Author's note – Kishimoto Masashi owns Naruto while Guyver is written by Yoshiki Takaya.
I make no claim to either, I am merely playing in their sandboxes.
The new technique of the Hyuuga is shadow arrow clone.
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Chapter Six
Progress
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Hinata exhaled as she aimed, then she released the bowstring and the technique simultaneously.
"Kage ya no bunshin!"
The arrow flew straight towards the target even as the technique (a variant of the Kage kunai no bunshin) took effect, turning the single arrow into a cluster of twelve. Two of the arrows were malformed and flickered out of existence almost immediately, but the others flew true and impacted the target, jolting it backwards before the copies dissipated, leaving the original embedded just above the innermost ring.
"A good shot." Hiashi said from beside her as he nocked an arrow in his own bow. In a single, smooth move, he raised the bow, pulling back the string and then released the arrow even as he performed the technique that his daughter had just done.
"Kage ya no bunshin." He breathed and the arrow multiplied into over two dozen, slamming into the target and then hiding it in a cloud of chakra-smoke. When the smoke cleared, only the original arrow remained in the tattered target, piercing the bulls-eye perfectly.
"This is not traditional." One of the Elders groused from the bench behind them and Hiashi tilted his head slightly.
"Why not?" He asked without removing his gaze from the target. "The use of seals is a Hyuuga tradition."
"I don't mean the Tatakai no tori no shīru." The Elder grumbled and Hinata reflexively glanced at the seal that started at the base of her right palm and which wrapped around her wrist, extending in three lines of dots up the back of her arm, each dot holding an arrow that could be unsealed at will. "I mean the whole archer thing. That's a samurai weapon, not a ninja one."
"And among the shinobi, are not the Hyuuga the closest to Samurai in terms of honour?" Hiashi shot back.
"Next thing you know, we'll all be using swords." The Elder snarled as he heaved himself to his feet and hobbled off, leaning heavily on his cane.
"Ignore him, my daughter." Hiashi said gently. "I see no problem with the use of the Seal of the fighting bird and archery addresses one of the greatest weaknesses of our fighting art, the lack of true ranged attacks."
Hinata nodded, then pulsed her chakra to call one of the sealed arrows to her hand, notching it to the string even as she raised and pulled the bow.
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Fugaku nodded as his youngest son unleashed a respectable-sized fireball across the lake.
"That is enough for now." He stated and Sasuke exhaled, slumping slightly as he relaxed. "Your… brother made a suggestion. Come here."
Sasuke hid his sigh as he turned and walked off the short pier to rejoin his father by the lakeside. Fugaku refused to speak Itachi's name, or even acknowledge him as a direct relative because of how close he had come to killing the clan as commanded by the now-fugitive Shimura Danzo. Nevertheless, he still recognized Itachi's loyalty to the village as being beyond reproach, which was probably the only thing that had prevented him from expelling Itachi from the clan (especially since it would have attracted too much attention of all the wrong kinds).
Itachi had quietly moved to a small apartment on the other side of the village in an attempt to reduce the tension between them.
"Channel your chakra into this." Fugaku commanded, holding out a small piece of paper and Sasuke took it, looking at it curiously before following his father's instruction. The piece of paper crumpled before bursting into flames and Sasuke quickly dropped it before he could be burned.
"Interesting." Fugaku mused. "It would seem that your primary elemental alignment is not fire, but is lightning. I believe that Tekka has a similar alignment… I will ask him to teach you the first stages of Raiton manipulation."
"…thank you, father." Sasuke said and Fugaku nodded.
"It is time we returned. For you to have progressed as far as you have with the katon: gokakyu no jutsu when katon isn't even your primary alignment is very impressive."
"Thank you, father." Sasuke said, pride welling up as he trotted along by his father's side.
"I believe that your mother is making tomato onigiri."
Sasuke grinned.
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The dark-haired boy stood before the Hokage's desk, his face expressionless.
"He is one of the survivors of Root." Inoichi said as he walked around the young teenager. "His combat skills are borderline chunin already, but his interpersonal skills…"
Inoichi shuddered and Hiruzen raised an eyebrow.
"What is your plan?"
"I don't really have one." Inoichi admitted. "Between undoing the programming that Danzo subjected his Ne agents to and re-absorbing them into the standard Shinobi ranks… we're having to assign them mentors to help them get used to doing more than just emotionless killing, I simply don't have enough people available. However, Sai here is probably just about capable of attending the Academy."
Hiruzen looked at the blank-faced boy. "Are you sure?"
"My wife and I have been taking it in turns to give him therapy." Inoichi admitted. "However, we're starting to hit the point of diminishing returns. It doesn't help that Danzo somehow managed to burn the records and take most of the more technically-adept members with him to… wherever."
"Danzo is a threat, wherever he is." Hiruzen admitted. "But we are getting off the subject. You wish Sai to enter the Academy?"
"Yes, Hokage-dono." Inoichi said formally. "Preferably in the same class as my daughter so that she can keep an eye on him."
Hiruzen nodded slowly. "Very well."
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Shikaku sighed as he read the reports from the Academy. After the fiasco that had caused Naruto to be held back a year (thus rousing Hiro's ire), Shikaku had torn through all the rules of the Academy, tearing them down and replacing them with a more logical and efficient framework.
The same highly-uncharacteristic burst of energy had also spilled over into improving the curriculum.
Fortunately for him, Akimichi Choza had agreed to take over as the new head of the Academy (Inoichi being too busy with the T&I section) and although he wasn't as intuitively brilliant as Shikaku, Choza's hardworking ethos allowed him to do the job far better than Shikaku could have done.
Unfortunately, the setup meant that he still had to go over the quarterly reports to check that everything was still going as planned and search for any signs of infiltrato…
What was that?
Shikaku re-read the report, then cross-checked it against another with a frown. A quick check of the class schedules turned the frown into a scowl.
"Shika, what's up?" Choza said as he ambled into the room and placed a bento box on Shikaku's desk.
"Naruto's class." Shikaku groaned. "Again."
"Who is it this time?" Choza asked and Shikaku pushed across a piece of paper before pulling the box to him and opening it. Choza picked up the piece of paper and read it.
"Toji Mizuki? Are you sure?"
"No." Shikaku said, pausing just long enough to answer. "But there are enough signs to make me suspicious. Nothing concrete and it could easily be a false positive, but…"
"Better safe than sorry." Choza agreed. "I'll rearrange the classes to move him away from little Uzumaki. Wouldn't do to have Hiro drop by and burn the place down, after all."
Shikaku paused chewing just long enough to smirk at the joke, then he sighed.
"It's going to be neck and neck for the position of Rookie of the Year." He admitted. "Hyuuga Neji and Uzumaki Naruto seem determined to smash the previous records."
Choza nodded. "He can hold his own against Neji in taijutsu." He stated. "It's like he has perfect awareness of his body, but the amount of training needed for something like that…"
"Maito Gai has it." Shikaku said with a shudder. "I don't know of anyone else at that level… has Gai been training Naruto?"
"Kami, I hope not, although I have heard rumours of an apprentice." Choza winced. "One green spandex outfit is more than enough. A second one? Brrrrr!"
Shikaku shivered at the mental image of Naruto in green spandex and black-dyed hair, then firmly banished it.
"So, assuming that Naruto passes the preliminary graduation test, what next?"
Choza shrugged. "I don't really know, but one of my cousins was thinking about taking a Jonin team of his own. I can sound him out, if you want."
"Which cousin?"
"Shito."
Shikaku frowned. "Shito… the one with the shuriken-markings on his cheeks?"
Choza nodded. "Yep. He made jonin in the last round. He's also one of our better field-chefs."
Shikaku nodded, understanding the context. An Akimichi field-chef was trained to be able to find and prepare food in any environment, utilizing a large array of traps, snares, pits and other hunting equipment.
"I'll put him on the list of possibles." He said, then he paused. "Was he here for… the attack?"
Choza frowned. "I… think he was. Why?"
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Neji flowed through the Juuken katas with the ease of long practice, striking and spinning with almost balletic smoothness. As he finished his final technique and returned to the starting stance, a voice spoke.
"Very good, my son."
"Father." Neji said, turning to bow to Hizashi.
"I believe that you are ready to learn the Hakke Sanjuni Sho." Hizashi said with a proud smile and Neji's eyes widened.
"The Eight Trigrams Thirty-two Palms?" He breathed. "Are… are you sure?"
"Your rivalry with Uzumaki Naruto has pushed you to achieve more than you would have attained by yourself." Hizashi said as he crossed the Dojo floor to stand in front of his son. "It is therefore my duty as your father to aid you in improving further so that you can finish your Academy training as the Rookie of the Year."
Neji smirked briefly, then bowed again.
"Thank you, father."
"Then let us begin." Hizashi said, walking across to the side of the dojo where a line of training dummies stood. "I shall do this slowly, use your eyes and watch."
Neji concentrated and the veins around his eyes enlarged as his byakugan activated, earning an approving nod from Hizashi.
"No seals or vocalization needed, you have truly advanced." Hizashi said as he dropped into a stance side-on to the dummy with his left arm extended forwards and his legs slightly bent. His own byakugan activated and then he spoke eight words.
"You are within the field of my divination."
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The library of the secret base was almost unrecognizable compared to how it had been before Naruto had found it. The shelves had all been replaced multiple times as Naruto's woodworking skills improved and the addition of a dozen reading desks in the center filled much of the floor-space, forcing the clones using the library to use specially-placed boards to walk up the shelves and across the ceiling as they searched for specific techniques to research.
The library wasn't the only place to have been overhauled. The (ab)use of Kage Bunshin had allowed Naruto to convert several sets of barracks into small but adequate apartments (although he didn't actually ask himself why he had done more than one until he had converted the final one of the six barracks). The armoury had been sorted through and the damaged weapons sold to Tenten's father for scrap, being replaced with high-quality weapons that Naruto looked forwards to using after he graduated. The training rooms were almost constantly in use as the clones practiced the various taijutsu, kenjutsu and shurikenjutsu styles found in the scrolls.
Even the old experimentation room had been stripped out, scrubbed and turned into a medical room that the Konoha hospital would have approved of with several clones overseeing the production of various medical creams and ointments.
Naruto stood on the balcony overlooking the central hall and smiled proudly at the sight of all of his clones performing the tasks that would help him to become the greatest shinobi ever.
And in a few more months, he would be able to take the next step by becoming a Genin.
Finally.
Naruto turned and walked away from the bustling library, his brows creased in thought.
Hiruzen was already asking him questions about where he vanished so often and he hated lying to the old man.
Maybe it was time for Hiro to make another appearance.
Naruto suddenly grinned as a thought occurred to him.
He knew where his father's old cottage was, a cottage that Minato had abandoned in favour of the Hokage Mansion.
What if he moved it?
It would make a great cover for the main entrance to his secret base, after all.
His grin widened and he created a dozen clones to start work.
Now, how to approach the old man about it…
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Shikaku's mental image is based on the prank that Naruto pulled on Kurenai in the story Team 8 (id 2731239). Although it updates at glacial speed, it's well worth reading.