Chapter Fifteen: Snakes in the Leaf
Authors Notes: Okay, I'm back with the Narusaku writing. Got my other story I was working on for the last month done so we should be going back to normal with having updates on my stories every two weeks. Next chapter should be out on the 22nd or 23rd depending on how long it takes. Also my other Narusaku story should be updated this weekend. Hope you enjoy.
Just to remind you guys, Naruto doesn't have the Five-Pronged Seal in this AU so some things will be a little easier than they were in canon for Naruto.
Naruto and Sakura headed to Ichiraku and enjoyed a wonderful meal at the restaurant before splitting up to go to their respective homes.
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Sakura," Naruto said.
Sakura nodded. They were going to meet Kakashi at the training field to discuss their training for the next round coming up in a month. Sakura had already decided to train with Kurenai but Sasuke and Naruto weren't as decided yet. Naruto of course wished to train with his own sensei. Though there was still the matter of Sasuke. Maybe he would train with them? Naruto smiled at that, if they trained together then Naruto might be able to beat Sasuke.
"Bye Naruto!" Sakura said.
They then headed off, unaware that a pair of figures were watching them.
Kabuto and Orochimaru walked the streets of the Leaf Village. Kabuto was in his normal attire while Orochimaru retained the guise of a visiting Sound Village Jonin.
"Hmm… that boy has a very positive attitude," Orochimaru said. "Perhaps it would have been easier to get Sasuke."
"Yes he is quite cheery. But he does hold the demon fox within himself. Though his talent is severely lacking. A genius is always the best. Of course you are a genius yourself Lord Orochimaru. I'm sure once you have him you can achieve the potential he would never have a chance to."
"Yes," the snakelike man hissed, licking his lips. "But I believe we need to give him a little extra push to steer him in the right direction. If you wouldn't mind spreading the word around our beloved home village?"
He whispered his news that could help to shake up some of the more close minded villagers.
…
The next day Naruto headed to the training field where the rest of his team was assembled. Kakashi was late as ever.
At least it was only a few minutes this time instead of a few hours.
"Morning team," Kakashi greeted his genin.
"Morning sensei," Sakura replied.
"Alright! Its time to start training!" Naruto declared.
"Hmph!" Sasuke huffed in agreement.
"Well I'm glad to see you're all so eager," Kakashi said. "Alright, well I've come up with a plan for all of you. Sakura, as you requested you'll go with Kurenai and learn more genjutsu. Sasuke, you'll be with me. I have an idea for a jutsu you could learn, but it will take a lot of hard work."
Sasuke nodded silently.
"What about me?" Naruto asked in exasperation.
"Don't worry Naruto, I found someone I felt would make a good substitute sensei for you," Kakashi said.
Suddenly a figure leapt out of the trees nearby. He was a Jonin with a pair of dark glasses and a blue mask covering the top of his head. Naruto gaped at him.
"You! You're the pervert that fell for my Harem Jutsu!" he said pointing before laughing. "There's no way you're qualified to train me!"
Ebisu sweat-dropped at the mention of the incident where they had last met when Naruto had briefly taken his role as Konohamaru's trainer. He had been frozen at the sight of all the naked women Naruto had transformed into.
"Harem Jutsu?" Kakashi repeated, confused.
Sakura and Sasuke looked at their teammate in embarrassment as they recalled his pathetic uses of it in the academy. It was an insult to both women and ninja in their minds. But if this guy had really fallen for that jutsu he couldn't be that great could he?
"Uh, you just surprised me with such an unorthodox and unfitting jutsu," Ebisu said. "I'm a great jonin and specialize in training young ninja through basic and advanced training."
"That's right, Ebisu is one of the best trainers there is," Kakashi said. "Just give him a chance Naruto and I'm sure you'll get along."
Naruto glanced at the shade wearing Jonin. He couldn't see those eyes cause of the dark glasses. But he recalled the facial expression that day when they'd first crossed paths. How he'd looked at Naruto with a disdainful mouth expression at least.
Resentment filled Naruto as he recalled that, as well as the fact that so many in the village hated him for what he held inside him. He recalled all their hateful eyes. His lip curled a bit. Noticing this, Sakura put a hand on her boyfriend's shoulder.
"You okay Naruto?" she asked.
"Yeah," Naruto lied. "I'll see you later. Good luck with your training."
Naruto walked off with Ebisu as Kurenai came leaping into the field as well. The team had gone their separate ways for now.
…
In another part of the village Kabuto walked around the village for his mission. A group of civilians chatted about what they'd heard from the preliminary rounds of the Chunin Exams.
"So we got Sasuke Uchiha, no surprise there," one man said. "A girl named Sakura, Shino and Shikamaru from the Aburame and Nara clans, and Naruto Uzumaki."
He spoke the last name out as though it were a curse. Kabuto smirked.
"I still can't believe they actually let him become a Shinobi. I wish he'd just get killed somehow!" a second man said.
"That thing killed my brother in the battle long ago," a third spoke up. "I'd like nothing better than to put a kunai in him."
"Careful, the Third Hokage won't be very happy if he heard you say that," the first said.
"The Third is a senile old fool," the person snapped. "Too soft. I think Danzo should have been made the Fifth or even Fourth Hokage. He is much stronger then the Third. In terms of heart at least. He'd kill that brat no problem."
"Nah he'd want to raise the boy as his own weapon."
"How can anyone hope to control that thing? He's always causing trouble pulling pranks and causing chaos. Now that he's a ninja I fear what he'll do next."
Kabuto took the chance to enter the conversation. "I heard he crippled one of the ninjas he met in the forest."
"Who are you?" the first man asked.
"Just a Genin who happened to be in the same preliminaries as the Uzumaki Boy. I don't particularly like him as he was very loud and annoying. Must be pretty violent too in the right circumstances. From what I heard he blew up the arms of one Genin and maimed a girl as well leaving a nasty set of scars on her face."
The part about the girl had been true since Naruto had cut Kin up pretty bad and they were expected to scar, but Shino Aburame had been the one to badly damage Zaku's arms to the point that their squad could no longer participate. But it made a good lie to further dissent in the leaf and animosity against Naruto.
"That animal! He should have never been allowed to become a Ninja! Too violent! What kind of ninja attacks a girl?"
"We should do something," the third member said as he took a drink of alcohol. "I know where he lives. Maybe we should take care of him ourselves since the Hokage doesn't have the guts to!"
Kabuto smiled. "Good luck with that. I know some ninja that might be willing to help you with that."
He walked off triumphantly. This might as well have been striking gold in this mission.
…
Naruto trained with Ebisu for a few hours. The Jonin chased him through the streets of the village as part of it. That was fun, Naruto had tried to evade him with shadow clones but Ebisu had that ability as well so it wasn't the best solution. Ah well After getting a bowl of ramen (or a lot of bowls that Ebisu generously and horrifyingly bought) the worked on a new exercise.
"Alright Naruto, something we really need to work on is your chakra control. You are strong now, but you use up way too much chakra in your jutsu. If you can learn to control your chakra output you'll be able to fight for longer periods of time."
"Really?" Naruto asked excitedly.
"Yes, and I have just the exercise to allow you to learn better control," Ebisu said.
He'd escorted Naruto to a set of hot-springs in the village.
"We're going to learn to walk on water," Ebisu said.
Naruto made a face of disbelief. "Yeah right."
Ebisu smirked and backed up a couple steps, right onto the water of the mens hotspring. He didn't go in though, he stood on the water as if it were solid land. Naruto's mouth fell open at the sight.
"Wow!"
Ebisu gave a small smile. He wouldn't admit it to Naruto's face but he'd come to respect the Uzumaki boy a bit. After meeting Naruto, Konohamaru had come to realize there were no shortcuts to becoming Hokage and that he needed to work hard. It seemed there was more to the boy then a demon's spirit.
"Okay, you already know how to use chakra to run up trees," Ebisu explained. "You'll find it is similar here, but less solid so you will have to get used to it."
Naruto focused his chakra in the bottom of his feet and stepped onto the water. But as soon as he put his other foot on he slipped under, going down into the hot water.
He climbed out and cursed himself, "Should have taken my clothes off before I go into water."
He stripped himself of his clothes so that only his underwear remained. Then he went back to trying to stand on the water. He went under a few times but soon enough-
"Hey I think I can do it!" Naruto said as he managed to stand smoothly on the water.
"Ah well done Naruto!" Ebisu said. "You might make a good Shinobi that could become Hokage after all."
"Huh?" Naruto exclaimed as he looked at him.
Ebisu blushed a little. "Uh, well perhaps we should move onto something else."
They headed back out toward the door to the men's bathroom. As Ebisu opened it they were surprised to see a man with long white hair and a metal headpiece entering.
"Master Jiraiya!" Ebisu exclaimed before bowing.
"Okay none of that! Just get out of my way I have some research to get into!" the old man said.
Ebisu stood aside and Jiraiya took a step forward before looking at Naruto.
"Hey, kid! Who are you?" Jiraiya asked.
"Me? Oh, I'm Naruto Uzumaki the Future Hokage! Believe it!" Naruto declared.
Jiraiya's eyes widened. This is Minato's son! Well I didn't expect to meet him today. He should be twelve by now.
"Is that right?" he asked before walking around Naruto and sizing him up. "You're a little short to be Hokage."
He caught a glimpse of the mark on Naruto's neck with the seal on it and his mouth fell open. Then the boy turned to face him.
Naruto frowned. "Yeah? I bet I could take you on old man!"
"Nah, you'd get demolished before you could make the first move," Jiraiya said.
Naruto growled and jumped at him. His feet had barely even left the ground when Jiraiya landed a strike on his forehead protector, knocking Naruto back. The boy climbed to his feet in amazement.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Jiraiya the Toad Sage!" Jiraiya declared similar to Naruto moments ago. "Now if you'll excuse me I have some research to tend to!"
"Research?" Naruto inquired.
Jiraiya didn't answer, instead simply walking over to the fence around the men's bathhouse. Naruto heard a faint female giggle in that direction.
"Pervert," he said under his breath.
"Come on Naruto lets go," Ebisu said frowning in the direction of Jiraiya. The man might be one of the three legendary Sanin but he was also shameless. Ebisu might like the idea of seeing naked women but he never actively sought that sight.
He lead Naruto to a section of the woods.
"Alright, so we are going to need to have you learn a new jutsu if you plan to face Nejii in the next round. He specializes in close combat so something that could help with that is if you had a long ranged attack that enabled you to attack from a distance."
"I have kunai and shuriken," Naruto said.
"Yes, but chakra can be much more powerful. Your teammate Sasuke has already learned to use Fire Jutsu, a remarkable feat. Normally ninja start chakra nature training at the stage of Chunin or higher. But I think in these circumstances it will be beneficial to at least try."
"What are chakra natures?" Naruto asked.
"Oh everyone has a specific element to their chakra. Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, and Lightning," Ebisu explained.
"So I could do Fire Jutsu?" Naruto asked.
"Perhaps, that is a common element in Shinobi here. But there is a way for us to find out easily," Ebisu said drawing a few pieces of paper from his pocket. "These are a special kind of paper that react to peoples chakra nature."
Naruto watched in confusion as Ebisu took one paper from the set and held it in the other hand away from the rest. He held it for a moment then the paper burned away.
"The paper burns if you have Fire Chakra like I do," Ebisu said. "It gets shriveled for lightning, wet for water, crumbles for earth, and gets cut for wind."
He handed a piece to Naruto channeled his chakra into it. The paper split in two as if it had been cut.
"Well it seems you're a Wind Chakra user," Ebisu said. "That's very rare in the Land of Fire."
"Wow," Naruto said. "So what now?"
"Well I don't have wind chakra," Ebisu said. "But I know someone who does. I'll see if I can speak to him about continuing your training tomorrow. That's probably enough for today."
It was getting to be afternoon now. Naruto headed back into the village. As he did so he noticed several civilians eying him with hatred.
"Murderer!"
"Demon!"
"Yeah, yeah I'm none of those things!" Naruto grumbled as he continued walking. "I'm not some demon! I'm a kid! And one day I will be Hokage!"
He looked away from them. Sometimes Naruto hated the people of this village for not accepting him and always treating him like garbage. He continued toward his home as the sun was starting to set.
He didn't notice the figure on the rooftops following him. The figure noticed a group of people following Naruto as well, a faint amount of killing intent emanating from them.
Okay so I decided to have Naruto continue learning from Ebisu here. I just came up with the idea as I wrote. So this version of Naruto won't learn to summon toads. Or will he? Maybe he can learn both? There was a month spent wasting time with Naruto not making any progress on the summoning technique until the last few days. So he could learn at least one Wind Jutsu and then summoning. That could work. Any ideas on what sort of Jutsu he could learn from Asuma who also has wind? Maybe wind bullets or shuriken? Hit me up with your suggestions and I hope you enjoyed. If you didn't let me know your thoughts anyway I'm open to things I can consider constructive and am willing to work for improvement as always. But any harsh or hateful reviews will be removed.