With a month to graduation, every student in Class A was counting down the days.
Except Naruto. He couldn't understand the difference between being a ninja and being a student. Sure, active duty shinobi went on missions, and those seemed like they could be fun, but what's the difference between fighting some foreign ninja to the death and fighting classmates to first blood? Fighting is fighting and fighting is great.
The idea of a "Jonin Sensei" like Bao told him about had some appeal, but that didn't seem to be what the others were so excited for. They seemed excited to do the most good for the village, and be the best at helping.
Naruto just wanted to be the best at fighting. That's where they differed.
Regardless, it seemed clear from the instructor's behavior that the team assignments that everyone seemed so enamored with obsessing over were coming up. Rather than their ordinary ninjutsu and taijutsu exams, structured 'team games' were now daily activities.
Sato took great joy in mixing and matching individuals, seeing who worked well together and who didn't, and jotting it all down on a clipboard. Naruto didn't pay too much mind to that, even though the other kids did. He just played the games. They were usually pretty fun.
Bao paid close attention to Sato on Naruto's behalf anyway (no matter how many times that Naruto told him he didn't care). The rock-exploder cared more about things like grades and the approval of teachers than just about anything else. Whenever Bao talked about things like grades, Naruto refused to listen, as every word seemed so obsessed over nonsense.
Like today, where from his seat Naruto could hear Bao speak to a fellow classmate about all of Sato's subtle facial cues, and how his failure to play tag correctly clearly resulted in worse marks… Naruto closed his eyes and focused on his chakra to drown out the annoying chatter while they waited for Sato to announce the next game.
He unwound the tenketsu in his chest and let the chakra move to his hand and bubble up on the stone desk. The desk stuck fast to his palm. He pushed the chakra into the desk, condensing it until the chakra thickened into a faint blue aura around his hand. He pushed it down harder. Denser, denser, denser. Enough chakra that if he let it burst it would leave an imprint…
Naruto felt a tap on his shoulder. He slowly let the chakra fade from his hands and looked to Bao, who pointed to the front. Sato stood at the front with his clipboard, tapping a pencil on it to get the attention of all the shinobi-in-training.
"Today's team practice needs space. We're moving to training ground thirty-six."
All the students got up to leave as Naruto smiled. It was always a good sign when the practice needed space. Space meant ninjutsu, and ninjutsu meant fun.
Training ground thirty-six stood out from the others primarily due to its status as one of the largest training grounds in Iwagakure, and the numerous spires of rock which littered the otherwise barren landscape. Some spires came from Iwa's shinobi and their frequent use of Earth Release jutsu, but some from nature itself. Regardless, the academy liked using the training ground for its 'realistic portrayal of a hazardous battlefield.' (What they really meant was that the spires stuck out of the ground like buildings and trees. Populated urban areas and areas that had been overgrown with trees also described the locations of just about every major conflict that had been fought in the last two shinobi wars)
On the edge of the training ground, marked by a large yellow gate (made of stone of course), twenty ninja of various shapes and sizes stood around Sato, all wearing Iwagakure headbands. Some looked only a year older than the students.
Many of the students recognized some of the shinobi, and murmurs spread through the children, of equal nervousness and awe. Naruto didn't participate in the murmuring, after all, he didn't recognize anyone.
Sato cleared his throat, and the students silenced to hear him, "Today's practice will consist of a drill called 'Manhunt.' "You are not permitted to use ninjutsu that we ranked as lethal during our ninjutsu examinations. You will be sorted into squads, and you will be released into the training ground. If you exit the training ground for any reason, your squad fails. In twenty minutes, we–" He gestured to himself and to the collected ninja, "Will enter the training ground and try to get you out. The last squad standing wins. We'll tell you when the exercise is over with this whistle–"
He pulled a silver piece of metal out of his pocket and blew it into it, hard. A loud shriek pierced the air. It hurt Naruto's ears.
Sato put away the whistle, "Am I understood?"
A chorus of "Yes Sensei," echoed throughout the students.
The instructors began to read off names for the various squads. Naruto ran his tongue over his teeth while he waited. He didn't have to wait long.
"Squad two is Kurotsuchi, Naruto, Bao and Kogeru."
Unfortunate. Kurotsuchi and Kogeru were some of the most fun people to fight. At least he got to work with Bao. Naruto walked over to the gate with the others.
Bao looked relieved but scared. The relief made sense, squad two was definitely one of the better teams. The fear didn't. This sounded fun, and even Bao normally enjoyed these games.
Kogeru looked focused and a little nervous. He always looked focused right before exercises like this. For all his bravado, he cared about how well he did more than anybody else. The nervousness was new. He normally seemed confident.
Kurotsuchi looked irritated and antsy. Probably just excited to get started.
Kurotsuchi caught his glance, and gave him a scowl back. She walked over to say something to him.
"Don't slow me down," she spat through closed teeth.
That confused Naruto, "I think I'm faster than you, so we should be fine. Bao's the slowest."
Kurotsuchi let out a growl of frustration. She did that a lot.
Naruto didn't have time to ruminate on the issue for long, as within a few minutes, the students were released.
The first twenty minutes of the game passed quickly and quietly. Each squad made the (admittedly correct) assessment that to attack each other would waste energy that needed to be conserved for dealing with the instructors later.
So that meant twenty minutes of jumping from spire to spire (more slowly than Naruto would have liked) and hurried discussion about those ninja that stood around Sato that Naruto felt ill-prepared to contribute to.
The moment they were out of earshot of the instructors, Kogeru immediately started spouting off at a million words per second, "The one on the left, the one with the hair like mine? That's my cousin Tsurai. He made jonin last year, if you see him, tell us and run the other way. We don't have a chance against him."
Naruto caught a glance of Kogeru's eyes mid-jump. The nervousness he had seen before had spiralled into near panic, and Naruto could hear that panic behind the scratchy voice. Naruto didn't understand freaking out over something like this, but it put him on edge.
Bao's voice rang out, and sounded just as fearful, "M-my cousin was there too. The blond one. He's the strongest in my clan. If he catches sight of us, we're done."
Naruto understood that Bao was panicking too, but that wasn't as nerve wracking. He panicked all the time.
Kurotsuchi sounded more irritated and suspicious than scared when she spoke, "I recognized most of them. I see them coming in and out of the HQ for missions. Four were jonin, four chuunin, and twelve genin. I think the genin graduated out of C Class," she frowned, "I don't know why they need any jonin for this, something's up."
Naruto opened his mouth and closed it again before deciding to speak, "Why are you in the HQ so much that you memorized everyone's rank?"
Kurotsuchi looked at him like he was an idiot. Naruto turned his head to look at Bao, who was also looking at him like he was an idiot. Looking to Kogeru for support, he found that he too was staring at him.
Then Bao and Kurotsuchi started speaking at the same time.
Kurotsuchi said "You are a moron."
"Did you not know that she's the granddaughter of the Tsuchikage?" Bao asked
Naruto decided to address Bao, as talking to Kurotsuchi would most likely lead to a fight and there were more important things to do right now, "No, why would I know that? I don't keep up with people's family trees."
Bao paused for a second at that, "You are an idiot."
Naruto narrowed his eyes and his mouth turned into a line. It seemed like a conversation with Bao wasn't going to be much better.
Bao sighed seeing the hostile expression, "You know I didn't mean it like that. We have a job to do, let's just get it done."
Naruto accepted that as an apology.
Naruto's head rang.
Within a few minutes of their headstart ending, explosions began rocking the training ground, spreading dust, debris, and ear-shattering noise. Bao said it was the work of his cousin, and if that was true, Naruto could understand his panic a little better.
They were still relatively far off for now, perhaps trained on a different squad that happened to be close by. Naruto did not want to find out what it was like to have the explosions deliberately targeting him, so when Kurotsuchi recommended jumping lower to the ground he immediately voiced his agreement.
Almost as quickly as he agreed to that, a boy they hadn't noticed launched himself at Naruto from below, fist outstretched in a sloppy uppercut. The boy's jump had made enough noise that Naruto heard him right after he left the ground, even through the explosions.
Naruto twisted around the fist and grabbed the forearm with both hands, and willed his chakra to his palms. As he spun in midair with a chakra enhanced grip on the other kid, he took notice of the forehead protector the other boy had on.
'Must be one of the genin', he thought. A chuunin wouldn't have given him his arm for free after all.
The two boys hurtled through the air towards one of the spires of rock that decorated the battlefield. The genin widened his eyes as he realized he was on an unchanging-path directly into the hunk of stone. He pried uselessly at the airtight grip on his forearm.
Naruto smiled as he slammed the boy into the slab of rock at breakneck pace. The rock cracked as the genin crashed through the first layer, creating a thick layer of mineral dust. Naruto let go right then, breaking the chakra seal and allowing his momentum to carry him to the next spire of rock. He stood there, sticking his feet to the surface, and took a quick survey of his surroundings.
Firstly: That kid he just blasted into the spire wasn't moving. Hopefully he was unconscious. Regardless, he was now a non-factor.
Secondly: The kid was not alone. Another one had jumped at Bao, and another still at Kogeru. They were all separated, bouncing from rock to rock. Bao retreated, weaving hand seals as the genin chasing him (a girl with long brown hair) peppered him with shuriken. Meanwhile, Kogeru advanced on his genin, kunai in hand. He took ground, giving Bao space.
Naruto knew that if Kogeru was a bit more aware of what was going on, he'd turn on Bao's genin. Kogeru's current target was backing off after all, and the only threat came from the girl throwing things at Bao. Regardless, whatever they were doing they seemed to have a handle on the situation. Naruto's help was of low priority.
Naruto took a look at Kurotsuchi. She had a kunai in hand and was knife fighting on the side of one of the spires with a man that must have been older than thirty. He couldn't tell at first glance whether or not she was being pushed back.
'Not a jonin, because she hasn't lost yet, not a genin, because she hasn't won yet either,' thought Naruto. That's where he was needed.
He pulled out two shuriken and placed them between his fingers. Then he unwound the tenketsu in his legs, and channeled chakra into his feet, squishing the chakra into more chakra, condensing it as far as it could go. And then he released it.
The chakra exploded outward, leaving a small crack in his spire of rock. The blast of force rapidly accelerated Naruto toward the chuunin. Naruto angled his hand toward the chuunin's arm and piled up chakra in much the same way behind one of the shuriken.
The chuunin turned his head to take a look at Naruto just as the shuriken blasted away from his fingers. The man managed to pull the bulk of his arm out of the way, but the blades still caught the tip of his bicep. The chuunin grimaced in pain, his eyes drawn to the glint of the second shuriken.
Naruto piled up chakra on the second one and let that one fly too.
The chuunin's face took on a shocked expression at the speed the chakra provided it, barely managing to bat it away with his kunai.
The chuunin switched his kunai to a throwing position and pulled back his arm to launch it at Naruto. As he moved to release the knife, a fist tore itself across his face, smashing him off the spire.
Naruto stuck his hand to the area of rock where the chuunin had been standing, below Kurotsuchi. He pulled himself onto the spire as Kurotsuchi shook out the hand that she'd just blasted into the chuunin's face.
Naruto looked down to where the spire ninja had crashed. The speed with which the man hit the floor rose enough dust that Naruto couldn't make out his exact location. He might be done for this fight because he hadn't expected that punch and so hadn't put any chakra into his face to defend. It seemed like wishful thinking though. Regardless, they needed to focus their attention elsewhere.
Kogeru had caught up to his genin, and piled strike after strike into the kid, who was more preoccupied with defending against knife thrusts than punches. Regardless, Kogeru didn't need any help.
Bao was still backpedaling and still under pursuit. Judging from the seals he was throwing out, it seemed likely that he was trying some explosive style technique. If he could complete it, that would almost certainly throw up enough dust to cover an escape and perhaps enough firepower to knock the enemy squad out of commission for a few minutes. That was their highest priority.
Naruto looked at Kurotsuchi. Her gaze was locked on Bao. She must be seeing what he was seeing.
Naruto launched himself off the spire on an intersection path with the female genin. He caught her mid-jump with a punch to the stomach, and channeled chakra into his fist, sticking it to her torso. She tensed in pain as her trajectory angled downward from the added weight. Naruto rocketed another fist towards her face but with a jerky head movement to the side, she managed to slip that one.
Naruto heard the telltale cling of metal catching on metal behind him, as he and the girl he glued himself to began to spiral in the air. The chuunin and Kurotsuchi were locked in a split-second, midair kunai-to-kunai bind.
Naruto made a mental note to thank Kurotsuchi for keeping the chuunin off of him.
Naruto controlled the spiral to force the girl underneath him as they barrelled toward the ground. He caught her right hand and held it still. She balled up her left and layed a hammer fist into his back. It didn't hurt that much.
Naruto drew chakra into his face, and immediately after the girl landed a clean fist to his eye. The chakra dulled the pain.
Naruto gave her a smirk as they crashed into the ground.
The impact spread quite a bit of dust, and clearly hurt the girl underneath him. Naruto unstuck his fist from her torso and moved to lay another punch into her face.
Before he could, a bang echoed through Naruto's left eardrum. The loudest one so far, it felt like it went off right next to him. Immediately after the sound, a wave of rock-dust washed itself over both him and his victim, stinging their eyes and staining their skin.
'Bao's handiwork,' thought Naruto, 'and that's my cue to leave.'
He pushed chakra into his legs and jumped off the girl to where he knew Kogeru had been fighting. It was hard to see and hard to hear, so Naruto had no warning when a hand reached itself out of the dust and grabbed him by the neck.
Before Naruto could see who the hand was attached to, it had already lifted him from the ground and began to squeeze, slowly constricting his windpipe.
Naruto reached up to the wrist to try to pry the hand off his neck, but the fingers seemed almost cemented in place. He struggled to breathe as the hand held him stationary in the air. As the dust began to settle, Naruto made out the look of his attacker.
A teenager with long blond hair and an Iwa headband. He looked bored, like this wasn't any fun for him.
Naruto choked on stale air as the teenager began to speak, "Back when I was in the academy, Class A was made of sterner stuff, yeah? I wouldn't have gotten caught by that. You're supposed to come out of training good to go for the field already."
Naruto threw his right hand down to his tool pouch to grab a kunai. The teenager reached his other arm over and pinned down Naruto's knife hand and squeezed, leaving behind a white, clay-like substance that quickly hardened, cementing the appendage to Naruto's leg.
"You already saw how fast I am, and you think I'd let that slide? Try something more creative, yeah?" the teenager carried him deeper into the dust. Naruto's vision grew spotty.
Thoughts raced through Naruto's head at a mile a minute. He drew chakra to the hand he still had gripped around the older boy's wrist and stamped it down.
"Kid, are you really out of ideas already? I read your report. It said you were talented. And a quick thinker. Where did it all go?"
Naruto couldn't see far through the dust, he couldn't signal Kurotsuchi for help. So he did what he could. He stamped the chakra in his palm down harder.
"And where are your friends? I read that two of the ones on your team like you, yeah? Did they sell you out? Are they gone by now?"
Naruto let out a choked grimace as his face turned purple, but he stamped down the chakra in his palm nonetheless.
"And where's little cousin Bao gone off to? I saw him working through those hand seals. Explosion Release: Mud Bomb. A bit basic, but it could have worked out. Tragic that you let me snatch you so he couldn't finish, yeah?"
The grip around Naruto's neck tightened (a feat he thought scarcely possible), but still Naruto stamped down more chakra on his palm.
By the time Naruto was satisfied it was enough, his vision had gone entirely black. He had lost sensation in his legs. He could feel himself falling unconscious. But he still had enough awareness to let the chakra go.
A loud pop sounded as Naruto's hand was blasted away from the teenager's wrist. Naruto felt the damage he had done to his own body with this maneuver. His fingers broke, his elbow bent the wrong way, and his shoulder popped out of socket.
But the teenager let go of his neck.
The moment Naruto hit the ground, he resisted the urge to start choking on the fresh, cold air, and instead channeled chakra into his legs and lept backwards.
The teenager jumped after him, faster.
"Oh, that was clever, yeah?" the teenager ducked a retreating head kick from Naruto with ease, "You overloaded your wall-walking technique to blast my arm? The report said you liked to do stuff like that."
Naruto landed on the ground, and the teenager landed right after him. Naruto tried to throw a straight left punch, but his broken arm didn't allow him to, instead just dangling weakly in the air. The teenager just smiled at him mockingly.
"Tell you what, yeah? You got me fair and square with that little chakra trick. So I'll give you a freebie. If you can get out of this little pickle, I won't chase you down."
Naruto blinked. What pickle? He looked around. The dust had started to calm down properly, and he could see further than a few meters again.
The girl he had slammed into the ground stood on a spire to his left, nursing her ribs. The boy Naruto had initially slammed into a spire of rock stood on the ground to his right. They were both looking at him like they were hungry.
The teenager disappeared in a puff of smoke with a hand seal. The boy jumped at Naruto first.
With both of his hands occupied (with being broken or stuck respectively), Naruto tried to connect his heel with the genin's temple. The boy brought up a hand and caught the leg by the ankle.
Naruto's ears were ringing, so he didn't hear the girl leap from her spire. But if he were her, he'd leap from the spire, so he knew she was in the air all the same. He channeled chakra into his caught leg, stamped it down, and let it go. The resulting blast blew his leg away from the boy, rotating Naruto on his back heel and allowing him to connect his shin to the girl's shoulder as she flew towards him.
With the chakra already in his leg, he glued the shin to the girl and tried to rotate again, hoping to let go of the chakra and launch the girl at her teammate.
By the time he had managed to throw the girl, the boy had already moved. Naruto had lost track of him, and for that mistake he felt a punch to the back of his head lift him off his feet and send him skidding across the ground.
The rough stones rubbed Naruto's face coarse as he rolled across it. As he got to his feet, he ate a knee to the mouth, sending him back further.
The next follow up was a kick from the girl that he managed to duck under. Naruto scrambled to his feet and pulled his eyes up.
The boy was coming in with a haymaker. Naruto jerked to the side and let it fly past him, focusing chakra into his forehead. He reared back his neck and smashed his head into the boy's nose. He felt the cartilage break, and heard the boys shout of pain.
The boy fell to the ground, and Naruto moved to stomp on his knees before he could get back up. They broke easy enough, and the kid started to scream.
What a wimp. Didn't he go through pain training every Friday like the Class A students?
Naruto felt blood running down his forehead from the headbutt. He turned to look at the girl. She looked shocked, and frozen in place.
The two of them stood there for a beat or two. Staring. Neither daring to make the first move.
Naruto looked to the field of rock spires. Bao was encased in the white clay, stuck to the base of a spire, upside down. The teenager sat atop the cocoon, looking at Naruto.
Naruto felt a shiver run down his spine.
Looking further, Kogeru's hands were encased in fire as he engaged in taijutsu with the chuunin.
Kurotsuchi was pummelling the light-haired kid that Kogeru had been fighting before. The genin had no chance.
That was Naruto's way out. He sprinted toward Kurotsuchi. The girl behind him realized what was happening a little after Naruto did and took off after him.
Naruto was faster, and Kurotsuchi managed to catch Naruto's intentions fast enough to start shooting through hand seals.
As Naruto reached Kurotsuchi, he buried a knee into the eye of the genin she was fighting, knocking him out cold.
Kurotsuchi let loose a stream of dirt from her mouth, catching the genin chasing Naruto in the middle of her chest, knocking her to the ground. A few more hand seals, and Kurotsuchi had secured the genin to the training ground's rocky surface.
Naruto sighed a breath of relief, "That technique must taste awful, right? With all that dirt in your mouth."
"Shut up, it's not like–" Kurotsuchi turned to look at Naruto's broken arm, and the other glued to his tool pouch, "–What happened to you?"
Naruto jerked his head toward the teenager.
The teenager waved back with a pleasant expression from atop Bao's imprisonment.
"Oh. Shit," Kurotsuchi looked at Kogeru, who was so focused on his battle with the chuunin that he didn't even notice the teenager.
The teenager stood up and cracked his knuckles, "Well, show's over, yeah? Now it's my turn?"
Naruto ran his tongue over his teeth, "You said you'd let me go if I found a way out of that, what gives?"
The teenager shrugged his shoulders, "I guess I lied."
As the teenager walked toward them, a shrieking whistle rang out over the training ground.
The teenager laughed, "Saved by the bell then."
He sounded disappointed.
It took a while for the medic to fix Naruto's arm, who told him off for letting it get broken so badly. The procedure took over an hour. By the time he had returned to the academy, the day was over.
He was told that the prize for the winning squad was a bowl of ice cream, but his had melted. Naruto didn't care. He was too busy thinking about that blond teenager.