CH 3
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
Mizuki-sensei was confused about the young blond Jinchuriki. The boy had shown a noted improvement over his previous years in attendance at the Ninja Academy. He handed his request to take the Genin exam along with the others in his current class of mixed eleven and mostly twelve year olds, at the six-month mark.
The Chunin couldn't deny the boy his second chance. The tests were similar to the one the boy had missed, so there was nothing to stop Naruto from taking it now. Classes were loosely taught, as the students needed to experience self-instruction after so many years. How far they went after being approved for Genin levels was mainly based on what their Jounin sensei taught them and how they meshed together as a cohesive working ninja cell.
'At least the kid is only one or two years younger than the rest,' Mizuki-sensei thought. 'It would have been harder for the boy, if he'd passed with those students who were two or three years older than he was.'
All the current students had just passed the written portion of their Genin test and now all that remained was to test how well they'd learned their Jutsus. The written test contained questions mainly on the based on the Jutsus that they were about to be physically tested on.
The base three were 'Bushin no Jutsu', 'Kawarimi no Jutsu' and 'Henge no Jutsu'. The general Bushin type is just a plain clone technique. It creates a clone that is good for attacking or confusing the enemy, but has no substance and will dissipate when hit. Kawarimi is the body replacement technique, which creates an optical illusion when the original ninja, is replaced by a block of wood or some other object. Last is the Henge technique to change oneself into something else that is not a clone, but fully a copy of the person, animal or object.
Since the line of students called forth was in alphabetical order, Naruto had time to think about how to perform this part of the exam and hopefully pass. He watched as most of the students, Henged into their sensei, which to him wouldn't have been so bad if his teacher had been Iruka-sensei. However since it was Mizuki-sensei he just wanted to vomit at the thought. He looked around the room to get an idea what to Henge into.
They only needed to pass at one of the three techniques, but because of his age he was told that he'd need to pass all three of them to graduate. It was also to punish him for the fact that he'd not shown up to take the previous exam.
'I bet it's also because he wants free reign to attack me using the Kawarimi technique,' he thought. He got ready as his sensei pulled out one kunai, but the young blond knew that the palm could hide more weapons, like a shuriken or two, senbon needles or any combination of thrown weapons.
"Ready," Mizuki-sensei asked and lifted the kunai in an exaggerated form of readiness.
Naruto nodded. The knife was tossed, but two seconds behind that came three shuriken and five senbon needles. The blond watch their approach, he needed to hold his form and then release. He'd replaced his body with a random desk in the room, but more than that, he'd stood the desk up on its shortest end, almost to form a shield. He then Kawarimi'd back to his testing position and put the desk back in its proper place with the thrown weapons still sticking out of it.
The other students were shocked at the number of weapons and then they looked at their teacher, who only shrugged and said. "Next, do three Bushin."
Naruto created three clones that looked exactly like him. His teacher walked around each and nodded that they were fine. "Final jutsu," he told the blond. "Do not Henge into me."
"Okay," Naruto said. "Do you want me to hide too?"
"Actually, that's not a bad idea," Mizuki-sensei said. "Let's see how creative you are, if I or any of the students here can't find you under five minutes, you'll graduate."
Naruto nodded and formed the hand seals to poof away. There was only one option to become in this case. The Hyuga of the class would have been able to detect him, if he'd chosen something somewhere else in the room. Therefore he switched with the hair tie on Hyuga Neji and hid the original tie in the boy's desk.
Mizuki-sensei waited two minutes before nodding at the Hyuga.
Neji activated his Byakugen ability. The boy took his time and looked around the entire class. He could not discover where or what the blond had changed into. None of the students knew how to detect chakra signatures and the Chunin sensei was apparently not one of the ones skilled in detecting it either.
"He's not here," Neji said with wide-eyed surprise. "I can't find him."
"Anyone else," Mizuki-sensei asked and thought, 'That was the longest five minutes ever.' The negative response prompted him to say, "All right come out Naruto."
Naruto popped back up at the front of the class at the same time returning Neji's hair tie back in place so that the Hyuga could not detect the change. The blond asked, "So, I pass?"
"You pass," Mizuki-sensei said and handed him the headband of a Genin Ranked Ninja of Konoha Village. "Congratulations graduates. Notice of your pass will be submitted for review for cell placement. Come in tomorrow at your regular times to find out who will be part of your four man cell."
Most of the students were leaving, but a few remained behind to hear the answer to their sensei's question. "Naruto," the man said calling forth the new Genin. "What did you Henge into?"
Naruto grinned and said, "Neji's hair tie."
"What," Neji said loudly.
"I switched out with your original hair tie and put that in your desk. Then I changed into your hair tie, so you couldn't detect my chakra with your Byakugan technique," Naruto said again with a grin. "I had to or else you'd have found me easily. Since your hair tie is behind you, you wouldn't think to look there, even if you turned around to look at the back of the class."
Neji frowned and said, "Now that I know..."
"Yeah," Naruto nodded. "Now that you know you'll have to figure out a way detect that kind of thing."
Neji huffed and left the room. The other students had snickered at the answer because honestly that was the most logical place to hide a Henge from someone that could detect it, like many of the Hyuga in the village.
"To bad there weren't two Hyugas in this class," one student said to their friend. "The second one would have probably found Naruto."
"True," the friend replied. "So, how do you think you'd hide from two people who could read chakra signatures like that?"
"I don't know," the voices faded as they left the building.
Mizuki-sensei made his notes on who passed and why. He may be a traitor spy from Kirigakure, but he was also currently masquerading as a Chunin level teacher in Konoha. The blond had passed honestly and had used his mind to do it. The notes he made were about placement recommendations for specific types of cells that the Genins would likely do well on.
Naruto however was a wild card. The teacher strongly suspected that the boy would do well on any team because the boy was so open to trying to fit in. 'A generalized cell,' he thought and made the notation. 'Also he'd do well with an undercover or other specialization.'
He didn't have to specify what 'specialization' meant. The placement board and Hokage would know it meant one of several options, like, infiltration, spy or even assassin.
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
The next day the team placements were handed out. Naruto found himself on Team Eleven with two older girls. It was an odd combination. He'd observed and knew from his past that most Genin cells would only have one girl on it because there was a distinctive lack of female interest in the Shinobi arts.
Their Jounin-sensei was actually a Hyuga, too. The irony was not lost on the three students. Hyuga Tokuma (...i...) was surprised to find out that he had the container of the demon fox on his team. The reason had been explained to him by the council, "Your Byakugan technique is to be used as an early alert," the council had said. "If Kyuubi no Yoko, emerges or influences the boy in any way, you'll be able to see it well in advance and take action."
"I understand," Tokuma said.
"Do you have any objection to having Naruto on your team," the Hokage asked.
The Hyuga Jounin blinked, shook his head and said, "No objections. I understand that I will be required to keep an eye on him for the duration that they are a Genin cell, but that is only providing they pass the unknown secondary Genin test."
Tokuma walked to the class where his three Genin were waiting for him. There seemed to be plenty of laughter as girlish giggling had him wincing because he now realized that the majority of his Genin were girls. 'Ugh,' he thought. 'I'm going to have to change their focus from boys to being Ninja. This is not going to be fun.'
He needn't have worried because in the room the two girls were, Haruno Akiko, twelve, a third cousin to Haruno Sakura from the first year class that Naruto refused to attend after missing his first Genin exam. The second girl was Inuzuka Risa, eleven, a fourth child of a cousin of the Inuzuka clan's leader. The Inuzuka girl didn't have a dog with her, but she told her new teammates that it was because none were compatible with her yet.
"It happens," Risa said with a shrug. "Not all Inuzuka's need a nin-dog. My parents suspect that I might find one later to bond with."
Akiko looked at the blond boy and asked, "So how come I hear people calling you 'Dead-Last' and 'Dobe' in the training yards?"
"Well," Naruto said rubbing the back of his head. "I didn't do well in school work and my Jutsu results were silly when I started doing them. Even the one I invented made them laugh, but it needs some work and all of the girls just didn't like it."
"Why not," Akiko asked with growing suspicion.
"I call it my Sexy Jutsu," Naruto mumbled.
"Show us," Risa said.
"I don't wanna offend you," the blond ten-year old boy said, having learnt that girls hit what they don't like. Although he suspected that it had been because they were silently encouraged by some of the teachers and parents around them to act out against him.
"Let's see it," Akiko said.
"All right, you asked for it," the boy sighed and poof. In front of the two girls was a semi-adult buxom teen looking girl with long pig-tails, pouty lips and long lashes. "What do you think," the girl said hiding a twitter behind her hand.
His two teammates were notably shocked and then gained a calculating expression. "Interesting," Akiko said. "Needs some work you say?"
"Well yeah," he said popping back into his regular, ten year old body. "I'm not a girl so I don't know a lot of things. I know from magazines and such what kind things would make guys act stupid based on the looks they have on their faces when the see the magazines, but that doesn't mean I can fool anyone."
"You'd need to cover your whisker marks," Risa said. "Not with make-up, but with another condition added to your Jutsu."
"I'm curious," Akiko said. "If we were to do the Sexy Jutsu would we be girls or boys."
"Boys," Naruto answered immediately.
"WHAT," the two girls shrieked. "WHY?"
"It's a gender switch with a mix of all three base Academy Jutsus," Naruto said. "I can't quite explain how it works, I just know that when I thought about the Jutsus that we're taught, that we could combine them to work that way."
"What made you think of it," Risa asked.
"I wanted the option to hide in plain sight," Naruto said. "I was thinking of being a Shinobi in a foreign country and suddenly needing to hide. I thought that if the enemy knew to look for a male operative then I'd switch to look different, but it's still a matter of getting the clothing to change and convincing them that I'm really an innocent girl."
Akiko thought about that and then thought about being stuck somewhere dangerous where the enemy was looking for a girl. She shuddered and said, "I wouldn't want to be caught as a girl."
"Neither would I," Risa replied.
"I wouldn't want to be caught as either at this age," Naruto said. "Perverts exist everywhere you know."
"No wonder Sakura screams about this Jutsu of yours," Akiko started to laugh.
Risa caught on, giggled and finished saying, "The girls think you're only a pervert."
Naruto groaned dramatically and hid his head in the crook of his arms. He was turning red from embarrassment. 'It was my first invented Jutsu,' he thought. 'It's still embarrassing to have them point out that the girls in my original life only thought of me as a pervert and not how that Jutsu could be used in an emergency situation.' He glanced at his new teammates and thought, 'I wonder if they'd be willing help me to improve it?'
Their Jounin sensei made his appearance at the tail end of the conversation and noted that the girls were laughing at the embarrassed expression of the orange jumpsuit wearing youngest member of their team.
"Hello Team Eleven," he said. "I'm your Jounin teacher and you can call me Tokuma-sensei. There are too many with the last name Hyuga running around this village. Follow me to the training grounds that I booked for our group."
He left the room and the three new Genin followed him. At training ground twenty-three they gathered around him and introduced themselves when their sensei asked, "All right. How about you give your names and tell me a bit about your likes, dislikes and dreams for the future?"
"I'm Haruno Akiko and am twelve years old," the dark red haired girl said. "I like hotpot, flower arranging and new clothes. I dislike Sakura because she's too book smart and doesn't take the Kunoichi lessons seriously any more. In the future I want to be able to make specialty clothing for the ninja of this village."
"That's an awesome idea," Naruto said with a genuine smile.
Risa looked at her with excitement, "I agree. My name is Inuzuka Risa and I'm eleven going on twelve in two months. I don't have a nin-dog partner yet, but I think that's because I haven't chosen a direction for my future. They don't like it if you're undecided. I like dogs, cats and some birds. I don't like frogs or snakes because they're slimy. I like the martial arts and any ninjutsu that could be added to make the strike stronger. I hope that one day I could open a dojo or an exercise studio, something of that nature for girls only. That way they'd be able to come there and practice freely without having boys around."
"That's an awesome idea too," Naruto told her. "I can totally see that. Girls need a separate place to not be stared at and to not stare at the boys, if they're actually serious about becoming Ninjas."
"What about you," Tokuma said to Naruto.
"What about me?" The blond looked at them confused.
"Likes," Risa said.
"Dislikes," Akiko said.
Tokuma finished with, "Dreams of the future."
"Oops," Naruto said and rubbed the back of his neck. "Um...My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I'm ten. I like ramen because it's the one food that doesn't spoil fast. I like thinking up new Jutsu, even though they don't work too well." The girls giggled at this recalling their brief conversation. "I don't like the meat available at the market because it spoils too fast and I don't really like the colour orange." He fingered his jumpsuit thoughtfully. He brightened up suddenly and seriously told his new team. "One day in the future, I'm going to be the Hokage of this Village."
Tokuma blinked. This had been said with such certainty and for some reason even the girls believed that it could happen. "I see," the Jounin said. "Well tomorrow this is where we shall meet in the morning. Be here for six am and don't be late."
"Yes sensei," the three Genin told him. They dispersed to their separate homes, except for Naruto.
Tonight was the night he needed to search the Hokage's locked storeroom because he'd be too busy with the various D-Rank missions and his new team to go there later.
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
In the night, hidden behind the full 'dark' moon, no shadow could form. Only those with the ability to see in the dark could move with certainty. The ANBU guards patrolled a little more frequently, on nights like this one to ensure that the village remained at peace.
A single kunai, chinked in the mortar between two bricks on the Hokage tower. The noise wasn't repeated often and it sounded in conjunction to the normal sounds that the patrolling ninjas were used to hearing in the night. Therefore it was completely ignored.
A Fujin Sigil for silence was inscribed on the souls of the shoes and the gloves of the intruder. This person was small, dressed in a very dark matte grey skin-tight bodysuit with a hood that hid his hair. This person only wore a belt with a single pouch located at his lower back. The lenses of his multi-lens goggles revealed all the traps, as they were all chakra based and easily seen.
What was seen was bypassed quickly, silently and no attention was turned to the slim tower opening, which wasn't ideal for crawling into, unless you were of a stature and height small enough to slip in. 'It's a good thing that I'm doing this now before I gain some weight and height,' Naruto thought as he stepped over a trip wire trap. 'There's no way that I'd have had the patience to wait until I'm named Hokage to get that book.'
He looked around the room from the ledge and it was pretty much in the same condition as when he'd been named the Nanadaime of Konoha. He flicked through the series of lens on his goggles ensuring that there were no other types of traps to be seen. He expanded his senses and then made his way into the book stacks by clinging to the shelves, knowing that there were pressure traps in the floor in the regular aisles, but not on the sections of the floor holding the shelving full of books, records and several old weapons.
He came for one book, but found two more and one scroll of interesting information. He knew that he could take more than that with him, but it wasn't needed. Fifteen minutes of sifting through the old boxes and he finally found the actual book he'd been seeking. He added that to his storage scroll which contained the other items and soon it tucked it away in the pouch at his back.
Ten minutes of retracing his steps and ensuring that there was no trace of his actions in the room. He hopped onto the ledge only after the patrolling ANBU guard had finished his pass. He faced the room, pulled out a small canister of spray and sprayed dust into the room. The dust was similar to what he'd waded through, but in this case it was the kind that erased his chakra, heat signature, foot and finger prints, should any have been left behind by accident.
Another fifteen minutes later, he'd arrived at his apartment. 'No point in rushing,' he thought. 'That had been a lesson well learned.'
(...I'm curious about that...) The fox said to him. (...What happened that made you learn that particular lesson...)
(...It was a foolish thing with Jiraiya-sensei...) Naruto said, as he stripped his dark gear and hid it under his bed. He took out the storage scroll and extracted the books and information scroll on the subject of 'Nen Jutsu'. (...The idiot had me use my Sexy Jutsu to go into a brothel to pick up the information that his contact had left for him. When I left the place, I left a little too quickly and three men who thought I had been there working because of the pace I was using thought I was an easy target for blackmail. I was young then...)
(...Aren't you still too young to go into a brothel?...) The fox asked.
(...Well yeah...) Naruto said. (...I'm talking about my past life...)
The fox blinked at that, but didn't ask any more questions. He knew about reincarnation and figured that's just what the kid was talking about. He'd met a few humans that could access their old memories of past lives, of course some of them were fake, but he didn't think that Naruto was one of those.
'Must be because I'm confined in his body,' the fox thought. 'I wonder if I can access those memories?'
Naruto grinned, knowing what the fox was thinking and also knowing that the creature couldn't access those memories. His past was a future that had never taken place and now that the direction of his life had changed somewhat.
He was now on Team Eleven with two older girls. Both of whom, seemed like they'd be pretty decent to him, but it would depend on tomorrow's first official meeting and whether they could work as a team or not.
"I wonder what kind of test Tokuma-sensei is going to make us do. I doubt that it'd be the bell test," he speculated out loud. He put on his sleepwear and said, "I just hope that these girls are willing to work with me." He yawned, put on his animal sleep cap and went to bed.
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
The next day all three Genin were yawning. They had all arrived fifteen minutes before six o'clock in the morning. Akiko stifled another yawn and asked, "Why so early?"
"I don't know," Risa said with a yawn in reply.
"Maybe to gauge our readiness," Naruto voiced his idea, please that he could do so and no one immediately told him to shut up or even ignored his suggestion.
"We're not ready," Akiko said and Risa nodded.
"I agree," Tokuma-sensei told them, popping up nearby and surprised them. "Well now that you're here you have three hours to try and capture me by any means necessary. This is the second phase of your Genin qualification exam. Begin now!" He disappeared in a puff of Jutsu smoke.
"Damn," Naruto said. "We should have trapped the clearing."
"Now what do we do," Akiko said.
Risa sniffed the air and said, "I think I know where he's gone."
"We need to hide ourselves now," Naruto told them. "He's probably watching us and laying traps for us."
The girls nodded and Risa indicated the direction of their sensei. The three took off in a false direction and they all heard the sigh of despair. They hid in the dense bushes nearby and talked strategy. "We need to prove to him that we're good at what we know," Naruto said. "Did either of you come prepared?"
"I have a camo-cloth," Akiko said. "It's one of my inventions."
"I have sneezing powder," Risa said. "It's made from flower dust and pepper."
"Cool," Naruto said. "I have trip wire, kunai and other few other things, like a roll of silk cloth."
"Perfect," Risa said. "Give me the silk cloth and I'll use it with powder. You take your camo-cloth Akiko, since you're familiar with it and create a trap. Naruto, you get him out of that tree and keep him busy. Jump back when we tell you."
"I can do that," Naruto said. He closed his eyes and hissed, "Disperse, now."
The girls escaped while he charged at his sensei. He used nearly every trick he had to attack the man and guide him in the direction that he'd been told to. He waited to hear the word from the girls.
"Now," he heard from one of the girls. He jumped back after his last attack and dodged the unrolling silk that spread the powder along its path. He used kunai with nin-wire attached in order to herd their sensei into an area that held the camo-cloth on the ground.
Their sensei fell into a pit trap that was covered by the strange cloth. Unfortunately they forgot that he was a Hyuga who had activated his Byakugan. The man avoided the trap with a switching Jutsu, but ended up with a face full of the powder and began to sneeze uncontrollably for a few minutes before he tapped the chakra points to close his sense of smell.
Risa popped out from where she'd been hiding as soon as he'd done that to attack him. He switched away, but he couldn't hide from the Inuzuka. She guided her teammates to his location every time and there were a few times that Naruto found him before she did, which meant he guided his teammates to the man's location.
The cooperation between all three in dogging their sensei surprised him and he made an immediate decision to pass them, only if they kept it up for the next hour and a half. The two girls used everything that was taught at the Academy and a few Taijutsu techniques that weren't because they used nin-wire as jump ropes to confuse him.
The boy surprised them all by dropping two ankle weights and two wrist weights, to attack from the treetops with increased speed. He had the habit of dropping down to catch the man off guard. Eventually all three were attacking using their coordination and combinations that looked like they were thinking of them as they did them.
"Time," Tokuma-sensei said. His three students collapsed, huffing and puffing because they had exerted themselves in trying to capture the Jounin. He grinned at them and said, "You've all passed."
"What do you mean," Akiko asked. "We failed to capture you."
"You worked as a team the entire time," the man said releasing the pressure points the he'd sealed for his sense of smell and sneezed a couple of times. He then said, "You need to think of a better way to release that powder."
"This test was one to see if you could work together, get coordinated and adjust when things went wrong," Tokuma-sensei said. "Also none of you gave up, even when the time was dwindling."
"Wow," Naruto said.
Akiko retrieved her camo-cloth. The sensei asked to see it by holding out his hand for the item. "This is unique," he said. "However because of the Byakugan I was able to see it clear as day."
"Is this the only one you have," Naruto asked. "Do you have a smaller piece of that same material?"
"Sure," she said and handed him a small handkerchief size piece and then watched in horror, as he was about to put ink it. "What are you doing?"
"Just a minute," he said. "Tokuma-sensei, can you see the chakra in it?"
The Hyuga activated his bloodline limit and said, "Yes."
"Keep watching please," Naruto said. He dipped a brush in dark ink and painted a couple of sigils into the four corners of the cloth.
Tokuma blinked and looked closer. The chakra that emanated from the cloth disappeared. It now looked like a cloth that could disappear into the ground. He startled by the change. "I can't see it," he said. He took it and tossed it onto the ground over a lost shuriken, where it immediately blended with the dirt and stones, hiding the throwing star. It disappeared from everyone's eyes and he re-confirmed. "I still can't see it or what it's hiding."
Naruto picked up and showed the sigils. "You'll need to stitch these into the four corners of your larger cloth to get the chakra hidden from anyone of the Hyuga Clan. I don't know if it'll work for someone that has the Sharingan ability and it's not one that we can test right now."
"We can," Tokuma-sensei told them. "I'll set it up for some other day. Now lets talk about strengths, weaknesses and training. Then we'll talk about missions for the three of you."
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
TBC…
(...i...) http:/ naruto dot wikia dot com/ wiki/ (you know what to do, remove spaces and replace dots)