Expect around weekly updates. Anyway, enjoy.
The Hokage's Office
"Hokage-jiji!" Naruto shouted as he barged right into the office. Takai heard the Hokage's chair creak as he replied, "Hello, Naruto."
Takai noted the sound of his pen being set on the desk, the Hokage must be desperate for any chance to escape the onslaught of paperwork. "Me and Takai were training and we found this book and we were doing the exercises and my leaf kept exploding!" Naruto said rapidly.
The Hokage lifted an eyebrow, "What do you mean?" He questioned. "Look!" Naruto said in reply as he pulled a leaf from his pocket and placed it to his forehead while sitting in one of the chairs, Takai sitting next to him. He focused for about ten seconds before the leaf practically popped, shreds of it flying all over. The Hokage brushed a few bits of leaf off his desk as he looked at Naruto.
"Naruto my boy," The old man said, puffing his pipe which Takai didn't notice appearing in his hand, "this just means you have a lot of chakra, it will take more practice to get it down."
Naruto stared at him blankly. "Is that good?" He asked.
"I would say so, but you will need to work quite a lot harder to control your chakra." He said.
Naruto groaned as he flopped out of the chair, Takai then dragging him out of the office.
On street level, Takai looked up to the roof tops as Naruto went on about his next prank when he saw Kakashi sitting on a roof top with one of his Icha Icha books. He smiled broadly as he looked at the man, 'One day.' He thought.
He looked back at Naruto and agreed to help him, the pranks were always funny and needed some sneaking, good practice for ninjas.
Kakashi looked down at Takai from the roof top, book in hand, 'Maybe he'll make it onto my team.' He thought to himself as he turned the page to a steamy part. He turned bright red at the words as his nose began to bleed, 'Thank Kami I wear this mask all the time hehehaaahaha.' He thought to himself while giggling perversely.
Two years later, outside The Okawa Family's Weapon Shop
Takai and Naruto looked at the shop. They had read in one of their many books collected for training that chakra weights were useful for said endeavor. "You have all your money? This will probably clean us out, Naruto." Takai said, pulling out his rather small brown wallet while Naruto held a more toad shaped wallet that seemed more like a coin purse to Takai, though, Naruto quickly shot that idea down saying it was a "girly girl" thing.
"Of course! I wouldn't miss this! We have to be the best after all, right?" Naruto said.
The pair walked into the shop together, "Too bad the last seven kicked us both out the moment we appeared in the door." Takai said with disappointment.
"Then there was that crazy guy who closed his shop outright when we reached for the door handle!" Naruto said, chuckling at the memory.
Takai shrugged, with all their pranks they had made quite a name for themselves. They had painted the windows of all the shops on an entire street hot pink smeared with blindingly shiny glitter, had even managed to catch an ANBU in the way of a glitter cannon. Takai chuckled lightly at the memory. That wasn't even a scratch on the surface of what they had done.
He thought of Naruto's own jutsu, the Sexy Jutsu. Of course, it was only a Henge of an incredibly attractive woman, but still! They had managed to give the Hokage a nosebleed when they both used it! They laughed for awhile even though the Hokage kicked them out for a little bit.
He shook his head as they approached the counter, immediately noticing the large man behind the counter with brown hair and eyes with insane amounts of muscles, the man probably had muscles on his muscles. 'WOAH! That guy is buff!' Naruto and Takai thought simultaneously. The man was built like a damn house!
"Greetings, welcome to The Okawa Family's Weapon Shop. What can I get you two?" The man asked in a deep voice.
"We were looking for chakra weights! We want to be the best in the academy so we're training hard! Believe it!" Naruto said proudly. Takai nodded next to him. The man hummed at the counter.
"You know, I think I have some of those." He got up from the counter, the stool he was on creaking. He walked out from behind the counter and showed them through a few aisles of merchandise to find four shelves dedicated to chakra weights.
"These right here. They have a seal to allow the adjusting of the weights freely, in theory I believe they get about as heavy as twenty tons, but of course, that would render you immobile." He explained.
"You're going to want one for each limb, arms and legs, for equal distribution of weight. Maybe if you want you can get something for your torso, but that would cost a little more." The man said.
The boys nodded with that logic as they looked at the tag. Their jaws dropped and their eyes bulged, '50,000 RYO EACH?! 200,000 RYO TOTAL?!' The pair thought, once again at the same time.
"Maybe the vest is cheaper than a full set of these..?" Takai said sadly.
"Yeah...I don't have nearly enough, not even 100,000 ryo, and we saved for two years!" Naruto said while looking into his green toad wallet.
The man sighed behind them, he didn't like that he couldn't provide the boys the full set, but business was business, he couldn't spare even a single ryo as most it went back into the shop, the rest supporting his family.
"The vests are 65,000 ryo, let me show you to them." He said quietly. The boys nodded as the man took exactly one step over to be in front of the vests.
"They work the same way the angle and wrist weights do. You going to buy them?" He asked.
Takai counted out 65,000, only having 4,892 ryo left for two weeks to the end of the month. Naruto counted out the same only having 4,563 ryo left over.
"Yeah, its cleaning us out, but we will." Takai said. The man grabbed two off the shelf. Takai found them quite interesting. They were khaki tan with black symbols and markings all round the vest on bars that jutted out ever so slightly from the vest. Takai tapped on a bar to find it was metallic.
They walked back up to the counter where the man logged the purchase and took the money from the boys and handed their vests over the counter. "Thanks mister." The pair said. "When you want to increase the weight, channel chakra to the circular seal on the right side and channel to the left side to make it lighter that looks like a square." He said before waving them off.
They turned to leave when they heard a feminine voice, "Daaaaaaddy! Can I go and play with my friends?" The pair stopped and turned back to the man who was looking behind him at a doorway presumably to the home part of the building they were in.
"Uh- sure I suppose, just come back before dark!" He yelled back. They waited for a moment as they heard footsteps. A girl about their age rounded the corner of the counter. She was slightly taller than Naruto, but shorter than Takai. She had brown hair done up in two buns and large brown eyes. Her face was fairly rounded and her facial structure gave her a look of focus.
Naruto turned on his heel to walk out, Takai being slower on purpose to admire the girl.
Hokage's Office
The Hokage was signing away, pausing to pop his wrist when his door was kicked open by none other than Naruto with Takai right behind him, each wearing some sort of khaki tan vest that clashed heavily with their current colors. "Hey Hokage-jiji!" Naruto cheered as he ran up to a chair and Takai took the seat next to him.
The old man smiled, "How may I help you two today?"
"We've been doing the leaf sticking exercise thing for two years now! We need something more difficult." Takai said.
The Hokage hummed quietly in thought. "Well, I suppose I could have someone teach you the tree walking exercise. Anything else? While I would like to help you out more, this pile isn't shrinking by me teaching you two some jutsus." He said while gesturing to the massive stack of papers that was about as tall as Naruto.
Takai looked at Naruto, who was currently patting his toad wallet while apologizing to it, then at the Hokage. "How do these vests work? We know how to adjust the weight, but how do they actually get heavier?" Takai questioned. The Hokage nodded, "Chakra weights take advantage of an art known as fuinjutsu." The Hokage said.
Both boys tilted their heads curiously, "Foojutsu?" Naruto questioned.
"Fuinjutsu. If you would like, I might have a book around here somewhere on the basics." He said as he began to search the drawers around his desk. After a moment he pulled out a book. It was conveniently titled Fuinjutsu For Dummies. "Come by tomorrow and I'll have someone teach you the exercise." The Hokage added on.
The Hokage handed the book over to Takai. "In there you'll find the basics of fuinjutsu. It can be used for a myriad of different things, I think you'll enjoy it." Takai accepted the book carefully, thanking the Hokage before he and Naruto sprinted away. The Hokage glanced at an ANBU in the corner of the room who sighed in relief. He supposed that was one of the many recent victims of the two boys' pranks. The Hokage shook his head with an easy smile.
Naruto's Apartment
The two walked into Naruto's apartment quickly, taking their sandals off and Takai setting his new book on Naruto's table. "Let's up the weight a little." Naruto placed his hand on his right side and channeled some chakra into the seal. He held it for a moment until he groaned, "Too far! Too far!" He slapped his other hand onto the left side and lightened it up considerably.
Naruto stretched a bit when Takai noticed the colors: they looked like crap. Naruto wearing his bright kill-me-orange jacket and pants made it clash so badly it was puke worthy and he wasn't much better, bright green shirt and black pants.
"Put your coat over your vest. It conceals it so the colors don't look so awful." Takai told Naruto.
"Alright- wait, why? Are you dissing orange!? That's my favorite color!" He cried to his fellow, getting very close to his face. Takai put a hand onto his face and pushed him away, "No, you nitwit, khaki tan and orange don't look good together in any sense of the word. Speaking of which, neither does khaki tan and green, so I need a coat as well." He teasingly explained.
Naruto grumbled, "Fine...but won't it get really hot throughout the day?" He asked
"Another method of training! The places we have to travel will have differing climate and weather patterns! If we get used to discomfort due to heat, we'll be ready for the majority of the Fire Country." Takai explained with a mock-snobby tone.
Naruto deadpanned, "You read too much." He said shortly.
Takai chuckled as he adjusted his vest to what he would guess was about seventy pounds. He rolled his shoulders, "And I bet I can still kick your butt in a race!" He bragged.
"You're on! Finish at the library! We need to find some manuals for taijutsu anyway." Naruto proclaimed.
It was then that both boys sprinted for their sandals and burst out the door, push and shoving through the building to make it down to street level and to the library. They both were smiling broadly and having immense fun. Both were happy to have a friend.
Kerishiki's Clothes
Takai stopped by a clothing store after his race with Naruto. He beat the boy soundly but he was still full of energy. Takai was impressed quite a bit. He entered the store and immediately walked to the right, not eager to interact with the counter manager. He had thrown Naruto out of this store once, but Takai needed some new clothes, so he relented.
He walked through the aisles aimlessly for awhile before he came across the perfect set of clothes. It was a blue long sleeved shirt in the darkest blue of the Genin color palette with the cuffs rolled half-way up the forearm with matching pants as well as sandals in the same color that looks more like boots but he didn't think anything of it.
Right after he picked up the three sets of the clothes and one pair of sandals that he looked towards an upper shelf to discover a face mask exactly like Kakashi wore, a headband in an ever so slightly darker color than Genin blue, fingerless gloves in the same color with metal on the back of the hands. The face mask extended far enough to go past the collar of a shirt and was skin tight. The headband was identical in color to the rest.
He thanked Kami that it was all on sale for 500 ryo. He rushed home with the outfits in brown paper bags. He was excited for this.
Takai's Apartment
Takai quickly stripped and put on the mask, letting it sit around his neck for now as he pulled over a shirt and pants. After that he pulled on the sandals he tucked the cuffs of the pants into the sandals. He pulled on the gloves, and then looked into the mirror. He pulled the mask up, it stopped at the hairline on the back of his head close to the nape of the neck and went up to the bridge of his nose on his face. He smiled in joy, so close to the look of his inspiration. He looked at the headband and picked it up tying it around his forehead carefully.
He looked into the mirror. How long had it been since he had done that? Too long he decided. He hated that ugly scar so much, it hurt him to see it. He noticed the headband was too long and as such hung down at the back of his head sort of like tassels. Not quite exact. But he'd make due, after all, wasn't that how Kakashi inspired him? Making due of his injury and continuing onward? He shook his head to not get lost in his thinking, his brown hair shaking in response
He then grabbed the head band on the left just above his eyebrow and pulled it down, obscuring his scar. He smiled broadly under his mask, the only sign of such being his eye crinkling. It could only go uphill for him from here.
One year later, Konoha Shinobi Academy
Currently Takai and Naruto were sitting in class at the Academy. Takai had done his damnedest to get Naruto to pay attention, only managing to get the boy to do so about half the time, better than sleeping through the classes he supposed. He elbowed him as class ended, "Come on, we have our training to do." He said while getting up.
The teacher was some no-name Chunin who hadn't managed to get a field assignment in years, so he was re-assigned to the Academy.
Takai had worked hard to make his personality become more aloof and distant like Kakashi, being distinctly cold towards nearly everyone but Naruto. The pair got up and walked off, one walking calmly and the other practically bouncing off the walls. Unbeknownst to them, a girl with lavender eyes and dark hair watched the hyper-active one with awe.
"Hey, are we going to try sneaking up on the Hokage again?" Naruto asked.
It was a task they had established for themselves. They had to sneak up on and surprise the Hokage at least once before they graduate the Academy to prove themselves. Quite a tall order but that didn't deter the pair. Takai nodded, "Let's wait outside his office on the ceiling like before, but lets follow him on the ceiling." Takai suggested.
He then thought back to the poor Chunin the Hokage had assigned to teach them the tree walking exercise, after that they positively demanded something more difficult after they walked up the faces of the Hokage Monument. They had effectively bullied the Chunin into teaching them water walking after a week. That lead to them nearly scaring the lady at the front desk of the Hokage Tower to death by dropping down next to her from the ceiling.
After that good trip down memory lane the duo arrived at the tower. They walked in quietly as possible past the front desk lady who always made an effort to find a way to notify the Hokage of visitors. Half the time she managed to catch the pair simply because there was no easy way past her, but today she was paying close attention to some sort of book instead of the door.
They walked through the halls carefully, avoiding all the office workers. They were lucky the doors to the Hokage's Office were set into an alcove in the wall with plenty of shadows at the top in the corners, easily obscuring them. They made their way to the door and used their training with the Wall Climbing technique and Water Walking technique. Handy.
Takai held his finger to his lips, which were obviously obscured by his mask, but luckily Naruto got the message to stay quiet. He nodded as the doors opened and out walked the Hokage. Takai heard Naruto suck in a breath. He cringed as the Hokage rubbed his ear with a contemplative look and walked down the hall. The pair of boys moved completely silently along the ceiling, the Hokage displaying no sign he knew where they were.
The Hokage stopped before sliding doors which he promptly slid open and right when the doors slammed inside the walls Naruto fell from the ceiling and thudded onto the floor. Takai huffed in response, releasing his chakra from his feet and left arm, hanging only by his right then dropped down silently. "Failed again." He said, "Come on Naruto, you have to get better at that! How else are we going to sneak up on the Hokage?" He said before pulling Naruto away.
The Hokage hummed, "Naruto, I know you have control issues, but I knew it was you two from the moment you started using the Wall Climbing technique because your chakra practically threw up a flare. Anyone with even the most basic sensory capabilities would have noticed it. Perhaps less chakra is a better idea." He explained.
"I can't Jiji! I either don't use enough which makes me slide off the walls like a greased sausage or make huge ripples during the Water Walking technique or I use a lot of chakra." Naruto complained.
'I wish I could tell him why things are this way...' The Hokage thought to himself, "Well, in any case, I believe you two were going to go do some more training?" The Hokage questioned, pulling out his pipe. "About that-" Takai began while rubbing the back of his head nervously, giving an awkward eye smile, "I've hit a road block with fūinjutsu. The basics only has seal anatomy and how to tell what a seal is for, not how to create them or any of that! I want to know how to make explosive tags." Takai said.
The Hokage could only shudder as he imagined what the two could get up to with easy access to explosive tags, and from there it could only get worse, sealing a literal ton of glitter into a seal barely the size of a palm and throwing them like bombs... well, one outcome that is.
"Hm. Well, you two graduate from the Academy and become Genin in...about six years, no?" Naruto took awhile to count on his fingers while Takai answered immediately, "Yeah, just about." He declared bravely while Naruto nodded rapidly.
"Well, the shinobi section of the public library would become available to you then, alternatively there is the Shinobi Archives which is primarily focused on literature related to shinobi, training, ninjutsu, and the like. Oh, I suppose there is also the possibility that someone could use a Henge to sneak into the library in order to gain access to the literature you desire. Hypothetically, of course." He said.
Takai gasped, "You're right! How could I not see it?!" He turned and grabbed Naruto by the wrist to run to the library, "Thanks Jiji-" He stopped with an 'oh'. He looked back at the Hokage who was smiling in a grandfatherly fashion. Takai smiled back with a nice and full eye smile before sprinting off with Naruto.
Six years later, Konoha Shinobi Academy, after final testing
Naruto was sitting on a swing dejectedly. He had failed. He couldn't graduate. It was all because of one stupid jutsu. Bunshin no Jutsu. It wasn't even remotely useful either! Any enemy shinobi with more than three brain cells could figure out it was fake, after all, it doesn't have a shadow...or a chakra signature. Naruto vaguely registered the sound of Takai settling on the branch above him.
"Hey, don't feel bad, you know I would never move up without you." He said consoling the boy.
"That's the problem. I'm gonna hold you back." Naruto said dejectedly.
"No way, I can't abandon my Hokage. You are gonna be Hokage, no?" Takai said.
Naruto smiled sadly, "I just need a little bit."
Takai nodded above him, "See you later than, I'll be around the village...somewhere." He said as he hopped from the branch of the tree to the fence and than dropped down and out of sight.
Naruto sat there for awhile until Mizuki-sensei approached him.
"You know...there is another way to pass." He said.
Naruto looked up, "There is?" Hope spilled from his every motion.
Konoha's Forests
Takai had been traveling via roof top through Konoha when Naruto had appeared. He had sprinted off towards Hokage Tower. Takai followed him, being a bit suspiscious. Takai had been proven right when Naruto used the Sexy Jutsu to knock out the Hokage on the balcony of Hokage Tower and leave through the street entrance with a scroll in hand. It being a rather...large scroll. Naruto promptly ran into the forests of Konoha.
Takai blinked as he watched this occur. He moved after Naruto, taking awhile to catch up to him in the middle of a clearing. He settled on a branch on the edge.
"Naruto! What are you doing?" Takai asked.
"Mizuki-sensei said by stealing this scroll and learning one jutsu from it, I can pass!" Naruto said.
Takai looked at him carefully. "You sure about this?" He asked.
"I am! I'm gonna pass and become Hokage! Believe it!" He said.
Takai nodded at the normal behavior. He stepped forwards with his left leg and dropped to the ground smoothly, approaching Naruto and reading along with him.
"Well, I should be able to help you with this, after all, assisting one's comrades is pretty stressed, yeah?" Takai reasoned as he pointed at one jutsu.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. Remember what the Hokage said? Your large chakra reserves make control crazy difficult. Well, it looks like this jutsu is practically tailor made for people with loads of chakra. Splitting it in half..? Sheesh." He said while reading directions to learn the technique.
He then nodded, "Alright, let's get this down before we move on. Serious training time." Naruto nodded in reply.
The pair managed to get the technique learned and reliably performed in under twenty minutes, Naruto taking thirty with much assistance from Takai. Takai however, was heavily fatigued, "Can't use this technique too much." He panted, using tons of chakra fast was a bitch and a half to deal with. Naruto looked through the rest of the scroll and discovered just about all of the other techniques required near immaculate chakra control.
Takai once he stopped panted approached the scroll once more and read some more of the techniques."Spirit Transformation?" That seemed pretty damn brutal, manifesting one's soul and forcibly inserting it into someone weaker than yourself mentally to possess them or even attack their soul? Takai used what little chakra he had left from working on the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, unfortunately he could not test it out on anyone at the current moment nor finish training. He supposed field tests would be required. He pulled out a notepad and pen and quickly scribbled the entry down and looked further along the scroll.
Takai's eye shot open to the size of a dinner plate as he looked at the next entry. It was a seal called the Eight Trigrams Seal. A lot of it looked to have modified characters and symbols! Takai sketched the seal as fast as possible and wrote down the entry just below that, what the various characters and symbols meant, how to use it, its purpose. Takai was surprised the notepad didn't catch fire, he unfortunately didn't have time to properly go over it.
Naruto looked towards the end of the scroll, "Edo Tensei?" He said. Takai looked up at the entry.
"Holy- what the fuck?" Takai exclaimed as he read the entry. Reviving the fucking dead? No way. Nuh uh. Not having a hand in it...okay, maybe he wrote that one down. In extreme detail. He almost moved down as an idea occurred to him.
"Naruto, we should roll this back up, I already got some interesting stuff written down. Help me with it." Takai practically ordered. A confused Naruto obliged.
"Naruto, where did you find this exactly? What is this scroll's name?" He questioned.
"Mizuki-sensei told me it was in the Hokage Tower in the restricted area, so I knocked out the Hokage with a nosebleed using my Sexy Jutsu and stole this thing!" He said while holding the scroll, "I think he called it the Scroll of Seals."
He nearly face palmed, "Naruto, why would fresh Genin be ordered to steal something that is under the direct protection of the Hokage and supposedly guarded by ANBU? That seems pretty damn impossible to me." He explained, hand on his chin in a thinking pose.
Takai looked confused, something didn't quite make sense here. "And what do we do with it now?"
"NARUTO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! ARE YOU INSANE?!" One of their Academy Instructors shouted as he burst into the clearing, Iruka Umino, "And...Takai?" He shook his head.
"Mizuki-sensei told me if I steal this scroll and learn a jutsu from it, I can pass the Academy." Naruto explained while holding the scroll up, "I followed him and helped him learn from it." Takai said, raising his hand.
"Mizuki said what?" Iruka gasped.
"For the brat to get me the scroll!" Mizuki yelled as he burst into the clearing, throwing a massive shuriken at Naruto.
Takai tackled Naruto out of the way as the shuriken crashed into a tree, embedding itself into the tree easily up to the center hole. Both kids were wide-eyed. "Why are you doing this Mizuki?!" Iruka cried as he pulled out a kunai.
"Because of that damn demon!" Mizuki yelled as he flung a number of kunai at Iruka, hitting him in the upper thighs and left shoulder. "Gah!" Iruka exclaimed as he backed into an old shed. "You're out of practice from grading all those papers Iruka."
"W-what?" Naruto asked.
"Don't let Mizuki get the scroll, Naruto! He's lying!" Iruka yelled as he pulled the kunai from his shoulder.
"Hehe, give me the scroll, Naruto." Mizuki ordered.
Naruto looked hesitant, "What's going on here? Whose lying?!"
Takai grabbed the collar of Naruto's jacket, "OBVIOUSLY THE GUY WHO JUST TRIED TO KILL THE OTHER GUY!" Takai yelled in his face as he pulled Naruto away to hop through the trees.
"Get back here you demon brat!" Mizuki shouted after the pair as he charged off.
"Mizuki, no!" Iruka yelled as he pulled the other two kunai from his legs. It was hard to see due to the darkness of the night, but Iruka followed the sounds of crashing.
Takai and Naruto were able to keep a sizeable distance between them and Mizuki.
"Takai! What the hell is going on here?" Naruto asked frantically as they tree hopped.
"I don't know! But what I do know is that we need to get the hell out of here right now!" He replied.
After a moment both crashed to the ground as they braced to jump on a rotten branch.
"Umph!" Takai exclaimed as Naruto landed on top of him. One hundred pounds of Naruto plus the weighted vest which they both had set to three hundred and fifty pounds was not very fun to have thrown on top of you.
Mizuki soon caught up to them, flinging standard shurikens at them both. Takai shoved Naruto out of the way and dived away.
"You want to know who is truly lying Naruto?" Mizuki said sadistically, "Everyone has! Everyone! Ever since that decree twelve years ago!"
"What decree?" Takai looked equally confused.
Mizuki smiled cruelly, "That no one could tell you...that the Nine-Tailed Fox is sealed inside of you!" He laughed madly while Takai deadpanned. Naruto looked more confused than anything.
"Are you stupid?" Takai asked simply.
"Heh? What?" Mizuki replied.
"Any moron who knows the first thing about sealing is that the object sealed inside of something does not make the container that object. A kunai sealed into a scroll doesn't make a scroll a kunai, does it?" Takai explained slowly as if Mizuki was mentally impaired. The man stared for a moment before continuing his madness.
"DOESN'T MATTER! I'M GOING TO TAKE THAT DAMN SCROLL AND BECOME AS POWERFUL AS A KAGE!" He screamed madly. He threw the massive shuriken at Naruto. Takai reached out with his hand, desperate to save his friend, but he was too far away. That was until Iruka appeared, back to the shuriken, taking the blow and thus saving Naruto.
"I'm sorry, N-naruto." Iruka said as he flopped forwards in a heap. Naruto looked horrified at the loss of the one teacher and other friend that respected him. Tears prickled at the corners of his eyes as Mizuki laughed. "Protecting the demon to the end, eh, Iruka? HA!" He yelled triumphantly. Mizuki, now out of his massive shurikens, drew a kunai and hopped down off the branch, approaching Naruto.
Takai watched in horror as Mizuki approached his friend. His mind raced as he thought of what to do. He eventually used the first jutsu that came to his mind. He went through the hand signs tiger, ram, rat, horse, boar, and hare, then he shouted, "REIKA NO JUTSU (Spirit Transformation Technique)!"
An ethereal image of Takai flew from his body and charged Mizuki's phasing into him and possessing him. Mizuki gargled for awhile before he fell over, twitching while foaming at the mouth before going still.
After a moment the ghostly image of Takai floated out of Mizuki's corpse. Takai twitched for a moment before he was in control of his body once more. His head was pounding and he could practically feel his chakra coils cringing in exertion. He rushed over to Iruka's side, pulling out the large shuriken and rolling him over. "Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shouted while Takai remained quiet.
"Naruto! Wait, there was a lesson in the Academy, most shinobi have basic medical supplies on their person at all times while wearing their uniform!" He said as he began rooting through Iruka's vest, the man coughing up a bit of blood. Takai eventually found a bandage roll "Come on Naruto, we were taught basic medical treatment in the Academy! Help me get his vest off." He said while unzipping the armor and Naruto pulling off of him. "Now, lift him up a little every time I wrap the bandage around." Takai said as he began to wrap the bandage around the man's torso, keeping it tight, Naruto doing exactly as Takai told him.
He seemed to be in shock from the large wound.. After that they wrapped what little bandage was left around the wounds in his upper thighs and shoulder from the kunai. "We should find the Hokage and explain this to him." Takai said.
"Yeah..." Naruto said, rubbing his head sheepishly.
They heard a branch creak, both turned towards it ready to fight only to see Kakashi Hatake. Takai dropped his stance while Naruto squinted for a few moments, "Whose the scarecrow?" He asked. Takai sweat dropped. Kakashi deadpanned.
"You two, with me, now. Hokage's orders." Kakashi said as he dropped from the branch. He walked over and picked up the now unconscious Iruka in a bridal carry and began walking away. The boys scrambled to catch up, Naruto carrying the Scroll of Seals on his back and Takai easily keeping pace with the Jonin. The Jonin didn't say a word to the two boys. "Kakashi-san, don't we get our team assignments tomorrow?" Takai asked.
"Yes, you do." Kakashi answered in that same level and monotone voice.
Takai looked at Kakashi, then at his right pocket, noticing his Icha Icha book. He grabbed it out of the Jonin's pocket "Put that- uh-" Kakashi went red when he saw what the boy had grabbed from him. Takai giggled perversely from what parts of the book said as he opened it and began reading. He could feel a small stream of blood begin to drip from his nose. The Jonin spun around and snatched the book from the boy, pocketing it. Takai had one thought at that moment, 'Thank Kami I wear this mask all the time hehehehaaaaha.'
Hokage's Office
"So, what you're telling me is," The Hokage began while gesturing at Naruto, "Mizuki told you, Naruto, that you could pass the final test by stealing the Scroll of Seals and learning a jutsu from it." He turned to Takai pointing to him, "And you found him, believed the explanation, and helped him learn a jutsu from the scroll and when Mizuki attempted to kill you all, you successfully used the Reika no Jutsu to kill Mizuki when he approached Naruto with a kunai in hand." He finally turned towards an awake Iruka, "And you took a fuma shuriken to the back as well as multiple other wounds to protect the two boys from harm, believing Naruto to have been tricked." All nodded.
The Hokage sighed while sitting down in his chair, "It appears there was a spy in our midst, I seriously doubt a Chunin could have used the strongest jutsus and techniques in that scroll. I believe he was going to give it to someone else." Kakashi was standing close to the door reading his book, giggling quietly. A bandaged Iruka turned to Naruto, smiling, "Close your eyes Naruto." He said as Takai stood up and walked over to Kakashi, using the Wall Walking technique to stand upside down behind him and read over his shoulder, beginning to giggle alongside Kakashi.
"Why?" Naruto asked skeptically.
"Because I told you to!" Iruka replied.
Naruto squinted at him but complied.
After a minute Iruka spoke again, "Open your eyes now." Naruto did so and immediately looked at him, than the Hokage, both were smiling brightly. Naruto reached up and touched his forehead only to find Iruka's headband. "I agreed, didn't I?" Naruto smiled so wide his face hurt. Iruka told him that he'd give him his headband if he passed. He got the headband. He passed. He finally passed.
The Hokage looked at Kakashi, then Takai who was reading over his shoulder. He shook his head gently. 'It seems another one has joined me and Kakashi as fans of Jiraiya-kun's books.
That would be it folks! Next chapter they are getting their team assignments. And their Jonin instructor's test. I also took the liberty of giving Tenten a family name since there isn't one ever given.
Beta'd by the wonderful Dragon.