Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Legend of Explosive Youth! ❯ Naruto Gaiden pt 2 ( Chapter 7 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: dialNforNinja 
Conclusion of Chapter Four
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Martial Arts / Adventure / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 05.28.2008 | Pages: 2 | Words: 4.8K | Visits: 496 | Status: Completed
Conclusion of Chapter Four
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Martial Arts / Adventure / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 05.28.2008 | Pages: 2 | Words: 4.8K | Visits: 496 | Status: Completed
txy04b.txt
---=- + -=---
A few hours later, the duplicitous chuunin was feeling quite a bit less smug. He'd sent the brat into the Hokage's residence all of ten minutes ago, and he'd already been caught! He could hear the old geezer questioning him now, and when the demon inevitably sold -him- out... Mizuki cursed and got ready to flee. *If I don't have Konoha's treasured scroll to buy my way into another village's protection, it'll be much harder...*
Inside the large but modestly appointed home, Naruto was desperately trying to think of a plausible reason to have come to see the Gramps so late... And then, he remembered one. Doing his prankster's best to look like he hadn't just been sneaking around he looked seriously up into the old man's wizened face. "I thought it would be better to be alone, when I asked you a certain question," he explained. "After that mission, Gai-sensei told you I found out about the fox, right?"
His stern expression faded away, and Sarutobi Cheishamaru squeezed his eyes closed for a moment as the exhaustion of a long day caught up with him. He reflected sadly on the hardships this young boy had been forced to face, and how poorly the Fourth's last wishes had been carried out. "Yes," he replied, "and also that you told your team mates, and how they accepted it." He smiled fondly down at the lad, continuing, "While I am happy that you found such good friends, and it is your right to tell whomever you may choose, I hope you understand that unfortunately, not everyone is likely to be so accepting, Naruto."
Nodding sagely, the blond genin replied, "I know... It's unfortunate, but not everyone has the brilliant youthful spirit of Lee-kun, Rikou-chan, and Gai-sensei. But, because they are my precious friends, they deserved to be entrusted with it!" He threw a thumbs-up then, with a foxy grin that glinted in the light of the paper-shaded raiton lamp overhead.
Naruto held his Nice-Guy Pose for a few seconds before getting to the point. "But, that time in Kirika, Ero-sennin mentioned something else... I asked him if I had a family, and he said I should ask you because the details were classified by that same law to protect me from enemies my father had."
"Your father..." the old man said, contemplatively. "He was... an amazing ninja. Because of his skill, he gained high rank and even political power... But those things also made enemies, from those in other countries who felt the pain of that skill, and those in the Leaf who desired power for themselves." He shook his head gently and ruffled the earnest looking boy's hair, so painfully similar to his father's. "It's still too soon to reveal that, I think... But I'll give you another clue, he was a lot like you are."
Shrugging indignantly out from under the Hokage's hand, Naruto grimaced and pouted, "Stingy! I'll show you, Ojiji! My latest super ninjutsu!" With a single seal and a burst of smoke, he transformed into a nubile young woman, only a few lingering wisps of smoke giving the faint illusion of modesty as she blew a kiss at Sarutobi. As the tired old man collapsed with a massive nosebleed he giggled mischievously before saying, "I call it 'Orioke no jutsu!'"
*This is even better than not getting caught,* the boy thought as he made his way to the Hokage's personal library, where the scroll that was his target was supposed to be stored. *I got to find out a little more, and even if Hokage-jiisan checks and finds the scroll missing he'll think it was just another prank for revenge!*
---=- + -=---
Just before Naruto yelled loud enough that the traitor would have known his plan was still moving, his nerve broke and Mizuki began roof-hopping, fleeing desperately in hopes of getting outside the wall of the village before the brat spilled everything and the Hokage called out the ANBU.
Something else moved in the darkness behind him, and he chanced a look back. *Is that... Damn! It was a mask! They're after me already!?* A few buildings back, one of those feared manhunters was following, the moon's pale light fashing from a white mask as the other nin gained on him. Quickly judging their relative speed the new fugitive pulled out a stack of explosive tags and fanned them between his fingers, slapping them against a ridgepole and arming them with a few seconds' delay as he bounded onward.
Haruno Rin, newest Candidate Inductee of the elite ANBU, was on a dango run for her cousin and squad captain Ichimaru when the world suddenly erupted in fire. She silently thanked the designers of the uniform for including the mask as a shard of roofing tile that would have ripped a bloody gash in her cheek and could have ricocheted off the cheekbone to damage her eye whacked into the sturdy facial guard hard enough to set her tumbling as she sailed through the air and glanced off it harmlessly. Well, harmlessly to her, judging from the sound of the hit it probably left a big crack... but even if so, and the mask had to be replaced, she was definitely going to keep this one for her souvenir shelf.
Landing roughly before 'rising' into an easy crouch on the wall of another building as more tiles and wreckage fell around her, she quickly thought over the situation. There'd been some one else ahead of her on the same route - they were wearing a standard Konoha chuunin uniform but clothes meant little - and that had to have been at least a dozen explosive tags. She hadn't even touched the roof before it exploded, so the trap had to have been either timed or remotely triggered, and she hadn't detected a triggering chakra pulse either. That still meant whoever it was had intentionally left a potentially lethal trap in her path, and even as a mere 'Candy-ass' only provisionally accepted in the ANBU that was a capital offense - an ANBU was assumed to be acting on the Hokage's authority any time she wore the mask, and attacking her was treason.
There were three primary traits that had gotten her into the elite unit so young. The enhanced physical toughness the Snake-Bastard's experiments had left her with had already done its part, letting her resist the force of the explosion and landing without appreciable harm. Her tactical sense (it was the Ansatsu *Senjutsu* Tokushu Butai, after all) had let her cut to the heart of the situation in a flash but with only one, fleeing opponent and only herself (for the moment, at least) to give chase the was no need for fancy maneuvers. Speed, though... That was her strongest specialty, superior even to some Jounin, and it was just what was called for now.
She was gone before the last tile hit the ground, and less than half an hour later a rather... irked... Morino Ibiki set about interrogating the fool who'd dared to put an explosive trap in the path of one of his subordinates... on the roof of the ANBU Division Commander's own house.
Suffice it to say, Mizuki told all, with absolute honesty and (one might say) excruciating detail. He even admitted to how he tricked the Uzumaki kid into it, at least after feeling the penalty for lying.
Since he'd heard Sandaime personally catch the kid in the act and civil discipline for that boy had been ruled the exclusive purview of the Hokage after certain incidents when he was younger, the matter was considered closed, and no one thought any further about the Scroll of Forbidden Seals once the reports were complete and appropriately sealed copies made for the local records, Archives Division, and the Hokage's office.
---=- + -=---
It was nearly dawn by the time Naruto had 'Kage Bunshin' down well enough to feel confident in the skill, but he had to admit - it was even more awesome than summoning. He'd still never gotten a frog big enough to talk except that one time using the kyuubi's chakra, and he didn't dare bother Bunta-oyabun again unless it was a tight pinch. But with Kage Bunshin, he could become his own sparring partner! At least, once he got the hang of making less clones with a certain amount of chakra, so they had enough to recover a little instead of vanishing after a single hit. The next couple of jutsu looked really cool as well, it was too bad he'd have to leave soon for his morning training or Gai-sensei would get suspicious - he wanted to be really amazing with this special test, even if Mizuki-sensei had said he only needed to learn a single jutsu...
"Wait a minute!" he shouted, inspiration hitting like one of Gai-sensei's punches. "I can go train, and still study 'Shuriken Kage Bunshin' and 'Bunshin Daibakuha,' all I have to do is leave some kage bunshin to learn them and they can teach me later after they figure it out! And since they're me, it'll be easy to understand the explanation for once!"
He jumped up from the mossy root he'd been stting on to rest for a few minutes, crowing, "Certainly, certainly, 'Kage Bunshin' is the best jutsu ever! Dattebayo!!" He formed the crossed finger seal but paused before molding the neccessary chakra - it wouldn't do any good if the bunshin ran out of energy before he could come back and learn the skills from them, and he didn't think the Hokage would miss the scroll being gone for more than one day, if it even lasted that long. More importantly, it would probably be too late for Gai-sensei to say he'd changed his mind about letting the team enter the exams soon, so he'd have to learn as much as possible to show him by the end of the day.
The clones would have to use up chakra trying to learn the skills, too... he was going to need a whole lot to pull this off. He didn't really want to deal with such a thing again, but... "Ero-sennin said learning to control the fox's chakra was just a matter of hard work, and I promised Gai-sensei I'd never run from working hard to get stronger! I won't go back on my word, dattebayo!"
Closing his eyes he concentrated on the memory of how he'd felt when he was falling into the cliff-side gorge, and the huge cage with the demon lord locked inside. Thinking as 'loudly' as he could, he mentally shouted, *HEY, YOU NINE-TAILS ASSHOLE! LAST TIME YOU COMPLAINED ABOUT ME BEING STUPID AND WEAK, SO GIMME SOME CHAKRA! I'M GONNA LEARN AN AWESOME JUTSU AND GET STONGER!* Then he started molding chakra, more and more, until it stopped being a relief, until it actually felt kind of draining, even more until he started to feel like a festival balloon all pufffed up with air... and that was when the burning sensation started in his belly button, spreading rapidly across his abdomen and then to his whole body. His eyes screwed tighter shut at the half-remembered feeling, as if his bones had been replaced with a fire ninjutsu and were cooking him from the inside out, and thought hard about only forming a single shadow clone before finally releasing all that power through the seal pattern and into the world around him.
Naruto sagged at the release, breathing hard as he heard the characteristic squeal of molded chakra taking effect, then finally opened his eyes.
Half a dozen kage bunshin looked back at him, with the same slightly puffy left eye and grass stained jacket, and the same expression as they realized there were still a few kinks to work out in control over that jutsu. His body still hummed with energy, though, as Naruto realized as soon as his breathing normalized. That was good, it meant he wouldn't be too tired today despite missing a night of sleep.
"Breath, thought, action, victory, like Gai-sensei said," he told himselves. "Now we've got our breath back, so it's time for you guys to get thinking while I go into action with Lee, Rikou, and Gai-sensei! I'll come back as soon as our mission is over, so you can teach me these other cool moves and then it's victory and the chuunin exams! Dattebayo!"
"DATTEBAYO!" the bunshin squad shouted back. Seven identical Nice Guy Poses sent up a smile-glint glare that should have been dazzlingly bright, but was unusually manageable.
As he tree hopped away to join his team, Naruto idly wondered if the slightly purplish eyes were a flaw in his technique or standard for 'Kage Bunshin.' It was dark when he was practicing before, so he hadn't been able to see colors much despite the full moon.
Then he wondered if kunoichi kept their nails long to give a better grip on bark, because his were kind of getting to where he should trim them but if it worked as well as it seemed he might not bother as long as they didn't look too girly.
Then he thought about ramen. Three thoughts in a row before ramen came up was actually a pretty good record for Naruto.
---=- + -=---
Team Explosive Youth was just finishing up stacking the firewood they'd split for Kubome-ojisan when Naruto froze, blinked, and said, "Oh, so that's how it works!" Puzzled at this (odd even for them) behavior, his sensei and team mates stopped as well to look curiously as he seemed lost in thought, balanced on one leg with the other extended to take a step and carrying a load of fire wood easily twice his own weight. A few seconds later the rumble of a distant explosion rolled across Konoha, and he roused - only to toss the whole load into the air with a jerk as he shouted, "AAAAH! THE SCROLL!" and took off on his hoverboard with a thunderclap of displaced air and a small crater where he'd kicked off from the ground.
Having just set their own last loads down, Gai leapt after the abandoned logs and gathered them with style and youthful flair, simultaneously ordering, "Lee! Follow Naruto! Rikou and I shall catch up!"
---=- + -=---
Fortunately Kubome-ojisan's house was about as close as anything in Konoha got to his choice of training ground, so it wasn't a long trip and the fox boy was the first to arrive. It was a very relieved Naruto who found a single, swirly-eyed shadow clone still intact on the lee side of a boulder, the Scroll of Forbidden Seals lying open beside him where he'd been the last one left practising 'Shuriken Kage Bunshin' against the trunk of a nearby tree. Even that one popped when Naruto tried to shake some sense back into him, and all Naruto could figure was that the rest had gotten tired of waiting for this one and had already memorized the instructions for 'Bunshin Daibakuha' since it only used a single simple seal, and went to go practise that skill in a different clearing instead of waiting around any more.
Actually, he was pretty sure that was exactly what happened, which was wierd since there wan't any way to really tell thanks to the huge crater blasted into the forest and the only clone left vanishing before he could get it to say anything. What was really wierd was that he seemed to know how to do the two jutsu he'd left the clones to learn despite not having been able to have them teach him, reading the instructions as he cleaned the scroll brought each part back as if he'd worked on them for hours himself. Maybe that was what the scroll had meant about the mental imprint thingambob from dispelling chakra?
Thinking about that kind of thing made his head hurt, so he concentrated on winding the scroll up evenly and not leaving any dirt caught inside. He was double checking it for damage as Lee arrived, and just rolling it back up as Gai and Rikou came along afterward.
The Jounin immediately recognised the coding on the wrapper that marked it as being an S-rank secret document and demanded, "Naruto! Where did you get that scroll? It should not be here, lying in the forest near the remains of a suspisciously recent, large explosion!" He kept most of his attention on the surroundings, searching for any enemies who might have had something to do with the blast and the scroll's presence.
"There's no need to be suspicious, Gai-sensei!" the blond proudly proclaimed. "After I found out about the special test, I went and got this scroll from Hokage-ojisan myself, and trained all night with the power of youth! Watch, watch!" He formed the crossed hand seal and molded just enough chakra for the technique to work (which was still quite a bit, and hence much easier to measure than the normal bunshin had been), then announced, "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" As planned, a single clone appeared, with only a tiny amount of chakra smoke to indicated wasted energy. "Next, 'Shuriken Kage Bunshin!' Sorry, clone guy, you're the target."
"Aw, boss! No fair!" the clone complained, but dutifully started running away around the rim of the crater. The original Naruto drew a single kunai and threw it after the retreating clone, then quickly did the needed seals and announced the technique, turning the lone blade into a hundred that flew trough the air with an ominous whistle before popping the clone and then dissipating themselves as well into so much drifting smoke.
"Okay! One More!" the bouncing blond shouted, popping out another kage bunshin before the astounded eyes of his teacher. Without waiting for instructions this time, the clone announced, "YOSH! I'll prove that the power of youth really IS explosive, dattebayo!" He jumped onto his (also cloned) hover board, skimmed down into the bottom of the crater and back using the wall as a ramp to get some serious air, and yelled, "Bunshin Daibakuha!" before blasting apart in a bright blue flash of chakra, creating a shockwave like the stronger sort of explosive tag that knocked all three genin off their feet.
"See, see? Mizuki-sensei said I only had to learn one jutsu to pass the secret test, but I got three, because no one gets strong doing just the minimum! I passed the test, so now we get to go to the chuunin exams, right, right?"
As soon as he heard the traitor's name Gai's eyes stopped shining and narrowed. He'd heard about the excitement the night before, but since the Hokage hadn't mentioned anything when they went to collect the day's mission he'd thought the matter settled. "Naruto..." he began seriously, "Did Hokage-sama give you this scroll to learn from? It is a very secret treasure of Konoha, which should have been far beyond your level."
Naruto laughed a bit sheepishly, "Eh heheh... Mizuki-sensei just said I had to get away, even if I think he meant I couldn't get caught... but when that gramps caught me we talked for a little bit and then I knocked him out with my other new jutsu, 'Orioke,' and took it from his library..."
A few seconds later, a resounding bellow of "YOU FOOL!" rolled across Konoha as the explosion had minutes earlier. The unmistakeable vioce of Maito Gai reassured the wary shinobi still heading toward the site of the disturbance, and while the ones who'd already reached it had stayed back to far to make out what exactly genin and sensei were saying, the frankly rather impressive jutsu demonstration and the fond but stern beating which followed told the story well enough:
One of the crazy jounin's mini-clones had gone overboard with a training excercise involving explosive ninjutsu, with predictable results. Most of them were only surprised it hadn't happened before or taken part of the village with it instead of uninhabited forest. All of them left before the punishment could turn into tear-filled promises of improvement and forgiveness, inevitably followed by the hugging and shining smiles and posing.
When all of that had finally been settled, Gai collected the huge scroll from his already nearly recovered student and sorrowfully proclaimed, "The spirit of youth refuses to be repressed, so I will forgive you, my impetuous student! Alas, I still cannot allow you to enter this series of exams, BUT!! My cute genin shall be entered in the very next exam, at which time the true flowers of the springtime of youth will surely have bloomed! You will certainly dominate then, with the explosive power of your impassioned youth!"
---=- + -=---
It was nearing sunset when Team Explosive Youth returned the Scroll of Forbidden Seals to the Hokage, with numerous heart felt apologies and vows of added training to engrave the lessons learnt on their hearts. Since the ANBU report had been marked 'case closed' it had steadily been shuffled to the bottom of Sarutobi's in box as he slogged through the daily mountain of paperwork. It was still there, unread, as he forgave Naruto for the offense in return for a promise never to use 'that jutsu' against him again.
(Would you like to know more?)
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... Only Hinata could see the boy she likes showing a huge crush on another girl, and think how sweet it is that he's willing to go to such lengths just to try to be noticed, and admire the courage he shows in doing so. Though, I suppose it might have been different even for her if Sakura had shown signs of reciprocating.
Iruka's dislike for Naruto - Contrary to the standard fan view that Iruka formed a mentor/brotherly relationship with Naruto early in his Academy time, my own reading of the manga chapters and review of the first anime episode suggests that Iruka didn't really like him much before Sandaime's talk after the graduation test and the Mizuki incident, and if the trip to Ichiraku Ramen after cleaning the monument wasn't the frst one it didn't happen more than a handful of times before that, and only because Iruka was fighting his own prejudices against the container of the demon vs. the kid's obvious lonliness echoing Iruka's own past, down to being the class clown. Since they haven't had even that much contact what with Naruto graduating before falling into Iruka's class's final year, there's not really any personal knowledge to base a genuine judgement on, just what Iruka has heard from various people and his own honest nature.
Haruno Rin was a character-bunny spawned by Darwithe, originally conceived in place of Sakura he aged her up a little and donated her for use in LoXY! I aged her up another year myself, making her 16 as of this appearance, and though it didn't actually affect this little segment adjusted her abilities upwards to better reflect my version of the Haruno clan's bloodline abilities. She was also the unfortunate subject of some of Orochimaru's experiments before being chased out of the Leaf, which, again, had very little showing beyond a mention of being unusually durable. She has a younger brother, Haruno Shima, who will get an even less glorious bit part later on, and her (deceased, Mizuki is her personal prime suspect for the rape and murder) mother was the only child of a successful baker, and while her father was brother to Sakura's father he was more interested in civilian life, and they took over the shop together when the old man retired. He is rather unhappy that both of his children have entered the dangerous ninja lifestyle instead of continuing the bakery - he hopes that at least one of them will get it out of their systems in time to settle down, help out, and provide an heir before getting killed.
Kubome - sunken/deep-set eyes (Interestingly, I found this word while searching for 'deep' for something else - the next listing was 'Kurenai' meaning 'deep red.' It makes me wonder if the red eyed character design came before or after the name)
Kage Bunshin - I'll be shocked if anyone doesn't already know this, but it means 'shadow clone.' The basic idea behind more power making them more durable is that with sufficiently trained chakra control they can reform from small disruptions - if they couldn't withstand any impact at all, they'd vanish as soon as they landed a punch, and we've seen them last longer than that. The cloned chopper works as a hoverboard because the bunshin are ultimately nothing but a packet of energy simulating real mass, and can move however Naruto believes they can move. With his fuuton affinity it would work as a weapon, too, but without the enhanced efficiency of the real thing. Of course, he doesn't actually know any fuuton techniques at this point, so the point is moot for now.
Shuriken Kage Bunshin - unsurprisingly, 'throwing star shadow clone' - a technique requiring far less chakra but greater control, Shuriken Kage Bunshin (name variable as required to match the weapon used) is a ninjutsu used on a thrown weapon to multiply it by whatever factor the user can spare chakra for, saving on carried equipment and overwhelming enemy defenses by turning each weapon thrown into a swarm. Naruto, of course, has the chakra for truly massive multiplication factors, and while he does study taijutsu of course, where he really goes whole hog is chakra control training. The problem is, those excercises are boring to write about, and every time I try to include them 'on camera' the scene is crap and gets deleted.
Bunshin Daibakuha - 'clone big explosion' - Supposedly, Itachi knows this jutsu; it's listed in one of the rescource books for him anyway. In my version, it's a suicide technique that only works on solid type bunshin - though it would kill a normal user, they wouildn't explode properly - by turning all the chakra in their body into a massive blast of force. Kage bunshin are actually the least efficient type for this as they have no integral matter to to be propelled by the pressure wave, but the large amount of chakra contained in one typically makes up for it. The amount of chakra in a part-kyuubi-powered kage bunshin, well, that's just nuts, as you can see, even when the amount of kyuubi chakra pulled out was relatively miniscule. This one just fit too well with the ongoing themes of the story to pass up.
To tell the truth, I'm not sure the direction the sun is shown rising and setting in Konoha is even consistent, let alone having the Hokage Monument looking due south, but that's how it is for LoXY! as the one thing I don't remember seeing is the monument casting a shadow over the city.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Omake: Tales from the Cutting Room Floor
"Your father..." the old man said, contemplatively. "Powerful Jedi was he. Strong in the Force."
O_o .oO(...)
YEARS LATER, HIDDEN RAIN VILLAGE:
"Yes, Naruto," the spiky-haired Pein intoned. "-I- am your father! Search your feelings... you know it to be true!"
(Actually... I may yet throw out everything post-Gaara-rescue, and definitely consider it less 'canon' and more 'second-hand gossip' in terms of reliability for my purposes. Minato's clan is already locked in as something besides 'Namikaze,' if Naruto is eventually revealed to have some sort of kekkai genkai it'll have to either not have shown up in the other member seen or come from his mother.)
END OF LINE
---=- + -=---
A few hours later, the duplicitous chuunin was feeling quite a bit less smug. He'd sent the brat into the Hokage's residence all of ten minutes ago, and he'd already been caught! He could hear the old geezer questioning him now, and when the demon inevitably sold -him- out... Mizuki cursed and got ready to flee. *If I don't have Konoha's treasured scroll to buy my way into another village's protection, it'll be much harder...*
Inside the large but modestly appointed home, Naruto was desperately trying to think of a plausible reason to have come to see the Gramps so late... And then, he remembered one. Doing his prankster's best to look like he hadn't just been sneaking around he looked seriously up into the old man's wizened face. "I thought it would be better to be alone, when I asked you a certain question," he explained. "After that mission, Gai-sensei told you I found out about the fox, right?"
His stern expression faded away, and Sarutobi Cheishamaru squeezed his eyes closed for a moment as the exhaustion of a long day caught up with him. He reflected sadly on the hardships this young boy had been forced to face, and how poorly the Fourth's last wishes had been carried out. "Yes," he replied, "and also that you told your team mates, and how they accepted it." He smiled fondly down at the lad, continuing, "While I am happy that you found such good friends, and it is your right to tell whomever you may choose, I hope you understand that unfortunately, not everyone is likely to be so accepting, Naruto."
Nodding sagely, the blond genin replied, "I know... It's unfortunate, but not everyone has the brilliant youthful spirit of Lee-kun, Rikou-chan, and Gai-sensei. But, because they are my precious friends, they deserved to be entrusted with it!" He threw a thumbs-up then, with a foxy grin that glinted in the light of the paper-shaded raiton lamp overhead.
Naruto held his Nice-Guy Pose for a few seconds before getting to the point. "But, that time in Kirika, Ero-sennin mentioned something else... I asked him if I had a family, and he said I should ask you because the details were classified by that same law to protect me from enemies my father had."
"Your father..." the old man said, contemplatively. "He was... an amazing ninja. Because of his skill, he gained high rank and even political power... But those things also made enemies, from those in other countries who felt the pain of that skill, and those in the Leaf who desired power for themselves." He shook his head gently and ruffled the earnest looking boy's hair, so painfully similar to his father's. "It's still too soon to reveal that, I think... But I'll give you another clue, he was a lot like you are."
Shrugging indignantly out from under the Hokage's hand, Naruto grimaced and pouted, "Stingy! I'll show you, Ojiji! My latest super ninjutsu!" With a single seal and a burst of smoke, he transformed into a nubile young woman, only a few lingering wisps of smoke giving the faint illusion of modesty as she blew a kiss at Sarutobi. As the tired old man collapsed with a massive nosebleed he giggled mischievously before saying, "I call it 'Orioke no jutsu!'"
*This is even better than not getting caught,* the boy thought as he made his way to the Hokage's personal library, where the scroll that was his target was supposed to be stored. *I got to find out a little more, and even if Hokage-jiisan checks and finds the scroll missing he'll think it was just another prank for revenge!*
---=- + -=---
Just before Naruto yelled loud enough that the traitor would have known his plan was still moving, his nerve broke and Mizuki began roof-hopping, fleeing desperately in hopes of getting outside the wall of the village before the brat spilled everything and the Hokage called out the ANBU.
Something else moved in the darkness behind him, and he chanced a look back. *Is that... Damn! It was a mask! They're after me already!?* A few buildings back, one of those feared manhunters was following, the moon's pale light fashing from a white mask as the other nin gained on him. Quickly judging their relative speed the new fugitive pulled out a stack of explosive tags and fanned them between his fingers, slapping them against a ridgepole and arming them with a few seconds' delay as he bounded onward.
Haruno Rin, newest Candidate Inductee of the elite ANBU, was on a dango run for her cousin and squad captain Ichimaru when the world suddenly erupted in fire. She silently thanked the designers of the uniform for including the mask as a shard of roofing tile that would have ripped a bloody gash in her cheek and could have ricocheted off the cheekbone to damage her eye whacked into the sturdy facial guard hard enough to set her tumbling as she sailed through the air and glanced off it harmlessly. Well, harmlessly to her, judging from the sound of the hit it probably left a big crack... but even if so, and the mask had to be replaced, she was definitely going to keep this one for her souvenir shelf.
Landing roughly before 'rising' into an easy crouch on the wall of another building as more tiles and wreckage fell around her, she quickly thought over the situation. There'd been some one else ahead of her on the same route - they were wearing a standard Konoha chuunin uniform but clothes meant little - and that had to have been at least a dozen explosive tags. She hadn't even touched the roof before it exploded, so the trap had to have been either timed or remotely triggered, and she hadn't detected a triggering chakra pulse either. That still meant whoever it was had intentionally left a potentially lethal trap in her path, and even as a mere 'Candy-ass' only provisionally accepted in the ANBU that was a capital offense - an ANBU was assumed to be acting on the Hokage's authority any time she wore the mask, and attacking her was treason.
There were three primary traits that had gotten her into the elite unit so young. The enhanced physical toughness the Snake-Bastard's experiments had left her with had already done its part, letting her resist the force of the explosion and landing without appreciable harm. Her tactical sense (it was the Ansatsu *Senjutsu* Tokushu Butai, after all) had let her cut to the heart of the situation in a flash but with only one, fleeing opponent and only herself (for the moment, at least) to give chase the was no need for fancy maneuvers. Speed, though... That was her strongest specialty, superior even to some Jounin, and it was just what was called for now.
She was gone before the last tile hit the ground, and less than half an hour later a rather... irked... Morino Ibiki set about interrogating the fool who'd dared to put an explosive trap in the path of one of his subordinates... on the roof of the ANBU Division Commander's own house.
Suffice it to say, Mizuki told all, with absolute honesty and (one might say) excruciating detail. He even admitted to how he tricked the Uzumaki kid into it, at least after feeling the penalty for lying.
Since he'd heard Sandaime personally catch the kid in the act and civil discipline for that boy had been ruled the exclusive purview of the Hokage after certain incidents when he was younger, the matter was considered closed, and no one thought any further about the Scroll of Forbidden Seals once the reports were complete and appropriately sealed copies made for the local records, Archives Division, and the Hokage's office.
---=- + -=---
It was nearly dawn by the time Naruto had 'Kage Bunshin' down well enough to feel confident in the skill, but he had to admit - it was even more awesome than summoning. He'd still never gotten a frog big enough to talk except that one time using the kyuubi's chakra, and he didn't dare bother Bunta-oyabun again unless it was a tight pinch. But with Kage Bunshin, he could become his own sparring partner! At least, once he got the hang of making less clones with a certain amount of chakra, so they had enough to recover a little instead of vanishing after a single hit. The next couple of jutsu looked really cool as well, it was too bad he'd have to leave soon for his morning training or Gai-sensei would get suspicious - he wanted to be really amazing with this special test, even if Mizuki-sensei had said he only needed to learn a single jutsu...
"Wait a minute!" he shouted, inspiration hitting like one of Gai-sensei's punches. "I can go train, and still study 'Shuriken Kage Bunshin' and 'Bunshin Daibakuha,' all I have to do is leave some kage bunshin to learn them and they can teach me later after they figure it out! And since they're me, it'll be easy to understand the explanation for once!"
He jumped up from the mossy root he'd been stting on to rest for a few minutes, crowing, "Certainly, certainly, 'Kage Bunshin' is the best jutsu ever! Dattebayo!!" He formed the crossed finger seal but paused before molding the neccessary chakra - it wouldn't do any good if the bunshin ran out of energy before he could come back and learn the skills from them, and he didn't think the Hokage would miss the scroll being gone for more than one day, if it even lasted that long. More importantly, it would probably be too late for Gai-sensei to say he'd changed his mind about letting the team enter the exams soon, so he'd have to learn as much as possible to show him by the end of the day.
The clones would have to use up chakra trying to learn the skills, too... he was going to need a whole lot to pull this off. He didn't really want to deal with such a thing again, but... "Ero-sennin said learning to control the fox's chakra was just a matter of hard work, and I promised Gai-sensei I'd never run from working hard to get stronger! I won't go back on my word, dattebayo!"
Closing his eyes he concentrated on the memory of how he'd felt when he was falling into the cliff-side gorge, and the huge cage with the demon lord locked inside. Thinking as 'loudly' as he could, he mentally shouted, *HEY, YOU NINE-TAILS ASSHOLE! LAST TIME YOU COMPLAINED ABOUT ME BEING STUPID AND WEAK, SO GIMME SOME CHAKRA! I'M GONNA LEARN AN AWESOME JUTSU AND GET STONGER!* Then he started molding chakra, more and more, until it stopped being a relief, until it actually felt kind of draining, even more until he started to feel like a festival balloon all pufffed up with air... and that was when the burning sensation started in his belly button, spreading rapidly across his abdomen and then to his whole body. His eyes screwed tighter shut at the half-remembered feeling, as if his bones had been replaced with a fire ninjutsu and were cooking him from the inside out, and thought hard about only forming a single shadow clone before finally releasing all that power through the seal pattern and into the world around him.
Naruto sagged at the release, breathing hard as he heard the characteristic squeal of molded chakra taking effect, then finally opened his eyes.
Half a dozen kage bunshin looked back at him, with the same slightly puffy left eye and grass stained jacket, and the same expression as they realized there were still a few kinks to work out in control over that jutsu. His body still hummed with energy, though, as Naruto realized as soon as his breathing normalized. That was good, it meant he wouldn't be too tired today despite missing a night of sleep.
"Breath, thought, action, victory, like Gai-sensei said," he told himselves. "Now we've got our breath back, so it's time for you guys to get thinking while I go into action with Lee, Rikou, and Gai-sensei! I'll come back as soon as our mission is over, so you can teach me these other cool moves and then it's victory and the chuunin exams! Dattebayo!"
"DATTEBAYO!" the bunshin squad shouted back. Seven identical Nice Guy Poses sent up a smile-glint glare that should have been dazzlingly bright, but was unusually manageable.
As he tree hopped away to join his team, Naruto idly wondered if the slightly purplish eyes were a flaw in his technique or standard for 'Kage Bunshin.' It was dark when he was practicing before, so he hadn't been able to see colors much despite the full moon.
Then he wondered if kunoichi kept their nails long to give a better grip on bark, because his were kind of getting to where he should trim them but if it worked as well as it seemed he might not bother as long as they didn't look too girly.
Then he thought about ramen. Three thoughts in a row before ramen came up was actually a pretty good record for Naruto.
---=- + -=---
Team Explosive Youth was just finishing up stacking the firewood they'd split for Kubome-ojisan when Naruto froze, blinked, and said, "Oh, so that's how it works!" Puzzled at this (odd even for them) behavior, his sensei and team mates stopped as well to look curiously as he seemed lost in thought, balanced on one leg with the other extended to take a step and carrying a load of fire wood easily twice his own weight. A few seconds later the rumble of a distant explosion rolled across Konoha, and he roused - only to toss the whole load into the air with a jerk as he shouted, "AAAAH! THE SCROLL!" and took off on his hoverboard with a thunderclap of displaced air and a small crater where he'd kicked off from the ground.
Having just set their own last loads down, Gai leapt after the abandoned logs and gathered them with style and youthful flair, simultaneously ordering, "Lee! Follow Naruto! Rikou and I shall catch up!"
---=- + -=---
Fortunately Kubome-ojisan's house was about as close as anything in Konoha got to his choice of training ground, so it wasn't a long trip and the fox boy was the first to arrive. It was a very relieved Naruto who found a single, swirly-eyed shadow clone still intact on the lee side of a boulder, the Scroll of Forbidden Seals lying open beside him where he'd been the last one left practising 'Shuriken Kage Bunshin' against the trunk of a nearby tree. Even that one popped when Naruto tried to shake some sense back into him, and all Naruto could figure was that the rest had gotten tired of waiting for this one and had already memorized the instructions for 'Bunshin Daibakuha' since it only used a single simple seal, and went to go practise that skill in a different clearing instead of waiting around any more.
Actually, he was pretty sure that was exactly what happened, which was wierd since there wan't any way to really tell thanks to the huge crater blasted into the forest and the only clone left vanishing before he could get it to say anything. What was really wierd was that he seemed to know how to do the two jutsu he'd left the clones to learn despite not having been able to have them teach him, reading the instructions as he cleaned the scroll brought each part back as if he'd worked on them for hours himself. Maybe that was what the scroll had meant about the mental imprint thingambob from dispelling chakra?
Thinking about that kind of thing made his head hurt, so he concentrated on winding the scroll up evenly and not leaving any dirt caught inside. He was double checking it for damage as Lee arrived, and just rolling it back up as Gai and Rikou came along afterward.
The Jounin immediately recognised the coding on the wrapper that marked it as being an S-rank secret document and demanded, "Naruto! Where did you get that scroll? It should not be here, lying in the forest near the remains of a suspisciously recent, large explosion!" He kept most of his attention on the surroundings, searching for any enemies who might have had something to do with the blast and the scroll's presence.
"There's no need to be suspicious, Gai-sensei!" the blond proudly proclaimed. "After I found out about the special test, I went and got this scroll from Hokage-ojisan myself, and trained all night with the power of youth! Watch, watch!" He formed the crossed hand seal and molded just enough chakra for the technique to work (which was still quite a bit, and hence much easier to measure than the normal bunshin had been), then announced, "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" As planned, a single clone appeared, with only a tiny amount of chakra smoke to indicated wasted energy. "Next, 'Shuriken Kage Bunshin!' Sorry, clone guy, you're the target."
"Aw, boss! No fair!" the clone complained, but dutifully started running away around the rim of the crater. The original Naruto drew a single kunai and threw it after the retreating clone, then quickly did the needed seals and announced the technique, turning the lone blade into a hundred that flew trough the air with an ominous whistle before popping the clone and then dissipating themselves as well into so much drifting smoke.
"Okay! One More!" the bouncing blond shouted, popping out another kage bunshin before the astounded eyes of his teacher. Without waiting for instructions this time, the clone announced, "YOSH! I'll prove that the power of youth really IS explosive, dattebayo!" He jumped onto his (also cloned) hover board, skimmed down into the bottom of the crater and back using the wall as a ramp to get some serious air, and yelled, "Bunshin Daibakuha!" before blasting apart in a bright blue flash of chakra, creating a shockwave like the stronger sort of explosive tag that knocked all three genin off their feet.
"See, see? Mizuki-sensei said I only had to learn one jutsu to pass the secret test, but I got three, because no one gets strong doing just the minimum! I passed the test, so now we get to go to the chuunin exams, right, right?"
As soon as he heard the traitor's name Gai's eyes stopped shining and narrowed. He'd heard about the excitement the night before, but since the Hokage hadn't mentioned anything when they went to collect the day's mission he'd thought the matter settled. "Naruto..." he began seriously, "Did Hokage-sama give you this scroll to learn from? It is a very secret treasure of Konoha, which should have been far beyond your level."
Naruto laughed a bit sheepishly, "Eh heheh... Mizuki-sensei just said I had to get away, even if I think he meant I couldn't get caught... but when that gramps caught me we talked for a little bit and then I knocked him out with my other new jutsu, 'Orioke,' and took it from his library..."
A few seconds later, a resounding bellow of "YOU FOOL!" rolled across Konoha as the explosion had minutes earlier. The unmistakeable vioce of Maito Gai reassured the wary shinobi still heading toward the site of the disturbance, and while the ones who'd already reached it had stayed back to far to make out what exactly genin and sensei were saying, the frankly rather impressive jutsu demonstration and the fond but stern beating which followed told the story well enough:
One of the crazy jounin's mini-clones had gone overboard with a training excercise involving explosive ninjutsu, with predictable results. Most of them were only surprised it hadn't happened before or taken part of the village with it instead of uninhabited forest. All of them left before the punishment could turn into tear-filled promises of improvement and forgiveness, inevitably followed by the hugging and shining smiles and posing.
When all of that had finally been settled, Gai collected the huge scroll from his already nearly recovered student and sorrowfully proclaimed, "The spirit of youth refuses to be repressed, so I will forgive you, my impetuous student! Alas, I still cannot allow you to enter this series of exams, BUT!! My cute genin shall be entered in the very next exam, at which time the true flowers of the springtime of youth will surely have bloomed! You will certainly dominate then, with the explosive power of your impassioned youth!"
---=- + -=---
It was nearing sunset when Team Explosive Youth returned the Scroll of Forbidden Seals to the Hokage, with numerous heart felt apologies and vows of added training to engrave the lessons learnt on their hearts. Since the ANBU report had been marked 'case closed' it had steadily been shuffled to the bottom of Sarutobi's in box as he slogged through the daily mountain of paperwork. It was still there, unread, as he forgave Naruto for the offense in return for a promise never to use 'that jutsu' against him again.
(Would you like to know more?)
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... Only Hinata could see the boy she likes showing a huge crush on another girl, and think how sweet it is that he's willing to go to such lengths just to try to be noticed, and admire the courage he shows in doing so. Though, I suppose it might have been different even for her if Sakura had shown signs of reciprocating.
Iruka's dislike for Naruto - Contrary to the standard fan view that Iruka formed a mentor/brotherly relationship with Naruto early in his Academy time, my own reading of the manga chapters and review of the first anime episode suggests that Iruka didn't really like him much before Sandaime's talk after the graduation test and the Mizuki incident, and if the trip to Ichiraku Ramen after cleaning the monument wasn't the frst one it didn't happen more than a handful of times before that, and only because Iruka was fighting his own prejudices against the container of the demon vs. the kid's obvious lonliness echoing Iruka's own past, down to being the class clown. Since they haven't had even that much contact what with Naruto graduating before falling into Iruka's class's final year, there's not really any personal knowledge to base a genuine judgement on, just what Iruka has heard from various people and his own honest nature.
Haruno Rin was a character-bunny spawned by Darwithe, originally conceived in place of Sakura he aged her up a little and donated her for use in LoXY! I aged her up another year myself, making her 16 as of this appearance, and though it didn't actually affect this little segment adjusted her abilities upwards to better reflect my version of the Haruno clan's bloodline abilities. She was also the unfortunate subject of some of Orochimaru's experiments before being chased out of the Leaf, which, again, had very little showing beyond a mention of being unusually durable. She has a younger brother, Haruno Shima, who will get an even less glorious bit part later on, and her (deceased, Mizuki is her personal prime suspect for the rape and murder) mother was the only child of a successful baker, and while her father was brother to Sakura's father he was more interested in civilian life, and they took over the shop together when the old man retired. He is rather unhappy that both of his children have entered the dangerous ninja lifestyle instead of continuing the bakery - he hopes that at least one of them will get it out of their systems in time to settle down, help out, and provide an heir before getting killed.
Kubome - sunken/deep-set eyes (Interestingly, I found this word while searching for 'deep' for something else - the next listing was 'Kurenai' meaning 'deep red.' It makes me wonder if the red eyed character design came before or after the name)
Kage Bunshin - I'll be shocked if anyone doesn't already know this, but it means 'shadow clone.' The basic idea behind more power making them more durable is that with sufficiently trained chakra control they can reform from small disruptions - if they couldn't withstand any impact at all, they'd vanish as soon as they landed a punch, and we've seen them last longer than that. The cloned chopper works as a hoverboard because the bunshin are ultimately nothing but a packet of energy simulating real mass, and can move however Naruto believes they can move. With his fuuton affinity it would work as a weapon, too, but without the enhanced efficiency of the real thing. Of course, he doesn't actually know any fuuton techniques at this point, so the point is moot for now.
Shuriken Kage Bunshin - unsurprisingly, 'throwing star shadow clone' - a technique requiring far less chakra but greater control, Shuriken Kage Bunshin (name variable as required to match the weapon used) is a ninjutsu used on a thrown weapon to multiply it by whatever factor the user can spare chakra for, saving on carried equipment and overwhelming enemy defenses by turning each weapon thrown into a swarm. Naruto, of course, has the chakra for truly massive multiplication factors, and while he does study taijutsu of course, where he really goes whole hog is chakra control training. The problem is, those excercises are boring to write about, and every time I try to include them 'on camera' the scene is crap and gets deleted.
Bunshin Daibakuha - 'clone big explosion' - Supposedly, Itachi knows this jutsu; it's listed in one of the rescource books for him anyway. In my version, it's a suicide technique that only works on solid type bunshin - though it would kill a normal user, they wouildn't explode properly - by turning all the chakra in their body into a massive blast of force. Kage bunshin are actually the least efficient type for this as they have no integral matter to to be propelled by the pressure wave, but the large amount of chakra contained in one typically makes up for it. The amount of chakra in a part-kyuubi-powered kage bunshin, well, that's just nuts, as you can see, even when the amount of kyuubi chakra pulled out was relatively miniscule. This one just fit too well with the ongoing themes of the story to pass up.
To tell the truth, I'm not sure the direction the sun is shown rising and setting in Konoha is even consistent, let alone having the Hokage Monument looking due south, but that's how it is for LoXY! as the one thing I don't remember seeing is the monument casting a shadow over the city.
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Omake: Tales from the Cutting Room Floor
"Your father..." the old man said, contemplatively. "Powerful Jedi was he. Strong in the Force."
O_o .oO(...)
YEARS LATER, HIDDEN RAIN VILLAGE:
"Yes, Naruto," the spiky-haired Pein intoned. "-I- am your father! Search your feelings... you know it to be true!"
(Actually... I may yet throw out everything post-Gaara-rescue, and definitely consider it less 'canon' and more 'second-hand gossip' in terms of reliability for my purposes. Minato's clan is already locked in as something besides 'Namikaze,' if Naruto is eventually revealed to have some sort of kekkai genkai it'll have to either not have shown up in the other member seen or come from his mother.)
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