Hello, everyone, I'm back!!!
* review response:
Elemental Dragon Swordman, thank you, and no, not yet, two more chapters, I think...
InTheYearOfTheCat, plus indeed.
bleacher, Still Not Dead Yet, why not make Iruka strong? - he's a good guy!
OverLordRevan, no harem, but a lot of lemons... And starting in the end of 'first season' time, I think lemons will be...
Lycan91, eclipseX, HopeBreaker, Veodus, thank you!
Hakkyou no Yami, "the Fuma Kagerou that green Haired beauty who have Dragonfly like wings" will have a personal story. But she might appear there too... How? - who knows. ;)
Liger01, Naruto will access yoki later. Much later. but he will.
sexy beast1500, well, I thought about disclosing this piece of information to them in the VERY END =)
* Jutsu list:
Shunshin - (D-rank) Body flicker - 'teleportation' jutsu
kawarimi - (E-rank) Change of body stance - substitutes user with nearby object
henge - (E-rank) Transformation - allows user to transform into another person or object
kage bushin - (A-rank) Shadow clone - creates solid chakra-made copy of user (to be destroyed shadow clone must get moderate damage). Shadow clones have perfect copy of user's mind and memory. When dispelled, shadow clones return experience of their 'life' to user. Shadow clones split user's chakra by clones number +1 (if you create 3 clones you'll have only 1/4 of chakra left (minus chakra needed to create clones)) that's why they are mostly used for information gathering.
Chouju giga - (B-rank) Super beast imitation drawing - allows to animate ink drawings.
Jinton: jinryuukamu - (bloodline jutsu) Dust style: dust dragon bite - creates a dragon head from the dust. the head will fly forward and byte the first thing in its way.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Naruto" in any shape or form.
"speaking"
'thinking'
"speaking of higher beings / Naruto while using yoki / jutsus / Iruka's 'demon head' speaking"
'thinking of higher beings'
chapter 4: Iruka's test
Naruto was first to arrive to the training ground twenty six, where his team's test will be help. It was about six forty in the morning, so he just sat against the tree and decided to wait for the rest of his team... He must have closed his eyes sometime, as he didn't see Sachiko enter the training ground until she was right in front of him with her lips on his cheek.
"Wake up, Naruto-kun." She said, before braking into giggles.
"Good morning you too." Blond jinchuuriki said, standing up. He looked at his watch: it was still five minutes before the test should start. He looked around and saw Sai sitting under the other tree, drawing in his pocket book. He returned his gaze to the white-haired girl in front of him. "So... Are you ready, Sachiko-chan?"
"Baka, don't you remember what Iruka-sensei said? This is the test to see our teamwork! Of course I'm ready: we worked together for a long time, and Sai seems nice enough not to work against us." Naruto sighed.
"I remember what this test is about... But, are you ready to face a jounin, even with me and Sai?" Kunoichi nodded.
"I don't think he'll go all out on us, but, after all, we were good at the academy, maybe we can make him fight for real?" She said. Suddenly, almost right in front of them the swirl of wind and leaves appeared, and moment later Iruka-sensei stepped out of it.
"It's good that you don't fear me too much, it won't give a handicap, but being a genin just out of academy, no matter how good I am, I still wouldn't want to fight a jounin when he's serious." Scarred jounin said, before picking three bells from his belt. "Good morning everyone." He waited for Sai to come up to him, before he started explaining the test. "As you can see, there are three bells. Your task will be to take them from me before midday. You can use any weapon and jutsu you like to accomplish the task. I will see, how you can work together, so even if you fail to get the bell, you can pass the test. Remember, personal skills are important but so is the teamwork. Make me proud." He made a pause. "If there are no questions about the test..." All three genin shook their heads. "Then it begins now!" With that Iruka-sensei disappeared in a poof of smoke.
"Shadow clone." Sai said. "He wants us to work together to find him and take those bells from him." Dark-haired teen said. Naruto and Sachiko nodded, agreeing with him.
"Yeah, lets find him!" Kyuubi jinchuuriki made cross-shaped handseal. "Kage bushin!" Fifteen copies of him popped into the existence. They immediately henge'd themselves into different small animals and spread around. At the same time Sai quickly drew a group of rats in his scroll, before too making a sequence of handseals.
"Chouju giga!" Small black rats ran out of boy's scroll and into all directions from the group of genin. "Now, we are looking for him and will know where he is. In the time being, its advisable to be on move." Sachiko nodded, agreeing with him, and the trio left the clearing.
Twenty minutes into the test, one of Naruto's bunny-henge'd clones found Iruka-sensei in the small clearing not far from the center of the training ground. The clone then found a place where jounin won't see it poof out of existence and then did just that.
"Found him." The real Naruto said as soon as memories of his clones entered his mind. "Five hundred forty meters at five o'clock." Sachiko and Sai nodded, and the trio went there. They stopped in the high grass not too close to the man and decided to think of a strategy.
"I can bind him with my jutsu." Sai said. "But as I am mostly support-oriented, you two will have to do close-ranged fighting." White-haired kunoichi nodded.
"Agreed. Naruto, especially with his clones, is strong, he can pin Iruka-sensei to the ground for enough time for me to take those bells, right, Naruto?" Sachiko turned to the blond jinchuuriki, giving him the look that meant he better agree, or...
"Yeah, yeah. And if anything, there is a lot of dust there, you can use of bloodline Sachiko-chan." Girl agreed with him. "So, Sai here binds sensei with his art, I pin him to the ground and Sachiko-chan steals the bells?" Two other genin nodded.
"Good plan." Said a voice above them. "If I really didn't know about it, it might have worked, but..." Iruka-sensei dropped onto the ground behind the team. "...Remember, nothing ever goes as planned." On impulse Sachiko turned around to face her sensei, while calling forth her kekkei genkai, thus the man barely had time to kawarimi out of the way of dust-made fist. Sai just finished drawing a pair of chinese lions and animated them, sending them to fight jounin, who again appeared in team's sight. Naruto and Sachiko followed drawn animals and as soon as Iruka dispatched them, Kyuubi jinchuuriki charged at him. "Stupid attack." The man commented as he just redirected Naruto away from him.
"Not entirely." But he didn't see Sachiko, who all the time hid behind her blond teammate, and as soon as Naruto's attack failed, she jumped onto his back and tried spinning kick Iruka with her leg. The man, of course, blocked her, only to find her other leg on the other side of his arm. Now, using sensei as a pivot, white-haired kunoichi tried to reach for the bells. Seeing her plan, Iruka spun around, elbowing the girl in her back and sending her onto the ground. She rolled to the stop, at the same time doing a sequence of handseals. "Jinton: jinryuukamu!" A dragon head made from durst rose from the ground and charged at the jounin. At the same time three ink-lions attacked him from behind. Iruka just ducked and allowed two jutsu cancel each other.
"Kage bushin!" Three Narutos attacked Iruka simultaneously, forcing their way into taijutsu match. Of course, even as three to one, Naruto stood no chance against experienced jounin, but his attack did buy some time... Just as Iruka threw the last blond away from him, ink-made snake wrapped itself around his legs. He was immobilized, and Sachiko again was attempting to take balls from him... So, jounin did the only thing to save the bell from these little monsters he could think of right away: he kawarimi'ed away, leaving a chunk of wood with an ink snake around it in his place.
'Damn, those kids are good. Sai is Ne and if told he will work with anyone, and from reports, Naruto and Sachiko were friends for years... still, I clearly underestimated the level of their teamwork. They already passed the test, but let's see, what else they can do.' Iruka though as he hid in the small forest. For genin his team was rather strong in combat. And not at all bad at information gathering...
The team tracked Iruka down in less then twenty minutes, and jounin then had to face even better fighting plan tree teens produced: hell, they already could take on average chuunin, he though. After the short fight – he got several bruises and a small cut on his cheek during it – he again escaped them with a well-performed kawarimi and shunshin. He decided to play with his team. He summoned six shadow clones and sent them to the different parts of the training ground, while he himself left it. Let the kids have some fun...
Just at noon, Iruka called team five to the clearing where the test started. When tired, sweaty and a little angry – Naruto and Sachiko – teens sat down, he began.
"Congratulations, even if didn't get the bells from me, you passed the test." Jounin said as he leaned against the tree. "Actually, you three past it in our first fight. The rest of time I used to observe your skills. I can say, I'm impressed." Everyone but Sai beamed with the praise. "Tonight... I wish to celebrate this, so meet me... At the central park at half past five. Then we'll decide where we'll go. Questions?" He got none. "Then, you're dismissed, team." And he left via shunshin. Sai nodded goodbye to his teammates and walked away. Sachiko looked at Naruto and grinned.
"What?" The blond jinchuuriki asked.
"Oh, I just remembered seeing a very nice river on the training ground... Let's go bathe!" And without waiting for him to reply, white-haired girl dragged him towards the said river.
***
"Report." Sandaime Hokage said, sitting in his office. As jounins reported, everyone in the room learned that teams from one to four failed.
"Team five passed the test successfully, Hokage-sama." Iruka said. Sarutobi nodded and looked at him.
"What can you tell about your team?"
"Naruto and Sachiko have frightening level of teamwork and with the addition of Sai, they can kick pretty much any chuunin's ass." He paused. "They are good at fighting, but they also have good skills at tracking and information gathering. I dare say that if we teach one of them interrogation, we will have a battlefield reconnaissance cell, the team that can go into the battle, get information needed and successfully return. If not, we still have just a good fighting team." Hokage nodded.
"Thank you, Iruka-san. I'll talk with Ibiki-san about this. Next?" Team six failed and team seven, the one under Kakashi, passed only because they had Uchiha and the council needed him to be ninja. Team eight under Kurenai became the new tracking team and team ten with Asuma as jounin-sensei joined the ranks as fighting team. With all the results presented, the meeting was adjourned and jounins went on their businesses. Hokage asked Iruka to remain. "Tell me about Naruto-kun. Remembering how biased the academy was against him, I don't think his skills came from there." Iruka nodded.
"I agree, Hokage-sama. From what I observed, he is mostly self-taught or at least taught by his peers, Sachiko most likely, as the two of them are very close friends." Sarutobi nodded.
"Indeed, the two are really close. Watch out, Iruka-san, or you soon may have a pair of lover birds on your hands." The old man said with a chuckle and scarred jounin smiled.
"Time will tell, but I don't think it will be a problem... Is that all, Hokage-sama?" Sarutobi lit his pipe and nodded.
"Yes. You are dismissed." Iruka nodded and left the office via shunshin.
R&R, comrades!