Review Replies

Wolf FallenSerpent: That was necessary for the plot. Though, I agree that it was a bit dark.

SHIKKAKU MON NO: If killing your target is evil, then pretty much every character from Naruto is evil. I gave Naruto a grey character just like Kakashi. He doesn't show mercy on his target but at the same time, he is not an emo edgelord with no feelings at all.

Phantom Wolf Of the Shadows; mkmayank8090; Yuzuki476 : Thank you.


Chapter 20 – Culprit and Training

Next day

Naruto had more things to do than just comforting Rui, for that purpose he had asked Koumi, Kakashi and, despite being a new addition, Haku too. His number one priority was to catch the traitor, and to do that, he was currently in the forest where the seals were, even before the sunrise.

It took Naruto a couple of minutes to figure out the exact location as he had asked Tenzo to make this place like a maze. As he reached the location, he found out that the place completely wasted. The checkpoint didn't had just one seal, it had dozens of different seals that worked in perfect synchronization to erect the barrier. But all the seals were burned down to ashes, as nothing was left of them. And that meant that he had to make the seal again, and being his second time making the seal, it will take him a month to make it.

As he was inspecting the seals, he found some white hairs at the place. As he looked at the hair, he quickly activated his sharingan to inspect the place more carefully. And after looking around a bit, he found some blood on the wood spikes near the seals.

"Gotcha, fool!" Naruto said as he broke the spike and took it with him.

After he returned home, a funeral was arranged for Rui's mother. Team 7, Koumi, and even Zabuza and Haku were present there. Any shred of doubt Rui had about her mother's death was gone now. She finally believed that the others were telling him the truth.

After the things wrapped up, Naruto went to the Konoha Laboratory to find out whose blood and hair it was. After he submitted them for matching, Tokuma suddenly appeared before him. He had the smug look on his face but at the same time there was a trace of disappointment in his eyes.

"It's Mizuki." Tokuma said.

"You mean Konohamaru's tutor? That guy?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, his semen was found inside that woman. And the patrolling team confirm that he was seen in that area 3 days ago." Tokuma said with a frown.

"I see. Thank you, Tokuma-San." Naruto said as the lab assistant came to him.

"The blood sample and the hair match with Mizuki's." The assistant said as Naruto started chuckling.

"Come on, you have to be kidding. How come a man commit such heinous crimes back to back and still have the audacity stay inside the village." Naruto laughed but Tokuma and the lab assistant got scared senseless. They knew that Mizuki will die by his hands, they still wondered how brutally was Naruto going to murder him. As Naruto continued to laugh, it sent chills down their spines.

"Well, do you know where can I meet him?" Naruto asked in a serious tone.

"I haven't seen him since morning." Tokuma said.

"No worries, I will find him myself." Naruto said as he shunshined to his home for some special tools.

Uzumaki Estate

When he reached his home, a surprise waited for him. Sasuke, Sakura, Rui, Kakashi, Koumi, Zabuza and Haku, all were sitting in the drawing room, right next to each other. But the surprise was the person who was sitting between Kakashi and Zabuza.

"Mizuki-Sensei! I met you yesterday but I didn't had the opportunity to talk to you, how have you been?" Naruto chirped but his bloodlust was visible to everyone except Sasuke and Sakura.

"So this guy was telling the truth. You did invite him today." Zabuza said pretending like he didn't noticed the bloodlust.

"Y-Yeah, I told you, didn't I?" Mizuki said as he got up and approached Naruto.

"Then why were trying you sneak into Naruto's room?" Kakashi asked.

"I-I was? I was just wandering around." Mizuki said.

"Come on, Mizuki-Sensei. Let's catch up." Naruto said as he took Mizuki to the basement as he signalled Koumi and Kakashi to follow him. Zabuza also noticed the signal but pretended as if nothing happened.

As the four of them entered the chamber, they locked it from inside.

"What's their deal?" Sakura asked.

"Probably some ANBU business." Sasuke said.

Basement

As they descended the stairs, Mizuki started to get overwhelmed by Naruto's bloodlust. As a few minutes, they ended up in a bright room. The room was the size of the drawing room and was pretty bright for being underground. The room had a single chair and the floor was just rock.

"Sit down." Naruto said in a cold tone as Mizuki immediately took his sit.

"Alright, now tell the full story." Kakashi asked.

"The man sitting before you is a traitor, a murderer, and a rapist. He is the one behind Rui's mothers death, and he is the one who behind the incident we talked about last night." Naruto said as he showed Kakashi the test results.

"N-No. What are you talking about? Why would I do something like that?" Mizuki said as a chain shot out from Naruto's shoulder, grabbed him from his neck and smashed him to the wall with enough force to break some of his bones.

"Okay, I will tell everything. Just promise me that you will spare me." Mizuki said.

"Now we are talking. Alright, I will spare you the suffering." Naruto said the last two words in his mouth as he pulled his chain back.

"Who are you working for and why did you betray us." Koumi asked.

"Orochimaru, I am working for him. And he said that he will make me powerful, that it why I sided with him." Mizuki said as he coughed out blood.

"That damm bastard, he is alive afterall. Only if was a few seconds faster, I would have killed that creepy ass bastard." Naruto cursed.

"And why did you do that to Rui's mother." Kakashi asked.

"I-" Mizuki said but was cut off by Naruto.

"If you lie, I will chop off your limb." Naruto said.

"I got drunk I had no idea-" Mizuki said as a chain shot out from Naruto's hand and severed his left arm from his body.

"I warned you. Have you taken me for a soft hearted kid?" Naruto said in a stoic tone.

"Alright! I had my eyes on Rui ever since the day she joined the academy, and a few days ago I took the opportunity to get into her house. But she was out on a mission, and only her mother was there. And she looked similar to Rui so I did her instead and then I got into the flow and started beating her and in the end, I hanged her. Damm she was tight for someone to be a mother of two children. And her screams… my god. Every time she screamed it made me even harder. And-" Before he could finish, a Katana, a dozen of chains, and a Raikiri, all dug themselves into Mizuki.

"If this is how humans really are then I would rather stay a demon than becoming one of them." Naruto said.

"There are scum like him everywhere." Kakashi said.

"Even killing him feels merciful." Naruto said.

"Did he say he was after Rui-chan?" Koumi said.

"Yeah, she got lucky that she was not home." Naruto said.

One week Later

7 days was the time it took Rui to finally recover from the trauma. And due to her being in the Uzumaki Estate, the place somehow became a meeting point for Team 7. And today, they got the news about the starting of the Chunnin Exams.

"Alright, so do you three want to participate in the chunnin exams?" Kakashi asked.

"I do." All three of them said in unison.

"Very well then, the exams will start 15 days from now, so start preparing." Kakashi said.

"But it is too less." Rui complained.

"Well there is always next time." Kakashi said.

"No, I want to participate in this exam." Rui said.

"Waiting for another 6 months is better than dying in vain." Kakashi said.

"So what do we do now?" Sakura asked.

"I can lend a hand." Naruto said as he walked in.

"How can you help?" Rui asked.

"Believe it or not, you two are really weak. Sasuke is good enough but you two, you are just pathetic. And it just happens to be that I am really good at it." Naruto said.

"What are you getting at?" Sakura asked.

"I am saying that I can help you two so that you don't die in the second round of the chunnin exams." Naruto said.

"Second Round?" Rui asked.

"There are normally 3 rounds in the chunnin exams. The first one is a written examination, the second one is a survival test and the third one is the tournament where the people from all over the world come to see it." Kakashi said.

"Not this time. I talked to sensei and he let me handle the chunnin exams. So this time, I have made a few changes." Naruto said with a grin.

"First and second round will be the same as always and first 24 to finish the this round will be eligible to take the next round. The third round will be on an island and that will be the best part. And the final round will be a tournament but there will be a twist too." Naruto said.

"What!? It is all too complex for just chunnin exams." Kakashi said.

"That is necessary to increase the quality of the chunnins." Naruto said.

"Why did you especially mentioned the second round?" Sakura asked.

"Because, the most participants die in that round." Naruto said.

"And ironically enough, he is the one who holds a record for clearing the second round in just 30 minutes." Sasuke said.

"For real? It must be easy then." Sakura said.

"You are being far too delusional. Of the more than 200 examinies, less than 40 clear the second round." Kakashi said.

"Well, what about what I said?" Naruto asked.

"Alright, you help Rui while I will train Sakura. As for Sasuke, Shisui said he and Itachi will be taking care of him." Kakashi said.

"Very well then, let's get started." Naruto said. "Hey Sasuke, when are they going to train you from?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know, probably from tomorrow." Sasuke said.

"Good thing, so you wanna help me?" Naruto said.

"With what?" Sasuke asked.

"She is far too weak, so I want you to measure her." Naruto said.

"What did you say!? I will prove it to you that I am not weak." Rui yelled.

"Alright, come to the backyard." Naruto said. "You better train hard Sakura, you aren't going to let her beat you, are you?" Naruto said.

"We will see that in the exams." Sakura said with a thumbs up.

In the Backyard

"Fight!" Naruto said as both Sasuke and Rui took their stance. After gauging each other with just eyes, Rui dashed at Sasuke but as she got close enough, Sasuke landed a high kick in her face, sending her flying away. As she landed on the ground unconscious, blood started flowing out of her mouth like water flowing out of a tap.

"Shall I start digging her grave?" Naruto said.

"Nah, I held back. Her jaw might be dislocated." Sasuke said.

"Atleast give her a chance to show her skills." Naruto said.

"Yeah, from the next time." Sasuke said.

1 hour later

"Fight!" Naruto said.

This time Rui waited for Sasuke to attack and after a few seconds, Sasuke took the hint and came at her. As he came closer, Rui tried the same high kick on Sasuke as he simply ducked and swept her legs, making her fall. But as Sasuke went for the finishing blow, Rui rolled away and got on her feet.

"Now use weapons." Naruto said as Rui took out her kunai and Sasuke took out shurikens. Suddenly Sasuke jumped and shot half a dozen of shurikens at Rui at such a speed that she was unable to react to them. Sasuke had aimed the shurikens at her limbs and they did their job as Rui fell to the ground because the important muscles were cut down.

"Alright, that's enough!" Naruto said as Sasuke landed on the ground.

"How is she?" Sasuke asked.

"Terrible. She lacks speed, both offence and defense, and elemental ninjutsu." Naruto said.

"So, how is she going to make it out alive?" Sasuke asked.

"I will have to teach her some offensive techniques and hope that her enemies just knock her out." Naruto said.

"How about you, have you practiced Shiden?" Naruto asked.

"No, I haven't." Sasuke said.

"Well, you will have to learn it's tricks from Itachi-san, as I am far too reckless with it because of my Uzumaki heritage. And judging from your chakra level, you can use Shiden for just 1 minute at you full capacity. You can add 15 extra seconds, but anymore than that you will die of chakra exhaustion." Sasuke said.

Zabuza was watching their spar from the house. "That girl, she is better suited for long blades, not the fucking kunai." Zabuza muttered.

"Are you going to train her too?" Haku asked.

"No, but I will advice that kid." Zabuza said.

Evening

"Alright, if you want to survive the exams, then you will have to work on your chakra control. You have very low chakra capacity to begin with, and if you don't learn how to control it, then you will lose every fight." Naruto said.

"How do I control my chakra?" Rui asked.

"Well, try to climb the tree using chakra." Naruto said but after a some thinking he changed his mind. "Forget about that, try to walk on water." Naruto said.

"Walk on water, how?" Rui asked.

"Figure yourself, you have tomorrow's dawn to do that. If you fail, you aren't going to participate in the exams." Naruto said as he left the place, pointing at the pond.

"Water walking in just 12 hours? Is he crazy?" Haku asked.

"No, that is a trick to force people to work at their maximum potential. But I think you should lend her a hand." Zabuza said.

"You want me to help her?" Haku asked.

"Yeah, you are also going to participate in the exams." Zabuza said as Haku shunshined to Rui.

"Hey, I had an ANBU retrieve some secret scrolls of the Yuki clan. Here." Naruto said as he gave a bunch of scrolls to Zabuza.

"Where were they, I just found a single scroll when I went there." Zabuza said.

"There are underground chambers too." Naruto said as Zabuza facepalmed himself.

"So she is out helping Rui?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, I asked her." Zabuza said.

"I see." Naruto said.

Next Day

Naruto spent the rest of the night studying the scroll and he was starting to get the few things but he still had a long way to go. After having a 4 hour sleep, he woke up before the dawn. As he lazily walked to the window, he couldn't believe his eyes. Rui was actually standing on the pond and Haku was right beside her.

"So, she is a late bloomer." Naruto said as a smile appeared on his face.

Outside

"Hey, Naruto! Look I did it. I am actually standing on water." Rui boasted like a kid.

"Thank you, Haku. You can rest now." Naruto said.

"Okay, Naruto-Sama." Haku said as she walked out of the pond.

"Sama?" Naruto said.

"Yes. You are so kind to us. You saved us from that life and gave us home to stay. Thank you." Haku said.

"Alright. Address me however you want." Naruto said as Haku shunshined away.

"Why are you ignoring me?" Rui asked.

"I am not ignoring you. Now come out, I have something to show you." Naruto said as Rui came out and followed him. Naruto lead her to one of the secret rooms of his house. As he opened the door, the place turned out to be a collection of different kind of weapons. Every weapon that one could imagine was present there.

"Choose one." Naruto said.

"Is this all yours?" Rui asked.

"Yeah, this is one tenth of the total weapons I have, but I have sealed others in scrolls. Now, pick your weapon of choice." Naruto said. Rui starting wandering around the room as it was her first time she had actually seen so many weapons in a single place. She looked at a battle axe and tried to pick it up but she was barely able to lift it. She then looked at a shiny sheath which had golden floral design on it. She immediately picked it up and unsheathed it as the blade shined beautifully.

"This is beautiful." Rui asked slowly.

"I brought it from the Land of Iron. They have some really good swordsmiths. Infact, I brought over five hundred weapons form there." Naruto said as he put his hands behind his head.

"Can I have it?" Rui asked.

"That is why we are here. So, are going to learn kenjutsu?" Naruto said.

"Ken-What?" Rui asked.

"The art of wielding a sword." Naruto said.

"I have never used a Katana before." Rui said.

"Yeah, well I know that just by looking at you. Let's learn it then." Naruto said as Rui followed him to the same pond as before.

"Alright. You will learn Kenjutsu while standing on the water at the same time." Naruto said as he unsealed his own katana, that looked like a normal one.

"Why do you use a normal katana when you have so many other good ones?" Rui asked as she walked on the pond followed by Naruto.

"Because, I break them more often. Sometimes by just overwhelming them with lightning release techniques." Naruto said sheepishly.

"Alright, now unsheathe your Katana." Naruto said Rui did as followed. Naruto then guided her to take a basic stance.

"Now, attack!" Naruto said as Rui dashed at him but as she kicked to pond to thrust herself, she leg sunk into and soon she got completely inside the pond.

"Come out. We don't have all day." Naruto said as he gave a hand to Rui who was burbling inside the pond due to embarrassment.

8 Hours passed and she was still struggling to fight on water, Naruto decided to give her a break and start the next part of her regime. "You have some problem with chakra control, so we will have to work on that." Naruto said.

"How are we going to do that?" Rui asked as Naruto picked up a leaf and gave it to Rui.

"Slice it in half." Naruto said as Rui unsheathed her Katana but Naruto stopped him.

"Slice it using Wind Chakra." Naruto said.

"What? How?" Rui asked.

"Mold Wind Chakra in your hand and apply it on the leaf." Naruto said as Rui followed the instructions. As she was already using Wind Release Jutsu since before, this task was easy for her. After a few tries she finally managed to slice the leaf.

"Well done. Now apply the same wind chakra on your blade." Naruto said as Rui's eye shined. She immediately moulded some wind chakra and applied it on the blade. But much to her surprise, controlling the chakra was much difficult than she had expected. Suddenly the chakra started flickering and died down, as she was unable to maintain the Wind Release.

"Hmm… I think it will take much more than slicing a leaf for you to master your technique." Naruto said as he looked at the pond.

"Try separating the water of the pond in two halves using Wind Chakra for the next 8 hours." Naruto said.

"What? That is impossible." Rui said as Naruto simply put his palm on the river and in an instant, the water got separated in two half as the cleavage reached the bottom of the pond. He then removed his hand as the water joined again.

"You still think that it's impossible?" Naruto said. "Go on, give it a try. You can do it." Naruto said before he shunshined away.

This continued for 4 more days and still she was unable to form a small cleavage. Her routine was simple, she first practiced Kenjutsu with Naruto on the pond for 8 straight hours. Then for the next 8 hours, she tried to separate the pond in two halves. On the evening of the fourth day, after giving it her all, she finally formed a small cleavage on the pond. For her, this was nothing less than an achievement. And after 2 more days of hardwork, she finally achieved the same feat as Naruto.

"That was fast. To be honest, I didn't expect you to do it this quickly." Naruto said in amusement. Though, it took just a couple of days to do this, he understood that not everyone was like him. But he still wanted to see the true potential of Rui, so he kept pushing her to her limits.

"I told you not to underestimate me." Rui said as she pointed her thumb to herself in a comical way. 'Is he really impressed by this.'

"Alright, I won't underestimate you, not that I ever did. I was just pressing you so that you could unleash your true potential. I acknowledged your strength that is why I kept pushing you to your limits." Naruto said as Rui slightly blushed.

"Now then, cover your sword with Wind Release." Naruto said breaking the moment that was slowly brewing.

"Okay." Rui said as she followed Naruto's instructions and coated her sword in wind release. The sword easily got covered by the Wind Chakra with any problems.

"Release more chakra and make it spin around the sword much faster." Naruto said as Rui followed.

"Even faster." Naruto said as Rui rotated the wind even faster than before until the sword became invisible. As Rui wondered and stopped the Wind, the sword became visible again.

"Congratulations, you have learned your first S-Rank Jutsu." Naruto said as he clapped his hand in applause.

"What? I don't get it." Rui asked.

"The wind you were releasing refracted the light that was falling on the sword and hence made it invisible. In addition, you can even increase the length of you sword to a couple of meters, making it even difficult to counter." Naruto said.

"Whoa, you mean I have an invisible sword and I can even increase it's length! Amazing!" Rui said.

"But, I would recommend you to not use it often as this is much chakra taxing." Naruto said.

"Okay. For how long can I use it?" Rui asked.

"About an hour if that is all you will use your chakra for. But I say you take the limit as 30 minutes and save chakra for other handy techniques that I am going to teach you." Naruto said.

"Alright. So, I was wondering, what is your limit?" Rui asked.

"Me? I can use it forever and it still won't drain my chakra." Naruto said as he chuckled.

"You have that big chakra reserves!?" Rui wondered.

"Yeah. It is one of the perks of being an Uzumaki." Naruto said the half-truth. Kurama was another factor that Naruto considered when he made that statement.

"She looks impressed. Are you going on hit on her?" Kurama teased.

"We will see it after I become old enough for this type of stuff." Naruto said.

"But someone else will take her if you don't act soon." Kurama continued his teasing.

"Not my concern. She can do whatever she want." Naruto said.

"Yeah? Did you forget that I can sense emotions too?" Kurama laughed.

"Damm you. Quit it, Kurama. Stop teasing me." Naruto pouted as Kurama used his paws to rub Naruto's hair.


Beta Read by Yuzuki476

Author's Note

This chapter also completed. And it turned out that Mizuki was the real culprit. But was he really behind destroying the seals? Can't say. I know I went a little vulgar with Mizuki, but I had to show his insanity somehow. Incase you are wondering what was Mizuki doing in Naruto's house, he was trying to steal the sealing formula Naruto had used to erect the barrier, so that he could destroy it as well.

And now the cannon Chunnin Exams finally begin. And as I said, there are going to some changes in this version. Basically I am just mixing the Hunter Exams [Hunter x Hunter] and the Chunnin Exams. And you are going to see some HxH reference in the next chapters as well. Well that was it for this chapter. Also, Naruto is training Rui so you can expect her to be a bit useful in the next chapters but she will ultimately get overshadowed by bigger fishes like Sasuke, Neji, and others. See ya in the next chapter. Drop a review if you have some extra time.