Don't Own.
Enjoy!
Sweat poured down his face. His legs pumped fiercely as he weaved through the oncoming balls of death. His lungs burned and his eyes watered behind his mask, but he did not stop. He would not stop. Yet, despite his best efforts, it was not good enough.
BAM!
"Halt!"
Naruto grunted, as he fell to the ground. While he usually loved to train, the constant reminder of failure at the end of this exercise always caused a frown to mar his whiskered face.
"Let's go, rookie! Get up! If you can't handle a single rubber ball, you won't survive a second out in the field."
"Hai Falcon-sensei"
Naruto stood, not wanting to aggravate his teacher. He still had bad memories of when he had first arrived at the ANBU training program. He acted jaded, angsty, mad. And he received his due punishment for it, though it was still light compared to regulation punishment. (They still took it easy on 5 year olds. Go figure.) He never wanted to experience the ANBU punishment again. Shudder.
"Get cleaned up, the Commander wants to see you."
Naruto's eyes widened in surprise. The Commander wanted to see him? I haven't done anything in months! Oh Kami, I hope he doesn't kick me out due to my incompetence. Naruto's heart pounded as he made his way to the Commander's office.
Knocking twice, he heard a quiet "Come in."
Entering the room, his eyes widened once more. There, standing next to the Commander was the Hokage! It took Naruto two seconds for his mind to catch up with the situation. Oh Shit!
As quickly as he could, he got down on his left knee, with his right fist planted on the ground.
"You required my presence Commander-sama, Hokage-sama." He patted himself on the back internally for not letting his voice waver.
"Please stand up Naruto-kun. We have much to discuss"
Naruto left the room with his thoughts a mess.
"...above and beyond what expected…"
He walked back to his room on auto-pilot. The gray concrete walls remaining unseen.
"...you should have passed years ago…"
That thought especially angered him. He was good enough to be a true ANBU years ago! But they had held him back! As angry as he was, he understood their reasoning. He was small for his 13 years of age. And though he was fast, his size would make fighting close range impossible.
"...with powers over wind and air like no other…"
His anger dissipated. There was also the fact that his skills were supposed to be a secret, one of many trump cards Konoha could play if in need.
"...You will be joining the ninja academy, with one month left before the Genin Exams…"
He was disgruntled at that bit. They wanted him, a trainee of the elite of the village, to be a genin! But he wouldn't voice his complaints. He would never disobey a direct order. Not now, and not ever.
Naruto glanced at his image in the mirror. He stood 4 feet 9 inches, with neck length, spiky blonde hair. His cerulean blue eyes stared back at him, with an annoyed look. For clothes. He was dressed in his average ANBU gear, with altered colors as to not draw too much suspicion.. He wore a dark green kakashi-esque facemask for his head. His torso was adorned with a black skintight shirt which covered his ANBU tattoo and a dark green vest. He also wore black arm sleeves with forest green forearm bracers. His pants were black and had green highlights running down the sides, with a pouch on his right thigh. For shoes, he wore black combat boots with green laces, differing from the standard black shinobi sandals.
Nodding once, Naruto grabbed his favorite tanto and sealed it within the storage tattoo underneath his right wrist. He left the sparse apartment given to him by the Sandaime as a cover for where he lived. It was different than what he was used to. Back in the ANBU HQ, he was assigned to a very small room, which held nothing more than a bed and closet for his gear.
In comparison, the apartment was ridiculously large, and left him feeling slightly uncomfortable at how many entry points there were for people trying to gain unwanted entry.
Making his way to the academy, he pondered his situation. Here he was, an ANBU trainee who good enough to be an actual member, being demoted to being an academy student. Of course it wasn't phrased that way, but it was still a demotion to him.
His thoughts then moved onto his skills. Ever since that night, he had seemed to be far more comfortable when in the open, with a breeze flowing. It was the reason why he loved being atop the Hokage Monument so much. There was something about the wind that he simply loved. When asked to explain, he could only explain in one way. The wind sings to him.
Not in the conventional sense though. The wind was like a melody. It's song gave him hope. It gave him courage. When meditating amongst the breeze, he felt at peace. Like all was right with the world. To be able to experience such feelings filled him with happiness. Yet also with depression, for when he came out of his trances, he was subjected to the cruelty of the world once more.
He shook his head. No need to go off on a sadness tangent. He turned his mind to happier thoughts, like his abilities. He had achieved a mastery over wind like no other. Whereas normal wind users had to use jutsu to command the wind, he could hold a simple ram sign and accomplish pretty much anything. Creating 100 mph winds? No problem. Tornadoes? Child's play. Flying? Now that was a bit harder. The best he could do was heavily increase the density of air, creating pockets, and use them as steps to run.
But what was the use in having such skills if he couldn't use them? Despite not being a direct order, it was implied that he was supposed to limit his abilities.
He sighed. Academy was going to suck.
Author's note: Another short chapter... Sorry everyone! Regardless, I do hope you enjoyed it :)