Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and this is non-profit fanfiction.
X
A/N: In which Naruto actually read the full description of the shadow clone technique and found out how to use it effectively. Crack fic where he abuses the shit out of his abilities and doesn't get nerfed to stay genin level when his growth rate and shadow clones would make him overpowered in very little time (2 weeks from rasengan and no idea of what nature transformation is to making the fûton rasengan...what would he do in his 1st 6 months if he didn't slack off relying on Kakashi to spoon feed him techniques and training?).
Naruto becomes powerful and has a petty revenge on the village.
X
Three days after failing Kakashi's bell test – a stupid test according to Naruto –, he had been contacted by the genin reserve to join them. He was currently at the gathering of the new members for inscriptions. There was a speech on the duties of the genin reserve – basically be available in case there were too many missions for the official teams to complete by themselves and to sharpen their skills during the time they had nothing to do. He also learned that the ninja library was a place where genin without a mentor could learn the much needed skills to improve themselves.
As soon as the meeting and the inscriptions were done with, he had been to the ninja library to look for awesome jutsu. The librarian, a girl a bit older than him with thick glasses and messy shoulder length blond hair, answered his questions and told him to focus on learning to control his chakra before trying to learn any awesome technique, because it would make it much easier to learn them with good chakra control and would improve his learning efficiency. She had recommended him several books on chakra control that he had found in the shelves.
In order to be able to go through the boring books, he had summoned three shadow clones – he had tried to summon a single one, but he wouldn't say no to additional workers. He noticed the speed at which he could learn by using his shadow clones to read in his stead. He had to force them to focus, but by having three on him reading one book each and dispelling, he could read three books at once.
The next day, Naruto came back to the library with a plan. He had spotted a printer the day before and sneaked into the room to print the pages of the books on chakra control and exercises. He had locked himself with the printer until he had all the pages printed and had put the books back on the shelves.
X
After three days of using clones to memorize the chakra control books and exercises, Naruto started putting his clones to work on said exercises. The leaf sticking exercise, then the same with a pebble, then a small rock were finished in two days. One week had passed and he was already able to complete all the academy level chakra exercises! He had improved a lot in so little time compared with his academy years!
Next was the tree climbing exercise. His clones burst a few tree trunks at first, but it took only a day to master the exercise and to be able to run up and down the tree for as long as his great stamina allowed him. The next day, he went to a pond, removed his clothes except for his underwear and started on the water walking exercise with clones. By the end of the day, he was able to spar with them under the surprised gazes of the passersby.
Since he was done with basic chakra control, he went back to the library to ask the librarian girl what was next, if he could learn awesome techniques to make giant explosions, fireballs and all that. She told him that this was not that easy, that he would have to learn shape manipulation in order to control the shape of his chakra and nature transformation to change the nature of his chakra, for example to add an element. The first step was manipulation to learn how to emit and control chakra outside of his own body. She indicated several books to him, which he made sure to print to be able to give a page to each clone like he had done with chakra control books.
The next day, his clones had memorized the exercises and spent the next two days mastering them.
His clones took a day to learn how to emit chakra from their hands, another one shaping it into an immobile ball, the next day they explored all the shapes they could make with it. From there, he would have to learn how to project it further to use ranged ninjutsu.
Learning to project it took time, progressively gaining range before losing control. In one week, he had reached two meters. Since he considered two meters to be a good range to start with, he decided to jump to nature transformation.
The librarian girl – who he now knew was named Shiho – was really surprised at the speed at which this fresh genin was making progress and was now eager to help him. He heard her talk about him being her project under her breath. He didn't really care as long as he could continue learning fast.
The first part of learning nature transformation was to learn what chakra could be transformed into, what it could do. He spent the day printing the five books Shiho had indicated to him – damn this printer was so slow…!
It took him three days with his clones to assimilate the seven chakra natures and their uses. The elements were simple but the way they worked was interesting and the key to get off the ground was to understand the nature of each one of them.
Fire was heat and could be used to burn, to light a fire and cook – and get some heat when it was cold –, to quickly close a wound to stop the bleeding and avoid an infection…
Lightning was electricity and could be used to paralyze, to kill, to burst, to restart the heart, to reactivate the nerves and to power some machines – like a printer, lamps, a cooking table, a laundry machine…
Water was made of cells and had three states, gas, liquid and solid. As a gas, it was light and easy to transport in the air, but it was not condensed and thus couldn't be found in large quantities. As a liquid, it was heavier but easier to store into a pouch, a bottle or a tank. It could be found in large quantities and used for powerful techniques. With pressure, water could be used to erode or pierce, which made liquid water attacks optimal with high pressure due to needing less quantity to obtain good offensive results. Water could be used to conduct lightning or to extinguish fire, or change solid dirt into liquid mud and neutralize some earth techniques.
Earth was made of different cells from water and couldn't become gas. It could be manipulated either as mud or solid dirt but it also included rocks. Metals were but refined rocks and in order to make a weapon out of refined metal, it had to be heated and shaped while it was softened by high temperature. So metal was too hard to control, it was too far from the base material. Earth was mostly used for protection as domes, walls, for attack as pikes, pillars and rocks and for traps as mud or holes.
Wind was a volatile element. It was gas, any kind of gas. It could be used offensively as gusts of wind, as toxic gas, could be compressed like water although too much lesser effect, or could be used to pull out the air from one's lungs. It could be used defensively to redirect projectiles. It could increase or decrease mobility by being applied to the body of the target in one way or another, like running with the wind in one's back or pushing back an opponent and slowing their progression. By controlling air, one could displace objects or people with it, although not as accurately as with telekinetic powers. Wind could also improve jump height, carry a projectile further, support a gliding object to make it fly.
Yin was the nature of imagination. It was the one used for genjutsu but also to manifest one's thoughts. With yin chakra, one could create things out of chakra.
Yang was the nature of physical change. It was the one used by the Akimichi clan to grow their body by consuming fat, it could change the size, toughness and properties of an object. The Kaguya clan from the Land of Water was known for their ability to grow their bones and make them harder than steel.
With this knowledge, Naruto decided to start working on what he already had – his body. Using yang chakra needed to apply one's chakra to a physical target and modify it, the easiest way being reinforcing it. It was easier said than done, though.
Naruto's clones had a hard time with this, but managed to get some results thanks to Shiho who he talked to after failing for a week. She told him there was a useful technique enhancing the body for a short burst that could be used as a basis to learn how to affect the body with chakra, the body flicker.
Naruto learnt the technique in one day after all the training to use yang chakra and from there it took him three days to manage to overload his body with chakra and inflate it. His clones burst from the effect on their body. Their arms weren't supposed to double in size. Naruto felt their pain through memory transfer and decided to avoid trying it himself until it was complete.
He spoke to Shiho about his issue with yang chakra inflating his body and she shushed him, telling him not to speak about things that could be seen as an attempt to copy the Akimichi clan's techniques. She told him to try compressing it to avoid the inflation issue and make the target area denser, increasing its' toughness.
He did that and managed to toughen his arms in three days. He extended it to the whole body in one day and worked on more focused use of his discovery. Remembering the part on the clan from the Land of Water that could grow super strong bones, his clones focused their chakra into their bones until they managed to increase their density, which took a day. From there, it took him three days to find a way to grow the bones without causing self-injury.
In a week, Naruto managed to apply emission and manipulation to grow his bones out of his body and make weapons and armor out of them. He noticed that with his training, his clones had become much tougher and with bone armor they could withstand attacks better.
From there, he decided to go for an element. He remembered about chakra paper to know one's affinity and used the money he had earned during the few missions he had been doing while his clones trained in ninjutsu to buy himself five papers, just in case…
His affinity was wind, as shown by the paper being blown away when he applied his chakra into it. His wind affinity training consisted of improving his emission and manipulation while applying the feeling of wind blowing into his chakra. It took him three days to be able to create a powerful gust in short range, three more to be able to use wind with more finesse to deflect projectiles and from there he managed to transfer his manipulation of the element to a more passive role of enhancing all of his movements in two days.
Next he really wanted to learn how to use fire because wind was a good supporting element for fire. He took a week to learn how to transform his chakra into fire, two weeks to be able to manipulate it with a decent control – without simply incinerating everything in range and causing a forest fire. From there, he decided to make fire jets from his hands, which took him another week.
At that point, he started working on combination techniques, the whole reason for learning fire after wind. Since he had already mastered the general uses of wind and managed to control fire, it took him only a week to use them in tandem, the hardest part being the ability to use two different natures at the same time. He did it by using his right hand and foot to channel fire and his left hand and foot to channel wind. Then he used his hands for wind and his feet for fire and progressively got better at it.
A month later, he was able to make bone wings with flame reactors empowered by wind chakra and his performances were a far cry from the boy who had failed the bell test a bit over four months earlier.
Since he had been using an empty area and changing each time he had destroyed his training spot, he was quite confident in the idea that no one knew about his abilities. He started showing the most basic of his improvement to get more missions and be able to go on C-ranks outside the village, only revealing his uses of chakra control and yang body reinforcement. It was more than most of the genin from his promotion were able to do.
He used the time needed to climb in mission ranks to learn how to use his chakra control to make shock waves, which was very easy now that he had nearly mastered two elements with a decent emission range and combination techniques. His clones managed to project a wave of condensed chakra that burst a human-sized rock in melee from a regular punch and worked from there to increase the reach of the attack. He would use this to show off basic skills that would be considered worthy of getting good missions and maybe an apprenticeship under a jônin who could teach him things he couldn't find in the library.
One month later, his range for the point of impact for the shock wave had increased to ten meters.
X
That morning, a little over five months after the beginning of his training, Naruto was called to the Hokage tower for a mission. He quickly took a shower and dressed himself in his usual orange tracksuit. He would really have to change his outfit, it was all sewn back in the areas where he had damaged it countless times. He was basically wearing rags, but he needed money to buy new clothes especially since the prices were so high everywhere he went.
He entered the Hokage tower ten minutes later after canceling his body flicker. Some ninjas inside looked at him warily, but most didn't even look his way or avoided to look at him, who knew? He climbed the stairs and knocked at the door, waiting for the old man to invite him inside before entering the office.
"Naruto! How have you been lately?" started the Hokage. "I have barely seen or heard of you except from the manager of the genin reserve. It looks like you are ready for a C-rank mission, do you agree?"
"Hello old man!" saluted Naruto without using titles. "I'm fine and you? I've been trying to get a C-rank for the past three months, finally I'm getting a higher ranked mission than D-rank chores! Oh! And I can help you a little with your overworked issue…"
The Hokage's eyes shone for a short moment in expectation.
"Oh yes? What is it?"
"Well…you know, there is a technique I have learned five months ago that allows to have several bodies and to get their memories when they dispel. I think it was called…shadow clone!"
"Oh, yes, this minor technique that no one thinks much about? Sorry Naruto, if I was using it like that, I would die from exhaustion. You see, I am not a young man anymore and my chakra does not exactly replenish at a fast rate. I have a good amount, but it takes too long to regain so I have to keep it in case of emergency. I would not want to be exhausted if the village were to be attacked, do you understand?"
"So that's why you never used it to do your paperwork?"
"Oh, I used to do that when I was younger, but I cannot do it anymore. Thank you for your suggestion though, I appreciate it."
"Too bad, then I guess you should find a replacement soon enough. Like me, for example, who can use shadow clones to be done with paperwork before it reaches my desk…"
"Maybe you would like a job of assistant? You would do all the paperwork that is not too confidential…"
"No thanks, a desk job without any action would bore me out quickly."
"Then are you sure you want to become Hokage? Most of the job consists of politics, management and paperwork…"
"No problem! I'll just have to leave my shadow clones to do the boring stuff while I do the funny parts like showing everyone who's the boss and that I'm invincible!"
"Sure, Naruto… Kakashi! The last member of your team is ready!"
The jônin who had rejected team seven appeared in a body flicker. His visible eye closed with wrinkles at its' corner expressed a smile.
"Good morning, Lord Hokage, hi, Naruto!" he chirped. "Did you tell him who was coming along on this mission, Lord Hokage?"
"I was leaving it as a surprise, actually. Naruto has accepted the mission already, there is no turning down the mission from now on. I leave him to your good care, Kakashi. Return them all in one piece, I had a bad feeling about this mission."
"Of course, Lord Hokage. Naruto, get ready to leave Konoha in half an hour. We go to the Land of Waves. Meet the squad and the client at the East Gate!"
He vanished in a body flicker.
"I guess I won't get any information until we leave the village?" asked Naruto to the Hokage.
"I think everything will be fine with Kakashi as your team leader and…the other key member of your squad."
"Aren't there supposed to be three genin?"
"There are. One was selected by Kakashi, you were recommended by the genin reserve manager and the third member happened to be at the right place at the right time."
"I see, so the third genin is just lucky?"
"You can say it like that."
"Well then, see you old man! I have to pack for my first field trip outside the village!"
"I hope you will gain useful experience out of it," replied the village leader.
Naruto left through the window in a body flicker.
X
Ten minutes later, he was at the meeting place for the mission.
"Naruto? What are you doing here?" asked Sakura, the pink haired kunoichi who had failed alongside him five months earlier.
"Sakura? So you were the one lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time?"
"Who said that?" she asked, infuriated.
"The Hokage."
"Oh… Yes… I happened to be the one who escorted our client to the Hokage tower when I found him lost. He said he wanted to submit a C-rank mission to Konoha. I thought it was my lucky day, two birds with one stone."
"Well done, you got yourself a C-rank mission without punching anyone!"
"Hey! Take it back!"
"Nope. Have you made any progress in the last five months?"
"Of course! I've been spending a lot of time reading every useful book in the library and training useful skills. I bet I'll be more useful than you!"
"In your sweetest dreams! I've made a lot of progress in these five months! I'll show you my amazingness!"
"This word doesn't even exist!"
"I don't care! I'll become the Hokage! I can make up words whenever I want!"
"Not even in your sweetest dreams!"
"We'll see, mwahahahaha! The Amazing Naruto Uzumaki is gonna become a legend!"
X
Twenty minutes later, Sasuke and the client arrived.
"Sasuke?" Naruto pointed at his former rival.
"Sasuke! How are you?" welcomed Sakura.
"Hi," he replied without answering.
"Huh, three kids? That's the squad that will be protecting me?" complained the old drunkard.
"We're not kids, we're ninjas!" exclaimed Naruto in indignation.
"Do not underestimate us because of our age, Mr. Tazuna, we are professionals," affirmed Sakura more politely.
"Whatever, I can't afford anything better…" replied the old man, looking at the bottom of his empty bottle of alcohol.
Kakashi arrived in a body flicker.
"Everyone is already here? Then let's go."
"Why didn't you tell me I'd be working with Sasuke?" complained Naruto.
"Because looking at your face now is too funny to pass," answered the squad leader.
Naruto's scrunched face was indeed funny to look at.
X
The travel to Tazuna's village had taken three days. Nothing had happened on the way, a very boring escort mission.
The party met Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter. Sakura told her temporary teammates that Kakashi kept looking her way when she wasn't looking, suggesting he was interested in her. Naruto didn't understand the hint and had to be told in clear words by Sasuke, a fact that pissed him off since it meant Sasuke understood these things better than him.
Inari, Tsunami's son, shouted angrily toward the Konoha ninjas, telling them that they were stupid to stay here and protect them because Gatô would kill them anyway and everyone would die no matter their efforts. Naruto contained his anger in order not to crush this little worm who dared say that no matter how much effort you put into your objectives, you couldn't overcome adversity. He left the house slamming the door behind him without a word.
X
The next morning, he met Haku, a beautiful girl who was collecting herbs for her father's calming infusion, telling him he was unable to stay still without it. He helped her, which allowed them to discuss and learn that they were similar in some ways. Naruto wanted to protect the people he cared about – Teuchi and Ayame, Iruka and the Hokage –, Haku told him that protecting the people one cares for made one stronger and to cultivate his bonds to the people he liked. At the end of their discussion, she told him she was a boy, something that left him speechless. If Haku was a boy, did it mean Naruto was gay? Was there a name for liking girls but also feminine boys? These thoughts stayed in his mind all day.
The next day, while Kakashi was protecting Tazuna, he had ordered their team to train together out of sight to familiarize themselves with each other's abilities. They had gone to a small clearing in the woods and started fighting in a taijutsu free for all.
Naruto's skills were clearly underwhelming, but he could brush off hits from Sakura as if she was a fly and Sasuke's didn't target lethal points due to them being allies, so the blonde looked like everything was fine.
Sakura had textbook taijutsu forms. She had memorized the kata very well but lacked creativity in the way she fought. She was predictable and lacked strength.
Sasuke was the fastest out of the three, the most skilled and the most effective in taijutsu and at restraining his opponents.
After taijutsu was done with, Sasuke asked if they had something more.
"Now that we know what to expect from each other's taijutsu, what else did you learn in these five months?"
"I can use genjutsu!" exclaimed Sakura, but Sasuke rushed to put his hand on her mouth.
"Don't yell it for the whole forest to hear you, stupid. We're in enemy territory, don't let your enemies know what you can do y shouting it for all to hear…"
"Sorry…" she said in a low voice. "I can use genjutsu up to C rank, my aim with shuriken is even better than it was at the academy and I picked up the mud clone technique to distract my opponents more effectively than the academy clones…"
"I see, so you will be guarding the client if there's any danger. Your skills should be enough for that," affirmed Sasuke.
Sakura was happy that he found her good enough and annoyed that he had said that as if he was looking down on her. Naruto didn't like his way to acknowledge Sakura's skills while diminishing them at the same time.
"And you, idiot?" the asshole asked him.
"I'm not an idiot! And I bet I'm better than you!" exclaimed the angry boy.
"What can you do?"
Naruto, riled up by Sasuke's behaviour and bossy attitude, decided to show off a little. He faced a tree approximately ten meters away from him and did the same as he used to do to test his clones' progress upon completing a technique. He charged his right fist from the shoulder, moved his right leg forward and expelled his chakra through his punch. The tree burst into small splinters and the tree behind it cracked and fell towards them due to the shock wave destroying half of the trunk.
He looked at his teammates and took pleasure in Sakura's bulging eyes and dropped jaw, as well as in Sasuke's frown and contracted jaw.
"Is that all you have?" asked the Uchiha.
"Aren't we supposed to be in enemy territory? I shouldn't show my full hand in case we're being spied on, you said it yourself."
Naruto savored this moment, Sasuke's eyelids vibrating in annoyance at being sent back his own words.
"Is there any other useful skill we should know about before finding ourselves in a deadly situation?" reformulated the dark-haired boy.
"Hmm…maybe I should show you something then," replied the blonde.
He signaled them to get closer and to lean forward. He picked a kunai with his left hand and violently pegged it into his right hand. The kunai broke against his hardened limb. He was delighted to see even more surprised expressions on his temporary teammates' faces.
"How did you do that?" asked Sasuke, to which Sakura vigorously nodded.
"Simple. Chakra control and nature transformation," he replied as if it was a beginner level ability.
"What kind of nature transformation did you use to get this result?" asked Sakura, interested.
"Yang nature, the one that is used to enhance and modify physical objects. It's what the Akimichi clan uses in their ninjutsu, I learned that at the library," he precised, omitting that he learned it from Shiho.
"I've never seen you at the library," said Sakura.
"I usually select what I need and get out right after. Libraries aren't a place suited to me."
"You learned that from the library? I should spend some time there," decided Sasuke.
"If even the last of the class can pick up something this good, I should focus more on nature transformation," Sakura determined.
"And you, asshole? What did you learn in the past five months except for taijutsu?" asked the blonde.
"Don't insult Sasuke, Naruto!"
"Oh, I trained myself for two months and got an apprenticeship under Kakashi Hatake, the best jônin of the village. I picked up archery after he awakened my sharingan since seeing things in slow motion makes it easier to aim and hit even fast targets. I improved my fire manipulation and Kakashi started to teach me a lightning technique to ease me into lightning nature transformation."
"What's this technique?" asked Naruto and Sakura, both excited even if Naruto was pissed at himself for it.
"Lightning arrow. I coat my arrow in lightning chakra to make it deadlier. Lightning also has a…"
"Paralyzing effect," cut Naruto. "So you can paralyze your target on top of the damage caused by the attack, it's super useful…"
At that moment, Sasuke forced them to kneel down just before Naruto heard a whoosh sound as a big projectile passed over his head and a chunk as it embedded itself into the tree behind Sasuke. As they raised their heads to look around, they saw a sword – or rather a cleaver – locked nearly all the way through the trunk it had ended into. Sasuke's irises turned red and a single black comma started spinning clockwise around his black pupils. He took out a scroll from his leg pouch and a bow poofed into his left hand as he created a lightning arrow and observed to spot the enemy.
A mist started to gather in the clearing, but Naruto dispersed it with his wind element that he couldn't hide anymore since this was a life or death situation.
A noise came from behind them, where the sword had been stuck and when Naruto looked, the tree started to fall to the side, no weapon left to be seen.
A volley of kunai and shuriken flew at them. Sasuke released his arrow and a second later something hit the forest floor.
"I'll go check on it," said Naruto. "You two stay close to each other, I can defend myself just fine."
Sasuke acquiesced and Sakura was shaking. The blonde reinforced his body in case of a surprise attack and cautiously walked toward the origin of the noise as if he were a beginner. He could have used the body flicker, but he didn't want to appear too skilled to their attackers. He finally saw the rabbit that had fallen victim to Sasuke's lightning arrow and turned back to warn his team.
At that moment, several things happened simultaneously. He saw Sakura get cleaved by the massive sword from earlier, Sasuke ducking to avoid being next. A chain appeared and wrapped around him, the two shinobi holding it pulled in opposite directions and found themselves blocked by Naruto's hardened body right before he grabbed it and infused fire chakra into the metal, heating the chain toward his assailants who let go of it to avoid burns. Sakura turned into mud and became a puddle of mud on the ground.
"Shit! He can use fire release!" exclaimed one of Naruto's attackers.
"And his body is too hard to cut!" shouted the other one.
They took an offensive stance and made a hand sign.
"Water bullets!" they exclaimed in unison.
High pressure propelled small amounts of water towards Naruto, which embedded themselves into his skin before dripping down his body.
"You two really want to die!" he shouted, annoyed by their pitiful repeated attempts on his life.
Unlike the other ninjas around him, Naruto didn't use hand signs or techniques. He manipulated chakra, transformed it as he saw fit. He punched to the sides, sending two simultaneous shock waves toward his enemies who couldn't dodge the invisible force. Their bodies were turned into a bloody pulp on the forest floor and spraying on the nearby trees.
Meanwhile, Sasuke was trying to stay alive against a tall sword wielder with bandages over his face, short dark hair and no eyebrows. The man was wearing a Kiri headband, a tank top and cargo pants with combat boots. His blows were so heavy that Sasuke hadn't tried to block them after simply deflecting it once had made him lose his balance.
Sakura was trying to stay out of the way of a clone of the sword wielder, which was already hard for her since her physical attributes were not exactly her forte. Naruto decided that Sakura was in more immediate danger than Sasuke who at least was able to follow the movements of his opponent and to adapt his fighting style to survive repeated assaults. He made twenty clones to help Sasuke and rushed to help Sakura.
As the cleaver was ready to separate her in two pieces, a powerful wind propelled her and her opponent, sending them tumbling like rag dolls. The clone dispersed into water, letting the girl take a break to catch her breath. She looked to the source of the wind and followed Naruto's enhanced movement to the scene where his clones were struggling with the main body of their remaining attacker. She couldn't believe it. Ten Narutos with an armor made of their bones were trying to contain the man with their tough bodies, getting slowly dispelled by strong hits of the cleaver.
A lightning arrow dispelled three clones and paralyzed the sword wielder's left arm. He quickly used a water bullet technique to shoot back at his aggressor before focusing on the annoying clones keeping him in place.
Naruto put his hands forward, facing the shinobi and charged fire and wind chakra. He charged a powerful combination attack and released it three meters from the target. Someone quickly crossed the clearing, grabbing the sword wielder and saving him before pegging a needle through his neck, killing him.
"Thank you for helping me kill him," said the masked shinobi with a Kiri symbol on his forehead. "I have been tracking him for months, trying to find a moment to get rid of him and return his corpse to our village for the bounty on his head."
"If you wanted him dead, why didn't you let him roast in my flames?" asked Naruto, a bit suspicious of this guy who was from the same village as the one they had tried to kill.
"Because I need a proof of his death," replied the young bounty hunter.
"But I was gonna kill him anyway, so I'm the one who should get the bounty!" exclaimed the blonde indignantly.
"Sorry, I was faster. Next time, you should be faster so you do not miss an opportunity. Goodbye!"
Like that, the suspicious shinobi left the roasted clearing. Sasuke got out of the bushes, walking toward them.
"Is everyone okay?" he asked on a commanding tone.
"Are you okay, Sakura?" asked Naruto more gently to his teammate.
"I'm…I'm okay, no injuries…without Naruto, he'd have cut me in two…"
She was trembling and sweating profusely now that the adrenaline had left her body.
"Yeah, I'm a boss like that," boasted Naruto before walking up to her to comfort her as she didn't stop shaking. "Hey, it's alright, Sakura, they're gone…"
"She's in shock," stated Sasuke. "She doesn't really understand what's happening. Let's go back to the client's house. Can your clones pass a message?"
"I'm sending one to Kakashi."
"Make sure to get to him as quickly as possible. We don't know if there are more."
"Then I'll send my clones with you to guard you and carry Sakura, I'll go see Kakashi myself."
"Aren't you out of chakra? You've used twenty solid clones who each used bone armor, you've fought two shinobi, saved Sakura and used a giant fire technique to try and kill that guy…"
"Tired? That's not even five percent of my daily routine. Multiple shadow clones!"
Thirty clones appeared around Sasuke and Sakura and Naruto disappeared in a body flicker before jumping over the treeline out of sight with his bone wings out, activating his flame jets and amplifying their power with wind chakra. He crossed the forest area in thirty seconds, so fast that his eyes were getting irritated. He flew past Tazuna's house so fast that he barely registered it and in twenty seconds he was reaching the bridge where he saw Kakashi's silhouette approaching. He stopped the jets and used wind chakra as a ramp to slow his fall and jump back up, executing a backflip while retracting his wings and landing on his feet.
Kakashi didn't react, as if he was too shocked to even react or as if he didn't believe his own eye.
"Kakashi! We've been attacked by Kiri ninjas! Sasuke is bringing Sakura back to Tazuna's house with thirty of my clones to guard them and I came to report to you immediately and to see if you were also under attack!"
"…Snap out of it, Kakashi," the jônin told himself. "How are Sasuke and Sakura?"
"Sasuke is bruised but not severely injured. I sent clones to assist him against the sword wielding ninja. Sakura is not injured but Sasuke said she's in shock."
"I see. Did you get the name of the ninja?"
"No, the fight was too intense for him to speak. I killed two weaklings with metal gauntlets and a chain before going to help them."
"…The Demon Brothers, chûnin missing ninjas from Kiri. What was the sword guy like?"
"Tall like you, bandages on his face, his sword was a cleaver."
"Zabuza… You're telling me the three of you defeated Zabuza and the Demon Brothers together?"
"I'm telling you Sasuke and Sakura stalled while I killed the Demon Brothers and rushed to help them. I was gonna kill him with a fire and wind combination but a masked bounty hunter from Kiri took him and put a needle through his neck. He looked dead, but the bounty hunter was shady. I don't trust that guy, maybe he faked the shinobi's death somehow…?"
"A needle? It's possible to fake death with a senbon through the neck if you're really accurate with it, but it requires a high level of acupuncture to do it properly."
"He jumped in front of a wind enhanced flame wave, I doubt he's a pushover."
"So, you nearly killed Zabuza on top of the two chûnin with him…I think you could be a good asset for Konoha in the next chûnin exams, Naruto. I'd never imagined you'd be this strong."
"Well, I couldn't win against him in a melee fight, but if my clones didn't dispel in a single hit of his giant sword, I could easily brush off his attempts at killing me. I think I should start working on my martial arts, I suck in taijutsu."
"Did you…feel angry during the fight?"
"A little when the canon fodder tried to kill me with their chain and their water bullets that felt like I stopped flying vegetables with my bare skin. Why?"
"Did you feel a strange power in you?"
"Are you talking about…" Naruto pointed at his seal with a questioning look.
"Yes…"
"I've never felt anything coming from there. It's safe."
"So you've been doing all that with your own chakra and came here flying faster than a bird of prey? Let me check your chakra."
Kakashi closed his eyes and put his hand on Naruto's left shoulder. After a moment, he opened them in surprise.
"I understand how you can do all this, you have ten times more chakra than me… And that's not even counting your…furry friend…"
"Well I did make two hundred shadow clones to beat up Mizuki before becoming a genin after all…"
"…I'm completely outclassed in this category. It's time for me to get back to training. I shouldn't let fresh genin become as good as me in a single year. At the pace you're making progress, in five months you'll be better than me in every area. You were not even academy level five months ago and you've basically defeated one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist were it not for the bounty hunter's intervention…"
"I'll send clones patrolling regularly until we leave the island," decided the boy.
"Great idea, I was gonna tell you the same thing."
"I leave you ten clones, will it be enough if someone like that Zabuza comes here?"
"It should be enough to protect the client while I deal with them. This mission's just been upgraded to A rank, Naruto. Be careful and go back to Sasuke and Sakura. Even though I've trained Sasuke myself, he's still not strong enough to deal with jônin. He could've defeated one of the demon brothers, maybe both if they weren't working together. But if Gatô hired more people like Zabuza, it's gonna be hard."
"I think… I don't like this, but could you train me at night while my clones guard the area around the house? I need someone to show me how to fight properly. Ninjutsu can only get me so far. If I fight guys like Zabuza in close quarters, I'll have to do better than that…"
"Okay. If we have to fight more guys of this level, I'd rather have someone else able to kill them."
Naruto nodded, made ten clones and used a body flicker to go back to Tazuna's house.
X
Naruto trained with Kakashi for two hours each night to improve his taijutsu and weapon skills. His clones helped with the construction work in the day. Two days after the fight with Zabuza, the bridge was completed and the ninjas faked leaving Nami. Naruto had made four clones transformed into his team while the real ones were waiting in Tazuna's house.
Their caution was quickly rewarded when two thugs with katana kicked the door, a small man following them. Their team was transformed into Tazuna's family and Naruto was transformed into the carpet.
"Hello, Tazuna. It's been a long time since I had the pleasure to see you," said the small guy with a cigar between his teeth. "Now that your bodyguards are gone, my men will destroy your bridge and I'll have some fun with your beautiful daughter. She's not a virgin so there's no issue with using her before selling her. I'll make you watch while I ram my dick inside her, then I'll put your head on a pike to remind the people of this island who owns the place."
Gatô walked on the carpet…and it turned back into Naruto. The small man dropped his cigar in surprise.
"Kakashi, I think the clients are in danger. Does this mean we can kill Gatô and his men?"
Tsunami turned back into Kakashi.
"Yes, after all we must make sure to spread Konoha's reputation as the best village. We can also take the difference in the mission payment from Gatô's dirty money before returning the rest to Nami."
"Sakura, I leave you the pleasure to deal with this human trash who considers women as toys," said Naruto.
Sakura, who had gotten a call to reality against Zabuza, had started to understand the world she lived in. Gatô's little speech had triggered her buttons. She discovered that she had her own inner darkness. The bandits fled, leaving their boss to his won punishment, but Sasuke ran after them and executed them with an arrow to the head.
For the next thirty minutes, Gatô's cries of pain echoed in the area. No one came to help him.
Naruto and Kakashi had used this time to blitz his mansion and take enough valuables to cover the price for an A-rank mission. They left the area whistling an innocent tune, their sandals leaving sticky red marks on the ground.
X
"How did the mission go, Kakashi?" asked the Hokage half a day later, thanks to Naruto's clones carrying his team in the air for most of the distance.
"It was upgraded to an A-rank mission. The kids defeated Zabuza and the Demon Brothers, we have their gauntlets as proof, the rest was too…liquid to bring back with us. A bounty hunter from Kiri retrieved Zabuza before he got killed, but they don't know if he really died. A needle through the neck by a third party who got out of their way to push him away from the path of a wind and fire combination, that's definitely shady. We took the payment from Gatô's fortune after killing him within the terms of our contract. His henchmen are all dead. Sakura might have a career waiting for her in Torture and Interrogation…"
"I see…are you thinking what I am thinking?" asked the old man.
"If you're thinking that these three should be sent to the chûnin exams in two weeks, then I think the same way. They will show Konoha's power to the investors in the last part, or at least I can guarantee Sasuke and Naruto will reach the finals. I don't know about Sakura, she's ready for the first part and the second part is a team effort, but for the finals…I don't know if she can perform well enough. All I know is that this team will reach the finals."
Sakura was refraining from kicking the jônin for his dismissal of her skills.
"Then it is decided if you three are okay with it."
"I'm gonna become chûnin!" exclaimed the blonde.
"I will show everyone that I'm not weak!" declared Sakura.
"I want to see how strong I am against other ninjas of our rank aiming for a promotion," stated Sasuke. "I hope not all of them will be weaklings."
The Hokage pushed three papers towards them.
"Sign these documents and come at the date and time on the papers. Do not be late or you will be rejected. You will have to come as a team and stay together until the final examination. The first two parts require a full team to complete, after that it depends on who is ready for the last part. Kakashi, who do you intend to send Sakura to train under?"
"Hmm… It would have to be either Ibiki or Anko. With Ibiki she has a shot at a career, but with Anko she will perform better in the chûnin exams…"
"Then why not letting her to Anko for the exams and sending her to Ibiki after she is promoted?" suggested the leader of Konoha.
"This looks like a good compromise," nodded Kakashi. "I would suggest Naruto to train under Genma for the time before the exams, he needs to work on his weapon skills."
"Genma will be a proctor in the exams, thus he cannot train any participant, but I think I have just the right person for the job. Cat!"
An ANBU agent appeared in a body flicker, a cat mask covering her face, only revealing her purple hair held in a ponytail.
"Yes, Lord Hokage?"
"You are to train young Naruto for the chûnin exams from tomorrow. Today, you can all go back home and rest. I believe the next weeks will be exhausting for everyone."
"Yes, Lord Hokage," they all said in unison before leaving.
Naruto went to Ichiraku where he found Iruka and he spent the evening counting him and the Ichiraku family the non confidential parts of his mission.
X
A/N: I wanted this to be a one shot, but it got out of hand. More than 7K words and I'm just done with Nami! I hope you enjoy this story. I intend to get past the Konoha crush to the consequences of the battle.
Please tell me in the comments if you enjoyed this first condensed arc, Naruto's base set of abilities and the teachers for team Kakashi, even though it will be for a short time. Yugao and Anko enter the place. Anko won't be in the exams team, which leaves her more free to act in the chûnin exams arc and frees her to teach Sakura to be a kunoichi in practice, since Sakura is a bookworm but not so much of a kunoichi.
The chûnin exams will be a roller coaster of the most powerful genin of each participating village that should have been promoted on the field or several months/years ago like the Suna siblings in canon. I'll recycle some fanfiction ideas from here and there, I like the idea of Kenchi618 for the first exam in Better Left Unsaid, I'll try to twist it enough to make it my own without plagiarizing his work. The second exam will be a wild ride and the third exam will be a fighting one.
If you want to share ideas for original 2nd/3rd exams, please use the comments section. I will probably quickly make the 2nd chapter for the training and first exam, that will be shorter than this one, so you have a few days/a week to suggest ideas for the second exam and a few more for the finals.