Mission start
Jiraiya woke up the same way he always did tired, hungover and itchy. Looking to his left he could see the random woman he'd picked up the night before she looked fairly plain. Brown hair and eyes reasonably attractive figure and looks but he still felt empty after spending the night with her, why? Well that would be due to the woman currently working her way through his wallet. "How much was it again?"
The woman just giggled at his nonchalance it was rare to find a man who knew that this was a simple business transaction. "750 ryo." She tuned to leave having found the money she was owed when she was heard Jiraiya cough for her attention.
The man threw another wad of bills at her. "Here's another 500." Seeing her smile at him made the old man feel a bit guilty. "If I were you I'd go to the doctor with that… I don't exactly have the healthiest soldier." The woman's smile disappeared in a flash that would have made a certain Hokage proud. "Sorry probably should have mentioned that... Oh well."
"Pig!" She screamed before leaving the room slamming the door with all her feminine fury.
"Well that probably could have gone better." Jiraiya leant forward and swung his feet over the side the bed cracking his back as he did so. "One of these days I'll remember to tell them beforehand."
"Classy as ever I see Jiraiya-sama." Jiraiya didn't even turn having recognised the voice as Chameleon, personally the man annoyed the crap out of him but he had to be honest he was one of the best at what he did in the village.
"What is it Chameleon? I will be sending my report back to the Hokage soon." The white haired Sannin stood up not even bothering to dress himself in front of the ANBU before walking into the bathroom of the room. "Unless there's anything else do you mind leaving? I've gotta go visit a medic-nin about this itch."
Chameleon stood motionless in the room waiting for the man to return. Though behind the mask you could quite easily see his frustration. "Jiraiya-sama the Hokage has asked me to deliver this message to you." Jiraiya remained in the bathroom as the shower could be heard turning on. Jiraiya merely stood under the water falling down onto his head, he sighed deeply feeling the air enter his lungs.
"What does he want this time chameleon? We both know he wouldn't send you for no reason." He got no response and so just continued his shower before stepping out of the bathroom in a bath robe to see Chameleon sat on the couch of the room flipping through one of the latest bingo books. "And here I was hoping you'd left." Seeing no reaction from the ANBU the robed Sannin walked towards the mini bar before grabbing a bottle of sake. "Want a drink?" seeing no response from the ANBU Jiraiya just scoffed "Go on then what's the message?"
Chameleon merely looked up from the bingo book before reaching into his coat and tossing him a scroll. "Before you read that I've been told to tell you to return to the village by the end of the month or you shall be labelled a missing-nin." Jiraiya snatched the scroll out of the air but hearing the end of Chameleon's message his knuckles tightened and the scroll crumpled under his grip. "Hey calm down there champ, don't shoot the messenger. And before you freak out just read the scroll." Jiraiya glared at him before opening the scroll, the toad sage's eyes travelled the length of the scroll a few times making sure he wasn't going mad.
"You're lucky I just got laid Chameleon or I'd rip you limb from limb bringing me this shit." Chameleon just shrugged he knew how powerful the man in front of him was and in a one on one fight he would get destroyed but he knew he could escape pretty easily. "Tell the old crone I'll be there within a few weeks, I'm gonna have to inform my network about me leaving…" He paused hearing a scrambling outside the room. 'That'll be her handler about spoiling the goods… oh well I could use a bit of stress relief.' Just then a large man dressed in simple but luxurious clothes burst in through the door with another larger man and the woman from early.
"You! Are you the son of a bitch who ruined my merchandise?" Jiraiya just feigned innocence and looked around the room trying to find Chameleon, seeing that the ANBU had disappeared he just smirked and cracked his knuckles.
"Why yes, yes I am. And it looks like I get to ruin something else this fine morning." Jiraiya then released a small amount of KI causing the three to whimper before he began walking towards them whistling a happy tune.
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked through the rows of jounin in front of him, he already knew the three teams which had passed but protocol dictates he had to sit through another boring meeting as they listed them out. "Okay so the passing teams are Team 7: Sasuke Uchiha, Ino Yamanaka and Kiba Inuzuka under jounin Obito Uchiha. Team 8: Chouji Akamichi, Sakura Haruno and Shino Aburame under jounin Kurenai Yuhi and finally Team 10: Shikamaru Nara, Hinata Hyuuga and Naruto Uzumaki under jounin Kakashi Hatake any problems?"
A few jounin grumbled knowing the Hokage had already picked out the passing teams. "How come the demon brat has passed that scum shouldn't be allowed to breathe never mind be a ninja." Sarutobi merely raised an eyebrow and a mild amount of killing intent before nodding towards Kakashi who promptly turned around and sucker-punched the man in the gut taking the air out of him.
"You are hereby demoted to Chunin and shall be placed on border patrol for three months with no leave." He looked around his now silent office. "Does anyone else have any problems with the Uzumaki boy graduating?" Seeing no response he shrugged. "Dismissed Kakashi, Obito stay a moment will you." The two Cyclops' just looked at each other before nodding to the Hokage. Sarutobi waited for the rest of the Jounin to leave with the newly demoted Chunin having to be carried out. "Now you two both have teams with a large amount of potential we can all agree on that." The men nodded. "But with that potential there is a lot of room for error, Naruto doesn't really need explaining to either of you but Obito you know Sasuke is just a ticking time-bomb, I trust you to ensure his loyalty to the village."
Obito looked away and sighed. "I will try my best Hokage-sama but honestly the boy hates me and likely always will, though I have a plan to deal with that I just hope he doesn't die first." Sarutobi narrowed his eyes at the raven haired man. "Don't worry it's nothing too bad I just get the feeling Itachi may have done more damage than we thought to him when he left."
"Anyway the reason I called the two of you here is because I want you two to have the teams spar once a week against each other." Seeing the surprise of the jounin he held up a hand until he was finished. "My reasoning is three-fold, first a little bit of competition will help them all improve more quickly. Secondly, Sasuke and Naruto need to develop more bonds within the village and this could be a decent solution to that. And thirdly the two kunoichi you have both have good potential but are too reliant on their teammates particularly Naruto and Sasuke. The Hyuuga girl could do with a confidence boost and the Yamanaka needs her eyes opening."
The two jounin smiled at the aging Hokage before Kakashi spoke up. "Every Saturday at 3 after training?" Obito just shrugged and nodded at his long time teammate and friend.
"Sure but you better turn up on time, kami knows why you decided to take the mantle for me being late all the time, at least I grew out of it mostly." With that agreed Sarutobi just dismissed the two before turning to the ever growing stacks of paperwork in front of him and sighing.
Naruto walked through the corridors of the Hokage's tower noting all the jounin sensei that had come to pick up the teams from his class walked by him, some giving him a dirty stare and some seeming to give him nods of approval though those were few and far between. Before he got to the door Kakashi and Obito left the room. "Hey Kakashi-sensei what are you doing here?"
Obito just ruffled Naruto's hair without a word before disappearing in his trademark flame shunshin. "Hey get back here you Teme. "
"Hey there Naruto don't mind Obito he's just doing it to get a rise out of you. I assume you wanna talk to the Hokage." Seeing him nod he told the jinchuuriki to meet him at the training ground afterwards.
Naruto walked into the Hokage's office seeing his would be grandfather staring a hole into the paperwork adorning it he couldn't help but chuckle which grabbed his attention. "Well hello there Naruto-kun I'm guessing you're here about that reward I mentioned." Seeing the boy smile happily he carried on. "Well I can give you a choice of two things on one hand I can give you the pay for a B-rank mission, or I can give you permission to take one B-rank jutsu from the village vault. So which would you prefer Naruto-kun?"
Seeing the gears turn in the boys mind made Hiruzen chuckle. Inside Naruto's mind there was a small tug of war between two chibi Narutos one with dollar signs in his eyes and the other with a scroll strapped to his back. Finally the rope tugged violently and the scroll chibi danced around in victory.
"I think I'll take the jutsu scroll the Jiji." Hiruzen merely wrote out a small note and stamped it with his seal.
"There you go Naruto just ask Kakashi to help you choose one I'm sure he would be more than happy to help." Naruto practically leaped over the desk and snatched the note out of his aged hands before skipping out of the office.
"Thanks Jiji you're the best, see you around."
Naruto and Shikamaru had met up on the way to the training ground and where walking down the main road of Konoha, now while Naruto would have preferred to travel across the rooftops as it would have been much quicker and increased his skill in it, Shikamaru was far too lazy for that type of thing so Naruto had to settle for walking. "You know I'm gonna get you back for that shit you pulled with the beehive right." Shikamaru looked fairly placid but if you knew him well enough it was clear to see the young Nara was thoroughly annoyed at his blonde companion.
Naruto just turned lazily to look at his friend before rolling his eyes. "No you won't you're too lazy for something like that, but I can promise not to do it again if you don't ignore me when I'm talking to you."
Shikamaru didn't respond for a second. "Sorry I kinda stopped paying attention to you, what did you say?" now Shikamaru knew this would piss him off but Naruto was right he was far too lazy too actually do anything else to him.
"Run." Shikamaru looked at him for a second before raising an eyebrow. "I said run. No one ignores Naruto Uzumaki, not anymore." He said with a dark look in his eyes. "Now run Nara you have 10 seconds before I teach you not to ignore me." Shikamaru eyes widened when Naruto began to crack his neck and knuckles.
'This troublesome blonde is gonna be the death of me I swear.' Shikamaru thought before sprinting to the training round at a surprising speed.
"Aww what's wrong Shika don't you wanna play with me!?" Naruto yelled a huge smile on his face before leaping after his lazy teammate.
Hinata was walking down the streets of Konoha on the way to her team meeting thinking of ways in which she could get closer to her blonde teammate, this wasn't purely because of her crush on him not to say that didn't help but she was more curious about his sudden increase in skills. Not to say she didn't believe Naruto to be strong when they were classmates. She probably would have rated him as being the third or fourth strongest boy in their class behind Sasuke and Shino, maybe Kiba but they were both a bit too hot-headed to fight each other seriously. But now he was showing skills that could easily match Sasuke in Taijutsu at least. Deciding to think on that later she picked up the pace to get to the meeting though she stopped dead seeing Shikamaru moving faster than she had ever seen across the rooftops before a cackling Naruto also passed by throwing the odd shuriken at him. 'Why do I get the feeling this team is going to get weirder and weirder.'
Shikamaru landed in the training ground panting and looking slightly frazzled. Hearing Naruto land behind him he immediately turned and lifted his arms in a placating way. "Okay I'm sorry I ignored you but calm down and stop being so troublesome." Shikamaru looked to have calmed the blonde maelstrom down before Hinata landed in the clearing looking slightly out of breath as well.
"Hah… hah… what are you two doing sprinting across the village and why did it look like Naruto-kun was trying to kill you Shikamaru?" Hinata said looking between the two noticing Shikamaru's posture and stance and the glint in Naruto's eye.
"Just teaching the lazy ass a lesson, I'm sure he learnt it properly though right Shika?" Naruto smiled at Shikamaru making the Nara sweat-drop before nodding lazily. Knowing that they'd arrived early due to the chase Hinata asked Naruto about her training in the tree climbing technique.
"I didn't really have any time to practise last night as my father wished to train me in the family style." She was looking away thinking Naruto would be disappointed in her but was surprised when he spoke up in a cheerful tone.
"That's cool I guess any training is better than no training right" Hinata smiled though was thinking along the lines of 'If only he knew.' "Anyway do you remember what I told you about the technique?" she nodded. "Okay now last time you made it pretty far but slipped, why don't you try again."
She was nervous but did it anyway managing to make it to about the same height as last time and stayed stood there. "Was that okay Naruto-kun?" Naruto was surprised that she could manage it so easily but then remembered when he had scanned her in the academy and it revealed her to have almost as good chakra control as Sakura.
"Yeah you're doing great Hinata, the scroll I read said you haven't mastered it until you can fight on the surface so why don't you start running around until you get tired and then rest til Kakashi sensei gets here."
In all this Shikamaru had been sat against a tree waiting for Kakashi to show up and was just watching the other two patiently. 'Hmm it's troublesome but if this keeps up those two will pull too far ahead of me and Kakashi will train me harder to catch up to them… screw it may as well try the damn walking thing.'
Naruto turned to see Shikamaru slowly walking up the tree he had been sat underneath though he was slipping and sliding down the tree every now and then. 'What the hell? Why does everyone else seem to learn this much faster than me?' shrugging it off due to his innate ability to forget annoying things Naruto heard a small puff of smoke appear behind him. "Hey Kakashi-sensei not too late today I see."
Kakashi just eye smiled at the blonde before looking at the other two team members who had just noticed his presence and had hopped off of the tree and landed side by side Naruto. "Well I wasn't really planning on teaching the three of you the tree walking exercise until I'd run you through some basic teamwork exercises but seeing how well you did in the bell test I'll let you off." The two of the three just smiled while the other just nodded lazily. "Okay I have a small bit of news about your training schedule from now on." Seeing the eager look in Naruto's eyes he carried on. "Every Saturday after team training we will be having a sparring session with team 7, any problems with that?" Getting two nods, one being a bit more reserved than Naruto's ridiculous enthusiasm and a mumble of troublesome from the final team member he nodded and smiled at the three of them. "Good now seeing as you all seems to have a handle on the tree walking exercise I expect you all to complete it in your own time outside of team training. And I mean all of you." The jounin sent a small glance towards Shikamaru who just slouched his shoulders and sighed.
"Kakashi-sensei is it okay for me to start on the water walking one according to the scroll I've already finished the tree climbing one." Kakashi just nodded but told him to be careful and not to drown himself getting a small chuckle from Shikamaru which earned a glare from Naruto and a small muttering of the word bee's which seemed to shut him up.
"Okay now today we are going to be working on some teamwork exercises, why you ask well I believe that even with all the skills in the world a ninja will never be as powerful alone as he could be in a team." He said before eye-smiling at the nods he received from the three, though he could have sworn he heard Shikamaru muttering something about corny cliché's.
After a few hours of training in which Kakashi had tied the three together and made them run through an obstacle course he had designed in the trees he had taken the three for lunch at the nearest Akamichi BBQ, Naruto of course had pushed for them to go Ichiraku's though Shikamaru and Kakashi said he needed a more balanced diet if he wanted to grow up and stop being such a shrimp which lead to a rather grumpy and slightly red faced Naruto. "Hey Kakashi sensei." Naruto managed to somehow say with a mouth full of barbequed beef.
Kakashi just rolled his eyes at the boy's lack of manners. "Yeah Naruto what is it… Please swallow before continuing, please." Naruto took an exaggerated gulp seemingly not having to chew his food when needed.
"Well I always wondered about what field I should specialise in, I know my control sucks and I'm not very smart so I figured Genjutsu wasn't an option. So I wanted your opinion on whether I should focus more on Taijutsu or Ninjutsu?" Kakashi honestly hadn't expected someone like Naruto to be thinking about his focus as a ninja so early in his career. Thinking about it though he had to agree with his huge capacity for chakra Naruto would never have good enough control for Genjutsu, the boy was fast for his age and he seemed to be getting faster and faster every day and he couldn't deny that he hit hard for a genin.
"I'm pleased you've been putting so much thought into this Naruto and you're right you will probably never be very good at casting Genjutsu so it would be pretty pointless to even try specialising in it." Naruto frowned but he had brought it up himself so didn't get upset by someone telling him what he could and could not do. "Now the question is do you want to be strong for yourself or for your team?"
Naruto seemed confused but knew the answer almost instantly. "I want to be strong to protect my teammates and the village as a whole sensei, but I don't see why that would matter much in choosing what I specialise in."
Kakashi knew he wouldn't understand it right away so decided to explain in a bit more detail. "Okay Naruto I'll explain it a bit more clearly for you. If you want to get stronger and promoted as fast as possible then I'd say focus on Taijutsu but if you want to stay as a team and help them get stronger along with you then I'd say focus on Ninjutsu, why you ask well let's put it this way. This team has been put together because we thought your individual skills complemented each other well. Hinata due to her family's dojutsu will always be a good tracker and along with the gentle fist she is guaranteed to be a strong Taijutsu fighter." Naruto looked surprised and then smiled proudly at Hinata getting her to blush quite a bit. "Now Shikamaru here was placed in this team to be your long/mid-range support with his clan jutsu as well as being a good strategist for the team." Shikamaru just nodded he had figured the same after thinking about it. "So Naruto if Hinata is close range and Shikamaru a long range support where do you think you should operate from to maximise the effectiveness of the team?" Naruto took a second to think about it before opening his mouth; he figured the intelligence points were starting to pay off.
"I guess I would be the middle ranged offense of the team, but other than this note I have from the Hokage for a B-rank technique from the village vault I don't have any other techniques." Kakashi just shrugged figuring the Hokage would have offered him something like that.
"Well I'm planning to teach you all a few jutsu soon enough anyway, so that'll be fine and I will take you to the vault after we find out your elemental affinity okay?" Naruto seemed happy enough with that and he really did want to become strong as a part of this team not just alone.
"Okay then I guess I should probably focus on ninjutsu then sensei." Kakashi smiled he was glad the boy had gone with that option, with his chakra capacity and stamina he could become a walking arsenal.
"That's good but just because you've decided to focus on the ninjutsu side of the shinobi spectrum you shouldn't ignore the taijutsu portion, you've already proven you have good taijutsu for your age, it may not be at the level of Hinata but she will be the taijutsu specialist of our little squad here." He was glad to see the smile Naruto had on his face and he seemed to be supportive of Hinata rather than jealous so that's good.
"Anyway after we finish eating you can have thirty minutes to go sort out whatever you like but then I want you back at the training ground to continue training." Naruto just smiled and inhaled his food before dashing off who knows where to do who knows what a hyperactive jinchuuriki does with his free time.
"Kakashi-sensei how come Naruto got that note from the Hokage?" Shikamaru was curious, he had no idea why Naruto knew the Hokage so well and his increase in strength lately was a real mystery.
Kakashi thought about it for a minute and decided there was no real reason to hide it from them. "Naruto helped in the completion of a B-rank mission for the Hokage last night. Now before you ask why he was involved you should know that it was purely by accident and would not have been involved with the mission should I or the Hokage have had any say in the matter." This seemed to placate the Nara but the worry could be seen on Hinata's face. "Don't worry it wasn't a particularly dangerous mission but if you want to know more about it then feel free to ask Naruto himself."
Seeing the two accept this he stood up to leave but not before he walked over to the bar and paid the bill for his squad. When he turned back the genin had both gone.
Naruto was glad to have asked Kakashi he hadn't just given him the answer he had made him work it all out for himself in all honesty it made perfect sense for him to be a ninjutsu specialist according to his stats he seemed to have near unlimited chakra, speaking of which he had stopped outside of the sharpened leaf where he was going to collect his equipment from Ryu. He was currently sat on a bench staring at the 'Skill Tree' screen in front of him. 'Primary skill tree ninjutsu select.' A small yes or no window appeared before he tapped the yes button which revealed a small icon that looked like the ram seal, reaching out and touching the icon the all too familiar alert window popped up.
PING
Passive Trait unlocked: Ninjutsu affinity
1.5x ExP for all Ninjutsu and elemental skills
'Okay that's great didn't think that would work out so well.' He closed the window and went back to the skill tree screen and selected taijutsu as the secondary affinity. This came up with another icon on the taijutsu tree this time. Though the genjutsu tree seemed to blacken out entirely.
PING
Passive Trait unlocked: Minor Taijutsu affinity
30% less stamina cost for Taijutsu techniques.
'Well I'll be damned if I don't fall in love with this shit soon. I know I bitch and moan about this thing but it's coming in pretty useful so far, just hope it doesn't come back to bite me in the ass.' Standing up after closing the skill tree screen and the rest he walked into the sharpened leaf the bell above the door ringing as he did so. Looking around he couldn't find Ryu or anyone else the place was deserted. "Ryu-jisan are you in here anywhere?" He yelled hoping to hear a response; he couldn't hear anyone respond though he could swear he heard the sound of metal clashing against metal from a closed door in the back of the store. Feeling adventurous he stepped past the counter and knocked against the door before calling for Ryu again.
As soon as he called he heard some scrambling from behind the door which swung open to reveal a sweaty and soot covered Ryu with a look that clearly screamed he did not appreciate being disturbed. He quickly saw Naruto looking more than a little skittish at the battle hardened veteran's gaze. His scowl disappeared upon seeing his new favourite customer/supplier. "Ah Naruto my boy how can I help you?" Naruto seemed to relax now that the veteran didn't look like he was about to rip him in half with his eyes alone.
"You told me stop by today to pick up the arm and leg armour you were going to make from those bones I gave you. If they aren't ready I can come back later." Ryu merely leant forward and ruffled his blonde hair and motioned for him to be following the smithy. He took Naruto into his forge and the blonde could honestly say it was the sweatiest, hottest room he had ever been. It felt as if he was being boiled like an egg. Ryu disappeared around a corner but not before telling the young blonde to wait there and not too touch anything. Of course Naruto was still tempted to rummage around but decided not to piss the man off.
Ryu came back after a minute or two with two reasonable sized bundles of cloth before unrolling the first one to reveal a pair of jet black shin and foot guards that seemed to absorb all light that went near them. "These my boy are your new combat guards." He leant forward and yanked Naruto's legs out from under him causing the boy to fall backwards onto a very conveniently placed barrel. "Sorry about that, but here is how you put them on." He turned them around to show a series of leather straps that seemed to have more of the black material as small buckles and latches. "Can you undo these bandages kid, they're in the way." Naruto just nodded and unwrapped the bandages covering the lower half of his shins. Ryu rolled up his pant leg before placing the guard over his shin and strapping it in place nice and tightly. The foot guard didn't have anything to hold it in place but he figured that they could be held in place by those bandages the boy seemed to like. "Well what do you think then?"
"Well they look awesome and kick-ass so I'm a bit sad to have to hide them. I still don't know how hard they are or good for protection so I'll get back to you on that one." Ryu just nodded the boy was happy and he knew himself that it would take a lot more than what the average shinobi could dish out to break through. 'Huh these things do seem pretty strong, I'll give them a scan later on to see how special they really are.' He finished covering them up and rewrapping the bandages around his legs. He had to admit they were barely noticeable underneath and if they were as hard as he thought they would be a nice surprise next time he wanted to punt someone.
"Now Naruto those are some of my proudest work there so look after them." The blonde nodded rather vigorously unable to take a shit-eating grin off his face throughout. "Now these on the other hand are some of my proudest pieces I've made in the last ten years." He slowly unwrapped the second bundle to reveal a pair of deep crimson arm guards atop black gloves were the crimson material seemed to flow down onto the back of the hand with smaller segments attached to the fingers. If Naruto thought the shin guards were cool he didn't know what to say about these, they looked thin and lightweight but he was sure they were more than sturdy enough for what he could do to them.
"Wow Ryu-jisan these look amazing." Naruto took them from him and took a closer look and noticed a small black swirl pattern etched into the back of each of the glove plates, the same swirl he had on his t-shirts and the same all the chunin and up had on their vest in the village. Not being able to control himself much longer he quickly put them on and felt his hands slip into them easily and comfortably.
"Now Naruto these aren't just simple guards I'm sure you can tell." Seeing him nod again he smiled and continued. "That's right these and the shin guards can both channel chakra through just like those blades you have. Now I haven't had the chance test them so you will have to experiment with them yourself if you want to learn how to use them properly." At this point Naruto had to stop himself from drooling all over the floor of the forge.
"Seriously? You're the best Ryu-jisan." Thinking about testing them out though got Naruto's mind back on his team and realised he'd been there for a quite a while. "Crap sorry Ryu-jisan but I think I'm late for team training gotta run." And with that the bolt of blonde energy that is Naruto Uzumaki was gone from the store faster than Ryu could blink.
Shikamaru, Hinata and surprisingly Kakashi where all waiting at the training grounds when Naruto landed in front of them. "Really Naruto it's only the second training session and you're already late." Kakashi sounded like he was pissed but if you looked closely there was almost a sense of… pride? No that couldn't be right, could it?
"Sorry guys I got held up getting some equipment form the store hope I'm not too late." Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Don't worry about it Naruto sensei only got here a minute or so before you." Shikamaru reassured him though this caused a sweat drop from Naruto and kakashi though for very different reasons.
'I can't believe someone was later than me or Obito to something. Hmm I think I need to try harder.' Kakashi mused to himself rather childishly. "Okay now that you're all here we can get started on training. Seeing as we did teamwork exercises this morning we'll do some physical conditioning and chakra control after that." Getting a series of varying shouts of recognition from his genin Kakashi threw a set of weights at each of their feet. "Here you go I want you all to strap those to your wrists and ankles." Seeing hinata and Shikamaru do as told he looked to Naruto. "You not feel up to it Blondie?" Naruto just rolled his eyes at his sensei before rolling up his sleeves to reveal his gauntlet and the weights strapped to the underside of his arm. "…Okay I'm not sure when you got those but fine. Also nice guards they look like they'll do a good job if you get used to them."
"Thanks sensei, so what do you want us to do for training? I'm itching to get my blood pumping." Kakashi just chuckled at the stark contrast between Naruto's enthusiasm and Shikamaru's groan.
"I want you all to do fifteen laps around the lake." He pointed to the lake of the training ground which looked to be around fifty metres wide. Again Shikamaru groaned, Hinata nodded and Naruto just sprinted off. "I wasn't finished. Shikamaru catch up to him and tell him to get back here." The young Nara just began to twitch before muttering troublesome and running after his teammate. "Hehe I think I'm going to love this team after all." Hinata just stood there and watched Shikamaru attempt to catch Naruto before giving up and waiting for him to circle around the lake.
Hinata fell backwards and leant against a tree the sun had just began to set over the forests of Konohagakure and her team had just finished training for the day. She looked to her left to see Naruto still running up and down his respective tree yelling at kakashi about already knowing how to do this. She looked to her right to find Shikamaru taking a nap in the shade under his tree. "Seriously Kakashi-sensei why can't I just move onto the water walking exercise already?" Kakashi just rolled his eyes having had them run laps around the lake, do countless push ups crunches and then sparring followed by the tree walking exercise for the past hour he thought they'd be too tired to move never mind complain about doing more.
"Naruto we are done for the day now, get down from the tree." Naruto just huffed about lazy senseis. "Naruto I can get you started on the water walking tomorrow. Now you've all done well today I've only got a few things to go over and then you can all go home." They all walked towards him and sat down. "Hinata I know there are some traditions in your clan about Jutsu outside of the gentle fist, so I want you to think about whether or not you want to learn any ninjutsu from me that I think will compliment your style." Hinata was nervous she knew if she did so she would upset her father but then again he had said she had no talent for the gentle fist so maybe she should take kakashi-sensei's advice.
"I'll think about it kakashi-sensei thank you." Kakashi just waved her thanks off before continuing.
"Shikamaru as a Nara you are expected to be intelligent and have a good set of support skills, I can see that you have the potential to excel in these areas but as a true support you will need to be able to provide more help than that to your squad so I will ask you the same regarding Jutsu outside your clan techniques." Shikamaru just nodded and said nothing.
"Ooh what about me kakashi-sensei?" Naruto was hoping to get a glorious evaluation for his amazingly awesome kick-ass skill set that Kakashi just had to acknowledge as pure brilliance.
"Naruto you still need to work on your control, with the amount of chakra you have there will always be a need to work on your chakra control, still your making good progress and your speed and strength for a fresh graduate is still impressive. You don't have a clan or any restrictions on you so I have no worries regarding your training just do what I tell you and whatever you feel will help you as best it can." Naruto just grinned and nodded through the entire lecture; he was a bit saddened by his lack of family but quickly moved on.
"Hai so are we done for the day then sensei?" Earning a nod from Kakashi Naruto turned on his heel and gave an almost sarcastic salute to Hinata and Shikamaru. "See you guys tomorrow I need to go get some food. Anyone wanna join me?" he looked around Shikamaru clearly wasn't interested. "You not coming then Shika that's cool, see you tomorrow. What about you Hinata feeling hungry?"
'Naruto-kun wants me to go have dinner with him… is this a dream.' Hinata in her panic seemed to have forgotten how to speak.
"Ah sorry I asked Hinata-chan just forget about it." Naruto just sighted and turned to leave.
'What no of course I want to go… TALK DAMMIT!' Hinata was furious with herself it had taken years to get rid of her stutter but luckily Kurenai had taken the time to help with it. Unfortunately it had been replaced with her going silent when too excited about certain things. She was close to tears at this point but then she remembered that her father had told about a clan meeting tonight anyway. "…Sorry Naruto-kun but there is a clan meeting tonight and as heiress I'm expected to be there."
She just stood with a small pout on her face. Naruto had to admit she looked cute but just shrugged it off quickly. "Don't worry about it Hinata-chan can't help things like that. I'll see you all tomorrow morning for training." Naruto leaped away into the trees of Konoha leaving his team behind.
"You know you really shouldn't be so nervous talking to him." Hinata's head shot around to find Shikamaru looking at Kakashi having disappeared into a puff of smoke as per usual. Hinata felt like running away at the moment no one had ever called out her crush on the blonde before. "Seriously we are a team, and what do you think the worse would happen if you spoke to him more often. I know you have a crush on him but we both know that inter-team relationships until we are at least chunin are prohibited." Of course she knew it was one of the first things she looked up when Naruto had been announced on her team. "I'm not trying to be mean, just try to be friends with him first at least."
"I'll try to be a bit more relaxed around him Shika sorry if I worried you about the team performance." He just waved her off before turning to walk away back to the village.
"Don't worry about it Hinata what are friends for. Plus the knucklehead would probably end up thinking he'd pissed you off if you kept that up." With that the two genin went their separate ways back to their individual clan compounds leaving one perverted silver haired jounin in the trees above.
'Glad they at least talked about that, god I hate awkward situations like that. I will never understand teenage girls… not like anyone ever would.' With that he again disappeared in his almost trademarked puff of smoke.
Naruto arrived at his home after eating a small meal at Ichiraku's (four bowls) he walked over to the couch and promptly fell face first into said furniture. After relaxing on the couch for a while he looked at the new addition to his clothing and had to admit he liked the way that the armguards were barely noticeable underneath his jacket. The shin guards as well didn't seem to be visible bar the small plates that covered his feet.
He opened the status screen and quickly changed tabs over to the equipment select page with his beloved orange jumpsuit gone he now had no more stat reductions to speak of, hell his new clothes even gave some small stat boosts, still small but every little helps. His jacket and ANBU pants both gave a +1stealth boost and a further +1 to his charisma and stealth respectively. Happy to have decent clothing he looked over to his new found armour pieces.
T-Gauntlets
T-carbon gauntlets crafted from ancient bones
Strength +2, Endurance+4
'I gotta thank Ryu-jisan again these things are awesome, and I'm pretty sure he mentioned they were chakra conductive as well.' He flexed his fists still amazed how they didn't restrict any of his movement. 'I was worried about these things stopping me from making seals but they seem perfect in every way.' Moving back to the equipment screen he began to look at his new shin and foot guards.
T-guards
T-carbon Guards crafted from ancient bones
Endurance +3, skill unlocked
The increased stats aside he was incredibly curious about his potential skills. He quickly moved over to the skill book tab from the status screen.
Skills learned:
Scan, Level 3, 6.34% ExP
Free running, Level 2, 43% ExP
God Wind Flow, Level 2, 32% ExP
Chakra formation, Level 1, 64% ExP
Possible Skills:
Rankyaku, Long range Taijutsu skill
Requirements: Chakra (20), Speed (40), Control (20), Endurance (10)
God Wind Flow Level 3
Traits:
Ninjutsu affinity: 1.5 ExP Ninjutsu and elemental skills
Minor Taijutsu affinity: 30% less stamina cost for taijutsu skills
Naruto just stared at the screen taking in all the information before slouching back into the couch in what looked incredibly comfortable while at the same time being very bad for his posture. 'So the only information that didn't already know is that I can now learn something called the Rankyaku.' He cracked his neck and seemed to move even further into the couch. 'Now all I have to do is level up another…' if you looked inside the blondes mind you would be able to see yet another chibi Naruto writing numbers down madly while working an abacus rather haphazardly. '3 times at least and that's if I put all my points into speed, control and some in endurance…. Wait I didn't spend the points from last time I levelled.' He re-opened the status screen having bolted upright into a more natural position. 'Hmm let me see I guess I can bump my endurance up to 10 for Now, that leaves me with another seven points, Rankyaku regardless Kakashi said my control still needed a lot of work and that my speed was good as at the moment.' He quickly poured the remainder of the points into Control bringing it up to 17. After hitting confirm the familiar lights flew into his body. He quickly felt his chakra coils tighten before relaxing again. The Endurance seemed to have made him denser and his skin thicker.
Yawning he stood up and hobbled over to the kitchen and started cooking, the four bowls at Ichiraku's had really only placated his need for food. Opening the fridge he took out some chicken and other ingredients before taking some rice from the cupboard and boiling some water.
When he had finished cooking he had a reasonably sized plate of food in front of him though the rice seemed sludgy and the vegetables too hard giving the food an odd texture, luckily he had done the chicken properly. He seemed to be able to cook meat well at least. He quickly finished the odd meal before hopping in the shower and then crawling into bed looking forward to training with his team tomorrow.
Time skip (2 days Start of missions)
Kakashi had run his team through the ringer trying to get them up to his standards. He'd drill them for hours on teamwork exercises and he was impressed with their ability to work together, give it another few weeks and he would be quite happy to slowly wean the genin off of them. The physical conditioning also seemed to be going well with Hinata and Naruto improving very quickly, though nowhere near as quickly as Shikamaru seemed to be doing. This may have had something to do with his blonde teammate throwing a mixture of pointy things at him when he fell behind and plain old heavy things if complained to often. The jounin still had no idea how the blonde could make the brunette freeze up and follow his instructions to the let with a mere mention of the word bees, but who was he to complain. The training had increased some of Naruto's stats as well though only really in the stamina attribute which had been brought up to 15. Out of all the possible stats to upgrade this one was definitely the biggest pain in the ass.
Said team were now on the way to the mission's office for the first time, with Naruto being his usual ball of energy which seemed to bleeding off into Hinata the more time they spent together. Then there was Shikamaru, though made to try harder in training he still had the laziness associated with his clan.
"So Kakashi-sensei what type of mission do you think that we'll be getting today, I guess we'll be starting off small so will it just be a bandit camp or something like that?" Kakashi just laughed a little before replying to his question.
"Something like that Naruto, don't wanna throw you in at the deep end or anything." With that the four entered the Hokage tower before making their way up through the building and into the mission request office. Seeing Iruka sat next to the Hokage brought a small smile to Naruto's face.
"Ah Kakashi I see you've finally brought in your genin for a mission. The other jounin started doing their missions two days ago." Naruto seemed shocked at this he couldn't believe Kakashi had let the other genin move ahead of him, who knows what amazing adventures they could be having right now.
"Hai Hokage-sama I thought it best to make sure there teamwork and conditioning was up to standard for the missions they would be having." The aged Hokage just nodded to the jounin before reaching for a small stack of scrolls and presented three of them.
"Take your pick of these the Kakashi and be careful." Iruka and Kakashi had to repress a small snicker between them. Kakashi merely looked through the scrolls before selecting one and moving back over to his team.
"Hokage-sama we will be on our way then." The Hokage merely nodded towards the jounin with Iruka wishing the genin good luck before saying goodbye.
As soon as the team had reached the hallway outside of the office Naruto immediately began to pester Kakashi about the details about the mission. "So what did you get us sensei I bet it's something awesome and heroic, I mean what else could you get to contain the magnificent ball of awesome that is Naruto Uzumaki." Kakashi just waved him off and told him to wait for more information til when they met up with the client.
Hinata would have giggled at the look on Naruto's face at hearing what the mission would be if not for her own slight disappointment at the news, Shikamaru seemed fine with it. The 'mission' that Kakashi had accepted was to paint the fence around the property of one of the older villagers. "Naruto I don't know how you expect me to explain this to you more clearly but there will be no one to fight on this mission there will be no princesses and there will definitely be no and I quote 'Mahooosive Explosions.' So suck it up and deal with it, every genin has to do these missions before they are trusted out in the field." Kakashi honestly liked the boy but his endless enthusiasm and need to 'save the princess' was going to drive him up the wall.
"Fine, I guess someone has to do these missions so us genin are the best choice… still don't see how doing chores for people is a mission though sensei." Naruto honestly couldn't believe it when Kakashi told him his first mission was painting. "What do you guys think about this?" Naruto had turned and asked the two other members of team 10.
"Naruto as troublesome as this mission seems we have to do it we have orders and like sensei said everyone has to do these missions at some point in their career, even the Hokage probably stated off doing these missions so shut up and stop complaining… what?" the rest of the team had begun to stare at him with sweat-drops hanging off them in a rather comical way. "Oh shut up I'm allowed to complain when I'm on a team with this hyper-active idiot." Kakashi just rolled his eyes and continued walking towards the client's house. Hinata had to stop herself from glaring at Shikamaru for insulting Naruto, but she couldn't deny the boy's energy was sometimes a bit too much for her to handle. Naruto himself he just shrugged it off knowing he honestly didn't care too much about it anyway.
They promptly arrived at the house to find an elderly woman tending her garden. "Kohuna-san." Kakashi called to get the woman's attention. "We are the team the Hokage has sent to tend your fence today." Seeing her nod he continued. "The mission request said you would supply the paint and other supplies needed."
"Oh yes let me just go get them from the back why don't you just wait here on the porch and stay out of the sun." She then turned and walked into her house leaving team 10 to rest on the porch.
They stayed waiting for about five minutes before the woman returned with several cans of paint and a few brushes. "Ah thank you Kohuna-san we will get started right away, perhaps you would like to tell us what areas you want doing first?" The elderly woman just smiled at the jounin before turning to the genin, she smiled at the young girl with the blue her and rolled her eyes at the lazy looking boy. That's when things got a bit trickier.
"What on earth is that doing here?" The woman practically spat the words the kind and caring visage of a gentle older woman was removed and replaced with an aged grimace on her face as she looked at the jinchuuriki.
"Is there a problem with any of my shinobi that I need to report the Hokage Kohuna-san?" Kakashi said with narrowed eyes that clearly reminded the woman that the thirds law was still in effect.
"Humph, I guess not." She then handed some cans to the other genin in the team before turning back to Naruto. "You go paint the fence in the back I'd rather not look at such a despicable… prankster and I'd rather you not influence the other children." Ever since the woman had laid eyes on him Naruto had kept his eyes locked on a particular piece of dirt on the ground. Without a word he took the paint and a brush off the woman before he made his way to the back of the house to begin work on the fence there.
Two hours later
Shikamaru and Hinata could be found putting the finishing touches on their respective parts of the fence with Kakashi stood nearby reading his favoured copy of Icha Icha. Kohuna had disappeared into her home about an hour ago to do who knows what. "Alright you two I'm gonna go check on blondie out back, see how he's doing and whatnot." Shikamaru who at this point was just waiting for Kakashi to leave so he could relax and watch the clouds merely nodded at his sensei trying to hide the hope in his eyes. "Oh and no slacking off Shikamaru, Hinata I expect you to keep him working it's not fair on you or Naruto if he thinks he doesn't have to work If I'm no there." Hinata just nodded and sent a firm look toward Shikamaru. The Nara just looked sheepish before muttering his trademark troublesome and going back to finishing the fence.
Naruto had gotten to work pretty quickly for his part of the fence figuring the quicker he did it the quicker he could leave, get paid and start training again. After an hour the old woman who'd hired the team had come out of the back of the house with a glass of cold water. Continuing to work regardless of the woman who appeared to be just sitting there watching him. 'God its hot today, why on earth is this supposed to be a mission anyway, I know us ninja are expected to start off small and all but seriously painting fences. Doesn't help the client clearly hates me like most of the village, why can't she just ignore me like the rest instead of just sitting there?' He continued working for close to an hour and was only a few strokes with the brush from finishing the fence. Noticing some movement from the corner of his eye he stood and faced Kohuna who was now mere feet from him.
"You may have tricked that old fool Hiruzen and most of the ninja population but the rest of us know what you really are." She then spat on his jacket and turned to leave.
"What is it that I did to you all to deserve this, I've never done anything to any of you, sure I pranked a few people over the years but only the ones who kicked me out of their stores for no reason. Whatever it is that you seem to think I've done I'm sorry but unless someone tells me I can't prove myself innocent."
"Innocent, Innocent!? A demon like you will never be innocent; you are nothing but a foul murdering beast!" She finished the last sentence by attempting to strike the hurt and confused genin only to for her hand to be grabbed by a seemingly nonchalant Kakashi.
"Please do no strike any of my genin ma'am, I don't know what he has done to provoke you but please beware that he is a ninja now and thus is well within his rights to retaliate." Kakashi never broke eye contact with the woman and finished his statement by applying a small amount of pressure to her wrist before letting go.
The woman just sneered and went back inside the house. "Finish the damn fence, and know I will be reporting this incident to the council." With that she slammed the door leaving Naruto and kakashi alone.
Kakashi turned to look at what he assumed to be a shaken Naruto. "I only caught the end of that argument Naruto, do you mind filling me in on the rest please."
"How the fuck should I know… I'm sorry sensei but what the hell is her problem , she comes over here preaching about how she knows what I really am and then spits on me." This caused Kakashi to sigh deeply before ruffling Naruto's hair.
"Naruto some people are just ignorant and are scared of what they don't understand." Naruto looked to have calmed down but his frustration didn't go away it just settled it an exasperated tone.
"Does this have something to do with me being a jinchuuriki, whatever that is?" This caused Kakashi to visibly tense if only for a second before reverting back to his usual look of bored ignorance.
"Naruto I'm not sure what you mean by that but if you ask the Hokage I'm sure he can shed some light on that." Naruto had seen the look of shock on his sensei's face so knew he was being lied to but didn't press the issue knowing he would get nothing from the aloof jounin. "Now let's go see if you're teammates have finished up on their end." Kakashi then started walking back towards the front of the house.
Shikamaru and Hinata had just finished and where literally watching the paint dry when Kakashi and Naruto returned. "Hey Naruto, get much done round back then?" Shikamaru asked in a seemingly happy tone, clearly having enjoyed being sat around doing nothing for a minute or two. Naruto didn't respond though choosing to stare off into the distance. Following his gaze Shikamaru could see the Hokage monument.
"Alright team are we all done here?" Getting two nods from his genin he sent them an eye-smile before turning to the noise of the front door opening. "Kohuna–san I believe the mission has been completed so we will be on our way."
"Good riddance I say. Just so you know brat." Kohuna turned to Naruto at this point. "I've filed a complaint against you and thus I won't be paying you for your so called services to me."
Naruto at this point was seething he was no longer annoyed or insulted with all thoughts of why she hated him gone, no at this point all his energy was going into not strangling the woman. Trying to keep his voice as level as possible though unable to keep a small quiver from his tone he turned to Kakashi and asked to be excused. Seeing the blonde about to erupt the jounin just let him go.
Walking towards the mission desk in the Hokage's office Hinata and Shikamaru had both asked what that was all about with the client. Kakashi just told them it was a misunderstanding between the client and Naruto and left it at that. Kakashi though seeming calm on the outside was also thoroughly annoyed on the inside and was making sure that he took as few missions with direct interactions with the villagers from now on.
Back with Naruto you could find him in a small training ground hidden behind the Hokage monument. The young blonde could be seen with his gauntlets equipped doing what looked like he was trying to destroy a large boulder with his fists alone all traces of form long forgotten in his movements, this was doing nothing to decrease his anger though as his mind was running a mile a minute with images of the villagers ignoring him or calling him names this then lead into his mistreatment in the early days of the academy by some of the students following the hate of their parents.
"ARRRGGGHHH!" He nearly roared as his fists began to move faster and faster a blue hue starting to outline his fists and eventually his entire forearms. Small spider web cracks begin to emanate from the points of contact and with a final rush of chakra into his fists he plunged his right fist about foot deep into the boulder splintering the rock. Naruto just stood there panting looking at the damage he had caused still deep in his thoughts.
PING
A Skill has been created through a specific action
Channel chakra through your gauntlets or grieves for extra damage 'Chakra formation: Power Strike' has been created.
Chakra formation: Power Strike [Active] Lv1 ExP: 0.0
Naruto ignored the alert for the moment choosing instead to stare at his hands. "If they think they can ignore me then I'll show them, I don't know what this power is but it's clearly making me stronger." He was about to try out his new skills when the world seemed to shimmer around him. "Uh… what was that." The world had stopped shimmering though he noticed that the sky had darkened with a strange red barrier surrounding the immediate area. 'Please be a genjutsu.' "KAI!" as he feared nothing happened. 'Okay so it isn't a genjutsu… must be another one of those dungeons. I'll just have to skip this one.'
PING
Enforced dungeon start
Naruto cursed he didn't know what was about to happen this was new. The last dungeon nearly killed him and that one was optional, hopefully this one wasn't so bad. Hey at least he was stronger now.
He quickly took out his blades waiting for the battle to begin. Almost as soon as he had drawn his weapons four shrouds of what looked like black mist seemed to circle in four respective areas. As the mist dispersed he could see what looked like four burlap sacks filled with the mist. Each sack took on a vaguely humanoid shape with two legs and an arm; the remaining arm seemed to have been replaced by what looked to be an old fashioned executioner's blade. Each sack seemed to be made up of mismatched colours crudely woven together. The legs seemed to be made from old table legs from the knee down and the hands on the actual arms seemed to be wearing a magician's glove. They all seemed to have heads with the faces covered by what looked like an overly large executioner's cowl.
Naruto immediately leaped as far back as he could from the nightmarish creatures. He noticed immediately that their movements seemed erratic and somewhat spastic and without any form of unified goal. Naruto was currently panicking the last dungeon just had some overgrown mosquitos and an admittedly terrifying giant lizard but these things looked like they came straight out of hell.
Taking a breath to calm himself he activated his 'scan' skill immediately. The knowledge sprang up in front of him in the now familiar manner.
PING
Scarecrow (Arm Variant)
Humanoid sacks once filled with hay, now occupied by the souls of the undead.
Chunin level strength and endurance, low speed in general though can swing blade at chunin level. Very low intelligence.
No weaknesses other than intelligence and speed. No kill spots either can only be killed when significant damage has been inflicted.
'Okay these things don't seem all that threatening in terms of information… but damn they're creepy to look at.' He deactivated his weights not wanting to take any chances at the moment before moving quickly toward the closest of the four. As soon as he got in striking range the scarecrow struck out with its blade, Naruto quickly brought both of his own blades up in defence to parry the blow but was knocked back a fair deal and groaned at the pain he felt in his wrists.
He again jumped away to get his bearings and allow the pain in his wrists to fade. 'Okay so blocking is a no-no guess I should just stick to dodging and striking when I can… wish these things had a clear weakness though.' He moved back into striking distance of the same scarecrow and quickly slid under the slash from its weapon before releasing his own slash up at what would have been the shoulder pit. His blade just passed through it, he would have thought it an illusion had it not been for the resistance he felt and the tearing of the sack indicating a small amount of damage.
He had to cut his pondering short though as the other three scarecrows had drawn closer to him and he was forced to roll out of the way of a downward slash from one then again as the next closest repeated the procedure. He made sure to keep all of them in his line of sight that was honestly a bit too close to call. He channelled some chakra into his blades to increase the damage of his swings but not too much that it began to drain him significantly. 'Okay Single slashes don't seem to be doing enough damage so I'm going to have to try and chain together some attacks.'
Again he dashed forward this time weaving through their attacks, his target being the one at the back and his initial enemy. When he'd moved through the third scarecrows attack he channelled some chakra through his legs to increase his speed and some more chakra into his right fist. 'Let's try this out than shall we.' "Power Strike." With the speed of his movement the scarecrow didn't get a chance to counter his attack and received a chakra powered haymaker to the chest which blasted it backwards into one of the barriers. Not wanting to let up Naruto pushed his forward intent on chaining his attacks together. As he neared the enemy he extended the blades to katana length and dragged them behind him. He didn't know why but the information of what he wanted to do just appeared in his head. He quickly slashed upwards at the scarecrow with his blades knocking it into the air and allowing his momentum from the attack to lift him after it. "High Roller!" He yelled immediately after launching upwards. He released another four slash attacks at his airborne foe before it began to the ground. Seeing it fall he channelled more chakra into his fist again for another power strike. He smashed the scarecrow into the ground with a small roar of effort. He watched as the enemy slammed into the ground and bounced upwards slightly before dispersing into the eerie black mist.
He landed on the ground proud of himself for defeating the… thing he didn't really know what else to call it. "Suck on that you sack of-" His boasting was immediately cut off by the other scarecrows decided to avenge their fallen comrade. They did this by all slashing downward at him from different angles. Seeing no other way out he jumped backwards towards the barrier before flipping and kicking off of the would be wall.
As he sailed over their heads he berated himself for not paying attention to the fight. As he landed he rolled to absorb the impact and thanked kami himself he had put his stats into speed. Seeing the three enemies turnaround and begin shambling their way towards him he had to repress a sigh. "I wish had some long-range jutsu." Shaking that thought off for now ne drew a brace of kunai before throwing them as hard as he could only to see them deflected by the executioner blades.
He growled in frustration before dashing forward again intent reducing their number again. As he quickly drew closer to the first enemy and went to activate his power strike again only to receive a quick slash across the back as one of the scarecrows had moved around the back without him noticing. Ignoring the pain from the slash he quickly lashed out by extending the length of one of his blades and performing a 360 sweep. It didn't seem to do much to the scarecrows but it did seem to stun them for a moment. Ignoring the pain he rushed into the chest of his initial target and knocked it further back with a shoulder charge before throwing a pair of kunai which buried them up to the hilt in the scarecrows chest. He gave chase to the sack monster before jumping and delivering a swift kick to the side of its head, it tried to retaliate with a powerful but easily choreographed downward slash that Naruto span around before the burying of his blades into its back and wrenched it out dragging them along its torso as he did.
He then kicked low taking out one of its legs and went to finish but was interrupted as he saw one of the others scarecrows mid swing towards him, not having time to dodge he performed a rushed yet successful Kawarimi quickly removing himself from the immediate danger. Leaving a bisected log in his previous position.
"Dammit I was this close to getting rid of that one." He complained as he saw the grounded scarecrow get back onto its… pegs? He brought one hand around and felt the damage to his back after receiving that slash. It wasn't too deep and seemed to have already stopped bleeding already but damn did it sting and he winced as he moved around.
Making the damaged scarecrow his priority he made a plan, an admittedly stupid and dangerous plan but these things weren't very fast outside of swinging speed so he figured it would work. He ran around the three enemies testing out their speed and whether they would try to protect the damaged one. He smirked when he saw that they really didn't have much intelligence and put his plan into action making sure the damaged one was at the back of the three he quickly ran towards them before channelling a focussed burst of chakra into his legs and leaping over the two and performing a flip. He brought his two blades up over his head in a reverse grip before falling towards the third scarecrow. As he neared it swung out at him. He cursed and brought his arms together using his gauntlets protect from the reasonably powerful slash, the gauntlets faired incredibly well against the slash only knocking his arms away due to the momentum. He landed beside the monster which quickly brought it's blade down for another slash only to have Naruto sidestep it easily before delivering a harsh sidekick into its torso.
The scarecrow was knocked away and onto its back still not having received enough damage to warrant its death only to find a kunai bury itself in its head which had finally dealt enough damage to defeat it and disperse it into the black mist.
Naruto smirked he was finally down to two opponents and as long as he paid attention that wouldn't last long either. Keeping the both of them in his line of sight he retreated slightly to keep them away while he regained a small amount of breath and formulate a plan.
Figuring the method he used on the first enemy worked pretty well he ran back into the fight. He closed in on the closest on having already extended his blades. "High Roller!" he again blasted it into the air but chose not to follow it and instead focussed his attention on the second which he quickly engaged by ducking a swing from its blade that would have easily beheaded him. As he ducked he charged some chakra into his right fist and punched into the left leg of the enemy. The power strike certainly did the trick as the wooden leg shattered on impact causing it to sprawl to the ground its mobility severely limited.
He turned back to the previously airborne enemy to see it hit the ground dashing towards it before it recovered he channelled more chakra this time to his left leg and delivered a soccer esc power strike to its torso. The scarecrow practically flew away from him before bouncing off the barrier surrounding the clearing. It would have fallen to floor had Naruto not caught up to it in time and skewered it through the chest with both blades still extended to katana length. The severe damage caused it disperse back into the mist.
"Kami I'm awesome, this whole situation may have been scary as shit to start off with but I gotta say I'm having a blast." He finally turned to face the final downed scarecrow with a foxy grin that split his face from ear to ear. It was slowly making its way toward him obviously in no pain from its missing leg. Naruto merely walked up to it hopped over its attempted swing at him and landed on the blade leaving it utterly defenceless. He then leant down with his blades began stabbing it repeatedly until it dispersed into mist like the rest.
"Glad that's finally over with." Then he remembered the way the last dungeon had gone. He looked around the area the red barrier still in full effect. He took stock of his chakra reserves having used a fair amount from all the power strikes and chakra blade lengthening. Making sure to stay aware he lowered himself he returned to the starting stance of the wind god flow.
After a few seconds more of the black mist seemed to flow around before congregating in the area slowly taking on a larger form than before. As the mist finally cleared it revealed what looked like a larger scarecrow. The burlap sack that made up its main body looked filled to the brim with what he assumed to be the black mist. The legs seemed to be the same size as before but when compared to the larger body looked comically small. Naruto's attention was immediately drawn to its arms though unlike the others both its arms went to the elbow where it had three even larger executioner blades for each arm.
All the curiosity had left Naruto instantly and he immediately leaped away from the creature in a panic sure he'd dealt with the other four reasonably quickly and hadn't been too scared by the T-Rexaur but this thing was a different story. 'Scan, Scan, SCAN!'
PING
Mega Scarecrow
More blade than sack or anything else for that matter.
Jounin level strength and endurance, low speed in general though higher than its predecessor. Can swing blade at chunin level speed. Very low intelligence but High Vitality.
No weaknesses other than intelligence and speed. Beware of its vicious spinning attack.
The information again calmed Naruto down if only slightly this time. He was still too scared to risk begin attacking it directly. This proved to be his downfall as the creature began to spin around on the spot slowly building up speed before launching itself at him. Naruto knew he would never be able to block such an attack so he dived to the left before rolling to his feet. He saw the scarecrow plough past his previous location sparks flying in every direction before it connected with the barrier before stopping. Naruto even in his terrified state saw the enemy wobble on its feet seemingly dazed. Or was it dizzy kami knows he would be after that. Steeling his nerves Naruto again moved forward to engage the enemy. As he moved closer he saw the giant blade attached to the scarecrows back, the blade looked to be twice the length of the rest he figured it probably had forward based spin attack as well.
He went straight into the High Roller only to have his blades slice straight up and out of its back without the scarecrow even leaving the ground at all. Unfortunately for Naruto he didn't think to halt his own momentum and so he ended up a fair few feet off the ground and so had no way dodging the retaliatory strike. Luckily he still had the sense of mind to raise his gauntlets to absorb most of the damage but was still launched away. Naruto cursed but didn't have time to correct his flight before his back slammed into the barrier forcing all of the wind from his lungs.
Naruto wheezed to try and get some air back into his lungs. He looked up and had to force his legs to work as he launched haphazardly away only just fast enough to avoid the spinning storm of metal and death that promptly crashed into the barrier he had only just smashed into himself.
'Kami Naruto think there was no way you could have lifted something that big off the ground. I need to calm down and just take this slow I'm not gonna be able to beat this thing quickly it'll be too tough for that.' Trying to buy himself some time he peppered the scarecrow with a handful of shuriken with lodged into the parts of its back not covered by the huge blade, he knew it would deal minimal damage at best but that wasn't the point. Again it whirled into its spinning attack toward him but by now he was used to the speed and easily dodged. Taking advantage of its staggered state he again attacked this time making sure to make quick precise strikes at its back. He managed to get five decent slashes before it spun to attack with one full set of its blades. Predicting this Naruto rolled backwards before springing back into the attack this time getting in three slashes before hitting it square in the chest with a power strike. Seeing it stagger backwards on its tiny legs Naruto resumed his attack getting off a further five slashes before he saw it lurch forward into a rolling slash attack that he had the sense of mind to jump out of the way of.
He was tired, saw, his back ached and he was losing feeling in his arms but he knew if he stopped now he'd be killed. Seeing it stop its spin he didn't wait for it turn to face him before unleashing a power strike to its side, though as he did he felt his chakra reserves were dangerously low. He knew he wouldn't be able to attack again after this so he began to hack and slash at the scarecrow as fast as he could before it recovered. His blades began to move faster and faster his steps moving him forward menacingly with a final burst of will and roar he finished with a double cross slash with all of his strength before collapsing to his knees. He looked up to see the scarecrow turn on him and he knew it was over but before it could finish him off it fell forward on its face as the blade on its back flung into the air before falling and piercing through its owner and dispersed into mist.
Not even bothering to check if it was over Naruto just fell backwards and began to chuckle to himself lightly at first before it developed into full blown laughter. After a while he stopped and looked to his left to see the barrier had disappeared and the sky had cleared. "Whooo that was a close one." He propped himself up on his elbows and looked around the area. Deep gouges and slash marks covered the area. "Hehe I wonder if every time this happens the area will get ruined." He immediately decided it was time to go home but before he could leave the area he got the now customary experience screen.
PING
4x Scarecrow 700 ExP gained
Loot Remaining: 2x Midnight cloth 1750 Ryo
"That's a decent amount of experience and this is probably more crafting material." He closed the window only to have another open itself in front of him.
PING
1 Mega Scarecrow defeated 700 ExP gained
Loot Remaining: Midnight Haze Jutsu Scroll
Naruto ignored the level up screen that appeared immediately after. "A jutsu scroll… this is AWESOME!" He may have boosted his intelligence and he may have just gotten out of a life or death battle but Naruto was still a thirteen year old boy and the idea of new jutsu was always going to overreact.
Narutos hands scrambled for the scroll after it had materialized from the black light alongside two bundles of cloth. Seeing what looked like a seal on the outside of the scroll he pushed the smallest amount of chakra into it completely ignoring his chakra exhaustion and began reading through the scroll.
Midnight Haze Jutsu: C-Rank shadow based Jutsu
This jutsu causes a thick black mist to emanate from the users body, this is done by condensing the user's chakra inside the coils before expelling chakra through every tenketsu of the body. The chakra then interacts with the heaviest molecules in the surrounding atmosphere absorbing varying levels of light depending on the amount of chakra invested and level of control of the user. The users sight is unaffected by the jutsu bar turning their vision monochrome when within the mist. Hand seals are: Rat, Monkey, Ram and Ox.
Requirements: Chakra 15, chakra control 20 and stealth 15.
Naruto had been a bit disappointed it wasn't an offensive jutsu but after thinking it through it sounded pretty damn useful and depending on the range could be pretty deadly. He immediately opened up his stat screen having levelled up after the battle. He put three points into his control bringing it up to an even twenty. Then bringing his stealth up to 15 and finally putting the last two into his speed trying to get closer to unlocking the Rankyaku.
He then closed the scroll and was presented with a screen asking if he would like to learn the Midnight Haze Jutsu. Tapping the yes button repeatedly a huge smile plastered across his face. When the window disappeared the knowledge of how to do the technique just appeared in his brain. He had to shiver at the sensation but still had the smile. He would have done the jutsu then and there if it weren't for his exhaustion.
He quickly checked the skill screen happy to see that both the Chakra Formation and Chakra Formation: Power Strike had increased to level two. Apparently this meant both would cost less chakra and have increased damage and stability. Wind god flow had also gained a lot of experience though not enough to level up.
Naruto turned back to village proper and began walking towards his apartment quickly sealing the two bundles of cloth into a scroll. On the way home the smile never left his face all memories of the villagers forgotten.
Naruto Uzumaki: level 6
Age: 13
Strength: 15
Speed: 22 (+1)
Stamina: 15
Chakra: 24 (+255)
Chakra control: 20
Endurance: 10 (+7)
Intelligence: 13
Charisma: 9
Vitality: 10
Stealth: 15 (+2)
Bijuu control: 0%
Skill list:
Scan: lv 3
Free running: lv 2
God wind flow: lv 2
Chakra formation: lv 2
Chakra formation: Power Strike lv 2
Justu:
Midnight Haze
Kawarimi
Henge
Bunshin
Until Next time Smogged Troll