"Blah": Talking
'Blah': Demon speaking/Inner Sakura
'Blah': Naruto's thoughts/other people's thoughts
'Blah': Harry talking to Naruto
Welcome back friends and readers! We have another new chapter and we're another step closer to the end of this book!
I checked out the list and I am now more than half-way done with the Chunin Exams to finish. It sure does feel awesome to get this book done, and at the rate I'm going, I'll be posting Book 4 this summer. I can't think of much to talk about before we start the chapter, other than the arrival of the occasional member of the introduction/outro cast, and the fact that Naruto is about to experience a level of hurt a lot of us haven't experience since middle school.
Naruto: Wait… What?!
Azeroth44: He's talking about dodgeball.
Naruto: What the hell is dodgeball?!
AZ44: (evil smile) You're about to find out.
Naruto: I don't want to find out! Get me out of here!
K: Too late!
Remember: Reviews are welcome and REALLY wanted!
Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto
Harry Potter is property of JK Rowling
Chapter 16: Intensive Training
The morning that followed was the bitterest Iruka and Naruto could ever recall since the two of them moved in together. The blonde-haired rookie stretched out his muscles, refreshed and well-rested thanks to a little charm that he knocked himself out with so that he wouldn't be haunted with dreams about Gamakichi. Naruto collected his hoodie and his trousers and marched to the bathroom, but froze when he saw Iruka. The chunin leaned on the wall next to the bathroom, dressed in his uniform, his arms crossed, and a frown on his face. Naruto almost moaned: when he returned home from the Ninja Academy, Iruka and Naruto half-shouted at each for an hour over the matter of the wild toad locked in their house.
Naruto had locked Gamakichi in the unfinished bedroom, terrified of him and his violent demand for snacks and delicious human treats. The toad had broken out of the room several times and went on a rampage all over the house while he croaked, like some kind of delightful laughter. Gamakichi broke countless valuables, coated Naruto's leather photo album and his most valuable books with slime, all in his search to find treats and to annoy Naruto as much as he could. Iruka almost went insane when he returned home and Gamakichi attached himself to his face the moment he entered through the door. After he threw the toad across the room, and checked his face for warts, Iruka scolded Naruto for his lack of control over his animal summon. Iruka was so furious at the condition of his house that he overlooked the fact that Naruto learned a new jutsu. Gamakichi finished the last of the cookies in their kitchen when Naruto stunned the rambunctious amphibian. He then locked him in his sock drawer, and cleaned the damage he'd done, which led to one of the few times Naruto and Iruka ever argued with each other.
Naruto tried to avoid another argument about the toad when he said, "Mornin…" as if he didn't have a care in the world.
"I don't want him here," the chunin stated.
The blonde rookie then moaned, "Neither do I, but I can't send Gamakichi home! I don't know how to send him back! He should have returned to his kin like all the other toads I summoned, but he won't leave me alone! He is so mean!"
"Take him to the old apartment, then, if he's so bad," the tan-skinned man half-shouted, "But don't leave him here with the rest of our stuff! He broke out of the room a few times last night and almost short-circuited the television with his slime-oil-or whatever the hell he shot me with! I want him outta here before we both start to break out in warts! We don't know where that toad's been!"
Naruto frowned but then he said with reluctance to deal with the amphibian or return to the apartment when it wasn't at night, at a time when the landlord wouldn't be conscious, "Fine… But I'll have to return there a few times to check on him until he leaves."
"It'll be fine. Send a shadow clone to take him there," Iruka nodded, "Besides, I bet the landlord will be too drunk to even notice him. It's not like Gamakichi will be harmed."
The blonde-haired rookie marched into the bathroom for his shower and said, "Let me sort out his breakfast and then we can leave."
A few minutes later, Naruto entered his future bedroom, sickened at the slime on the doorknob from Gamakichi's countless breakouts and wild raids across their home. The blonde rookie entered with a warm bowl in his hands, unsure what toads ate, other than flies. Naruto unlocked his sock drawer with his wand and found Gamakichi, rested on a wet cluster of unused socks. A few moments later, the toad awakened and sneered at Naruto.
"Where's breakfast?!" he demanded with an excited smirk on his wide face, "I need to have something to eat here! Tummies a rumblin'!"
Naruto shivered at the toad as he talked like an obnoxious little kid, and let him clamber onto his desk where Naruto offered him the warm bowl, "Here we are."
Inside the bowl was a rather delectable meal; it was oatmeal but there all sorts of additions made to it that shined with sugar and oozed with a melted butter-like substance. Gamakichi didn't seem interested and looked at Naruto with his little fat and wide toad head tilted.
"What's this?" he asked.
Naruto answered and at least tried to be friendlier to his familiar to form a real bond with him and the other toads, "It's called cinnamon butter oatmeal. It looked delicious on the box. I tried some and it doesn't taste bad at all. So, tuck in while it's hot!"
Naruto smiled at his summon, his hands rested on his waist, like Iruka did. But then the toad tasted the oatmeal, raised the bowl in his webbed hands, and then threw the bowl at Naruto's face. Warm oatmeal ran down Naruto's face as his smile vanished beneath a dull frown. Naruto blinked, his face turned red, and steam sizzled out from his hair and ears.
"I don't want this! Make me a real breakfast! Let's have some cookies! Bitches love cookies!" the toad announced with an enthusiastic voice.
The blonde rookie would have loved to slam his fist down on the toad and killed the little brat dead, but he resisted. Naruto instead cleaned the hot oatmeal off his face and formed the seal with his hands and said, "That does it: Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
With a blast of white smoke, a shadow clone arrived and Naruto tossed the toad in its arms without hesitation.
Naruto ordered his clone, "Take him to the apartment and read to him."
"Got it," the clone smirked and held Gamakichi still in his arms.
The blonde shinobi made another shadow clone and ordered it, "Ero-Sennin will be at the waterfall. Train hard and kick his butt for me."
"Will do!" the clone saluted to his master and left via the window.
The other shadow clone with Gamakichi followed after the first clone, while Gamakichi shouted at the clone as well as the real Naruto before the clone and the toad vanished, "Wait a minute! Hold on here! Since when to humans MULTIPLY?! HEY! I'M TALKIN' TO YOU! AND WHAT DID YOU MEAN 'READ TO HIM'?! I'M GETTING OUT OF HERE! DON'T MAKE ME READ, YOU NERD! NERD!"
As soon as the real Naruto was alone and free of his familiar's obnoxious voice, he moaned as he marched back to see Iruka and meet with Hayate, "Given a choice between an owl, a cat, or a toad… Screw the toad, I'll take the cat…"
At the same time, Sakura walked down one of the numerous market district streets in a rush to visit Yamanaka Florists. This was where Ino Yamanaka worked when her mother and father weren't around to run their small clan-run store themselves and when she wasn't with her team. Sakura entered the store, somewhat hesitant; she didn't want Ino to catch her here. The pink-haired kunoichi intended to find some flowers for Sasuke, unaware that he wasn't at the hospital anymore. She waltzed inside and checked a whole section dedicated to daisies and roses of all colors. Sakura was about to reach out to touch a few white roses, when she heard a familiar voice behind her.
"Is that little Sakura Haruno?" called out a woman's voice, "It is! Sakura-chan! Hello!"
Sakura froze and felt her insides start to churn. She hadn't heard that voice since the last time she and Ino were best friends, before Sasuke even came into their lives and ruined their friendship. But even after all that time, she still remembered the voice of Ino's mother.
She turned around and forced a nice little smile, "Hello, Mrs. Yamanaka."
Ino Yamanaka's mother was a beautiful woman, so beautiful that she could have been mistaken for a veela. She was tall, had silver blonde hair, and her skin was almost flawless. The woman resembled her daughter so well that it was remarkable. Ino did resemble her father somewhat, but she inherited most of her looks from her mother. Mrs. Yamanaka was a bit heavier than most women, however she wasn't fat at all. Mrs. Yamanaka must have been in her late thirties and as far as Sakura knew, she wasn't a kunoichi. Ino's mother was a clean-cut housewife most of the time. But she did know a lot about medicine and could have been a nurse, had she not fallen in love with her husband, Inoichi. But ever since Ino had become a kunoichi, she took lessons down at the clinic whenever she didn't run the store and had a whole mess of advanced medicine that she created from the extract of her clan's flowers.
(A/N: Yeah, I wanted to change Ino's mother's design in this universe. I never liked her design when it was revealed in the anime. She didn't seem to resemble her daughter that much. She looked like an unused Black Butler character, so I decided to make her more blonde like Ino, and make her look like a veela, to match the Harry Potter feel of this new universe)
Sakura smiled and waved at the much older woman. She felt a bit awkward; unsure if Ino ever told her mother that she and Sakura hadn't been friends for a while and had been at each other's throats over Sasuke's affections. Sakura remembered Mrs. Yamanaka was a talkative woman, and that Ino had inherited most of her bossiness and attitude from her. But most of the time, Ino's mother was kind and warm whenever she was around Ino's friends. And with that said, Sakura didn't know how the woman would react to the news that she and Ino were rivals now.
But then the woman reached out and embraced Sakura; as if she were a favored niece she hadn't seen in a while, "It's been such a long time since we've seen you, Sakura-chan! Where have you been hiding, sweetheart?"
The kunoichi blushed a bit and smiled, as it seemed Ino never told her mom about how she and Sakura treated each other since school. She soon broke free from the embrace and faced Mrs. Yamanaka.
"Well… You see…" she said, "Ino and I were…"
But before Sakura could even talk to Mrs. Yamanaka, another voice cried out, "Mom!"
Sakura tilted her head and looked over Mrs. Yamanaka's shoulder to see Ino herself walk in with a rush. For the first time in a while, Sakura was relieved to see Ino.
"I'm home! I'll watch over the store, water the flowers, and check the credit records. You have a class at the clinic now? You don't wanna be late!" the blonde-haired kunoichi reminded her mother.
Mrs. Yamanaka looked to the clock and almost had a heart attack, "Oh, goodness! I'm late! Excuse me! I have to leave now! Be sure to visit more often, Sakura-chan! Have fun, Ino!"
"Later, mom! I'll be here for dinner!" Ino waved as her mother stormed out of the store in a rush.
As soon as her mother left, Ino smirked as she watched Sakura move about the store, her face buried in flowers as if she could blend into them and turn invisible. While Sakura moved around the various rows of flowers, her face filled with color, as she was certain Ino knew the reason she was even here.
"You're here to find some flowers for Sasuke-kun, huh, Sakura?" snickered Ino.
Sakura blushed and contradicted Ino's accusation at once, "Of course not! I-I mean to… I don't need a reason to look for flowers, Ino! It's no one else's business but mine! I can do what I want!"
"Sure," the blonde kunoichi smile widened more and more, "Then what will it be this time? But I don't think Sasuke-kun likes daisies that much."
Sakura moved from the daisies, her face flushed with embarrassment and frustration as Ino read her best friend and rival like a book. She stormed to another selection of flowers, unsure which one to choose from as she heard Ino walk around the counter and stand next to her. Ino ditched her store uniform, dressed more like her normal self as she broke down the barrier between store owner and customer. If Sakura was here to choose flowers for their beloved Sasuke Uchiha, then she wanted to do the same.
"You won't be the first kunoichi to send our Prince Uchiha flowers to aid his ailments. I think I'll choose a rose for Sasuke-kun… For it stands for love and passion… With it, it sends a message of true love…"
Sakura smirked back at her and chose a flower of a different variation, "How common… You choose a rose, but I'll choose the daffodil… It's a flower that can survive in the cold of winter and reawaken in the warmth of spring… Its blossom stands for the inevitable fact that Sasuke-kun will soon revive and leave the hospital to train for the finals…"
Sakura let the flower tickle its smooth texture on her cheek, as she smelled the sweet scent that reminded her of Sasuke and the smell of the first flowers that bloomed after a harsh winter. She blushed as she dreamed about Sasuke, on a horseback, shirtless, and muscular. Meanwhile, Ino looked bitter and irritated at Sakura's lack of focus and her little lecture on the flower, that Ino wrote back when the two of them were little.
"What? You're the expert on flowers now? You learned all about flowers from me, Sakura," commented Ino.
Sakura turned to look at Ino and smirked, "I said it back in the arena, I won't lose Sasuke-kun's heart!"
Sakura leaned down and took another daffodil from one of the rows.
"I think I'll take two this time. How much?" asked the kunoichi.
Ino looked at her and asked back, "What? You're wanna show off to Sasuke-kun with two flowers?"
"No," she shook her head and answered, "The other one is for Rock Lee."
Ino's face took a sudden emotional shift at the mention of Lee. She looked crestfallen while Sakura seemed oblivious to what became of him. Sakura noticed the look on Ino's face and asked what was the matter. Ino then told Sakura the news; about what the doctors told Gai-sensei. Lee's condition after the match was so critical, that most of the doctors in Konoha didn't believe he would ever be a shinobi ever again. Sakura felt her heart sink in her chest. She didn't know Lee all that well, but she did seem to like him more and more than she did when she first met him; in the same manner she liked Naruto now than she ever did before. She felt terrible to hear about Lee, so she decided to visit Lee as soon as she left the store and Ino wanted to come too.
When the two kunoichi arrived at the clinic, both of them learned about Sasuke's departure. At first Sakura was a bit worried about her beloved teammate, but unlike Naruto, she took the news better than he did. She assumed Kakashi would show his masked face around later and ease her worries, like he did all the time, whenever he took a break from Sasuke and Naruto. After the news about Sasuke, the kunoichi asked about Lee and learned he was still on strict bed rest.
Ino and Sakura were both left to sit on the bench near the court and sulk over their collective disappointment. Ino fiddled around with her rose and frowned when she saw it started to welt. She tossed the flower in the bin behind her and mumbled in frustration.
"Where would Sasuke-kun run off to?" she asked.
Sakura couldn't hold back her worries as Orochimaru's voice echoed in her head. She wanted to think all was well in her controlled little world, that Kakashi had told her the truth when he said not to be worried. But she started to feel like he had lied to her the whole time to make her feel better and shut her out. Kakashi didn't tell her what she needed to know and his efforts to hide the facts made her all the more worried than she needed to be. She started to hate Kakashi a little bit, to think she didn't need to know the truth about Sasuke and Orochimaru's involvement in the exams. Sakura bit down on the collar of her outfit as she curled into a ball on the bench. But then she heard a loud noise behind her and Ino. Both Sakura and Ino whirled around and saw a nurse hover over a teen as he exercised out in the court. It was Rock lee, and a nurse screamed at him to hold back at once, before he broke his other arm.
"STOP IT! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" the nurse screamed.
She tried to reach out to Lee but he turned to her and demanded, "Please, leave me alone! Please!"
Sakura and Ino were astonished to see Lee on the floor of the court, doing pushups with his one available arm and used one of his feet to hold all his weight. He refused to back down or take assistance from the nurse as he counted to two hundred and three stretches. All the while, Lee's mind was clouded with the faces of his rival, Sasuke Uchiha, Gaara, and then his friend Naruto Uzumaki. His chest and stomach ached, not from the strenuous activities he forced onto himself, but from the ache and burn in his heart. Lee wanted to battle with the best rookies Konoha had to offer in front of the most influential audience in the world. But now his chance was over and he was left behind. He felt like a loser, and after he worked so hard to make it as far as he did. He did the best he could to beat Gaara and he still lost. And now he heard that he might not be able to be a shinobi but he refused to accept it. To clear his mind of all these negative thoughts, all he could think to do was workout and train hard until he blacked out.
It took him ten more stretches before Lee had reached his limit and lost consciousness. All he could remember from his fit that afternoon, was Gai's words when he told him hard work was useless if he didn't even believe in himself. The nurse rushed to Lee's unconscious form and checked his heartbeat.
"I'll find a stretcher! Please, don't leave him until I come back!" the nurse shouted to Ino and Sakura, "Doctor! I need a doctor here now!"
Both kunoichi nodded, fell to their knees and remained at Lee's side until the doctors arrived to return him to his room. While she waited, Sakura reached her hand out to Lee's hand and held it as she felt the various scars and fractured bones; the results of his hard work and endurance. She never noticed it until now, but Lee's hands, while never smooth, chalk-white, and unscratched like Sasuke's hands, had a lot more character to them. The scars on his hands told their own tales of unknown adventures and remarkable feats she would have liked to hear about. Sakura took a shine to his hands, and without her notice, tears started to run down her face and cleaned the dirt off of Lee's dirt-smeared but still warm hands.
"Ino…" said Sakura, "How come men have to push themselves too hard?"
Ino looked at Sakura and answered, "How would I know? Do I look like a dude?"
Sakura smiled and chuckled a little bit as she and Ino remained with Lee and watched over him until three doctors carried him back to his room. When Lee awoke later that afternoon, he discovered two daffodils in a small vase, filled with water on his bedside table. But he would never know whom it was that left him those flowers for some time to come.
As Naruto and Iruka walked down the street, both of them bored as the two of them carried various tools to the field where Hayate wanted to meet them. After a few minutes of bored silence, Iruka decided to break the silence with some news.
"So… has the toad been taken care of?" he asked.
"You bet," answered a bitter Naruto, "I have one of the shadow clones with him now to read him a book. I swear I was much closer to toads that were too dumb to talk than I am with that Gamakichi. He's worse than when I first met Konohamaru."
Iruka commented, "This is the reason I never chose an animal contract when I was a kid."
"You knew that the summons could talk, aniki?" the blonde rookie asked, curious.
The chunin answered, "Most of them can. I mentioned it when we discussed them in class two semesters ago. Remember?"
"No. I don't remember," the rookie answered back.
Iruka then remarked in a humorous tone, "Yeah, I shouldn't be too surprised hear that."
"You arse," the blonde shinobi said back.
Iruka snickered back at his little brother, as he teased him, "Heehee!"
The usual crowds that flooded the streets started to clear out and there was another, much more comfortable silence between Naruto and Iruka. The two of them didn't need to talk all the time, even while on a walk, to feel at ease. But Naruto did feel like he needed to know how life at work was for his older brother, well aware that his so-called boss was an absolute wanker. Curious and concerned about his adopted sibling, Naruto asked Iruka how was work.
"I never had the chance to check in with the Ninja Academy. I bet the new semester under Headmaster Daikoku's reign isn't as fun as it should be," he said.
Iruka moaned and then he started a heated rant, "He is the worst head instructor we have ever had. Period. Believe it or not, but Daikoku is worse than Mizuki. He doesn't do his work and the rest of us normal teachers have to work twice as hard to accommodate his laziness. We can't even submit our homework outlines for the students because he doesn't want to file out the paperwork to have them minted and printed… Remember those homework sheets I used in our old class, to make the assignments easier? We don't have those now because of that dumb lazy bastard. He claimed he couldn't sort them out because he was tied with other important matters. But all he ever does is sit in his office and act like the whole world is his bitch!"
"How come someone won't fire him?" asked the rookie, curious that Daikoku was still at work after he stole Iruka's résumé in the summer, "I mean; it's obvious he doesn't know what to do; he has no skills and he has no work motivation whatsoever. Not to mention he's a terrible teacher. Someone should have turned him in now. It's obvious he's a fraud. You even said that he stole that résumé last summer. He should have been booted out of Konoha for those kind of crimes."
The chunin answered, "Believe me, I would love to turn him in. I have all the evidence I need to prove he didn't write that résumé and the Sandaime trusts me. But the Hokage hasn't been available since the Chunin Exams started, the same time the new semester started nonetheless."
Naruto remained silent for a few moments. After he learned Iruka and the other teachers needed to work twice as hard, he started to have doubts that Iruka could even have the time to aid him for the finals. Iruka didn't have the same stamina he did, no one he knew did. And he didn't want to milk Iruka for what he was worth. He felt the chunin worked more than his fair share after he let him with him, fed him, cleaned his clothes, and entrust him with his secret.
The blonde shinobi started with, "Look… You don't have to train me for the finals if it interferes with work, aniki. You have to work twice as hard at school, and I don't want to ask for too much."
"Nonsense! I'm cool with it," the chunin insisted, and then he said, "To be honest I could use a few afternoons to let off some steam. I'll be able to teach some real shinobi arts for once, and this is a second chance for us to be student and teacher again. All I do in the classroom is recite drill instructions and check tests on the weekend. It's not the hardest job in the world, Naruto. I can handle it."
"You sure about that?" he was forced to ask.
Iruka answered, "I could use some more excitement and exercise. You know: life is meant to be lived, not wasted."
"Who said that?" the rookie asked, curious where Iruka heard that last line from.
But then the tan-skinned chunin smirked at Naruto and told him, "Me."
"That's not bad," the blonde rookie smiled, and found the motivation to run thanks to Iruka's words of wisdom, "Let's move it, Iruka-sensei!"
The chunin watched Naruto bolt ahead of him and smiled, "Hmmm… It's been a while since he called me that."
(A/N: You know, this moment makes me think that if Iruka ever had a personal theme tune, I think it would be Everyday Superhero by Smash Mouth. I mean, Iruka really is just an average ordinary everyday superhero, isn't he? Or at least he will be in a few chapters from now :3)
A few minutes later, Iruka and Naruto reached the field and saw Hayate wave to them in the distance. It was the same field where Naruto and his team took the bell test and the union of their team was official. Once the trio was settled in and left their tools, scrolls, kunai, shuriken, and swords down on the floor, Naruto sat down and focused his attention towards his two mentors. The real Naruto took a second to think about how well his shadow clone held out with the Sannin, but he would find that out later that afternoon.
Iruka rested his hands on his waist and he announced, "Alright, let's start! It's time for some extra credit!"
Naruto snickered at Iruka lameness, while Hayate took his time to brandish his samurai sword collection. All of the blades shimmered and shined in the sunlight. One of them almost blinded Naruto when the swords took his attention for a minute and he tilted his head while he drooled at them. But then Iruka started to talk and the swordsmaster stashed his blades in their sheaths before he confronted his first ever student.
Iruka cleared his throat and lectured, "Each week for this month, the three of us will meet here in the field and train. Naruto, we will cover two main areas of combat that will aid in the match against Neji Hyuga… Hayate will cover weapons, and I will focus on taijutsu, chakra control, and fitness. Fundamental basic skills are essential in the shinobi arts, but be aware that basic skills and chakra control alone won't be enough to counter the Gentle Fist. You need to have an ace in the hole. Hayate and Jiraiya will cover the more advanced stuff to defeat Neji Hyuga, as well as the other rookies."
Naruto nodded, unable to lose focus for once.
Hayate then took the lead with an informative lecture of his own, while he cleared his throat and coughed once in a while between his sentences, "The Hyuga clan's main asset is taijutsu and their remarkable chakra control… You know now that a clan member that uses the Gentle Fist and has the Byakugan can take down enemies twice their size with the softest… touch of their hands… Gentle Fist… can and will take someone down no matter how much muscle or fat shields the internal organs… Not to mention a Gentle Fist user can shut down the chakra flow with a few short blows to the chest or arms… You cannot battle Neji hand-to-hand… You would be a dead man to face him in close combat… without an ace in the hole as Iruka mentioned earlier."
Naruto asked, "So what do I do to counter him?"
"We use swords," the Tokubetsu smirked, in a somewhat Kakashi-like manner, "Neji focuses on taijutsu and chakra control for his Gentle Fist and his remarkable reflexes… But his record doesn't show that he has much skill with a katana. The best idea I can think of would be to battle him with a sword… Now… You could move around, avoid his attacks to tire him out, and then throw a few shadow clones at him to finish him off, safe and sound… But Neji is a smart kid… and he could have anticipated a move like that… since he watched the match with Kiba and knows that you use shadow clones… If that's true, then he could take down those shadow clones with the Gentle Fist… and not break a sweat… But he won't see a sword coming, will he? Little known fact: a sword can block Gentle Fist taijutsu if it's made out of the right material… Not that he'll want to come within range to attack if he wants to risk a nice clean slice to the neck… You'll be able to take down Neji and maintain a relative safe distance in combination of all those shadow clones… Think about it for a moment now: a whole armada of Naruto samurai wizard warriors with swords ablaze. He'll never see it coming."
The blonde-haired shinobi started to shake with excitement as his smile stretched across his face and his attention turned to the numerous blades on the floor behind his mentor.
Hayate cracked his knuckles and said with a smirk, "Let's start out with some basic Haidong Gumdo."
"Basic what?" asked Naruto, while Iruka blinked in confusion.
The swordsmaster corrected as he reached for one of his swords and unsheathed it with one smooth, fluid-like movement to look cool, "It's basic sword combat, the old slice and dice!"
Naruto looked even more excited than ever. He stood at once and started to bounce on his feet as he continued to shake, unable to remain still for a moment in a childish state of wonder.
Iruka chuckled at his little brother's antics and said, "I think Naruto wants to start on the swords first, huh?"
"Then let us start," chuckled Hayate.
The Tokubetsu returned to his stash of various blades and found two shinai, harmless, wooden, substitute blades to use instead of real swords. He tossed one of them to Naruto and led him to the middle of the field, far from the Hero's Memorial. Hayate walked over to Naruto and instructed him how to hold the blade.
"You're right-handed, so let's move that hand closer to the hilt on the handle. Lock the other hand here, and hold onto the shinai nice and tight. You don't want to throw it at someone's head when we start."
Naruto listened to Hayate and never once lost focus. He held the blade in his hand and swished it around in a smooth movement. The sword suited Naruto well, as he held the blade and listened to it swoosh the air around him. He held the handle well and it never once fell out of his hand due to clumsiness or overexcitement. While this was the first time Naruto ever held a shinai, it felt like he had handled swords before, even though he never once used a real sword in combat. This was another trait handed down to him, thanks to Harry. The older wizard had used a sword to kill the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets and used the same blade when he hunted down Horcruxes. Not to mention, he studied sword combat while he was in limbo for countless decades until he memorized the bushido code. Naruto must have inherited a subtle trait from him as he twirled the blade in his hand, as if he were a cheerleader with a baton. But soon, Naruto held the shinai in his hands and faced his teacher, unafraid of what he had to throw at him.
The swordsmaster smirked, "Good! Now I'm going to attack and walk through the most basic steps in defense. Keep up, kiddo!"
Hayate held his own shinai and faced Naruto. He rushed after him and made sure to slow down his movements to allow Naruto the time to block his attacks. Their shinai clashed, a loud crack of their contacted wooden blades echoed in their ears and scared the birds hidden in the trees. Naruto was a fast learner when it came to defense, as Hayate moved faster and faster. At first Naruto did well when Hayate moved in a pattern of attacks. But soon, the master switched to random attacks and forced Naruto to think fast and act on instinct. Hayate scolded Naruto to focus on the movement of his arms and stand his ground, which he did as Hayate landed a fake stab into his student's torso. Naruto fell on his bottom, frustrated but determined to focus and do better; he breathed out his nostrils like a bull, stood, and moved faster as he studied Hayate's movements, and learned to act fast.
The two of them took a short break after half an hour, to drink some water. But soon after, Naruto and Hayate went back to it and continued to clash. Hayate tested Naruto's defense when he attacked him at random. The swordsmaster tried to hit Naruto, slice off his head or stab him, but Naruto was able to hold him back. The two of them even locked blades with each other and Naruto bounced back to maintain some distance. Hayate stared, dumbfounded, as Naruto removed his headband, cleaned the sweat on his brow and then tossed his headband to the side. The Tokubetsu then rushed forward, faster this time and a little more ferocious. Naruto blocked most of his attacks when his master snuck in a few stabs here and there, but Naruto returned with a few attacks of his own.
After Hayate hit his left arm and forced Naruto to start over, the blonde-haired shinobi calmed down and tried to focus more on his reflexes. He cleared his mind as best he could and cancelled out all the other sounds around him, like he saw in countless movies about samurai, and even used the same methods he used to focus his chakra control at a time when he needed to concentrate the most. Once he calmed down, Naruto twirled the shinai in his hands, loose, but then he held it tight. The rookie stared at Hayate and waited for him to attack. The swordsmaster advanced, but Naruto reacted before he even raised his arms to thrust down on his head. Naruto blocked the shinai, and then he blocked the next attack to his side, held the blade out and blocked a horizontal attack. The shinai cracked on collision, and what came after almost made Iruka drool as he watched Hayate attack Naruto without hesitation and Naruto blocked each slice and attack, his face froze with focus and determination. The swordsmaster started to use more advanced and random attacks Naruto had never even seen before, but he continued to block them all until his arms felt tired and his hands throbbed from the constant and intense vibrations.
The match continued until Naruto could not handle much more and he let Hayate knock the shinai out of his hands. Out of breathe and exhausted, the blonde-haired rookie felt the end of Hayate's shinai sink into his chest. After a whole hour, the match was over. But it didn't look like Naruto had failed. He looked to see his master had sweat run down all over his face and he too was exhausted to the same extent as his student. Naruto forced a smile and his master did the same between breaths. The Tokubetsu offered his hand, but Naruto turned it down, too tired to stand. Hayate decided to sit down as well and catch his breath. Iruka handed them both a bottle of water each while he stood back and waited his turn to train with Naruto.
The Tokubetsu stared at his first ever student, unable to believe the kid forced him to work so hard or that he lasted an hour before he lost. But he wasn't alone, Naruto was also amazed that he was able to block like he did. Sure, he was excited to learn how to use swords, but he didn't think would succeed this much so soon. And to make it even better, he had a shadow clone in the trees training with another shadow clone, but the two of them used sticks instead of shinai. While the real Naruto sat back and tried to catch his breathe for the next ten minutes, his master had to make a comment.
"That… was… well done," the Tokubetsu breathed, "You were able… to hold out for a while… A little more time… and I think we'll be done with the basics… on defense…"
Naruto looked at him and cleaned some more sweat from his brow, "You…think so?"
"You can still use some improvement…" he admitted, "We'll have to test that defense once in a while… A true swordsman acts without hesitation; he's given no warning to an attack… You have to react in an instant… This is never a dance rehearsal, it's life-or-death combat…"
Naruto smiled as his breath slowed down, "You think I can ever have one? A real sword?"
"Not for a while… You can use one for the finals, but to own one needs more time to earn… It took me months to earn a sword when I started out… I used to use sticks until I earned the shinai…"
Naruto rolled the sleeves of his hoodie to his shoulders and let his back hit the cold field. The sweat on his back was absorbed into the maroon hoodie as he let the wind lick his face and cool him off. For a while, neither Naruto nor Hayate seemed to want to move and instead remained silent on the field and soaked in the rich, natural atmosphere. But after about ten minutes of rest, Naruto found his breath and was back on his feet. Hayate looked over his chest to see his student with the shinai in hand, his cheeks still run with sweat, but his face was filled with determination and free of exhaustion.
"Then, let's do it, Hayate-sensei! Come at me until I've earned a blade too!" he cheered as he held the shinai in a defensive form.
Hayate looked at Naruto, bewildered at his enthusiasm and dumbstruck at his unbelievable stamina, he felt like an old man when he asked out loud, "He still has that inhuman stamina, huh?"
Naruto and his swordsmaster went on to work on his defense for another few hours. The blonde-haired shinobi still couldn't block all of Hayate's attacks, but he did much better than most students would have with or without the same stamina he had. It wasn't until the fifth hour, after lunchtime, did Hayate decide to take a break from swords and have Naruto work with Iruka. The chunin was bored while he waited and decided to do some exercises alone for a bit. After Iruka worked out a sweat, he cleaned his face with a wet towel and decided to work with his old student.
Iruka's hands were rested at his waist as he lectured, "When the final match starts, don't ever let Neji in close unless there's a shadow clone to take all the heat. If Neji strikes, the Gentle Fist will either cause serious damage to the internal organs or cancel out chakra control. You'll be defenseless, and he'll be free to end the match then and there. In order to avoid his strikes without the aid of a sword, evasive maneuvers are essential. You have to move fast and learn, not to block, but to avoid an attack. You must master both elements of evasion and attack, and combine them in order to win. Let's start out with evasion."
Iruka walked over to a sizable sack that rested with the other blades and kunai. Inside the sack were a series of inflated rubber dodgeballs of all sizes and various colors. Iruka and Hayate both took a remarkable amount of dodgeballs and held them in their hands as the two adults smirked at the somewhat confused blonde-haired child.
"To avoid objects is like avoiding Neji's attacks and strikes," instructed Iruka, and then he smirked, "So, let's start with those evasive maneuvers I mentioned."
"Sooooooo… We throw balls at Naruto?" asked the enthusiastic swordsmaster.
Iruka then cracked an almost evil smile and nodded, "We throw balls at Naruto."
"What? Wait! NO!" the rookie screamed as he turned white.
But both of his mentors shouted, "TOO LATE!"
"MERLIN'S BEARD!"
'HEAD FOR COVER!'
For the next several minutes, Naruto was seen in the middle of the field with a shower of rubber balls thrown at him. He ducked down, slid across the dirt, but all of his efforts ended with a rubber ball thrown in his face or knocked him off his feet. Iruka even threw one so hard that Naruto's sandals were knocked clean off. The blonde shinobi screamed in a comic fashion as he ran around the field and made the most effort to swirl, duck, dive, and swerve around the sea of balls. All the while, Iruka and his new friend had a blast and laughed so hard as the two of them threw the balls at Naruto and threw back the ones that bounced back at them after a solid hit. It was somewhat cruel, but it was all for the best as Iruka and Hayate started to associate dodgeballs with Neji Hyuga's hands.
Iruka roared, "ON YOUR FEET, NARUTO! USE YOUR CHAKRA TO INCREASE YOUR SPEED! CONCENTRATE!"
"LIGHT ON YOUR FEET! YOU'RE STILL IN BATTLE, NARUTO! NEJI IS MURDERING YOU! DODGE HIM!" the swordsmaster shouted.
For the next hour, Iruka and Hayate continue to throw dodgeballs at Naruto until he started to show some improvement in his evasiveness. But that wasn't until Naruto took over three hundred blows to the stomach, chest, and face did he start to move around them better. Naruto did as his mentors intended as Naruto started to imagine the balls were all Neji's hands and fingers, about to strike his heart and make his chest explode or cut him off from his chakra. The dodgeball-induced delusion worked as Naruto ducked down and swirled around in a more fluent motion as the rubber balls missed his head, but brushed the ends of his hair.
But as soon as Naruto started to move more and more like a ballet dancer, Iruka decided to throw in a cheap shot and hit Naruto below the belt.
"OOF! WILL YOU GUYS PLEASE STOP HITTING ME?"
Iruka called a timeout and allowed Naruto the chance to breath. But Hayate took a moment and threw one last red ball at Naruto. The blonde rookie sensed the ball whirl towards his head, but at the last second, Naruto ducked, bounced backwards, and faced his mentor without a scratch on him. Naruto looked fierce, an instinctual moment for him as he held his fists close to his face. But then he relaxed when the swordsmaster whistled at him, "There we are!"
Naruto fumed at Hayate before he let himself fall on the dirt, bottom-first. Naruto took another drink of water and swished the contents in his mouth. He swallowed some blood and then drank some more water to cool off.
After a few more minutes, with the sun blazed down on his neck, he asked, "So… what's next?"
"More defensive sword combat, I think," the Tokubetsu answered.
But Naruto moaned, "After the beating I took back there?! That was inhumane!"
"Oh c'mon! Don't hold that against us. It's not like we threw medicine balls," whined Iruka, "Let's do some more work on the swords and move on to chakra control at the river with me and then some combat."
Naruto nodded. All he needed after that was a few more minutes before his stamina kicked in and he stood before either one of his teachers had their second drink of water
"Ok… I'm set! Let's do this!"
Iruka ordered Naruto to walk on the water of the river for a while, to test his chakra control and allow him and Hayate more time to rest and tire Naruto out for once. The blonde-haired shinobi did well on the water, as did his shadow clones in the woods and the one he sent to Jiraiya. He didn't know what the Sannin had done with that clone, but he would be right to assume the white-haired man had him do the same stuff as last time to unlock the demon chakra. The real Naruto meanwhile, stood still on the water and remained on the surface for at least a half hour. The afternoon started to settle in before the two teachers returned their attention to Naruto.
Once the blonde shinobi obtained his shinai, Hayate tested Naruto on his defense. Hayate thrust his blade down at Naruto's head, but the rookie blocked it. The swordsmaster continued to bombard the blonde rookie with a constant series of attacks, and each one of them was blocked and even threw him off once or twice. Hayate increased the attacks and soon he was about to land a solid hit like he did a few hours earlier. But when Naruto was about to be hit, the blonde rookie flinched at the sight of the shinai. He blinked and visualized it as a red dodgeball. His reflexes kicked in, and instead of let the attack hit him when he would have tried to block it, Naruto swirled around and the shinai missed him.
Hayate continued to move in with his attack after Naruto swirled out of attack. But as Naruto twisted around the shinai, he threw his blade out and whacked his mentor in the neck, hard. The swordsmaster froze still. He let out a small shout and then he stared at Naruto as he stared back at him, his hands firm on the handle as he leaned his blade down into his neck, as if it were real. The Tokubetsu soon smiled, Naruto relaxed, but then he felt the man raise his shinai and poked him in the chest. Naruto could have killed his opponent if the swords were real, but his opponent would have taken him down with him with what little time and life he had left.
Both the master and his student fell to the floor, tired, but pleased. The two of them tossed their shinai to the side and took a break to relax. Hayate smiled at Naruto, amazed at his defense but even more impressed that he landed such a remarkable hit. He smiled at his pupil in admiration and offered him his praise.
"That was nice!" he said as he cleared his throat for the millionth time, "I didn't see that at all!"
Naruto blushed from exhaustion and admitted, "It was… all a reflex!"
"That's good," the swordsmaster said and then he announced, "But…I think we're done with swords for now… Tomorrow, we'll cover more on defense… Then we'll work a little bit on offense…"
Iruka stood and stretched his arms. He hadn't done much so far, but now it was time for him to spar with his favorite student.
"Me next!" the chunin announced.
Naruto stretched out his arms and checked his holster for kunai and shuriken. Once he was stocked, he turned to face his former sensei. But when he faced him, he did feel a little bit intimidated since Iruka was more than twice his size. But he didn't dwell on it too much and faced his old mentor.
Hayate announced the start of the match when he threw his arm down and shouted, "BEGIN!"
The blonde-haired shinobi reached behind and threw a small wave of shuriken at Iruka. The older man ducked down low and threw a kunai at Naruto. The kunai sliced into Naruto's chest, but then the rookie burst into smoke, a solid chuck of a tree fell where he once stood with a kunai stuck in the center. Naruto then came out of the bushes on Iruka's left side. The rookie threw another wave of shuriken stars, but Iruka used another kunai to block all of the shuriken but snatched the final shuriken, like a boss.
"Impressive, Naruto!" the chunin commented before he threw the shuriken back at his little brother, "But how about this?!"
Naruto almost didn't have time to duck as the blade sliced off a few of his blonde hairs. The rookie then held his hands and shouted, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Five shadow clones burst into existence and all of them ran toward Iruka. The clones and the real one withdrew kunai and were about to slice. But Iruka was much taller than Naruto and knocked all of the clones around and even threw them into each other. The clones that collided burst into white smoke but soon Iruka was not able to see well, due to the white smoke. The real Naruto blended into the smoke as a cover. He slid down low with a kunai in his hand. He was about to attack, when Iruka realized his intention and soared into the air. With his chakra as a boost like rockets on his shoes, Iruka cleared out the smoke and revealed his student's location.
Iruka landed on his feet and could have slammed his feet down on Naruto, but the blonde rookie ran and faced his mentor. With a fair amount of distance between them, Naruto used his chakra to dash after his mentor. But Iruka relaxed as he watched Naruto run after him, faster than he ever seen him move. The chunin then slid to the side, faster than Naruto could see. Iruka then crouched down and extended his forearm and let Naruto run into his firm, outstretched arm, face-first. Iruka's arm felt like it was made of solid steel as Naruto was thrown backwards, off his feet with his hands over his face.
"OWW!" the blonde-haired rookie cried.
Iruka soon cancelled the match and rushed over to Naruto's side, terrified that he had harmed his little brother, "Oh, Naruto! I didn't mean to-"
But then the chunin sensed someone behind him and felt the cold blade of a kunai touch the back of his vest. He looked around, careful not to move as he saw a shadow clone of Naruto smirk at him. Iruka started to smirk back at his student's clone and then he said as he surrendered the match, "You clever little shit…"
The shadow clone burst into smoke. Iruka stood and raised Naruto back on his feet. But he soon discovered he did hurt Naruto on accident. The chunin left a sizable bruise on Naruto's nose, but the rookie didn't seem to mind it much.
Iruka smiled and then looked down at Naruto and commended, "Nice work! You sure have matured a lot since the Ninja Academy…"
Naruto smiled but didn't notice as blood started to leak from his nostrils in a constant stream. At the sight of the blood, Iruka decided to end it all there to tend to Naruto's somewhat fractured nose. The chunin dabbed Naruto's nose with a cloth and babied him a little bit, which left the rookie a little bit embarrassed but he never had someone to embarrass him out of affection, so he didn't blush, moan, or whine. As soon as he was healed, Iruka chose to run twenty laps around the field alongside Naruto. As soon as the two of them finished their exercises, coated in sweat, the sun about to set, and both of them exhausted to the bone, their first session together was over.
Hayate kicked back on his seat in the field like a lazy samurai while Iruka reached out and ruffled Naruto's hair, but soon he shivered as he realized Naruto's hair was drenched in sweat and the chunin said, "Gross… I think it's about time for a bath."
About one hour later, Naruto, Iruka, and Hayate decided to visit the local bathhouses and relax. The blonde-haired shinobi remembered Jiraiya as soon as he crossed the hot water river (for the third time that week) and wondered if the shadow clone he sent to the Sannin was still out there. He couldn't recall new memories of the old hermit, and wondered how much more exhausted he would become as soon as that clone burst into smoke. Naruto didn't dwell on it. He was soon distracted when Iruka and Hayate recounted the incident with the dodgeballs and teased him about it.
"I can't believe I used as a human target," moaned Naruto.
Hayate chuckled and said, "C'mon now! You would have had a blast… if our roles had been reversed! I can't wait… to do it again!"
"Do that to me once when we're not in the field and I'll deliver a world of enchanted hurt down on Konoha's number one swordsman," the blonde wizard half-teased and half-threatened, Iruka snickered and then Naruto turned to him as well and mentioned, "And the world's finest chunin too!"
The trio entered the locker rooms to switch out of the soiled outfits, had them sent to be cleaned in another section of the bathhouses, and then entered the bath with towels tied around their waists. Naruto had to take a moment to soak it all in as this was the first time he was ever welcomed into the bathhouses.
{{Underwater Secrets by Patrick Doyle}}
The Konoha bathhouses sure did not look like a normal bath. The facilities were massive and filled to the brim with steam. The men's bathhouse was the size of an Olympic swimming pool, able to hold more than a hundred adults at a time and still have room to swim around in and even add in a few Akimichi warriors. The bath was carved out of smooth black rocks, stained with white chemicals that cleansed the visitors and saturated their skin with a sweet smell and revitalized hair follicles. Steam rolled and filled the air and made it a little bit harder to breathe, but Naruto didn't mind it much. Dressed in trunks, while his two adult friends wore fundoshi, Naruto sank into the hot water and could have died then and there with a smile on his face. The blonde wizard used to take baths while he was little, but none of them felt as wonderful as it did here. His muscles went numb at the contact of the hot water and forced him to relax. He felt like he could melt and blend into the warm, sweet-scented water that consumed him.
He rolled his head to the side and noticed a wide selection of formulas to choose from, selections of lotions, scents, conditioners, and shampoo. Naruto reached out in a slothful manner and selected the first two scents that were within reach: lavender and cinnamon. As soon as Naruto smothered his hair with lavender and cinnamon, he started to think about the final match, but his mind focused in on Hinata. The smell of the cinnamon reminded him of her room at the clinic. Guilt soon struck at his heart when he realized he had went ahead and threw himself to battle her cousin for her honor, and he still didn't even know her. Shino went ahead and told him he should focus on the match and not waste time to visit Hinata, but he had shadow clones to do all the work for him. With that in mind, Naruto made a decision as he started to sink and the warm water reached his chest and neck, overwhelmed with the heat as his face flooded with color.
"Hinata…" he moaned and muttered, "I'll visit her tomorrow…"
Naruto let the scents overwhelm his other senses and numbed out his will to move. He sat on the rocks hidden beneath the water, while Iruka let out a drawn-out moan as he too was taken into the warmth. The Tokubetsu near him did the same and remained oblivious as Naruto started to sink down further. The blonde wizard had released his hold on the shadow clone he had sent to the Sannin and it burst somewhere out in the distance. With the end of that shadow clone's existence, Naruto absorbed all of the experience that clone had. His head throbbed and his exhaustion doubled as a wave of new memories poured into his head. The Sannin had slaved the shadow clone to summon more toads and forced him to walk on water at the same time. With all of that experience absorbed, Naruto lost his seat on the rocks and sank into the water, unable to move.
He tried to swim to the surface but his arms were useless and his head throbbed, but this time his head started to burn. He held his forehead and screamed out a mouthful of bubbles. The heat on his forehead intensified all the sudden, his vision blurred with the water in his eyes, but then he was blinded with a sudden white flash of light. The world faded into black and the burn on Naruto's forehead vanished. But then his vision started to clear and he found himself in a new, unfamiliar, and dark location. The warmth and wetness of the bathhouse had vanished, and now he was in a dried but uncomfortable environment. It looked like he was in a hotel room; the walls were colored with no particular taste, the floors were made of hardwood, but were coated in a carpet that didn't feel as nice as the one at Iruka's house. Naruto's vision was dark and somewhat blurred, like an old television But he could tell the room was a suite, fitted to serve more than five guests at once. Naruto could hear voices, all of them distance and hard to understand. But soon, the voices were much more clear, but he couldn't seem to turn his head to look at their faces. Instead, he stared at the door to the suite. It wasn't until then that the voices were clear to him.
"What is it Gaara?" asked a low voice of an older man.
Naruto was forced to turn around and he saw the man. He wore a turban with a short cloth veil cast over the left half of his face and he wore a Suna headband. The man also had two tattoos on the side of his face that looked like two bullhorns. Naruto recognized this man as the sensei that led Gaara's team; his name was Baki from what he could remember. Naruto noted the man would have been somewhat handsome if he didn't frown as if a foul stench were held under his nose. This man was bitter to the bone. Naruto remembered that he never once smiled or even smirked while his students won their individual matches. He didn't even show much enthusiasm that his team was the one undefeated team that made it to the finals. He never once relished it.
"Where are you going?" the man asked with obvious hint of disdain in his voice.
Gaara's voice answered his teacher with a low and cold tone of his own when he said, "I need to be reminded that I'm still alive…"
And with that said, Naruto turned from Baki and left the room without another word. His vision blurred and there was another white flash that blinded him. Naruto soon felt wet, naked, and warm with his back rested on a wooden bed. Naruto's scar burned and he felt himself be shaken from side to side with two firm but warm hands.
"Naruto! C'mon! Cut it out! Naruto!"
The rookie heard Iruka's worried voice call out to him in a distant echo. His vision focused more and he was back in the bathhouse. Iruka hovered over him, worried as he shook Naruto out of whatever bad dream he had. Naruto kicked, his head throbbed, and he tried to breathe as he felt drool leak out from his mouth and down his bare chest. Naruto's scar burned and throbbed one last time as he sat down on a wooden chair with Iruka and Hayate stationed close to him. For a few minutes, he was terrified. But Naruto found a hold on his nerves and shook his head while he tried to take in what he saw. He was able to sit on his own and move his arms around as he breathed in and out, unaware that he had almost drowned and that his friends were forced to drag him out.
Iruka breathed in relief as his brother was revived, "You ok, Naruto?! You almost drowned back there, bud!"
Naruto nodded, and tried to breath nice and slow as he rubbed the scar on his forehead, "I'm fine," he answered, unsure if he was after what he saw. He focused the rest of the world out and contacted Harry at once. He felt his invisible older sibling check him over and enriched him with magic to relieve his exhaustion.
'Nii-san! What in the world was all that about?! Where did that hotel room come from?!'
'What are you on about, Naruto?'
'I… I'm not all that sure... But when I went underwater… this old scar I have here on my forehead… it felt like it was on fire… And this isn't the first time it's happened. I felt it do this lots of times, but I never seemed to notice it until now… But this time I... I think I blacked out and I had some kind of vision! What was that all about?'
Harry froze like a statue when he heard all that. He then felt a horrible sense of nostalgia that caused the skin on his back to crawl. The older wizard was chilled to the bone when he heard about Naruto's scar and the fact that it had burned several times, like it did for him back when he was still alive. Harry could still remember in vivid detail what it felt like to have those episodes, even when he hadn't felt that horrible sensation since after he first visited Limbo. The scar on his forehead used to burn because of the connection he once had with Lord Voldemort. It sizzled like a white-hot flame whenever the Dark Lord was close to him, the little bit of Voldemort's soul that tried to reunite with its master from the wound it entered. The first idea that came to mind was that the Dark Lord had somehow returned and he had slithered into the shinobi world. But then the wizard shook his head; the idea of Lord Voldemort in the world of shinobi was ridiculous, not to mention impossible. Voldemort's soul was doomed to remain in Limbo forever, stuck as a motionless creature, miserable and alone. He would never be able to return, let alone enter this world and remain unnoticed for all this time.
But it wasn't Harry's scar that burned this time. It was Naruto's. He felt his scar burn, and he had a vision if that weren't enough. The older wizard didn't know what to make of all this information. But no matter the case, he was certain that Lord Voldemort wasn't the cause of it. If it were the Dark Lord, then Harry would have noticed now. Still, the wizard would need more time to figure this out and discuss the other incidents with Naruto. If there was no Voldemort in the shinobi world and there was no bit of Voldemort's soul sealed within Naruto, the reason behind his scar and the vision he had was still unknown.
'N-Nii-san?'
'Don't be worried about it… Um, don't think about it… I, um… I have to look at a few books now. Excuse me.'
Iruka noticed Naruto was out of focus and shook his shoulder to check if he was ok and asked, "What's the matter?"
And when Naruto came to, he looked back down at the water and said with a worried look, "I… I don't know…"
To Be Continued…
There we are, and now twelve more chapters left!
This chapter is real different from the original, when it comes to the grammar and the execution of all the scenes. A lot of the grammar was pretty bad in the original and the conversations between Naruto, Iruka, and Hayate didn't seem natural and only emphasized how much they cared about each other, rather than showing actual charcter. But that was at a time when I still needed to work on how to execute a conversation. It wasn't until I wrote Book 1 did I start to get a little bit better at it. And this time around, I think I got it right. The other main difference from the original version is the scene between Naruto and Gamakichi; in the original version the two of them hate each other until Naruto saves him from the Monster Book of Monsters and become the best of buddies in a heartbeat, leading to the worst scene I ever wrote in a fanfic (but we'll get to that later in the next chapter). So I decided to omit all that I mentioned, but then I decided to write an omake at the end of this chapter, showing Naruto's shadow clone and Gamakichi.
This omake at the end was written in collaboration with a friend of mine from college. He and I are roommates and he found out I wrote this series and wanted to contribute in our free time. To be clear, he isn't Azeroth44 and he'll be our newest cast member of the introductions who will make occasional appearances here and there. It'll be great to include him once in a while! He's a lot like Noel Fielding from the Mighty Boosh-
(Door swings open, electro music blasts, mist comes out, and here comes Jedimaster324, wearing a glitter-ball jumpsuit and white boots)
Jedimaster324: FUTURE SAILORS! OH YEAH! Someone wanted to invite me to the show?!
K: DUDE! Welcome to the outro of the latest chapter!
JM324: Wonderful to be here, mate! I wish I could have that entrance in the introduction, but there's no need to complain: since I'm here and I sure do love this series so far! I left a review a little while back. You read it?
K: Yeah, I did. Which reminds me, dude, next time you want to leave me a review, can you please make sure not to use my profile when you do it?
JM324: Ohhhhh…. Heh! Yeah, I didn't think that one out well. I was excited! Plus, I still don't have account on this site!
K: You still don't have an account?! It takes five minutes! You wrote the username!
JM324: Well, whatever, dude! I don't write fanfiction, I read them! There's no need for me to do all that work and not submit a piece.
K: You don't have to write fanfiction to have an account… You know what? Never mind all that. Here's our old friend from the depths of the darkness; Azeroth44.
Azeroth44: Welcome, Master Jedi!
JM324: It's Jedimaster324.
AZ44: Do I have to be corrected, or do I have to call Deathwing over here and make another clean slate?
JM324: Does this happen often?
K: Yeah, it does. But don't mind it too much.
JM324: I like it! So should we start the little omake we wrote soon or…
K: Yeah, let's start it!
Here's the new omake featuring Gamakichi and Naruto's shadow clone! Let's check out the scene I didn't know where to slide in this chapter:
OMAKE-TIME!
As soon as the shadow clone arrived at the old apartment he used to live in. He snuck in without the landlord's notice and locked the doors with Gamakichi in tow. He let the toad down on his bed and let him bounce around and make a mess. With access to the kitchen blocked, the shadow clone created another shadow clone and embraced Gamakichi from behind. The toad didn't seem to like the sudden affection but then the first clone offered him a double Oreo cookie.
"Cookies!" he cheered and stuffed the treat in his wide maw.
The second shadow clone sat on the bed while the first clone searched for a dark, forbidden book. The clone shivered when he touched the novel, if it even had the right to be called that. Naruto didn't want to save a book of such evil, but he felt it best to have it on hand and use it when the time seemed right. The second clone fed Gamakichi another Oreo to distract him while the first clone carried the book and chair with him and sat down.
Gamakichi tilted his head, curious, and then he made fun of Naruto a little, "What the hell is that? Another book from the nerd?!"
The shadow clone didn't answer. Instead he smirked at the mean and troublesome toad and then he released the book of evil, the cover revealed an illustration of mask and handcuffs. Gamakichi's smirk started to lower further and further into a frightened frown, as Naruto cleared his throat and read a random section of the book.
"His thumb rubbed and stroked me, sensual and hot. He was naked and tasted like a Christian-flavored popsicle. Oh, how I love the feel of his firm butt cheeks as I licked sweet whipped cream and watched another of the latest tween sensation music video-" he read.
Gamakichi screamed and writhed around in the shadow clone's arms, "STOP IT! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!"
"The sun broke in from the window and reflected off his naked milk-colored skin, in a thousand billion rainbow shards as if he were made of some kind of diamond. Carved in marble, wet with sweet, hot as a thousand suns. Christian took me in one smooth movement. He hits me-hard. And then I called out his name as I clima-"
"THAT DOES IT! I'M OUTTA HERE!" screamed Gamakichi.
The blue-vested toad burst into white smoke, the shadow clone that held him down burst when the toad hit him in the stomach, and left the first shadow clone of Naruto alone in his old bedroom. He closed the vile black book in his hands, as the darkness and evil that flooded out of it ceased and the air of the apartment was less dense and awkward. The shadow clone then tossed the book in the trash as he smirked and soon burst into smoke and let the original Naruto laugh, victorious.
And there we have it! Please be sure to leave behind a review as usual!