Fates Web
Chapter Five: Enter The Teams
Author Notes: Here is my next update. Has anyone seen the latest Boruto manga? It's pretty crazy honestly. I won't spoil things but you should really check it out.
III = Interlude/ character perspective switch.
Bold text = Inner voice/ something important speaking.
There will be no crossovers, or characters from other shows.
Flashback
Of Harsh times
3 Years Ago
Naruto felt a little guilty for scaring a four old boy who was had insulted him. But He was also happy that he could make someone else feel like he did, "They call me a demon, a freak." When all was said and done he would make sure they never made him feel the sharp bite of their hateful words again. "Just because I could scare a little kid doesn't mean it'd work on an adult, let alone a trained ninja."
But he had found his calling. From then on, he terrorized the village. In the academy he was a loud troublemaker with a quick temper, but in private...
He quickly became associated with the mysterious caper who dyed all of the Anbu's clothes pink, the uncatchable phantom who poured laxatives in your drinks right before sexy times. The adults and children alike learned fast to avoid his anger if they didn't want itching powder in their clothes or a nice surprise in their cereal box.
Of course he had nothing to do with that last one, but who was going to believe him?
'Hateful eyes turned glared at the child murderer'
'Killer'
'Monster'
He would wake up, eat breakfast alone, then sit outside the ramshackle orphanage with a book of his choice. Then he would do push-ups and sit-ups, and practice punching and kicking the air - imitating the Shinobi that he peaked on in the training grounds.
Some days he simply laid on his back, staring at the blue expanse and it's fluffy milk white clouds. Every day since that night was sleepless, and only the numb serenity of the sunny sky brought color to his world. Sometimes a black haired boy would join him and stare vacantly into the sky.
A group of older kids tried to confront him once. They called him a freak and told him he should go away because he was unwanted. He remembered their pitiful moans as they laid broken on the dirt.
That was the last time anyone bothered him.
Sometimes, when the pain would become too much and he would huddle in his squalid room he imagined if it would be better if he left. He wondered if he should oblige his detractors and run away where no one would find him. Then came the anger. What would Hinata say? No, he would become a Shinobi and exact revenge on the ones who took her. He had made a promise over her grave that he would set things right.
He smiled, "When Uzumaki Naruto makes a promise you better believe it."
Hinata walked languidly into the clearing where she would meet her new team. She had traded her tattered brown cloak for a black cloak with a Purple hourglass on the back. Her collar was unbuttoned from hood to her sternum; allowing a little cleavage to show, and prominently display the Forehead protector tied loosely around her neck.
Kurotsuchi waved, "Hinata what took you so long?"
Was she late? She had gotten a little side tracked exploring the village, oops.
"I got lost."
The Iwa girl tsked, "What did I tell you before you left the tower yesterday?"
"*Sigh* Keep a map on you at all times until you memorize the layout of the village", Hinata repeated like she was quoting something tedious.
Kurotsuchi nodded, "Good, now that you are here maybe we can get our introductions in order."
She pointed behind her at a overweight teen with the standard Iwa uniform and a doughy face, "This here is Akatsuchi." She offered a cocky grin.
Akatsuchi gave a shy smile and waved, "Hello"
"Hinata" She said simply.
A puff of smoke announced the final member of the team. A man built like a body builder with a flat face and thick nose. The man's eyes searched over them with judging eyes.
"So you're the girl my dad replaced Waraji with."
'So that's the name of their former team member.'
Her half-lidded eyes slowly widened. If they were willing to place her on an existing team then they must value her abilities highly. She eyed the Jounin and her new teammates with caution. The question now was if they truly thought she was dangerous enough to warrant such a team. The less dangerous and more favorable scenario was that they wanted to ensure her survival to a breeding age and settle down with a loyal Iwa ninja.
She mentally scoffed. She wouldn't lay with any of these monkeys.
Sensing her team growing inpatient Hinata drew herself out of her musings, "Greetings Honorable Jounin-Sama." She bowed at the waist.
This drew a raised brow from Kitsuchi, "You seem very well mannered for a mountain girl." He said in a thick deep voice, doubt buried inch deep. His dark eyes look at her in a new light.
"My mother is very well read. She thought such lessons would help me if I encounter hostile individuals." She mentally slapped herself. How could she be so careless. Rural girls out of the boonies don't walk with grace in their step or lie with a silver tongue.
Thankfully Kitsuchi seemed to buy her lie.
He nodded, "Now that everyone is here let's introduce ourselves."
Kurotsuchi decided to go first, "My name is Kurotsuchi and I am the granddaughter of the Sandaime Tsuchikage." She pointed at Kitsuchi, "This is my dad and the oaf over there is my little brother."
The girl gained a thoughtful look, "I dream of one day become Tsuchikage, and killing a certain someone", Her expression hardened near the end.
Kitsuchi spoke, "Alright, that's a good start but let's see what your brother has to say."
"Umm, maybe Hinata should go first." Akatsuchi mumbled. The boy snuck a glance at Hinata.
Kitsuchi grumbled about girly boys and not raising them like they used to.
"Ok then. You're up grunt."
Hinata threw her hands wide, "My name is Hinata BlackWidow, I have things that I like and a couple things I don't. As for a dream?" Her face turned a light purple, "To get revenge on a certain village and find someone."
"I hope that village isn't ours?" Kitsuchi chuckled.
"Thankfully no." Anger reared its ugly head at the reminder that she needed to make Kumo pay for hurting her best friend and killing her.
"Oi, it's my turn" Came Akatsuchi's jubilant voice.
"My name is Akatsuchi and I'm the grandson of the Tsuchikage and this guy is my dad", He said pointing to the ripped Jounin, "I love tending our garden and studying at the library. One day I'm going to become Tsuchikage just like Jiji!"
Kitsuchi's face slackened and he grunted, "Still going on about those dreams of yours."
Hinata was curious why Akatsuchi's face fell. Did his father not approve of his seemingly gentle nature? The boy reminded her of Naruto somewhat.
"Well it doesn't matter. Boy will learn sooner or later." Kitsuchi fixed the three of them with a commanding eye, "Listen up because I'm only doing this for the newbie. I am The jounin commander of this village and the son of the Tsuchikage. We will be forming an assault team and specialize in frontline fighting. Any questions?"
Hinata raised a hand, "Yes, if I kill an enemy can I eat him?"
Everyone turned slightly green. Kitsuchi looked decidedly uncomfortable, "... It's standard procedure to dispose of enemy corpses, and there isn't any rule about how you go about that."
Taking that as a confirmation the Hyuuga flashed a toothy smile that did little to soothe her anxious Genin team.
Kurotsuchi coughed, "It's about that time isn't it?"
Kitsuchi nodded, "I need to test you again since we have a new member."
"Test?" Asked their new member.
"A test of strength." Kitsuchi spoke while holding out clenched fists, "I am going to test your ability as a team and individual power."
Hinata mentally readied herself, 'Let's see how strong you are then. I want to see how an Elite Jounin ranks against me.'
Akatsuchi and Kurotsuchi stepped beside Hinata and adopted a triangle formation.
Kitsuchi gave an approving grunt, "Good but let's see how well you fight."
"Earth Release: Rock Clone Jutsu"
Two Kitsuchi clones formed from the stone ground and marched to face their respective opponents.
Hinata faced down the real Jounin. Kitsuchi's features were blank and offered no opening to exploit. 'He's holding himself back and waiting for me to make the first move.' Her eyes moved to the way Kitsuchi shifted his left leg to his left side and bent his right leg. The man was like a coiled spring ready to move at a moment's notice.
A frontal assault against an opponent with an unknown skill set would be foolish. Thoughts of digging underground were quickly suppressed. Kitsuchi was an elite Jounin of Iwa. The earth was his specialty and any attempts to use it against him would be suicidal at best.
'So where should I attack?' Her eyes scanned her surroundings for an advantage she could hold over the man.
Hinata's gaze swept over the rocky plains before a light bulb went off. 'That's it!'
Kitsuchi tensed and his lips adopted a frown as the cloaked Genin began running to his left.
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Rampart."
The ground under the Jounin launched into the air before the Spider girl could begin to close the distance. A giant mound of earth over a hundred meters in size rose until it towered over the few trees in the area.
Hinata jumped an inhumanly high distance into the air. She laughed seeing the Jounin's look of disbelief, "Water Release: Pressurized Water Scythe." Hinata spewed a thin line of water that scythed through the rocky rampart like butter.
Kitsuchi dived into the manmade mountain with "Hiding like a mole technique" and escaped the collapsing structure.
Hinata glared at the spot the former Iwa nin occupied. That had taken almost a quarter of her chakra and was the only A-ranked water jutsu her mother had taught her.
Kitsuchi popped out from below her, "Earth Release: Rocky Popcorn no jutsu" The diced mountain split further into thousands of human sized boulders and the ground below erupted like a volcano, sending them skyborne.
"Wow!" The breath left her lungs as a rock flying at terminal velocity slammed into her armored back and sent her flying.
Struggling to pick herself up she peeled her face off the rock and got to her feet with a liberal application of the tree walking exercise. "*Gasp* What the hell?"
Looking down she could barely see the trees from the brown patchy dirt that made up the land of earth. "How high did he send me?!"
"Earth Release: Rock bullet technique"
"...!" Hinata jumped off a falling boulder as rock bullets tore it apart. With an unearthly grace she spun through the air and jumped from rock to rock. Sometimes she would miss and her spear-like legs would impale the boulders, keeping her from becoming a splat on the ground.
Hundreds of stone boulders fell from the sky and the training ground shook as thousands of tons of rock decimated the land. Hinata jumped from falling boulder to boulder, staying in the air and away from the deathzone below.
Hinata growled, "Let's see how you handle this for size!" Clawing deep within her core Hinata slid into the Spider Taijusu stance. A hail of rock bullets launched towards her.
"Spider Style: One hundred chakra palms" With swift fingers Hinata connected a razor-bladed claw at each ballistic rock, shattering it. Hundreds of strikes similar to the Gentle fist blurred the area in front of the girl.
Kitsuchi let the technique die off and straightened his back, "Impressive"
Hinata didn't let the compliment distract her as she was already on the move. She jumped at her Sensei and launched a web from her wrist. Spider silk connected with Kitsuchi and she pulled her arm back.
"What!?"
The surprised Elite Jounin was rocked forward toward Hinata. "Taste pain!" She let her tentacles burst from her back and race forward to impale the airborne man.
Reacting with speed too fast for her to follow, Kitsuchi cut her webs with a chakra infused kunai and avoided her spear-like tentacles, driving a knee into her solar plexus.
"Hidden Technique: Rising blow of the Ox." Chakra pooled in Kitsuchi's leg muscles and with a roar he sent the Human Spider flying.
The lavender in her eyes faded, "ACK!" She rocketed towards the ground and dug a crater over twenty feet long.
'It Hurts!' She tried to move her arms but it felt like someone was driving knives through her. She managed to look at her body and groaned at the cracks and chips that ran through her chitin. Purple blood dripped from the cracks and she felt faint.
"Don't move or you will only injure yourself" Kitsuchi stepped forward, "The test is over."
Hinata bit her lip, "And?"
He chuckled, "You passed with flying colors kid. In fact you might be solid Tokubetsu Jounin in strength."
She gave a relieved exhale, "That's good."
Naruto took his usual seat next to Dai. The dark skinned boy seemed almost ready to pop from adrenaline.
After Naruto took his seat, Iruka began dividing up teams.
"Team Seventeen: Nobunaga Gonshina, KenTsuchi Inuzuka, Rin Yamanaka. Your Jounin sensei will be Ebisu" That was interesting. Iruka remembered the Elite teacher with the sun glasses wanting to train the honorable grandson.
"Team Ten: Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Chouji. Your Jounin sensei will be Sarutobi Asuma." Choji threw a fist in the air scattering his bag of chips all over the floor to his horror.
"Team Eight: Sakura Haruno, Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino. Your Jounin sensei will be Yuhi Kurenai." Shino's insects buzzed in irritation that he would be on a team with the painfully loud fangirl.
"Team Seven: Dai Yotsuki, Uchiha Sasuke, and Naruto Uzumaki an-"
"Yes!" Naruto yelled.
Iruka glared, "Ahem, The final member of Team Seven and your Sensei will be Hatake Kakashi."
As Iruka sounded off the rest of the teams, the members of Team Seven were having a stare-down. Well, at least Sasuke was, Naruto was just holding Sasuke's glare unflinchingly, and Dai peered out the window.
Sasuke held the fierce gaze until his eyes grew tired and he turned to watch the sky through the window.
'I win!' Thought Naruto. 'This isn't so bad either. I have a decent team and my two best friends are on it.'
As the Jounin began arriving to take away their assigned students, the teams left one by one until Team Seven were the only ones left. Right now it was just them and Iruka in the classroom at the time, but even the teacher had to eventually leave.
"Do you think our Sensei got hurt or called away on some important mission?" Dai questioned.
"Na, he's just taking his sweet time." Naruto said, face down on the desk and half asleep.
"How would you know something like that Dobe?"
Naruto sighed, "Hatake Kakashi is infamous for his tardiness. I heard he even showed up late for his own funeral."
Dai slapped his leg, "I call bullshit."
"I have to agree. How can you have a funeral if you're not dead?" Sasuke stated with a hint of amusement.
Naruto rolled his eyes, "Take my word for it. Rumor has it that he supposedly had to fake his death on some super secret mission and jumped out of his coffin to nab a traitor."
"Actually it was a spy."
Everyone snapped to attention as a man with spiky white hair stepped through the doorway.
"Are you guys Team Seven?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
"No, we were waiting on another Hatake Kakashi" Snarked the dreadlocked member of the trio.
Kakashi just smiled under his mask. "My first impression is...I like you. Meet me on the roof in five minutes." with that, the man disappeared in a tornado of billowing leafs.
Sasuke vanished, leaving a ring of fire where he formerly stood.
Naruto shared a WTF expression with Dai and they just took the stairs.
Naruto walked onto the roof followed by Dai. They saw their third teammate and their sensei already waiting for them.
"Alright then. Let's get to know each other! Likes, dislikes, hobbies, goals. You go first, Darky." Kakashi pointed at Dai, who took slight offense at the nickname.
"My name is Dai Yotsuki, I like my friends and people who don't judge someone for their appearances..." Subtlety glances towards Kakashi. "I dislike People who hurt friends. "
'He seems mature and is dealing with his circumstances well.' "Okay, you, the brooder." Kakashi said, pointing at Sasuke.
"Hn, My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I like training and these two idiots. I dislike weak people and those who don't pull their own weight. Hobbies... I like watching the clouds with the Dobe. My goal...No, my ambition is to kill a certain man, and revive my clan."
'Recommend session with Inoichi Asap, note to self. ', "Good to know. Now you, Sunshine." Kakashi pointed at Naruto.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. My likes…Sparing with Sasuke and Dai. My dislikes…I can't say. I suppose my only hobby would be cloud gazing. As for my goals..." Naruto stared past Kakashi as if he wasn't there.
Kakashi gave a worried frown, "You ok there?"
Naruto cocked his head slightly to the right. The boy who could not be older than twelve wore a haunted and weary face that Kakashi had only seen in veterans, "Isn't that a question that everyone asks themselves at some point? Every time I look at myself in the morning I wonder why I'm here."
Kakashi wondered if it was too late to refund his Genin team, 'So, I have a Mature adjusted adult, a fledgling avenger, and a ticking time bomb. I have my work cut out for me', Kakashi mentally sighed.
"Ok here's what we're going to do, meet up at Training Ground Three tomorrow for your Genin test."
"Wait I thought we already passed our test at the academy?!" Dai blurted.
Kakashi eye smiled, "That was just the test to see if you had the potential to become Shinobi. The real test starts tomorrow"
The Jounin turned to leave, when he stopped, "I almost forgot. Don't eat breakfast, you'll just puke." the masked Jounin then disappeared in a puff of smoke before anyone could say anything.
"Wait!" Dai yelled
Sasuke just glared at the spot where the Jounin left and disappeared in a Fire Shunshin.
"This is going to be a wild ride" Naruto sighed.