Chapter 29
Training (I seem to have a lot if these)
Naruto laid out a blanket as Haku and Fu dried off "…and then I put some of those paper clips into the lemons and left it with the other lemons" he finished as he laid down the last bento. "now lets eat!"
The other two members looked at each other. Naruto had just recounted his last prank and gave them a step by step breakdown of how he did it (including pointers on what to look out for and how best to go about doing it) and frankly, they weren't sure how he hadn't been caught yet. They were in an entire camp full of shinobi for crying out loud!
"Naruto!"
Naruto looked up from his bento. "Mangetsu?"
"it took a while to find you Naruto. You're surprisingly hard to find..." Naruto beamed ".. if I didn't ask Chukichi"
Naruto quickly lost his smile and grew fearful "umm if it's about the lemons… it wasn't me!"
Mangetsu raised his eyebrow "lemons? I'll have to talk to you about that later but that's not why I'm here now. I'm here to offer you training."
Naruto looked surprised for a second. "I'm honoured you would offer to train me, but I would have to decline."
Now it was Mangetsu's turn to look surprised "but why? You've got so much potential! Hailing from no less than 2 esteemed clans, trained with possibly the best swordsman of this age and a jinchuriki to boot!"
"that's true, but I refuse to receive special training because of it. Besides," Naruto looked at Haku and Fu "I can't leave my friends behind"
Mangetsu gave a sigh of relief "oh that's easy, there's plenty of experienced shinobi here. I'm sure we can find some that suits their style best."
Naruto looked at his friends "what do you say?"
"go for it!" Fu cheered.
"I agree" Haku nodded
Naruto looked back at Mangetsu "team Zabuza has spoken."
"good. I will go tell the other sensei. Meet us here tomorrow at 7 am. Sharp. I will not tolerate lateness and neither will the other sensei." And with that the Hozuki collapsed in a puddle of water before another word could be said.
"other sensei? Could he have predicted our answer and already chosen them?" Fu asked.
"Guess we'll see tomorrow" Haku replied.
Xxx
The morning of the next day the groups found themselves standing in the same clearing as yesterday….
"they aren't here yet?" Naruto asked impatiently.
"well we are still early" Haku answered.
"yeah but still…." Naruto started whining.
Haku noticed the morning fog thickening at an unnatural pace and quickly sent out a signal and shushed him.
Naruto noticed the discrete signal and glanced to see Fu did too. "Well I guess th-" before he could say another word a kunai flew out the trees and impaled him through his head.
Haku and Fu quickly jumped away from the kunai that had a cleverly hidden exploding tag wrapped around it. Haku quickly threw a kunai in the direction the other kunai came from and watched as a shadow jumped out. He quickly weaved a few hand seals and made a mirror behind himself and the attacker. Using his momentum, the ice user jumped into the mirror behind him and flew out of the other in front of the attacker with his ice gauntlets already out. He quickly channelled his ice chakra into it and set the temperature to sub-zero. The ice user cocked his fist back and let out a devastating straight punch. The attacker stood no chance as he jumped straight into the punch and froze and shattered on impact.
Haku exhaled deeply as he crouched down and inspected the frozen head. He frowned. "Mangetsu?" he wondered before seeing something glint and went to pick it up. "this is…"
Xxxx
Fu watched as Haku jumped through his mirror before being forced to dodge a sword coming down on her "another one?" she wondered to herself. Fu was quickly snapped out her thoughts when she was forced to bend backwards to avoid being decapitated. She quickly turned the dodge into a cartwheel that kicked the swordsman in the face. She jumped in the air and weaved some hand seals before spitting out a large amount of powder. The swordsman recovered just in time to be blinded by the glittering dust. Fu took advantage of his blinded state and drew a kunai and dashed in to stab him in the heart.
The swordsman looked down at the kunai in his chest before falling over. Fu was about to turn around when she saw something glint.
"hmm? What's this?" Fu asked herself as she went to pick it up. "This is…"
Xxx
Naruto watched as Haku split off from Fu in the fighting and sent a clone with just in case. When he looked back Fu was doing well in her fight and didn't see any need for him to help but he sent one anyways. It was always good to be safe.
Suddenly he heard a rustling behind him. Naruto jumped back to see a young girl holding a rabbit walk out. "umm mister? Have you seen my mommy?" Naruto slowly lowered his kunai "and who are you?"
The girl walked closer still holding her bunny "I'm Hiyori"
Naruto put his kunai away and crouched down and put on his best comforting smile "I'm Naruto"
The girl smiled and reached out her hands "hehe that's a funny name!" Naruto bent down and picked her up. Too late did he see the wires between her hands. He only realized when he felt something tighten around his neck. He barely had time to look down to see the girl's face crack and peel away before the rope tightened.
"that wasn't nice. Say sorry to the kind little clone" Naruto said, holding a kunai up against a tree.
The colour of the tree wavered for a second before it fell away to reveal a young woman with long black hair looking at him in shock "but how?"
Naruto just smirked "a ninja never reveals his secrets" he said before knocking her out with the butt of his kunai.
Naruto took out some ninja wire and searched her pockets. As he was searching, a piece of metal fell out. "this is… a headband?" he wondered as he turned it over. On the back was a piece of paper attached. It read:
Congratulations on passing the first test. Meet up with your teammates and come to the clearing. Bring the headband with you. Mangetsu
Naruto shrugged and made a clone and dispelled it before walking to the clearing.
Xxxx
Naruto, Haku and Fu all arrived within moments of each other. They gave each other a slight nod and looked around, wary of any more attacks. Their attention were then drawn to the slight thud of three people landing in the clearing.
"Well done you three" Mangetsu clapped. "so it was a training exercise" Haku stated.
The second one, the one Fu recognized as the one she fought, nodded. It was to test your individual skills. We know you work well as a team, but we needed to see each of your strengths and weaknesses. Though Uzumaki here surprised us with his little disappearing act. We almost couldn't find him amongst the clones. Of course, you did good with that last one there, Fu blinding an enemy is a good idea, but we need to work on if the enemy has better senses."
"umm who are you? I haven't see you around camp before." Naruto asked.
"ah, our manners. I am Hibiki Saito, the lady there is Suzuno Kamazuki and I believe you already know Mangetsu here. The reason you haven't seen us is because Suzuno and I had been away on a mission. Now if there are no more questions, let's get on with training. Too bad Mangetsu was soft and said today should mostly be just discussing the training and only light sparring if there was time." Said Hibiki.
"How this will work is that you will each have a personal sensei, but you will be training under another one for 2 days a week and every week the different one will switch. For example, I am Naruto's personal sensei. He will be training with me from Mondays to Fridays and with either Hibiki or Suzuno on the weekends. If you are ahead of schedule you can get a day off whatever you're ahead in once a month, of course you will still go on missions so you'll have a day off before the mission but you'll work twice as hard when you come back. Understood?" Mangetsu asked.
Seeing them nod Mangetsu continued "good. Now lets get you started. Fu, you're with Suzuno. Haku you're with Hibiki and like I said, Naruto, you're with me. This next year or so is going to be rough, but you'll get stronger. We'll make sure of that. Now follow your sensei to your own training grounds.
Team Zabuza looked at each other for a second before Haku and Fu disappeared with their sensei through a shunshin.
"now let's begin" Mangetsu said as he sat on the grass. "firstly, the reason I chose you. You are a swordsman, and as the leader of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, it is my duty to train promising swordsmen so they could hopefully become one of the Seven. The second reason, you are part Hozuki, that alone has many advantages. Like the Uzumaki, the Hozuki clan has a strong chakra, however where the Uzumaki has chakra that is more potent in life force, the Hozuki chakra were more potent in chakra nature."
"potent in chakra nature?" Naruto asked. "yes, the Hozuki prided themselves in producing ninja that have strong chakra natures. Your chakra nature is decided by factors like linage and environment conditions. For example, the Leaf's Second Hokage Tobirama Senju. It was not known to most about his background. Most just assumed he was born to the same parents as the First. That isn't true. Even I'm not sure of the whole story, but I believe the basics of it is that some time during the warring clans era, a Senju and Hozuki met and had him. Due to them being unallied, they were forced to keep him a secret. Eventually the Hozuki was found out and executed, leaving the Senju to take the child home. Later on, the Senju died as well but his brother, the father of Hashirama, took Tobirama in and the two grew up to be brothers."
Naruto mulled over the information for a bit "well that explains the white hair, and I suppose the water affinity was from the Hozuki because otherwise it would be fire." Mangetsu nodded "The mother must have been from a long line of Hozuki with strong affinity to water background. To not only overpower the natural environment changing the affinity to fire or earth, but to maintain it that strong too. Even stronger than some Hozuki of this age."
"so why are you telling me this? Are you saying that I could've inherited the bloodline from my grandma?" Naruto asked.
"there is a chance of it laying dormant inside you, yes"
"How do we find out then?"
Mangetsu smirked. "this is why I chose you. There aren't many Hozuki left in the camp. Most died in the purge or the many battles we had. I am the best suited to teach you. Firstly, how good is your affinities?"
Naruto scratched his head "umm father said that I had one of the strongest ones he's ever seen, possibly even stronger than the Second Hokage or Kisame Hoshigaki."
Mangetsu whistled "those are some big names. If he said you're stronger than them then it's highly likely you have it. Alright, let's get started. First, let me demonstrate. Punch me."
Naruto looked at him weirdly at the sudden request but complied anyway. To his surprise, instead of hitting solid flesh, the part that his fist impacted turned to water.
"the first part of the Hozuki bloodline. The hydrofication technique. You can turn any and all parts of your body into water and control it as you wish." And to demonstrate this, Mangetsu collapsed himself into a puddle of water and moved behind Naruto. "to do this, just imagine yourself as water. Be calm and go with the flow. Do not try to resist it. Water does not stay in a single shape or form. Nor does it struggle against an object. It simply parts around and continues its path. Now you try"
AN: I'm sorry. I said I would get it out Sunday but I had writers block (a huge pain) and couldn't finish it in time. On top of that my computer is bust so I lost a few notes. Thankfully I got most of them backed up on a USB, but I hadn't updated it yet so notes I made in the last few months aren't there. Hopefully I can still get the computer running without losing it.
Fillers planned: Isaribi, snow/spring, Shion, Uzumaki Ruins, star village, reader made
Debating: blood prison, Tayuya/Karin rescue
Need more fillers!
As I said last chapter, poll is closing and the victor if the summons contest is….. WOLVES *loud applause and cheering* congratulations and thanks to all that voted. If you would like I could possibly make a oneshot/omake of any summons that didn't get chosen. Just put it in a review or PM and work on it when I have time.
PS: still no news from Jman so still looking for Beta.
Reviews:
BlackDragonShinigami: thanks
Jacklvmage: haha that would've been amusing. I'll keep it filed for future reference. As for the cats… THIS IS WAARR EVERY MAN FOR THEMSELVES(lol). I WILL HAVE ALL THE CATS IN DA WOOORRRLLLDDDDDD MUAHAHAHAH-cough cough yup evil laughs do a number on my throat. (yea I love cats too).
I honestly don't know if Katsuyu was summoned more because I recall her saying it had been a long time since she had been summoned (so I presume since before Tsunade left so over 13 years) compare to Gamabunta who could've been summoned for some battle or another (though I guess unlikely since there aren't many battles that need him). I suppose Gamakichi was summoned more than Gamabunta in shippuden, though whether it was because he surpassed his father is debatable. I'm not very sure but I think Gamabunta, Gamaken and Gamahiro made up the top three toad summons. To be honest I don't even recall Katsuyu being summoned often. I remember there was the three summons, pein, after madara and when Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke went to fight Madara I think together. When else was she summoned?
Pein arc…. You'll have to see ?
Antex- The Legendary Zorak: thank you
Thor94: hell yeah!
Noahendless: :P. though I admit you raise a good point. I just don't like serious stuff much and prefer humour more.