movements and Sakura's strange behavior were quickly and completely forgotten.
"Heh," Kakashi chuckled. "Survival training."
"Survival training?" Sakura said questioningly. "Why that? We did a lot of survival training in the Academy."
"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said, nodding his agreement.
"This isn't normal training," Kakashi said. "Hehe."
"What kind of training is it then?" Naruto asked.
"Hehehehe," Kakashi laughed maniacally. "Hahahahaha."
"W-what's so funny… sensei?" Sakura asked.
"Haha…" Kakashi waved their concern off. "I apologize, but it's just so funny that when I tell you, you'll flip."
"Flip…" Naruto said. "Huh?"
All humor suddenly vanished and the warm, almost light atmosphere vanished and was replaced by something cold, heavy and dark. Kakashi leaned forward, looking bored, and rested his chin in the palm of his hand. "Of the twenty seven graduates from your class, only nine will be chosen as Genin. This survival test has a failure rate of sixty-six percent."
Naruto felt his mouth drop open as his eyes widened. Sakura visibly went paler than her pale skin already was. Sasuke just added an Uchiha Glower to his Uchiha Glare.
"Heheh," Kakashi chuckled into the now silent, tense atmosphere. "See, I told you that you'd flip."
"What the hell, sensei?!" Naruto exploded. "We went through all that just to graduate! Why do that if we have to pass this now?!"
"Oh, that?" Kakashi shrugged carelessly. "That was just a screen to select those who have a chance to become Genin." Kakashi pushed himself away from the wall and started walking away. "Read the instructions I gave you and bring all your ninja tools to the training field." Kakashi hopped up onto the railing and was about to leap off when he stopped and looked back over his shoulder. "Oh yeah! I almost forgot. Silly me. I suggest you don't eat breakfast. You might throw up."
That night, Naruto tried to train as best he could. He made up a life sized doll of Kakashi and even gave it a fake forehead protector that was slanted over the doll's fake left eye. However, just as soon as he put his hands together into the sign to make Shadow Clones…
'SLEEP!'
Naruto awoke to the chirping of birds. It was relatively annoying enough to draw him out of his sleep, but not enough to wake him up completely. Waking up on the floor, to boot, wasn't out of the ordinary either. He'd done so several times before and the only reason he could think of was that he must have had some kind of crazy dream.
The blond went through his morning routine: brushed his teeth, took a short shower, changed into his day clothes, and ate four healthy heaping servings of the best, most tastiest substance this world could offer. Ramen, the food of the gods.
That done, Naruto put on his forehead protector and was about to walk out the door when the final part of his brain finished booting up and reminded him that he had a genin test today. Frantically, Naruto bolted back into his apartment just long enough to see the clock and that he was now, officially, three hours late at five till eleven in the morning.
"Oh shit!" Naruto screamed as he bolted out the door, locking it as he went. "I am so late! I am so busted!"
"You're late!" Sakura shouted. "Where the heck were you, Naruto?!"
"I'm -gasp- sorry –gasp- slept in –gasp-" Naruto wheezed. After spending five full minutes catching his breath, he looked around the small clearing of Training Ground Three. "Where's sensei?"
"He's even later than you," Sakura whined. Naruto looked at her and then did a double take. She had bags under her eyes and she looked really tired and hungry. A quick glance to the side where Sasuke was sitting under a tree found much the same conditions.
"Oh crud…" Naruto said.
"What did you do this time, Naruto?" Sakura asked with an angry scowl on her face.
"I slept all night and I ate a big, healthy breakfast five minutes ago."
Sakura stared at him with her half dead features. More like glared at him. Naruto felt a chill go up his spine and assumed that Sasuke was glaring at him now too.
"I really hate you right now, Naruto," Sakura said.
Naruto slumped his shoulder and moaned. He hadn't even done anything… well, he had done something, but he hadn't done anything to her yet. Already she was saying she hated him.
"Good morning!"
"You're late!" Sakura shouted as she spun around and pointed angrily at Kakashi, who'd just appeared. The man tilted his head curiously before he shrugged.
"A black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way around. That said, a ninja has to be prepared for anything, as the saying goes," Kakashi said nonchalantly. "Even if that means going hungry and waiting for several hours before they can complete their mission." He glanced over his three students, taking in their emaciated, hungry, tired, poor poor- Kakashi's gaze stopped on Naruto. "Naruto… did you eat breakfast?"
"I didn't mean to!" Naruto shouted. Already he was sweating bullets. If he managed to make Kakashi fail the whole team, not only would Sasuke really have it out for him through the next year of the Academy, but Sakura would probably never look at him again. "I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing and I was really out of it after I slept and I'm reallysorryKakashi-sensei."
At this point, Naruto was prostrating himself on the ground in front of Kakashi. The Jounin merely raised an eyebrow before he took a quick glance at the other two. Sakura looked pensive, probably wondering how he would react. Sasuke looked ready to… kill Naruto. He probably thought Naruto had lost their chance. Silly, silly Uchiha.
"Good job," Kakashi said, with another eye-smile. "You know, not many people ignore what I suggest, even if it's a detriment to their abilities."
"What?!" Sakura shouted. "What do you mean 'good job'?! Naruto did what he wasn't supposed to!"
"Not really," Kakashi said, his weird little eye smile still present. "I only suggested that you don't eat because there was a possibility that you could throw up what you ate. That said, Naruto admitted he wasn't paying attention to what he was doing, so if he does throw up, it's his own fault."
Sakura shivered and then took a large step away from Naruto. Naruto, now kneeling, turned a little green when he tried to imagine how difficult this test would be. Sasuke sneered and scoffed, first at Kakashi, and then at Naruto.
"Well, then," Kakashi said. He pulled an alarm clock out of his pocket and set the timer to go off at noon. Then he placed the alarm down on one of the three wooden training posts set up in the middle of the training field. "You have until noon to take these two little bells." At this Kakashi jingled two bells tied to two strings he held in his hand. "Those who get a bell by noon pass. Any of you who do not have a bell will not only be going back to the Academy, but I'll tie you to one of those posts and eat your lunch in front of you." At that bit of news, two stomachs made loud gurgling noises of protest. Kakashi made his weird, and completely impossible eye smile again. "Though, in Naruto's case, I may just tie him upside down from a tree and swing him around till he horks."
"You are a mean, cruel, horrible man, sensei," Naruto said solemnly.
Kakashi's response was to eye smile again. "You only need to get one bell. There are, obviously, only two, so one of you will definitely be tied to a stump, or horking his brunch, as the case may be. That person will also fail and so will also be the one going back to the academy."
Two more grumbles from the same stomachs as earlier made themselves known. Naruto glanced back and forth between his teammates. Sakura looked about ready to devour him and Sasuke looked like he was torn between killing Naruto for eating something and using him as cannon fodder to get a bell from Kakashi.
"It's also possible that none of you could get a bell. You should use all your tools and skills that you've learned up until now," Kakashi said as he tied the two bells to his waist. "You won't succeed unless you come at me with the intent to kill."
"But…" Sakura looked at Kakashi with some amount of concern written on her face. "But, sensei. You could die!"
Without realizing what he'd done, Naruto's hand had drifted up to the hilt of his sword. Again, without realizing it, Naruto drew that sword and leveled it in a defensive position in front of him. The blond only realized what he'd done when he saw the tip of the sword wavering back and forth in front of him.
Kakashi noticed this and did his weird eye smile. "Well it seems like you're ready to come at me with the intent to kill," the Jounin said. He glanced at the other two and found Sasuke with a kunai in his hand. Sakura still looked rather scared, but she appeared more prepared now than a few seconds ago. "I think I'm beginning to like you guys."
Sakura smiled a little and fell into a defensive taijutsu stance. Perfect textbook rendition of it, too. Sasuke gripped his kunai tighter and tensed in preparation. Naruto, remained as he was, watching Kakashi like a hawk.
"Ready…" Kakashi glanced at each one of his students. "Start!"
A/N: So here be Chapter 3 of A Touch of Death. To answer a review, no, it isn't like Ichigo's sword, especially because it is not a zanpakutou. Zanpakuto start their life off as blank slates called Asauchi that, over time, are bathed in the spiritual pressure of the Shinigami they are assigned to and thus gain a personality and develop powers unique that that individual. Ultimately they gain a name, and in learning that name, the Shinigami in question are able to release their powers in what is known as Shikai, a.k.a. First Release or Initial Release. (Bankai is Full Release).
Naruto, on the other hand, has a soul blade, a weapon made from the singular Shinigami of the Naruto-verse when he cut off a shard of Naruto's soul and forged it into a weapon. These soul shards are not always forged into katana, or even weapons at all. They could be forged into jewelry, clothes, or even a birthmark. No matter what they are forged into, they endow their wielder with extraordinary abilities, usually ones associated with Yin-release or some type of soul manipulation. This is because the objects were forged out of a person's soul and thus would be considered pure Yin chakra in the living world. As mentioned in chapter 2, the Hatake Clan had the White Chakra Saber, which was a Soul Blade passed down through the Hatake Clan. I didn't give any background on why they had one, or who first obtained it (or whether one has to be a newborn to obtain one), so that is still a mystery yet to be answered.
As you might have guessed, there will be multiple instances of Soul Blades appearing in the Shinobi World, or this version of it at any rate. And Kakashi just so happens to have trained with a katana-type soul blade himself so would be the most appropriate person to train Naruto in his own sword's use. Getting back to the main point, Naruto's sword is just a plain old looking Katana, kind of badly maintained at that, but what can be expected when the boy's soul has been tarnished with all the hatred of the villagers. The condition of the sword is not insignificant, after all.
Anyway, thanks for coming by! Leave a review and tell me what you think!
~I.K.A. Valian