AN: I realize I haven't updated in a long time, but college apps and scholarship has to come first guys. About to be raped by the finals so don't expect any updates until break Here's chapter 10, hope it's of the same quality after 3 months of writing formal letters and essays lol.
"Kit you do realize that signatures can be forged right?" Behind his mask, Naruto frowned as he considered the delicate situation he found himself in. On one hand, if he did not retrieve the scroll and the test was legitimate, he would have failed, and that was not a viable option for Naruto. Yet, on the other hand, if he went through with it and it was a forged note, the village would be out for his blood, not to mention the possibility of losing the forbidden scroll to an enemy.
"Better make a decision quick, you barely have two hours to sneak in and get your ass back out." The blonde kept moving towards the tower even as he considered all his options. He could hunt down Mizuki and see if he was a traitor, but if he wasn't it would leave him very little time to get the scroll and to the meeting point on time. Alerting the Hokage was useless since according to the note he was in on the test, meaning he may deny knowing about the test in order to confuse Naruto and failing him in the process. There really was no way to tell if the Hokage was acting confused or was genuinely puzzled, after all, the man's acting skills was matched by only a handful in the living world. Hunting down Kakashi to verify the legitimacy of the test would again cut down on the time available if it were a real test. And similar with the situation with the Hokage, Kakashi could be lying in order to test Naruto, because once that man clamped up you may as well be trying to read a rock for all the good it'll do.
'Truly an ingenious ploy Kakashi, well played.'
"Or the traitor" rumbled the Kyuubi thoughtfully. Naruto nodded in agreement to the Kyuubi's assessment. Slowing down as he closed in on the looming tower, Naruto dropped down onto the rooftop, completely prone so as not to be seen by the patrolling Anbu. Counting carefully with his keen night vision, the blonde numbered around 20 Anbu on the outside patrolling in pairs. Obviously, there would be more on the inside, perhaps even more then outside.
'Nearly twice the normal amount guarding the tower' Naruto noted to himself. 'Either Kakashi really called in favors for the test, or the traitor may have slipped some information in about a possible theft.' Naruto's eyes narrowed as he noticed the telltale glow of light from the Hokage's office. 'So Ji-san is there as well.'
"What will you do now boy?" The Kyuubi smirked as he pondered the situation his host was in. The demon loved riddles, and the dilemma Naruto now faced was as entertaining as killing to the king of demons. 'Never a dull moment with this one.'
The blonde host shrugged and began to count the weapons he had on him. 'What I do best Kyuubi, what I do best.'
Hokage's office
The door clicked open slowly and a wolf masked shinobi walked in flanked by a falcon and shrew. The Hokage looked up and waved his hand to allow the captain to speak. Kneeling down, Wolf began speaking in a hurried fashion. "It seems the anonymous tip about the possible theft of the forbidden scroll is correct. At 0230 Snake, Rabbit, Boar and Horse were found paralyzed by a poison in their patrol routes. The perpetrator may already have infiltrated the tower Hokage-sama." Sarutobi nodded seriously. Putting his hand into his robes, he withdrew and threw a kunai straight at the captains bowed head. The man caught the flying blade easily and stood up.
"How did you know?" His voice now sounded gruffer and more familiar to the Hokage's ears. Falcon and Shrew had both been shocked, but being the professionals that they were, they already both had blades placed at the imposter's throat. The Hokage took off his hat and smiled at the intruder.
"Gendo-kun has a U shaped birthmark on the back of his neck. Normally you wouldn't see it, but since you knelt I got a good look at your blank neck. You might have succeeded had you chosen to stand instead." Gendo's imposter nodded thoughtfully. A quick blur of motion occurred in a heartbeat, sending Falcon into the wall parallel the Hokage and Shrew unconscious on the ground from a concussion due to an elbow to the back of her head.
Already the man was doubled over in an arm-bar courtesy of Sarutobi. The sharp point of a kunai tickled the tip of the man's Adams-apple.
"You haven't lost it yet old man." The monotonous and dry tone froze up the Third as he recognized the voice.
"Naruto-" His astonished question was cut short as the imposter leaned forward so that the blade pierced his throat. An explosion of smoke blinded the Hokage as the clone was forcibly dispelled. The previously thought unconscious Falcon had used the distraction to stand up and grab the forbidden scroll with his right hand while at the same time throwing three heavy metal balls designed for shattering glass at the window next to the Hokage's desk. With an ear piercing screech, the glass splintered then gave way as Falcon's body smashed into and through the reinforced window.
Sarutobi by this time had moved clear of the smoke left behind by the clone and was by the window just in time to see Naruto in his henged form vanish into the treetops while being pursued by Anbu guards. Slipping his hand into the front pocket of his robe while frowning, he pulled out the slip of paper the clone had dropped in before self terminating.
The door burst open and four Anbu rushed in with their blades drawn. "Hokage-sama we heard a disturbance, are you alright?" The professional hid his worry well behind a wall of indifference required of all Anbu.
Nodding absentmindedly as he read the note, the Third realized the truth with a start. "Dog," for that was the man's code name thanks to his mask, "call off the pursuers."
The man looked uncertainly as the Third while sheathing his blade. "Sir?"
"I'm sure everything is under control." The Hokage had moved over to his desk and taken out his pipe. Lighting it, the Third gave a small puff and nodded at the remaining three Anbu. "And get someone to fix the window too will you? The draft in here will kill me before old age does."
Shocked at their leader's nonchalance at having the village's scroll of forbidden secrets being stolen, they nonetheless immediately reacted to the order and vanished to carry out their lord's will.
Stalking over to the small covered desk next to the cabinet full of textbooks, Sarutobi pulled off the white cover to reveal a small clear translucent ball. Concentrating his chakra, the Hokage placed his hand over the crystal ball which immediately clouded over before an image swam up into view. "Let's see what you're up to Naruto."
Training area 13
"Well kit, it seems you're a bit early hmmmm?"
'Note said to meet at 0300 hours, I see no reason to be early.' Currently, Naruto was hidden away at the training area 13 and had the scroll spread out in front of him.
"You know, it's called forbidden for a reason." Kyuubi's cackling would have unsettled Naruto's conscious, if he had one, but fortunately, or unfortunately, Naruto hardly felt quiver in his soul.
'If this is a test by Kakashi, he no doubt expects me to learn a few techniques from this scroll.' The entire time his eyes never left the sheet of paper as he explained his reasoning to the Kyuubi. 'And if this happens to be a trap, then a few new techniques will ensure that I safely return this scroll and aid in my capture of the traitor.'
The Kyuubi chuckled softly at his host's logic. "If I didn't know better I would say you were taking advantage of the situation." Sarcasm oozed in the Kyuubi's mocking observation.
'A good shinobi should always be ready to take advantage of an open opportunity.'
"Like in Cloud?"
'Exactly."
"Kit, you do realize you are heading on a path straight to hell right?" Instead of answering, the blonde began to flash through handseals without putting any chakra in them, practicing and imprinting the movements into his mind. Inside Naruto's mind, the Kyuubi whistled softly as he read the technique scroll through his host's eyes.
"No wonder why you fleshbags made it forbidden. Those rockapes would die before they even finished the last handseal." Ending his practice of the new forbidden technique he had just acquired, the blonde shrugged indifferently at the Kyuubi's remark.
'We both know I'm not an ordinary fleshbag.' The demon smirked and nodded in agreement. There was no denying the fact that Naruto was no longer truly human, or perhaps due to his upbringing, he was never truly human at all. The vessel checked his watch and saw that it was only 2:45 a.m.
'Plenty of time left.' He began reading through the next section of the scroll. 'Interesting, a fire spell…"
Hokage's office
Sarutobi chuckled softly as he watched the young blonde page through the ancient scroll eating up techniques that were mostly life consuming for the average person to use. With Naruto's massive chakra reserves coupled with the Kyuubi's power and his rapid regeneration capabilities, he may very well be the only person capable of using all those techniques.
Even Sarutobi, the Professor, dared not use some of those forbidden techniques. The Sandaime lit his pipe and watched Naruto practice the second technique he had learned. 'It's times like these I really wish I had a successor.' The Professor toyed with the end of his pipe as he stared aimlessly up at the portrait of the Yondaime. "Arashi you truly were the perfect successor."
'Orochimaru would have made a great Hokage had he not betrayed our village to further his own cause. Or if he wasn't so into little boys.' The Third felt his stomach turn at his own thought. 'Jiraiya has the power, but not the patients, self control, or the desire. If I made him Godaime, he would most likely require all kunoichi be uniformed in miniskirts and high heels.'
Sarutobi chuckled as an image of Anko and Kurenai came to mind. 'Not that some of them are too far from that already.' He took a puff of his pipe and continued considering possible successors while absentmindedly watching Naruto perfect a third technique.
'Tsunade would be an ideal successor, if she weren't an alcoholic gambler.' The Hokage shook his head sadly as he thought about his former kunoichi student. 'Not that she would want to.' Taking another slow puff of the pipe and savoring the flavor of tobacco filling tickling his taste buds, the old man pulled out the note from his pocket and reread it to make sure he got the meeting place and time right.
"Perhaps Kakashi…." 'What the hell am I saying?' The Third grimaced as an image of Kakashi wandering into office four hours late while reading Jiraiya's book popped into his head. "He wouldn't do any of the paperwork, I mean, he barely does his now!" Sarutobi took another puff of his pipe and returned to watching the blonde who was currently rolling up and resealing the forbidden scroll.
'In a few years perhaps, Naruto would make a good candidate.'
'……' Shaking his head furiously to clean out the cobwebs, the man laughed at his own thought. "I really need to go to bed." Chuckling softly, he considered his previous thought. 'Naruto couldn't care less about the village and unless I order him to become Hokage I doubt he would even think about something like this.'
Gazing at the moving form of the blonde who currently had the scroll strapped safely across his back, Sarutobi spoke to the crystal ball. "It's too bad you hate this village so much Naruto, you would have made a great Hokage."
Training field 62
As Naruto neared training ground 62, he caught sight of Kakashi who was reading his familiar orange book. Landing softly on the ground the blonde turned to face his soon to be sensei.
"Ah," the man snapped his book shut, "you've got the scroll I see. Good work!" Kakashi placed the book into his pouch and gave a soft whistle from behind his mask. Two Anbu dropped down, one wearing a weasel mask and the other an otter. "Otter, Weasel, bring the scroll back to the Hokage will you?"
Both men, for surely no would woman could have such flat well defined chests, moved forward to take the scroll from Naruto.
"A good henge, but I'm afraid you've made a mistake." The blonde's barely audible words froze both advancing Anbu. Kakashi himself looked puzzled as he raised a silver eyebrow. Naruto returned the scroll to his back before he lashed out viciously at the two Anbu who were both caught off guard. A knee to the chest caused Weasel to explode into a burst of water, and a quick jab had his partner on the ground in a similar state of matter.
"Kakashi is notoriously late, even to a meeting with the Hokage. I doubt he would make an exception for me." The masked man grimaced under his disguise before nodding at the blonde.
"Well done Naruto-kun." The Kakashi look-alike vanished into a cloud of smoke, and when it cleared a sneering Mizuki greeted Naruto's steady gaze. "I doubt asking would get you to hand over the scroll, so let's skip all the dramatic talk and get straight down to the fighting!"
"Huh, fool thinks he can take you on. Did he miss the meeting where they told everyone how you killed the Raikage and wiped the floor free of his blood with the bodies of his shinobi?"
'He is confident that he can hold his own against me' blue eyes narrowed thoughtfully behind the soulless faceplate. 'No doubt he has some sort of backup plan if he is so bold as to challenge me for the scroll.' And true to his prediction, Mizuki pulled out a small orange pill from his chunnin vest.
Swallowing it in one go, the man grinned manically as he removed one of the huge Fuma Shurikens on his back. Hurling the unnecessarily oversized blade, the man leapt back and began forming handseals. Ducking the incoming blade, Naruto was quiet surprised when it sliced clean through the unlucky tree behind the blonde.
'Either he's stronger then he looks or that pill was some sort of strength enhancer.' A ball of fire blasted towards the masked genin who kawarimied out of harms way. Reappearing behind the academy teacher, Naruto let fly with a cocked fist, aimed straight at the man's lower back. The devastating blow sent Mizuki skidding across the forest floor until he slammed into a tree, halting his uncontrolled roll.
"Did you really think you could get the scroll from me with attacks like that?" The calm in Naruto's voice was betrayed with a bit of annoyance mixed in. The traitor got groggily to his feet where he swayed drunkenly for a moment before smiling through his pain.
"Ah, but it's starting to kick in." His grin grew wider. And wider. And wider still. Mizuki's lips stretched outwards, thinning, and contorting his smile into a twisted grimace. Canines enlarged and poked out between his lips, and his eyes began to move further apart from each other. Orange fur sprouted all over his body, covering his body in a thick matt of striped tiger pelt. His 5'8" frame stretched out and shot up until he was close to 7'. His vest unable to keep onto his expanded frame burse open and stretched out till it ripped as the man grew. His long pants now hung in shreds, barely covering his dignity up, and reduced to mere shorts.
Flexing a huge flawed hand, Mizuki grinned toothily at the unmoving blonde who had watched his transformation without stirring. "Now we'll see who wins!" A stripped orange blur burst towards Naruto, moving so fast that neither head nor tail could be distinguished from one another.
A clawed hand reached for the blonde's face before the boy could even blink. Sending himself backwards while tilting back his head, Naruto barely managed to dodge the swipe from the transformed Mizuki. Landing on his hands the blonde swung his legs around and kicked out at the traitor, nailing him dead on the nose.
The tiger-man howled as his sensitive snout was basically kicked in and threw himself at his blonde opponent in a fit of rage. Wrapping himself around the boy, he proceeded to attempt to crush the life out of Naruto. The blonde genin squirmed violently in the tight death hold until he had freed his hands enough to form handseals.
'Lightening spell: Shocking Release!' A blue electrical pulse built up around the short blonde before dispersing itself in all directions. Electricity jumped from Naruto's body onto the closest thing to him, Mizuki. The smell of brunt fur assaulted the blonde's nose as the transformed man let go with a pained groan. Spinning around, Naruto delivered a barrage of punches into his adversaries exposed abdomen, so fast that Mizuki only caught a blur of motion even though he felt scores of blows land.
As the stunned man stumbled backwards he was shocked to find that a lot of his fur had fallen off. In fact, most of it had fallen off. Staring at his shrinking hands in disbelief, Mizuki realized that the miracle pill was wearing off already.
'But it's barely been a minute!' he thought angrily.
"Ah, it seems your edge is beginning to fade Mizuki-sensei." Turning around, the man prepared to snarl something hateful at the former hunter-nin, but he was nowhere in sight.
'Behind!' Too late; before he could even turn around fully, Mizuki felt a sharp pain in his spine, courtesy of the Naruto's extended right leg. The crippling blow sent the man to the floor, twitching uncontrollably as he tried to move his damaged body. Kneeling down so that his mask was inches away from the chunnin's face which was twisted in pain, Naruto studied the tortured expression on the man's face.
"What did you hope to gain from this scroll sensei?" the dry monotone gave away no hints of curiosity even if the tone indicated a question. "What could you have possible done with such an advanced scroll?" A groan filled the air as Mizuki tried to move, but only managed a spastic twitch. "Don't bother. That blow most likely fractured your spine. I'd be surprised if you ever walked again."
The kneeling genin clenched his fist tightly and dealt a vicious blow to the unprepared chunnin's temple, leaving a bleeding cut where his knuckles had connected with the skull.
"A nice long visit with Ibiki will loosen your tongue." Naruto's cold voice sounded even darker in the silence that followed.
Training Field
"Where the hell are they?!!" The outraged yell belonged to a certain hungry pink haired teenaged kunoichi wannabe. Inner Sakura's ranting was less then polite, and Sakura couldn't help but to agree with some of the more vile names given to their wayward sensei and blonde teammate.
Sasuke of course was too cool to voice his complaints, but instead chose to lean casually in the training post without a word, stewing slowly over how unfair the world was. His bad boy image was slightly ruined by the constant growling of his stomach, but Sakura hardly noticed. After standing outside with her crush for 4 hours, ogling Sasuke had lost its novelty, and all she wanted was a hot breakfast and a warm bed. Preferably with Sasuke under the covers of course, but you can't have everything in life.
Neither of the teens had eaten as per their sensei's instructions, Sakura going as far as skipping dinner. Both had arrived exactly at 6:00 a.m. as indicated by the flier Kakashi had handed out, only to find that they were the only one's there. And now, at 10:13, they finally caught sight of their sensei who strolled casually into the clearing sporting hair that told them he had just rolled out of bed.
"Yo!" The eye-smile and raised hand in salutation only served to piss off the Sakura even more.
"You're late!!"
"I'm sure he has a valid excuse." Sasuke and Sakura both jumped at Naruto's dismissive comment.
'When did he get here?' wondered Sasuke. 'I didn't even sense him!'
"And you!" screeched Sakura. "Where the hell were you?!" The blonde genin shrugged in reply before mumbling a one word answer.
"Eating."
Kakashi eye-smiled as Sakura seem to swell up with righteous anger at the blonde's casual remark about ignoring the rules. "Sensei told us not to eat Naruto!"
Naruto shrugged again. "Any seasoned shinobi knows not to eat right before battle, but without sustenance, one would lose that very battle anyways. Only a total incompetent would have fallen for sensei's trap."
Sakura's jaws dropped in outrage, but just then her stomach gave a particularly large protesting growl causing the pink haired girl to blush in embarrassment. Whirling around away from her blonde teammate, she faced her sensei and unleashed her anger at the man. "And why are you so late huh?!"
"Weeeelllllllllllll," Kakashi turned around and placed an alarm clock on the middle training pos, "if you really must know, I got lost on the road of life."
"Enough talk" interrupted Sasuke. "Let's get to the test."
The cyclops eye-smiled at the Uchiha. "Impatient aren't we?" Pulling out two silver bells from one of his many pockets on his green jounin vest, Kakashi dangled them in front of the three genins. "Your job is to get a bell from me" he clipped the bells to his belt, "before the alarm, which is set for noon, rings."
"Why is there only two bells sensei?" Sakura's question brought on another eye-smile, this one with a hint of cruel amusement behind it.
"Well I thought that was obvious." The pink haired girl looked slightly put out. "Only two of you will pass the test!" Sakura's jaws dropped and Sasuke clenched his fists tightly at their sensei happy announcement.
'I won't fail!'
"But-"
"Those are my rules." Kakashi had lost his friendly demeanor causing Sakura to shrink into herself. "And you will obey them or else!" His single glaring eye turned into another smiley. "Well there you have it, you have less then two hours." The cyclops stepped away from the three genin. "Ready?" Legs tensed up. "Begin!"
Both Sasuke and Sakura instantly disappeared into the vegetation surrounding the training area. Kakashi turned around to face Naruto who had not moved a muscle.
'I'll have to be careful with him. If I'm not cautious, I might end up losing an arm or leg.'
"Still here Naruto?" The masked blonde grunted and uncrossed his arms.
"What are you playing at Kakashi?" The silver haired jounin raised both his hands in front of his chest mockingly.
"You wound me. This is simply a traditional test for team 7." Naruto grunted again before turning around and strolling unceremoniously into the nearby trees. "Not going to try for a bell?" called out Kakashi. The blonde simply raised his right hand and waved once before vanishing from view.
'I wonder if he will figure it out?' In the nearby tress, Sasuke saw his chance at the jounin's exposed back. Flinging a handful of shurikens, the Uchiha watched the screaming disks of metal soar through the air and connect with the exposed man.
A puff of smoke revealed a pin cushioned log, but no sign of Kakashi. 'Shit! I've given away my position!' The Uchiha leapt off the branch and took off into the forest. 'I'll have to set up some traps to even stand a change against someone like him.'
Across the clearing from where Sasuke had just fled, Sakura had seen everything and was currently moving towards where she had last seen Sasuke. 'This doesn't add up. I know for a fact that genin's are put in three man teams, so how could only two of us pass?'
"Psst. Sakura!" The sudden hiss of her name halted the moving Kunoichi.
"Huh?" looking up, she met the eye of her sensei.
'Demonic hell view: Walking Dead!' The clearing seemed to vanish before Sakura's eyes, and a bloody and beaten Sasuke replaced Kakashi. Numerous blades stuck out from his beaten body at odd angles, oozing out crimson liquids. His left foot was bent back at the wrong angle, and his right arm ended in a gushing stump where the hand should have been.
"Sakura," whispered Sasuke in a strangled voice, "help me." A katana swung out of nowhere and decapitated the dieing Uchiha. The head rolled over and over before finally settling down staring face up at Sakura from between her legs, still gaping in astonishment at his own death.
Her scream echoed throughout the woods, scaring birds into flight. Kakashi scratched his head sheepishly as he stood over the unconscious kunoich who was foaming at the mouth with tears rolling down her cheeks. 'Maybe a little too much oomph."
Shrugging carelessly, the man wandered off to see what Sasuke was up to leaving the girl out cold on the forest floor.
Sasuke
Sasuke laid down his final trap, eyeing the clearing to make sure everything was in place and hidden away properly. Straightening himself up, he was given no time to admire his own handiwork as a faint rustling in the bush announced the arrival of his tardy sensei. Casually walking into the trapped clearing with his book in hand, Kakashi looked like he had just happened to wander into the area whilst not paying attention to where he was going.
Still eyeing Icha Icha, he spoke up to the lone Uchiha. "Ready for round two Sasuke?" Three kunai hurled straight at the jounin who continued reading his book while squatting down hastily to avoid being made into a pin cushion. A twang from behind warned him that there were two parts to Sasuke's attack. Snapping his precious book shut, Kakashi slid to the left while at the same time tucking his novel into his supply pouch.
Grinding to a halt, he was met with a kick aimed for his left temple. Blocking the blow with his left arm, Kakashi clamped down on the leg to keep Sasuke from going anywhere.
'Again with the catch?' snarled Sasuke to himself. Pulling his left hand back and balling it into a tight fist, he sent an explosive punch at his sensei's face, only to hit a palm which closed and tightened painfully on his clenched fist. Jerking his left arm back and using Kakashi's hold on his left leg as a pivot point, Sasuke twisted up and reached down with his free hand for the bells hanging off the right side of Kakashi's waist.
Briefly, Sasuke felt his fingertips brush the two bells before he was thrown violently backwards. As he slid away from the experienced jounin, Sasuke formed a few quick hand seals that while fast to any academy student, was sluggishly slow to someone like Kakashi. Inhaling deeply, the dark haired genin felt the familiar burning in his lungs. Pinching his finger and thumb together in front of his mouth in order to control the chakra, Sasuke let loose with a ball of flames that engulfed a wide-eyed Kakashi.
'Fire spell: Grand Fireball!' When the sphere of flames died down, the silver haired man was nowhere to be seen. 'Where?!' The Uchiha's dark eyes darted left, right, forward, up, before he whirled around, yet still there was no sign of Kakashi.
"Below!" The growled words were followed by a gloved hand bursting out of the ground and latching onto the astonished genin's left ankle. Barely given time to yell in surprise, Sasuke quickly found himself buried up to his neck in earth with a eye-smiling Kakashi dusting his hands off in front of his scowling face.
"Earth spell: Inner Decapitation. Like it?" Sasuke snarled and tried to pull free from the ground, but found himself truly and utterly helpless. Kakashi squatted down and patted the furious boy's head once before turning around to leave. "You're good Sasuke, but nowhere near good enough." Pulling out his favorite adult's only book, Kakashi wandered off to where he had left the comatose Sakura.
'Wonder what happened to Naruto?'
11:50 a.m,
By the time Kakashi had returned to where he had last seen Sakura, the kunoichi was gone, either dragged off and eaten by wild animals, or more then likely had finally managed to shake off the genjutsu. Seeing that he had nothing to do, Kakashi had returned to the training posts to await his three genin, and was currently reading Icha Icha while sitting cross legged next to the memorial stone.
'Perhaps Naruto took her?' A piercing scream that caused all the nearby wildlife to break out in frenzy startled Kakashi from his thoughts. 'Ah it seems she found Sasuke.' Eye-smiling to no one in particular the jounin flipped a page and continued reading. 'They better hurry; they only have 6 minutes left.'
The soft crunching of leaves underfoot alerted Kakashi to the arrival of Naruto. Chuckling softly, the jounin put away his book and stood up. Standing by the training post was the blond former hunter-nin who was currently eyeing Kakashi stonily.
"I was wondering when you would show up." Naruto shrugged carelessly before replying
"I'm here now." Kakashi began stretching slowly to warm up his stiff muscles, and across from him, Naruto mirrored his movements in preparation for the upcoming spar.
"May I ask why you chose to fight me in the last 5 minutes of our 2 hour test?" Cracking his neck loudly, Naruto began loosening up his shoulders by making continuous shrugging motions.
"You said that we would pass the test if we had a bell by the end of the test. Clearly, it means that we must still be in possession of the bell meaning that if I had gotten the bell earlier you could have still tried to retrieve it." Straightening himself up, the blonde dropped into a fighting pose. "Why waste energy defending the bells over 2 hours and risk losing them if I can just attack near the end and insure my victory?"
The former Anbu commander blinked as he thought over the blonde's words. 'Huh, never thought of it that way.' "But if you fail now in this attempt, you won't get a second chance."
"He's right you know" agreed the Kyuubi.
"Kakashi-sensei, you and I both know that a shinobi is rarely given a second chance in battle. Why should this be any different?" Switching his stance to a more aggressive form, Naruto crouched down in preparation to spring. "Besides, I never fail." The statement was said with such cold confidence even Kakashi was impressed.
'There was no arrogance or self belief in that statement. It was just a cold hard fact.' Pulling up his headband, Kakashi opened his best friend's last gift to him and for the first time in a good long while, Obito's eye observed the world once more. 'Once more old friend, I'll have to call on your help against the one who single handedly put the Lightening village out of commission.'
Dropping into a casual fighting stance, Kakashi smiled with his mismatched eyes both of which shown with a rare light of excitement. Truly, there is no shinobi who did not enjoy pitting their skills against a worthy opponent, and Kakashi was no exception. "Shall we?"
Not bothering to answer, Naruto rushed forward at a blinding speed to Kakashi's normal eye. The jounin barely had time to raise his hand and block the incoming kick, and the leg was retracted before he could even try to grab it with his numb hand. The blond genin swiveled on one foot and reversed his initial kick and aimed his heel at the other side of Kakashi's head. Stooping down to avoid the potentially lethal blow, the older shinobi lashed out at Naruto's grounded leg.
Hitting nothing but air, Kakashi found Naruto landing five yards away after his jump to avoid being knocked to the ground. Kakashi tensed as he saw the long haired blonde straighten up. "That sharigan is truly formidable; it seems you can see through all my taijutsu attacks."
As Naruto put his hands together to form an unfamiliar seal, Kakashi felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. "Forbidden Art: Unchaining The Demon" Translucent chains appeared coiled tightly around the blonde's limbs and also around his neck. With his sharigan however, he could see them easily as if they were solid steel. Written on them in kanji with what appeared to be blood were phrases like: "Life for blood" "God is no longer in heaven" "Faith is sin" "Speak with the damned" "Devil's child".
The chains became blindingly bright before shattering and crumbling and fading into nothingness. The jounin coiled his entire body as he saw the blonde in front of him move
'There's no telling what that did to him.' A blur of yellow hair was all the warning he had to raise his arms in defense. A bone shattering blow plowed into Kakashi, and even with his arms crossed in front of his torso and chakra enforcing his body, the jounin felt the intense blow reverberate across his chest. 'What an insane amount of strength!'
Quickly swapping himself out with a kawarimi, Kakashi hid himself in the nearby foliage to regain his breath and to wait out the ache in his numb arms to fade enough to function.
'A few more hits like that and I'm going to be paying the hospital a long visit.' Stilling his breathing, the man willed himself to blend into the trees as his student scanned the area for him. A disturbance at the edge of the forest distracted Naruto as Sasuke and Sakura also entered the clearing.
Kakashi's keen hearing caught what the blonde had muttered to himself whilst nodding. "Ah good, with those two here I won't have to worry about trying this."
Inside Naruto's seal, the Kyuubi was as excited as he ever got. "This ought to be a good show." Naruto hunched over and began forming seals with his hands. To the normal eyes, it seemed as if the digits flickered and danced hypnotically, melting from one seal into another. Even to Kakashi's fully mature sharigan, the seals seemed to melt smoothly from one into another. The Hatake barely managed to copy and comprehend the 73 hand seals before it was complete in less than 15 seconds.
'Forbidden Art: Wildfire Tsunami!' The amount of chakra emitted from Naruto's body was so dense that even to the nearby Sakura and Sasuke, it was visible. Poor Kakashi became blind in one eye due to the immense buildup of chakra that was best described as staring at the sun.
Stomping his right foot on the ground and channeling his chakra into the ground as the forbidden scroll had instructed him to, an arch of fire burst from the ground in front of the blonde. For a brief moment, the ten foot high arc of fire danced in front of Naruto, almost as if asking for instructions.
'Oh shit!' thought Kakashi. The ten foot arch of flames filled and a wall of fire blocked Naruto from view. After that, all Kakashi could see was the growing wall of speeding flames headed in all directions. When later asked, Kakashi would say that he had no idea how he had gotten out of the way in time.
In 10 seconds, the nearby forest was simply devastated. Flames consumed everything in its path, washing over trees, rocks, and animals. Creatures were fried beyond recognition of species, leaving behind a black crispy husk without an ounce of fat left on it. Trees became small piles of burnt kindling, and boulders and rocks all took on a glassy feature of hardened molten lava. In less time then it took for someone to sneeze and recover, a once lushes and beautiful forest habitat was reduced to a charred piece of land seen only around active volcanoes.
The Kyuubi let out a low appreciative whistle. "So that's why it's named Wildfire Tsunami."
'Indeed, it is aptly named. The fires seem to take on a wavelike feature.' A smoking and singed Kakashi stood next to Sakura and Sasuke mimicking their dropped jawed expression, though the mask covered his open mouth. 'Hmm…A powerful technique, but it takes too much chakra to be of much use. It should only be employed against a large number of enemies, perhaps an invading army.'
"Would have been useful if you knew this before we went to Kumo" grumbled the Kyuubi. Naruto silently agreed. Turning around, the blonde stalked up to the stunned jounin and unclipped the bells from his belt. Before Kakashi could react the bell rang, announcing the end of the test. Sasuke cursed out loud as he realized he didn't have a bell while Sakura continued staring at the decimated woodland area.
"I win." Naruto's bland statement snapped Kakashi out of his stupor and the man scratched his head in confusion.
"Yeah, I guess you did." Of course the eye smile was mandatory for this situation.
"What about us?" It seemed Sakura had finally gotten over her shock in the face of her possible failing.
"Hmm…Well…" Again the sheepish scratching of the head and accompanied by his trademark eye smile. "Truth be told, you three would have passed regardless."
As Sakura cheered and Sasuke's shoulders slumped in relief, Kakashi continued explaining. "The council would never let the last Uchiha fail, and with Naruto on the team they figured it was a given that you guys would pass." Being a typical clueless man, he did not realize the slightly tactless statement he had unintentionally made.
'So I passed only because of my teammates?' A bout of blues began to set in on the only girl on the team of four.
"CHA! Who cares, we're with Sasuke!" The exclamation from Inner Sakura cheered her up somewhat, but realizing that she had not even registered on the villages list of worthy shinobi in training was still very depressing.
"Why don't we grab something to eat? I'm sure you're all hungry. My treat!" But really, Kakashi just wanted to get away from the scene of destruction before Anbu arrived and started asking questions and pointing fingers.
Ichiraku Ramen Stand
Kakashi sat reading his book while a steaming bowl of ramen cooled in front of him. Sakura was chewing the fattening noodles slowly to his left and to her left sat a brooding Sasuke who was playing with his food while shooting accusing glares at the blonde eating on Kakashi's right.
Already two empty bowls were stacking neatly in front of Naruto, and the noodles in the third bowl were half gone. Not once had they seen him remove his mask. Looking down in his bowl, Sasuke stopped playing with the noodles and began eating while mulling over his thoughts.
'Why am I still so weak? I couldn't get a bell, and I only passed because of my name.' The raven haired boy chewed furiously on the noodles while taking out his frustrations on the poor defenseless bowl of ramen. A choking sound to his right caused him to look up.
Sakura was gaping and pointing at the man trapped between her and the blonde. Sasuke's eyes bugged out as he saw the bowl in front of his sensei, which was empty, soup and all.
"How…when…but I was watching you!" Sakura's frustrated question was answered with an eye smile. Next to Kakashi, Naruto added his third bowl to the pile of empty dishes in front of him.
"Beef old man." It's funny how even when eating his favorite food the blonde was as impassive as a stone mountain.
"Coming right up!" the cheerful reply had come from the cute ramen stand waitress who also happened to be the owner's daughter Ayame, who was always pleased to see their best customer. Kakashi flipped another page and called out his second order.
"Give me a chicken ramen along with that." Sasuke turned back to his own bowl while Sakura ignored hers in favor of glaring at her sensei.
'How did he do that? Was it genjutsu?' glancing at her blonde teammate, she shuddered involuntarily. 'At least you can see sensei's eyes and make out his emotions. But Naruto…' Ayame placed the order of chicken and beef in front of the customers and walked back into the kitchen with a quick "enjoy". The jounin put his book down and took up his pair of chopsticks, stirring the noodles to cool the steaming broth.
The man rubbed his chin with his free before speaking out loud. "Honestly speaking I have no idea what I'm going to do. I've never actually passed a team before so I have no idea how to teach!" Insert eye smile.
'Oh great!' both Sasuke and Sakura's mood became a bit darker upon hearing Kakashi's embarrassed admittance at his incompetence as a teacher.
'Hmm… I'm the only one who can train Sasuke with his sharigan, but Sakura's so far behind that I'll also need to concentrate on bringing her up to par. And Naruto…well he's Naruto."
"Shrimp please." Kakashi blinked at the fourth bowl being added to the stack of empty dish being piled up in front of the former hunter-nin.
'He's even better than I am in some aspects; the best I can do is teach him some new techniques.' Ignoring the growing headache due to his imbalanced team, the silver haired Hatake glanced over to his left to find both Sasuke and Sakura staring at him intently, not even blinking less they miss anything.
Sending chakra through his foot into the ground, Kakashi forced a small lump of earth to build up under one of the legs of Sasuke's chair. Shooting upward, the pile of earth upset the chairs balance sending Sasuke spilling backwards onto the floor. His surprised grunt caused Sakura to turn around and try to help her crush, and in that moment of distraction Kakashi slipped off his mask and gobbled down the entire bowl while swallowing all the soup.
In less then three seconds, the mask was back in place. Looking to his right Kakashi found the blonde looking at him. "That's not humanly possible." Even after witnessing such a spectacular feat of human ingestion speed, Naruto sounded hallow. Kakashi eye smiled and shrugged.
"You break a lot of possibilities as well." Nodding in acceptance, the blonde stacked up his fifth bowl.
"Miso please."
Kakashi snorted at the irony of the situation. 'Such as your stomach capacity.' By this time, the other two genin were back in their seat and wondering how they had missed Kakashi eating an entire bowl of hot ramen in the time it took them to get back to their seats.
'Hehe…Damn I'm good.' Looking at his two glaring students, Kakashi was struck by sudden inspiration. 'I soooo deserve the title of genius!'
"All right guys, here is the plan. We are now officially team 7 once I file my report." Sakura cheered loudly while Sasuke sunk back into his dark thoughts about being forever overshadowed by the Uchiha name. "Sakura you need the focused attention of a single sensei who can bring you up to speed, because honestly, right now, you're a liability to team 7." Depression once again reared its ugly head. "So, seeing as I really can't teach Naruto anything other then new techniques, he will be your sensei!"
The eye smile did nothing to help the feeling of on setting doom washing over the pink haired kunoichi. "Naruto, you will train Sakura as you see fit and I will try to get Sasuke to activate his blood limit. We'll have one month's time of separate training and we'll meet up each day to do missions. After one month, I will train you as a team to the best of my ability." Standing up the man pushed his stool back under the counter.
"So we will meet at Blossom's bridge at 12:00 p.m. tomorrow to do our first mission together. Sasuke I'll see you at training ground 17 at 9:00 a.m. for training." Before anyone could protest, the jounin vanished in a puff of smoke leaving behind his newly formed team of genin.
As Sasuke brooded and Sakura glanced nervously at the eating blonde, she came to a shocking realization. 'I love Naruto!' No just kidding.
"Hey wait a minute! He said he would pay!"
Unkown Loaction
Kakashi wandered through the throng of shoppers in the market while openly reading his perverted novel gaining many disapproving glares form shopping women.
'Damn I am good.'
Ichiraku Ramen Stand
"Kakashi is notorious for being tardy to any scheduled event, especially the important ones. Another bad habit of his is skipping out on the bill." The dispassionate remark came from Naruto, but only served to anger Sakura further.
"If you knew this why didn't you stop him?!" Naruto turned back to his seventh bowl unconcerned.
"Don't worry." Reaching into one of his many pockets, he pulled out a fat leather wallet.
"I took the liberty of relieving him of his money." Sasuke and Sakura exchanged glances before both yelling out at the same time, "One more please!"
"Hehe…Wonder when the pervert will notice?" Being a fox demon, albeit an unnaturally and unnecessarily large one, Kyuubi sill loved to play pranks as all fox demons loved to. Admittedly his sense of what's funny was kind of twisted. I mean he thought it'd be funny to attack the leaf village for laughs, and the only one who ended up laughing was Orochimaru. So not funny.
Half and hour later
Sasuke had stood up and left moments earlier leaving Sakura alone with Naruto. The pinked haired kunoichi was eyeing her future trainer nervously who happened to be finishing up his tenth bowl. "Ummm…Sempai…"
"Tomorrow, 0600 training ground 13." Realizing she had been dismissed, she gladly stood up to leave passing by a certain scantly clad kunoichi making a beeline for Ichiraku. Though Naruto saw it coming he knew better then to avoid it. A quick glomping and nuzzling session later, he found Anko plopping down where Kakashi had sat earlier.
"Geez kiddo, you're really cutting loose today, what's the occasion?"
"I have Kakashi's wallet." At those four words, Anko's eyes lit up like Christmas had come early.
"Really now?" a slow evil malicious smirk grew and spread on her face.
"Hey Kurenai! Asuma!" hollering at the two passing jounins to get their attention off each other, she waved them over excitedly. "Naruto has Kakashi's wallet!"
The lit cigarette fell from the bearded Sarutobi's gaping mouth and Kurenai returned her best friends smirk. "Oh happy days."
Poor Kakashi.
AN: Well there you go, not bad for a guy who hasn't written in 3 months lol. Tell me what you think guys, and yes I did use an idea from the filler ark with mizuki.