Author's Note: Just uploading this with the first chapter kthxbai.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
The Champion of Clan Namikaze
Chapter 2: Minato's Legacy
Namikaze Clan Building (Naruto's Home), Konoha
After sitting for a while to pull himself together Naruto got up and walked over to the wardrobe. He looked through the clothing only to find that not only was everything too big for him but everything was starting to get holes in it. Looks like I'll have to go and buy some clothes. There was a chest in the wardrobe that contained a number of scrolls. Maybe they contain some clothes, better yet, some money would be nice.
Upon unsealing one scroll he found it to contain a number of storage arrays each with a different number underneath. Naruto activated the one with 100 written on it and his jaw dropped. He'd never seen so much money in his life. Sitting in front of him, for his own use, was 100000 ryo. That wasn't even the half of it though. There were even larger numbers written on the array. He could only imagine how much money his father earned as an S ranked shinobi and the Hokage.
Guess he'd have no trouble going shopping now. Picking up 10000 ryo and sealing away the rest Naruto made his way downstairs. Standing on the doorstep of his new home Naruto created 200 clones.
"Alright guys listen up, we've got a lot of work to do today so here's the plan! I need 20 of you to go and sift through the books in the library, I need you to find out what useful information is hidden in those books got it! 10 of you should go through the scrolls in the armoury and take an inventory; I need to know exactly what I have. 40 of you go and find a pond, get to work on practicing water walking. Another 30 get to working on cleaning this house; I want 10 to a floor. Use the top half of your jumpsuits as rags if you have to. The rest of you get to work on weeding that training ground. When you finish go start tidying up around the place. Anyone who finishes their job before I get back goes and practices water walking. When you've water walked for 5 minutes straight without falling in you can dispel, got it everyone?"
"GOT IT!" his clones chorused back to him and they ran off to do their respective duties. With that sorted Naruto began making his way into the shopping district of town. He had money, now all he needed was a shop that wouldn't kick him out on sight.
There were all sorts of shops open at this time of the day, flower shops, clothing shops, weapons shops, shops that sold all sorts of bits and pieces. He didn't know which one he'd try first. All he knew was that whatever he did, at the end of the day, ramen was on the menu.
The first shop that he knew sold ninja gear he had no luck with. He hadn't taken more than two steps when the owner shouted at him to leave, calling him a nuisance. I'll show him who's a nuisance Naruto thought to himself as he walked down the street to another shop. The banner over the top of the door read 'Mikoto Shinobi Supplies'. Well this looks like as good a place as any I guess Naruto thought, hoping this time to not get kicked out straight away.
The man standing behind the counter was of an average height and build with brown hair that was beginning to grey, and friendly brown eyes. He was wearing a black coat over what looked to be a smith's apron and a plain brown jumpsuit. The man knew who the small boy was that walked through the front door. Everyone in the village did. But there was something different about him today, he was carrying himself with much more confidence than usual, real confidence, not the false confidence everybody was so used to. He knew he'd get no trouble from the kid who was no stranger to being treated badly.
"Hey kid, what can I do for you today?" Hideki asked, before the boy could get too lost in his shop.
"Well I was looking to get some clothes actually. I think I have most of the other supplies I need for now, but I'm in sorry need of a new wardrobe, I can't keep wearing this orange jumpsuit if I want people to take me seriously can I?"
At that they both chuckled.
"No you can't, and I'm sure I can set you up with a new wardrobe, now come with me, and we'll get you fitted."
Wow! He didn't kick me out straight away, this is great!
"My name is Hideki Mikoto, what's yours?" he asked out of politeness.
"Well my name is Naruto Uzumaki, this is a nice shop you have, do you make all the tools and weapons?" Naruto said, making sure not to reveal who his father was just yet. He'd also noticed the man had a blacksmiths apron on with tools hanging out.
"Hahaha, well spotted. Yes most of these tools I make myself, some of the more expensive and hard to get items I've found or imported."
"Cool!" Naruto said smiling at the friendly shopkeep, "I'll be sure to stop by whenever I need some more supplies then."
"Hahahaha you do that kid."
At least someone is friendly around here.
By the time they had finished shopping Naruto had a brand new kit. Instead of his blue sandals he now wore black boots that came up to just below the top of his shins. Replacing his orange jumpsuit he wore a pair of black cargo pants with a number of pockets running down the sides, a mesh undershirt and a long sleeved dark blue top. As he was fiddling with his hitai he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Walking over to it he found an overcoat that had a number of pockets in it. It was the same style as the one he'd seen his father wearing in the photo, with short sleeves and only coming down to just past his knees. Instead of being white with flames however this one was a dark red, almost the colour of his mother's hair from what the picture had shown. He picked it up and walked everything back over to the counter with Hideki. Not only did he buy that outfit but he made sure to buy some extras so he didn't have to don his jumpsuit again. As much as he loved it, he had to admit it wasn't practical.
He asked Hideki for some spare blue cloth, attaching it to his hitai as he tied it around his waist, closing the overcoat. He let his goggles hang around his neck. He had decided to keep them because they were incredibly practical, a shinobi couldn't fight if he had dust or gas in his eyes.
"This is a lot of stuff Naruto," Hideki said as he counted through all the items of clothing, "Are you sure you have enough money kid. I can give you a slight discount but I'm not sure if it'll be enough."
"Hahahaha how much will it be Hideki-san?" Naruto asked politely, reaching into one of the pockets of his new outfit.
"With all these spare clothes and that coat it comes to 6000 ryo."
"Well it was only to be expected, I did kind of buy a lot of high quality clothing, here you go," Naruto said with a smile as he handed over the money and snatched up all the clothes.
Hideki was surprised that the kid was willing to hand over that much cash so easily.
"Wait, Naruto, take this, it'll save you carrying everything." Hideki said as he handed Naruto a storage scroll, watching as the young man sealed in his new haul.
"Arigato Hideki-san." Naruto said as he waved over his shoulder at the kind shopkeeper as he left.
"Who was that chichi?" A pretty girl with black hair in buns, and beautiful brown, almost black eyes asked from the back door of the shop.
"That was Uzumaki Naruto Tenten, it looks like he's finally getting his act together." Hideki added under his breath with a smile.
"From the looks of it he just graduated, you guys might end up training together sometime. Next time he comes in say hello." Hideki said cheerfully.
"Yeah, maybe," Tenten replied before turning and heading back into the workshop.
xXx
Naruto felt like a new man strolling through the street. Even the people hardly recognised him. His orange jumpsuit that was once his main identifier now gone, the only thing people had to go by was the blonde hair, the whisker marks and the massive grin. He felt confident, like he could do anything. And that's exactly what he was going to do. They had been told that in a month they would be sorted into genin teams, so Naruto had a month to prepare. A month, in which with his clone technique he'd be able to make up any lost ground and then some. He was going to be Hokage, and with his drive, and the teachings of Jiraiya he was sure he would make it.
He quickly stopped by a grocers to pick up some food, storing them in the scroll so he didn't have to carry anything, and headed out to get some food.
He was sitting at Ichiraku Ramen downing his favourite meal, after having been complimented by Ayame on his new attire, when memories started flooding back to him. Memories of clones standing for 5 minutes on the surface of a pond, memories of the sheer number and variety of shinobi weapons he now had available, and the amount of knowledge stored in his father's study. There were handwritten scrolls on sealing, covered in notes and diagrams, no doubt written by one of his parents. There were technique scrolls that his father must have collected over time. The whole place was a treasure trove of information.
He quickly finished his ramen, paid, and thanked Teuchi and Ayame for the delicious meal. Heading home to begin diving through what his parents had left him he began sprinting through the streets as fast as he could. On the way back he stopped by his old place to pick up any spare clothes that he might need, like pyjamas, and a few cups of his instant ramen.
Getting back to his new place, he stopped, looking up at his home. In the few hours that we was gone his clones had really gotten to work. The forest was still overgrown, but that would provide a challenge. The training field had been weeded and they'd even fixed up some of the training dummies as best they could. The outside of the house was now clean again, and all the cobwebs were nowhere to be found. There were no more clones over at the pond, all of them having dispelled themselves after 5 minutes of standing on the water. He went inside and was amazed at the transformation.
Kami I'm good, he thought to himself, well my clones are anyway.
The place was now spotless. He went into the kitchen and packed all his groceries away before heading upstairs to the library. A number of his clones were still sifting through the sheer number of scrolls and books that were in the room.
"Here boss, we found this really interesting scroll," one of his clones said to him as he passed him an unlocked scroll, "It had that strange chakra seal on it so we thought it was important."
After having seen the scroll of forbidden techniques Naruto knew what a technique scroll was when he saw one.
This looked like the initial design though. Maybe it was one that his father had invented?
Naruto looked to the top of the scroll and saw the words 'Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique'.
Hmmmm I wonder what it does.
He didn't have any information from his clones yet, because he gave them the task of sorting what scrolls and books were what. They hadn't actually read too much into them. But as he scanned down the scroll, looking over the scratchings and brushstokes that littered the page his eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.
"No way," he said under his breath, "No freaking way, a space-time ninjutsu."
Detailed on the scroll in front of him were the design steps, and workings, described in intricate detail, of a teleportation jutsu. It looked incredibly complicated, but he needed to try and learn it. He had to work it out, and with the help of his clones, he would. The technique spoke of using seals as markers for the technique, and that the user could teleport to any seal at will, once they knew how to control the technique.
I guess that'd be the hard part, not over shooting the marker and ending trapped inside an object.
The seals could be on anything. There was even a section detailing how to attach a seal to an opponent mid combat. It also detailed that special Hiraishin Kunai could also be used. Boy was Naruto glad that his father wrote down everything when working. This was amazing, Naruto had in his hands the workings to an amazing jutsu, he doubted anyone else even knew about this scroll, else they would have tried to get their hands on it. Walking into the armory, Naruto could see a number of clones still sorting through the arsenal contained within the scrolls. He walked over to a funny looking pile of kunai.
So these must be those special kunai, I can see where the seal is.
Most of the kunai still had the seals written on them. He looked at the complex seal and whistled. He had no understanding of what any of it meant. If it weren't for the writings in the other room he wouldn't have even known what the kunai was used for. He had a lot of reading to catch up on. He guessed that with just this kunai and all the sealing readings, minus the scroll his father had written, it still would have taken him decades to understand and execute the jutsu. Man he really needed to read up on jutsu theory if he was going to become a master shinobi.
Thank kami you liked to write while working chichi.
Over the next week Naruto left a number of clones in his library reading up on everything they could about seals, sealing and the hiraishin jutsu. He also had a few others scouring for any scrolls on taijutsu technique and other ninjutsu. All the while Naruto was conditioning himself. Whenever he wasn't running laps around the compound or doing strength exercises he was brawling a number of his clones while standing on the water or fighting upside down under a tree branch. Every time he cleared a wave, another would come at him. While he was brawling one group, he had other groups spread out all over the compound all fighting in a free for all. There were always a number of clones set aside throwing shuriken, kunai and hiraishin kunai at the practice dummies.
When he started to see that his lap times of the compound weren't improving as fast as they used to he started to weigh himself down with rocks and did the run carrying a small boulder. Needless to say his times dropped. But they slowly came back up. With his incredible recovery times, nearly limitless chakra, and hundreds of clones he was progressing faster than he ever thought possible. He did make a note that carrying boulders was a pain and that he needed to work out how to put a weight seal on his coat.
xXx
On the final day before Jiraiya was set to return he decided to try his father's technique. He figured that he had enough of an understanding after poring over the scroll, and the scrolls on seals and sealing in the library that he could attempt the jutsu. By no means did he have a masterful understanding of the technique or sealing, but you had to run before you could walk right? He still had clones going through the library, he didn't think that'd stop until every last drop of knowledge had been obtained from the place, but today he was outside creating clones to attempt the technique.
He had ten clones all attempting to teleport to a separate kunai. He spent the entire day following the instructions on the scroll and it wasn't pretty. Naruto could already see the dangers of the technique, and that's why he was having clones perform it for practice. Many of them ended up teleporting into the ground, trees, some even ended up falling from the sky to their deaths. This technique required precise chakra control. Something that Naruto was still working on. As the sun began to set he wasn't at the point where he could teleport to a kunai yet. He was getting there, but the clones were still getting dispelled from failed attempts. He wouldn't try it himself until he knew for sure he could do it perfectly.
He was surprised his dad managed to work it out and then perform it. What if he'd died attempting it for the first time? His already massive respect for his father skyrocketed after attempting this technique, even with his understanding from the scroll and the numerous shadow clones he couldn't get it quite right. He also still wasn't sure how he was going to attach seals to enemies when in combat. The scroll mentioned something about creating flexible seals out of chakra that would stick to enemies, but Naruto still didn't have much of an idea of what to do.
He had so much more to learn, but for now he wanted to get down teleporting to a kunai. And so he trained into the night, generating clone after clone as they all made more refined attempts at teleporting to a kunai. It was just after midnight when he succeeded. First it was one clone in a wave that succeeded. The next had five. It wasn't long before every single wave of clones was succeeding.
It was time for the original to have a shot. He focused his chakra and intent on the kunai acting as a beacon to the location he wanted to teleport to and performed the necessary internal chakra manipulations detailed in the scroll. Next thing he realised he was standing right next to the kunai, the feeling of sickness his clones had experienced through his clones washed over him. He figured that he'd be used to the technique in no time and the sickening feeling would lessen to nothing over time. Another hour later and he was able to teleport to a moving kunai. Good I'm improving faster now. But there was something else he needed to get a handle on before he faced off against Jiraiya and earned himself that secret technique. He trained all through the night.
If Naruto could say so himself he'd had a rather productive week. The sun rose as he finished his training and he walked to the training ground where he would meet Jiraiya, a little sleep deprived but smiling and ready for the challenge.
xXx
Jiraiya found the kid at the training ground where he had revealed the identity of his parents, taking a nap under the tree they sat under the first time. Jiraiya walked over silently and went to kick Naruto awake, only to have the boy snap his eyes open and punch Jiraiya's foot into the ground.
"Oi that hurt you little shit," he said before smiling, "How'd you know I was coming?"
"Clones," he said as a number of clones all dropped from surrounding trees all at once. "Geez man you're losing your touch."
"Yeah righto kid, nice outfit by the way. The orange jumpsuit wasn't very shinobi like."
"What and yours isn't?"
"I'm allowed to be extravagant, shinobi know to run from Jiraiya of the Sannin."
"Haha okay, well how about you teach me that technique today."
"You haven't hit me yet kid."
"Well let's have another spar ero-sennin. Or are you afraid?"
"Bring it on brat," he said as he jumped back and into a defensive stance, "It's only been a week, what makes you think you can hit me now."
"Let's just say I've learnt a few new tricks," Naruto replied with a smirk.
Naruto sprung up from his position under the tree and threw three regular kunai at the Sannin, his accuracy greatly increased from last time, Jiraiya was forced to dodge them or deflect them with his own kunai. He deflected them. Good. Naruto created six clones that charged his god-father, three from either side.
The kid's faster but what makes him think he can win?
As he turned to fight the second batch of clones after abruptly dispatching the first he noticed three more kunai flying at him, he turned just in time to deal with them, but noticed something extremely strange as he dodged two and went to deflect a third with a kunai in his right hand.
That's a hiraishin kunai, how'd he get one of them? Does he even know what they are famou-OOOH SHIITTTTTT.
Naruto had materialised from just below the kunai at the moment Jiraiya went to deflect it and grabbed it with his left hand. In his right hand was a glowing ball of energy that Jiraiya knew all too well. Naruto was now inside his guard with Jiraiya's right hand up and crossed over his body from the act of deflection. Before Naruto could make any more ground against him Jiraiya lashed out with a weak right knee from an unstable stance to get himself some breathing room. The kid stumbled back at the hit, but recovered almost straight away as Jiraiya backpedalled while going through a quick series of hand seals.
How the hell did he manage to do that! It doesn't matter, all that matters is I now have to deal with him being able to teleport. And if I can't keep up I'm going to eat a rasengan. Kami Minato, your son is crazy!
"I'm coming for you ero-sennin," Naruto shouted confidently before creating another six clones.
Jiraiya stopped and slammed his palm onto the ground in response and a cloud of smoke enshrouded him. When the smoke cleared, all Naruto could do was stand there with eyes wide. Jiraiya was now standing atop a massive toad.
"What do you want Jiraiya," the grouchy toad asked.
"We need to show this kid who's boss Gamabunta."
"You need my help to fight a KID!" the toad laughed, "Man next time you call me for a joke at least have some sake ready for me, HAH!" and with that the toad disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"What! HEY! FOR KAMI'S SAKE," Jiraiya screamed as Naruto again charged him after that strange encounter with a massive toad. As Naruto and the clones were running they all threw a single hiraishin. Jiraiya flashed hand seals in response "Hari Jizō (Needle Jizo), Hari Jigoku (Needle Hell)" he shouted, completing his jutsu and showering all of the clones and the original with deadly senbon created from his hair defence. Before Naruto took any damage from the flying needles, all of which stopped his kunai in their tracks, he threw a kunai out to the side teleporting to it and catching it as it flew, saving him from the deadly barrage. This time Jiraiya was on the offensive. He charged Naruto with incredible speed, but before his attack could hit Naruto was already gone, teleporting to the one kunai that remained on the ground from the previous attack, the others having been dispelled after his clones popped out of existence.
Picking up the kunai he teleported to he threw it at Jiraiya as he turned to resume his attack. Jiraiya tried to deflect it, this time wary of where Naruto might appear. A kunai flew out of a bush, thrown by a clone Naruto had planted earlier, right at Jiraiya's blindspot. While Naruto forward and threw another kunai from a different angle.
Jiraiya turned, just managing to deflect the kunai thrown from the bush his right hand, while also deflecting the other two with his left hand. But it was enough.
Naruto had three kunai now flying past Jiraiya in three different directions. He teleported to the first and got right up in Jiraiya's face as Jiraiya made to counter, only to teleport to the third as it made its way past Jiraiya's side. Naruto's rasengan collided solidly with the side of Jiraiya's head after the encounter that lasted less than a minute; until Jiraiya burst into a puff of smoke.
"Well done kid, I never would have expected you to take out my clone, even if he was slightly handicapped." Jiraiya said walking out from the tree line, making sure not to praise the kid too much for what were amazing feats for any shinobi.
"So I hit your clone, does that mean you'll teach me a new technique?" Naruto asked after the rather exciting fight.
I managed to hit him! Even if it was a clone! Man this is what happens when you train. Everyone in my grade is going to be so jealous of my cool techniques.
Jiraiya could see the cogs ticking behind the kid's blue eyes, "Don't let these new techniques go to your head okay? Arrogance will get you killed. Never ever underestimate an enemy."
I learnt that the hard way today sheesh, but who would have thought he'd have learnt both of Minato's techniques in a WEEK!
"If you managed to hit my clone I was going to teach you the rasengan, but apparently you've already learnt that. How did you learn those techniques anyway? They were your father's bread and butter, he invented them himself."
"After you left, Ojii-san took me to my parent's house. He told me no one had been inside, because they couldn't get in or something. I guess it has to do with me being a blood relative that I could unlock the seals and get in. Inside there were a bunch of scrolls and stuff, and I've been reading my dad's library. Two of the scrolls contained those moves. Not like official scrolls or anything but it made it easier to learn because my dad had all these notes from when he was designing them, so I learnt them too. I still haven't mastered them yet. All I know how to do is teleport to a kunai, and my rasengan could use a bit of work to get it at full power."
But still, the fact that without anything but your father's notes you were able to execute those moves. It's amazing. I can't tell the kid that though, it'd go to his head.
"Instead of teaching you the rasengan I'm going to sign you up with a summoning contract okay?"
"You mean so I can summon toads?"
"Yup," Jiraiya replied with a small nod as he summoned the huge contract scroll and unrolled it, "sign here."
"How? I don't have anything to sign it with?"
"You sign it," Jiraiya said pausing and leaning in with an evil smile, "in bloooooddd."
"Gah!"
"HAHAHAHA," Jiraiya couldn't help but laugh at the kid's reaction, "Kid I'm only joking, but just prick your finger and sign your name, then put down each of your fingerprints."
"Okay," Naruto said, following the instructions of his sensei/god-father.
"Now you have a contract with the toads. By performing these seals then slamming the ground," Jiraiya said showing Naruto the correct seals, "and channelling enough chakra you can summon a toad."
"Cool! Will I be able to summon that big Gamabunta guy?"
"Maybe, you might want to make friends with the smaller guy's first, Gamabunta can be pretty grouchy."
"Yeah I noticed."
"Anyway Naruto, I'll see you later, I might swing by your place if your home, but I need to go talk to the Hokage."
"Got it, see you around!" Naruto said as he went and picked up any Hiraishin kunai that were lying around the battlefield and teleported home.
xXx
"You should have seen him Sarutobi, for a second I thought it was Minato back from the dead," Jiraiya said to the wizened Hokage.
"Don't worry Jiraiya, I was watching, I couldn't believe my eyes either. I take it he found more than just some dusty old books in that house. For all our safety including the boy's I need you to go over there later and tell him to seal those scrolls away or hide them whenever he isn't using them. If they somehow manage to get into the wrong hands the safety of the village will never be secure."
"I understand. Man I never thought the kid would progress this fast. It's crazy. His father's intellect, with all that chakra, and such a drive to succeed, the speed at which he's going to move up the ranks if he continues at this rate will be phenomenal. Have you given any thought as to what team he'll be on?"
"I figure it's only fair that the student teaches the son don't you think? It's almost poetic."
"You're right, that and Kakashi will shit a brick when he sees Naruto use that technique, oh kami I want to be there to see the look on his face!"
"Hahaha calm down Jiraiya, anyway the selections aren't for a while. The genin themselves don't find out for another three weeks. But yes I believe Kakashi will be in for quite the surprise."
"Yes he will. I wonder what the brat manages to come up with in the next few weeks. Anyway I'll see you later sensei," Jiraiya said to his old teacher and friend as he jumped out the window of his office.
"The boy's already making waves. And to think all he needed was a little push in the right direction from his god-father. Before we know it he'll have made a name for himself," Hiruzen muttered to himself as he looked out over the village and the sun began to set.
xXx
"Hey kid open up!" Jiraiya stood knocking on the front door of the Namikaze compound's one and only building.
"Oh hey ero-sennin! I'm coming," Naruto yelled back from what sounded like the second floor.
Within a second the door was opening.
"Don't tell me you just teleported to the front door? You're using such a high level technique for that?" If he was to be honest with himself, if he could do that he probably would too, but the kid didn't need to know that.
"Why not? Gets me more practice, that and it's so cool! Anyway come in," Jiraiya followed him inside and sat down in the living room.
"About the Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying thunder god technique), whatever scroll you used to learn it you have to hide, or lock away in whatever you can. Don't let anyone know that you have it. Same goes for the rasengan. They are both extremely powerful techniques and if they fell into the wrong hands it would put everyone in danger, got it?"
"Yeah, I figured as much, whenever I'm not using them I keep the scrolls locked, and then locked in a chest. And by locked I mean locked with a special barrier seal my dad put on a few things in the house. He even put it on the house. It's pretty cool. I was reading up on some notes about it. Apparently it only opens for the chakra of the creator, or anyone the creator of the jutsu adds into the seal. Did you ever try to get in ero-sennin? I think you would have been allowed in. I don't think ojii-san wanted to come in either. You guys are the only two people I can think of that my dad would have added to the list. I figure I could get in because of the similarities between my chakra and my parents'. But I'm only guessing here."
"Hah that sounds like a seal your dad would come up with. Would explain why this place hasn't been touched in so long."
"Yeah the best part is I can reseal it by channelling chakra into the seal again. The ultimate lock, it's pretty ingenious. I think the scrolls are pretty safe, but I'll take extra good care of them just to be sure."
"Okay good kid, anyway I just wanted to stop by and say hello, let you know what the go with those scrolls were, not sure when I'll see you next kid, I have to head out of town again but I'll visit when I get back."
"And when you do I'll land a punch on the real you," Naruto said, determined to show Jiraiya that he meant business.
"Hahaha in your dreams brat, maybe a couple of years down the line. Not anytime soon though."
xXx
Over the next few weeks Naruto spent his time training. Every minute of every day, was devoted to furthering himself in the ninja arts.
He focused on absolutely everything, from improved taijutsu, to the subtle arts of the shinobi, even mind games and strategy, courtesy of his next to unlimited chakra and his ability to make clones.
He worked on chakra control and ninjutsu, even fuuinjutsu, to help better understand seals and the Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique).
Naruto also found documentation of some ninjutsu his mother used and went to work on replicating those. All the while his clones were learning, and practicing techniques, styles, and caricatures, the original Naruto was training physically. It did him no good if he could launch a kunai accurately and teleport to it if he didn't have the speed and power to do anything about it once he was in range.
While studying fuuinjutsu he soon came to grasping the basics and began creating simple explosive tags with special paper he purchased from Mikoto's shop. It wasn't long after that that he finally worked out how to apply a weight seal to a piece of clothing.
He managed to design a simple seal using his knowledge that would add 10kg to a piece of clothing. By channelling chakra into the seal he could turn off the weight in case he needed to fight or train unhindered. Channelling chakra into the seal would resume the weight. After he worked the kinks out of this he quickly went and bought arm guards, which he applied a seal each to. He also applied three seals to the back of his coat in a triangular pattern.
About a week before it was time to be assigned a team all of Naruto's training was going well, and he was walking home from Mikoto's for a change. He had been shopping at Mikoto's for a bladed weapon that he might specialise in. He couldn't rely on just kunai and hiraishin kunai if he came up against a real swordsman, so he went shopping for a more adequate blade.
He left the shop with a katana like blade that was 40 cm in length. One might even call it an oversized tanto. It was small enough that he could wear it sideways on his lower back, drawing it without issue, but large enough that he could do some serious damage up close, if he was to be precise. After just turning the corner of the street in which the shop was located he heard someone calling his name.
"Naruto! Wait up!" A girl with pretty brown, almost black eyes and her hair in buns called out as she ran up to stop in front of him, "Have you ever used one of those before?"
"Ummm, no? But it shouldn't be too hard right? Who are you anyway?"
"Oh I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself," she said, " I'm Tenten Mikoto and I'm sure you'll be a natural, but I was wondering if you maybe wanted to train a bit? I've got the day off from training with my team, and it's always better to train with someone else." Naruto's training method could attest to that statement any day of the week.
"Sure! I don't really train with anybody but myself usually, it'd be nice to have some company. You can show me how to use this thing. Come on we can train at my place."
They trained for the rest of the day, Tenten going over the basics of using a bladed weapon the likes of which Naruto had purchased. She was glad he was a natural learner; there wasn't much she had to repeat. She never asked much about his parent's and he never saw reason to tell, they just trained away in the Namikaze compound grounds.
"So do you want to spar?" Naruto asked as the day came to a close.
"Hahaha you're a fast learner Naruto but you're fresh out of the academy. I've been a genin for a while, maybe when you get better." She replied, now Naruto was the one to laugh.
"Hahahaha you've been teaching me technique with a new weapon all day. You haven't seen anything from me that would indicate how well I could fight yet," He said as he dashed up to stand in front of her, showing remarkable speed for his age.
"Wow, well I will say you're quick for your age, but if that's it you've got another thing coming." She said with a smile as she slipped into a ready fighting stance.
"Oh I haven't even gotten started yet sister." He said disabling his weight seals and disappearing in a blur.
She lost sight of him as he disappeared into the woods.
"How about I take it easy on you. I'll only use one ninjutsu, how's that?" His voice echoed from the woodland eerily, sending shivers down Tenten's spine, just who was this kid?
"Your funeral Naruto!" Tenten said as she unfurled a massive scroll and launched from it a large number of kunai and shuriken towards the treeline.
"Close, but no cigar!"
"Grrrr, come out and fight," Tenten yelled at the evasive shinobi.
"If that's really what you want, then remember that you asked for it!"
With that 50 Narutos came sprinting down out of the trees across the training grounds at Tenten, all of them brandishing the tanto in their right hands and a regular kunai in the left.
Tenten's eyes went wide at the sheer number of clones a graduate created, and the speed at which they were moving across the field; she had trouble keeping up with them all. Quickly surrounding herself with another scroll, she released a large number of projectiles to hang in the air and expertly threw them at each of the charging clones.
Within seconds of the last clone being taken down a wave of kunai were launched at her from the treeline while another wave of clones charged at her. Dodging each of the kunai she proceeded to take down the clones, showing great skill and accuracy with throwing bladed weapons.
When the last clone was finally dispelled she could heard a hissing noise. The handles of some of the kunai were wrapped in an explosive tag. Her eyes widened in shock. Who was this kid and how did he expect her to be able to survive this! Not every kunai was explosive, but there were still a large number scattered around the ground, and she was standing in the middle of them.
There was no way she could make it to the edge of the field, but she'd be damned if she didn't try to get as far away from the centre as possible. She ran, her legs pumping, trying her hardest to get herself to safety.
She heard the explosion, but for some strange reason she didn't feel the heat of the blast, or the pain that she was expecting. Instead she found herself sitting on a couch inside a rather comfortable and well-lit living room.
"Well that was fun," Naruto said with a grin on his face as he got up and walked into the kitchen, "Do you want something to eat or drink?"
"YOU NEARLY KILLED ME, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" She cried in outrage.
"What I was thinking, was that you would be perfectly fine. As you can see I had the situation under control."
"Yeah HOW? I thought I was a goner!"
"Well I waited to see if you had a counter to my explosive plan of attack, and when you turned and ran I assumed that you didn't. When I knew you wouldn't make it out by yourself I rescued you."
"But how did you move so fast? How did you save me?"
"That is something that I'll let you ponder on. A magician never reveals his tricks. I will say I used a jutsu, so technically I used two jutsu that fight, but considering I only used one to save you from my own attack it was only fair. Now would you like anything?"
Over the following week, Tenten would come around to train and have light sparring sessions with Naruto whenever she got time away from the shop and her team.
As cryptic as he had been about rescuing her from his rather excessive attack he was a nice guy, talented as far as any shinobi their age went and he didn't look half bad in that outfit of his. She thought his whisker marks were pretty cute too.
Naruto made sure not to use the Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique) around Tenten just to vex her and keep her wondering exactly what it was that he did to get her out of the explosive situation.
Before long it was time for team assignment. Naruto got dressed in his usual, weight seals and all. Since his first encounter with Tenten he'd upped the weights by another 10 kilograms so he was now carrying an extra 60 kilograms of weight. He'd rearranged the distribution though. Naruto was now carrying 10 kilograms on each limb, one on his chest, and one on his back in the middle of his coat. Not only did he now look more intimidating, he thought, but the weight was well distributed across his body.
From the looks of it he'd beaten half the graduates as he sat down in an empty seat in the half empty room. Looking around he could see Akamichi Chouji snacking on a bag of chips, Ino Yamanaka who was looking around anxiously, no doubt waiting for the infamous Uchiha Sasuke. He could also see Inuzuka Kiba with his ninken Akamaru and Nara Shikamaru feigning sleep. Hyuuga Hinata was sitting meekly in the corner and it was not lost on him that she was flashing looks at him whenever she thought he wasn't paying attention. That was about it at the time. Some of the others were chucking glances at him, obviously because of his new look, and because he'd grown.
Courtesy of being able to afford food other than instant ramen, don't get him wrong though, he still loved the stuff. It's just that Naruto did understand the importance of nutrition and there were even a few cookbooks in the pantry, so Naruto had improved his diet, resulting in a surprising growth spurt, along with a significant amount of muscle definition for his age. That'd be the non-stop training and conditioning he was putting himself through, not that they could see his muscles through his shirt, well maybe the Hyuuga could, he noted.
Naruto sat in quiet, analysing each and every one of them as they waited, and it seemed that Shikamaru was the only one that noticed, giving a slight nod as Naruto's eyes passed across him.
It wasn't long before the classroom began to fill up and the Jounins strolled in. There was the usual fight between Sakura and Ino about who was going sit next to Sasuke until one of the Jounins stepped up and told everyone to sit down and shut up. His command was obliged almost instantaneously.
Each of the respective Jounin stepped up to announce their teams.
"Team 7 is Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Uzumaki Naruto," a tall man with spiky white hair, a face mask and a hitai covering his left eye said, "Meet me on top of the academy in an hour," And with that he strolled out of the room.
Sakura's reaction was initially glee at having been put with Sasuke. But that lasted all of 2 seconds before she found out that her other partner was Naruto. She needn't be worried though. Over the past month training, the time spent talking with Jiraiya whenever he was around and the past week spent with Tenten, Sakura had no need to worry about Naruto harassing her with date requests. When he originally told Jiraiya about his problem with his crush the man laughed.
"Naruto, maybe she'll change her tune down the line, but if she's so interested in this Sasuke guy you are telling me about that she won't pay attention at all to how you feel then leave her. Focus on your training, focus on your path to greatness. She'll wake up and notice what she is missing out on, or she won't. But don't let it consume you, and don't let it get you down."
Naruto had come to terms with this and even though it still hurt a little bit he was right to let it go. He enjoyed his time with Tenten more anyway and she was just his training partner. At least she talked to him.
The remaining teams to be assigned were Team 8 and Team 9 and Team 10. Team 8 consisted of Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba and his dog Akamaru; they were led by Kurenai Yuhi. Team 10 was led by the son of the Hokage, Sarutobi Asuma, and consisted of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, a combination Naruto had read about over the past month. The legendary combination their three clans had come up with was mentioned a lot in Konoha history.
After Asuma had left the room they all sat not knowing what to do. They all had an hour before they had to meet their respective jounin sensei and it was around lunchtime.
"Well I don't know about you guys, but I'm hungry, who's keen for some ramen?" Naruto said as he stood up and stretched, having been sitting there for a while.
The obvious few were against hanging out with the dead-last of the class, namely Sasuke, Sakura, and Ino. But when Chouji and Shikamaru both agreed to join up for lunch a few more people got up to leave with the group, Hinata included. As they were leaving Shikamaru turned to Naruto.
"So what changed all of a sudden? It's only been a month and you've changed your look, but I can tell you've changed more than that."
"Let's just say I found out a few things, and I got a lot more serious about being a shinobi. I'm that much closer to becoming Hokage now, dattebayo!"
"There were go, same old Naruto," Chouji said as they all laughed and left for lunch.
xXx
An hour later Naruto arrived on the rooftop to find Sakura and Sasuke sitting there in silence. Sakura kept casting nervous glances at Sasuke. Neither of them noticed that he was there until he sat down between the two but before Sakura could protest Kakashi arrived in a swirl of leaves.
Nice intimidation trick sensei.
"So I guess you three are going to my squad from now on huh? Well how about we introduce ourselves, maybe shares some likes, dislikes, hobbies."
"Okay well how about you go first then Kakashi-sensei," Sakura piped in.
"Okay. I am Hatake Kakashi. I have no intentions of telling you my likes and dislikes. As for my dream... " He drifted off before snapping back to his students, "I have few hobbies."
All three genin face-faulted at how uninformative the introduction was.
"Your turn Sakura-san."
"Well I like," she said as she turned to look at Sasuke, "I dislike, Naruto-baka. My dreams are," she continued to stare at Sasuke, and then giggled when she said, "and my hobby is."
Oh Great all three men thought, mentally face-palming.
Sasuke went through his likes, dislikes, and explained his dream of getting revenge on someone who he claimed had ruined his life, to which only Naruto seemed to notice the worried crease appear on Kakashi's face, then it was his turn.
"My name is Namikaze Naruto, I like – ,"
"But your name is Uzumaki Naruto baka! Geez how are we going to survive when you can't even get your name right," Sakura interrupted, chest puffed out proudly to know she'd gotten another one up on the dead last.
"Actually Sakura that was my mother's last name, I recently learned that my father's surname was Namikaze."
"But I've only ever heard of one Namikaze living in Konoha silly, and that was the Yondaime Hokage…" She drifted off as the two academy graduates stared at Naruto dumbfounded.
"Yep the Yondaime was my dad."
"So the old man finally told you then," Kakashi said with an eye-smile, "it was about time, it's good to have you on the team Naruto."
Before he could get cut off again Naruto quickly continued, "Anyway, my likes are Ramen, and learning new techniques. My dislikes are people who assume they are better than others, and my dream is to become Hokage and make my parents proud. My hobbies include, fuuinjutsu, training, reading and cooking. Oh and can you not tell anyone who my dad was, I wanted you guys to know because you're my team, but I don't want heaps of other people to know yet,"
Kakashi nodded, "Yes that is wise, I hope you heed these words," the jounin said to the other two graduates."
Before Kakashi could speak up about what they were to do next Sasuke spoke up, "How can a dobe like you be the Yondaime's son? You were useless in the academy, what makes you think you can do better out here?"
"Sasuke, a lot can change in a month, and there were circumstances when I was at the academy that shall we say limited my potential, but I believe our sensei was trying to talk."
"Hmph, whatever."
"Yes, what I was going to say was that tomorrow morning at 8:00 am I want you to meet me at Training ground 21 for your final examination before becoming permanent genin in this squad. And don't eat breakfast beforehand."
"What!" Sakura exclaimed, "I thought we'd already passed and graduated, wasn't that what the academy was for?"
I don't see how this team is going to pass the bell test, and to think that I might have had the chance to train the son of my sensei.
"Yes, but you still need to pass this final test if you want to be shinobi of Konoha." He said before disappearing in a whirl of leaves.