The Pathless Sage
A/R: Oh my God, I started this chapter so long ago, but I just couldn't finish. Sorry for the massive, massive unplanned delay, but my health ain't doing so good. I have pumped about 45 pills into myself in ... 6 days? Yeah, I am kinda dying over here.
Not much to say really. I lost a few more readers than I thought, but what irks me the most is that I have lost a couple of my regular reviewers. Oh well, the consequences of unwarranted disappearances.
Poll has now been closed; visit my profile to see the results.
On with the story!
-Flashback continues-
"What? I thought you were joking when you were talking to the Hokage about entering a single Gennin?" Kurenai was almost shouting in outrage, that was how great her surprise was. Entering a single Gennin as a fully fledged team? Was Kisame intent on killing his student? "Just because you are from another village doesn't mean you can disregard the safety of our Gennin. We don't torture kids in our village, unlike in yours!"
"Kurenai!" Asuma warned, speaking out of turn for the first time and putting a hand on Kurenai's arm. It served to calm her a little, as she took the time to notice her audience and look around her. Everyone was staring at the spectacle.
"Just so you know, I was never fond of the Mizukage. Nor was I fond of the bullshit schemes he came up with for the Academy students and the Gennin. In fact, if the bastard wasn't so goddamn powerful, I would have put my sword through his skull a long time ago. Even then, I tried a few times." Kisame's eyes glazed over a little, remembering old times. He had a lot of things to think back to, he had an eventful life as a ninja. "And as far as Naruto goes, I ain't tryna get him killed. If you guys are so damn sure that Naruto is too weak to compete, then just let him compete and pit your Gennin against him. You know what? I don't even mind if you guys fight him yourself, you won't win against him as he is now."
"Oi, Kisame, that's enough. I know you have confidence in your student, but that's going too far," Kakashi said, trying to play the peacemaker in the little argument. Frankly, he didn't want to show such a shameful side of the Jounin in front of the Hokage. For his own part, the Hokage just sat back and watched as the commotion took place, a small smile on his face.
"No Kakashi, I don't think you understand," he turned towards them, a ghostly look on his gilled face. "You guys wasted real talent. What is with you lot, running after a barely above average Gennin like Sasuke Uchiha, as if he is God's gift to the shinobi world? You think that's talent?"
"Hey! Don't come from another village and start judging us on which of our Gennin are strong and not. And what makes you think that damn failure of a Gennin has any talent? He never got anywhere in the Academy, he was the damn dead last! That was the entire reason you got stuck with him in the first place. And Sasuke Uchiha was the best, he is the last of the Uchiha line, the last one with the Sharingan!" Some random Jounin defended the pride of the Uchiha from the back of the room. He couldn't be seen, but he sounded distinctly male and had a rather deep voice, and he certainly had the ability to make himself heard.
"Heh, you guys are really hung up on the fact that I'm from Mizu, aren't you?" Some shouts of "Damn straight!" could be heard, though no individual speaker was seen. Kisame snorted. "I'll tell you something now. You idiots from the Leaf don't know how to judge a kid for talent. I've seen Naruto, and I have seen that Hinata girl you idiots call failure. You fools, those are the two strongest Gennin that came out of this village."
He looked over at the Hokage, and his face took on a dreamy quality. "Old man, I know how you keep an eye on Naruto's progress through that Crystal Ball of yours, but don't think you know anything. What you saw was nothing, just a shadow of what he can do." He walked slowly towards the open window behind the Hokage. "I'll tell you. Naruto ... that gaki is a complete monster. Even if it was you that fought him, I doubt you'd walk out in one piece." And with that, Kisame was gone from the room. However, a ghostly voice could still be heard, muttering. "That is ... if you walk out at all."
All the Jounin paled a little at that, and the Hokage looked surprised. Had Kisame just suggested that a Kage couldn't survive a fight against a mere Gennin? A Kage so powerful that he survived long enough to be called one of the Great Four of the Old World, no less.
"Did he seriously suggest ... that a Gennin was strong enough ... to kill -to KILL- Hokage-sama? I understand that he is new to the village and all, but to be making that kind of remarks..." Asuma trailed off, not wanting to voice his thoughts, lest they have any negative repercussions. Kisame was one of their comrades now, after all.
"No, I think it might be wise to heed the man's words," Gai said, looking sombre for the first time in a long time, and not shouting. Many people were shocked to have heard Gai talk at a normal volume for the first time in their lives, though Kakashi wasn't one of those. They had a long history together, and he had known Gai long enough to have heard him talk normally before. "Kakashi and I are strong in our own rights, strongest Jounin in Konohagakure right now, some would say, but as hard to imagine as it is, Kisame Hoshigaki isn't a man we can match yet. It would be unwise to ignore the words of a man so great."
"So what are you suggesting Gai? That there is a second Itachi among us?" Kurenai asked, sounding as if she was almost ridiculing Gai. "Come on now, you don't think there is somebody that insanely talented in the village. People like Itachi aren't born everyday you know."
Kakashi turned his head toward Kurenai, coming to the aid of his old friend. "You would do well not to question your elders so much, rookie," he was almost sneering at her now, it was obvious even through his mask. Asuma looked a little annoyed, but he didn't react outwardly. Kurenai needed to face her own enemies. "When people live on the battlefield for as long as Gai and I have, we develop something called instinct. I don't know about Gai, but right now, my instincts are screaming at me to be wary. And the idea of a second Itachi isn't so far fetched, there is an insanely talented one in every generation of Konoha. Madara Uchiha, Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju, Sasuke Sarutobi, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzo Shimura, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Minato Namikaze, Sakumo Hatake, Kakashi Hatake, Maito Gai, Itachi Uchiha, Shisui Uchiha; Konoha is famous for producing monster after monster. Maybe this time, it was Naruto and not Sasuke."
"Well, whatever it is, Naruto has been entered in the Chunin exams, along with all the other nominees so far. Let's carry on," the authorative and old voice of the Hokage broke through the rabble, and they became organised once again, their argument long forgotten.
-Flashback end-
Naruto was resting at the base of a large oak tree, balancing a senbon on his right index finger with his Chakra and trying to make it levitate once in a while. He seemed to be doing well, with the senbon never wavering more than a few milimeters, until Kisame dropped down in front of him from a branch above him. Naruto lost his concentration and the senbon fell to the side.
"So, how did the Exam meeting go?" Naruto asked, looking up from his spot on the floor. He was rather comfortable there, it had gotten quite warm in the few hours that he had spent sitting there and working on his Chakra control.
"Pretty decent. The idiots kept barking about how I was from Mizu and didn't give a shit if Konoha Gennin died, after I nominated you. It was a pain in the ass, but I got you into the Exams somehow." It was a little white lie from Kisame. He wasn't given a confirmation from anyone as to whether Naruto was actually allowed to participate or not, but he assumed that the Hokage would allow him to compete. "Oh yeah, they went completely bonkers when I said that you were strong enough to take on any of the Gennin teams, even their Sensei."
"Seriously? Now why would you go and do that?" Naruto asked, sounding whiny and dejected. He had worked so hard!
"Huh? What do you mean?" Kisame asked, confused. He as often confused around his pupil. It wasn't his fault! Naruto was a complicated kid, and even Itachi became puzzled on more than a few occasions.
"I worked so hard, spent bloody YEARS trying to get them to drop their guard. I had to work so hard to act weak so that they would underestimate me. Now you just went and blew it," Naruto crossed his arms over his chest, huffed once and closed his eyes.
"Well too bad. I just went and said that if you fought the Hokage now, I wasn't sure if the old fart would walk out alive." The teacher followed in the student's example and crossed his arms over his chest.
"You did what! You IDIOT! You completely blew it for me. And who the fuck told you to go mouthin' about how strong I was? Dammit, I wanted to keep this shit under wraps until the finals... You can come out now Hinata." Naruto opened his eyes and looked behind him, to see a lavender haired beauty walking out from behind the tree.
"What are you guys arguing about now? I just heard the colourful vocabulary, so I decided to stay hidden for a while." Hinata said, offering a small wave as a greeting. She sat down next to Naruto, not close enough to be considered intimate, but close enough to make it seem as if they were good friends.
"Yeah, well you should have known you couldn't stay hidden. Idiot Kisame just went ahead and blabbed about how strong I was to the other Jounin-" Naruto was promptly interrupted.
"Hey, no reason to make yourself seem important. You weren't the only one I talked about. Hinata would feel lonely if you were the only one I bragged about, right?" Kisame winked at Hinata, who surprising did not instantly turn tomato red. Odd.
"You bleeding retard! Not only did you blab about me, but you went ahead and bollocksed up Hinata's cover too? Dammit, I can work without the element of surprise, but Hinata isn't strong enough to do that yet!" Naruto was seething by now. He almost felt like going up to Kisame and whacking him across the face.
"Now, now, no need to be violent," Hinata said, playing her practiced role as peacemaker. She had been doing that since she had started practicing with Naruto and Kisame in her spare time, some three months ago. Her team was most professional, so they only had scheduled training sessions, and they weren't all that long, so she had plenty time left over for private tutoring from Kisame.
That was a funny tale, that. She was originally just stalking Naruto as a force of habit, but had wound up getting caught once he had started training and Hinata had gotten too close. Since Naruto had known about her dilemma with her father, and his condition that she either perform better than Neji or risk being branded with the Caged Bird Seal, Naruto had somehow roped her into training with them. Seeing how quickly Hinata improved once she had a teacher that was willing to encourage her and be a little patient with her, and a training dummy that was willing to take endless amount of hits and fight back accordingly, they had decided that Hinata's training with Naruto would be unofficial but permanent.
She wasn't a monster with endless amount of talent like Naruto, nor did she have a totally overpowered Doujutsu or an overpowered beast inside her to provide her with Chakra whenever she needed it, but she was strong. She hadn't gotten as strong as Naruto, but she could certainly hold her own against more than one Chunin at once. She was also certain she would utterly destroy Neji at the Chunin exams if her progress continued.
"Well, what's done is done. What matters now is that we sort out what we are gonna do when the actual exams roll around?" Naruto said, sitting back down on the floor next to Hinata. Weird, he didn't remember standing up. Kisame took a seat in front of them, with the Sun in his face. He didn't mind, though.
"Well, let's start with Naruto. His Chakra control is still a little shaky, but he has enough Chakra to use his Ninjutsu whenever the hell he bloodly pleases. He has a decent repertoire I guess, nothing to insanely flashy, but everything is practical and combat worthy. In terms of Taijutsu, he is a monster. We sorted his problem with moving too fast out. He goes a little slower, hits a lot harder, but now he is a shit ton more graceful and actually has a style to work with. Kenjutsu can be used, but isn't anything too great. Genjutsu is pretty much limited to dispelling, but you can cast a few if you're willing to show 'that'," Hinata had trained with them for a while now, but neither Naruto nor Kisame were ever willing to tell her what 'that' was. She didn't try to push too hard for it, but she would have liked to think she had gained the trust of her old crush. "Well actually, if you're willing to show that, you might as well just throw all the competition in the trash. Nothing short of all three Sannin coming together is gonna stop you if that thing comes out. Anyhow, carrying on. You have your family Jutsu, but they aren't combat viable, so might as well not use them. Holy shit kid, you might actually beat me if we fight seriously!" Naruto ignored that. He couldn't beat Kisame without the Kyubi or the Rinnegan ... yet.
"Hinata, you worked with me for a much shorter term, but you have improved your Jyuken a lot. I would even say you might be able to beat a Jounin of your Clan by the end of the Chunin exams. You have your family's Jutsu, and you are really good at using them. You can use minor Genjutsu and Ninjutsu, but mainly, you are a Taijutsu powerhouse. Get up close to them and please, you're trying to win, don't be afraid to hurt people. If you don't hurt them, you get hurt. Simple equation, right?" Kisame held his hands in front of him and shrugged, as if he was talking to a child, which he was. He didn't seem too condensending though.
"Don't worry about that. I think we might have beaten a bit too much bloodlust into her, she even scares me nowadays." Naruto chuckled when Hinata whacked him on the head with her knuckles. Hinata smiled a little too, showing that it was all in lighthearted fun.
"Yeah, well, that's the only advice I can give you right now. Naruto, keep working on your Chakra control. Hinata, keep working on getting your speed up and that secret move of yours that you're working on." Kisame said. He stood up to leave.
"What's this now, secret training? I want in ..." Naruto stood up to, preparing to walk over to the lake that was adjacent to the training grounds that he was assigned to. Nobody wanted to train anywhere near the loser dead-last, lest he steal their secrets, so he usually had a training ground all to himself. Knowing the Hokage personally also assured that he didn't get one of the rundown ones with crappy equipment.
"It's something for the Jyuken that I am developing. You can't know about it," Hinata stuck her tongue out at Naruto and ran away before he could do anything about her childish behaviour.
"She's slowly opening up, that one," Kisame said, looking at the fleeing back of the Hyuga princess. "Before you know it, she'll have you all wrapped around her finger."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto shouted. All he got in response was an empty space. Kisame had body flickered away.
-TT-
Timeskip (2 months)
Naruto stood in front of the imposing oak doors of the Academy classroom. He wasn't that nervous, but he could feel the killer intent from this side of the door!
"Don't worry so much kid, nothing in there can even scratch you." Kisame was behind him, pushing him forward. He wasn't required to be here, in fact Jounin were encouraged to view the events of the exams from the lounge, but he had decided to part with some words to boost his student's morale.
Naruto strode forward confidently. "So it begins, the Chunin exams."
A/R: Okay, that went moderately well considering I am dying right now. I am gonna put this up now and see what kinda reactions I get in the morning. I don't really have much to say, so I am kinda rambling right now.
I got that chapter written pretty well, I was really motivated to write for some reason. Maybe that will continue and I will advance write a few chapters. I'm uploading this as the scheduled update for the 16th, so I think I will update again on the 23rd? Well, no guarantees.
Majin out.