Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Mokuton ❯ Team 7 ( Chapter 2 )

Team 7

Mokuton

 

Naruto barely resisted bashing his head into the desk when his team was called out. `Why, oh why, do I have to be on the same team as the brooder and the banshee? Why?! What celestial deity did I piss off in a past life?!' he grumbled to himself. Naruto just covered his head with his hands and ignored the rest of the class. When all of the other teams got picked up, he promptly fell asleep, deciding that his sensei was the type that enjoyed being late.

The jinchuuriki was rudely awakened from his nap by an irate pink-haired banshee. “NARUTO, YOU BAKA! WAKE UP!!” she hollered, her voice sounding like a screech. Naruto blinked his eyes groggily, to see a comically furious Sakura glaring at him, and the Uchiha avenger wincing at the sound of the kunoichi's voice. “YOU'VE BEEN ASLEEP FOR TWO HOURS! OUR SENSEI COULD BE HERE ANY MINUTE! WE AREN'T IN THE ACADEMY ANYMORE, THIS IS THE REAL WORLD!!”

Naruto took a second glance at that. The Uchiha fangirl was lecturing him about the real world? It was laughable, really. Before he had a chance to retort, their jounin sensei finally walked in, blinking owlishly. The silver-haired man surveyed the genin and said “My first impression…I don't like you…at all. Meet me on the roof.” Naruto sighed, and Sasuke looked annoyed, while Sakura looked downright miffed.

Once all of the genin had gotten onto the roof, Kakashi started speaking. “Alright everyone, let's start by introducing yourselves. Your name, likes and dislikes, hobbies, and dreams for the future. You go first, Pinky.”

Sakura looked blankly at the jounin. “Why don't you go first, sensei?”

Kakashi shrugged. “My name is Hatake Kakashi. My likes and dislikes are none of your business. My hobbies…hmmm….Dreams for the future…don't really have any…”

“…”

Sakura started talking again. “My name is Sakura Haruno. My likes are… (Insert glance at Sasuke) I hate Ino-pig!! Hobbies… (Insert glance at Sasuke and blush) Dreams for the future… (Insert squealing like a pig and blushing)

Kakashi and Naruto sweatdropped simultaneously, and even Sasuke looked a bit wary. The silver haired jounin quickly shrugged it off and began speaking again. “Alright, the one who's staring at me like I'm steak is next.”

“Hn. My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I dislike a lot of things and I like whatever I don't dislike. My hobby is training. I do have a dream…but I call it an ambition….to resurrect my clan…and to kill a certain man…”

Sakura stared at Sasuke like he was the coolest thing in the world, but Naruto was reflecting deeply. `He has yet to learn the value of life…Even if it is a homicidal murderer like Itachi.'

Naruto knew about the Uchiha Massacre. If he had learned anything from observing the cycles of life in the forest, it was that one should watch, wait, and listen. Information was power. To be a proper shinobi, one must wait for the proper opportunity to strike a crippling blow against the enemy. The blonde had a habit on listening to things he shouldn't hear, and he knew quite a lot of things. That was how he had found out about the Kyuubi in the first place. Two drunken Anbu had been discussing it after a few cups of sake had loosened their tongues. After the encounter, Naruto had entered his mindscape and managed to talk to the Kyuubi. The nine-tailed Kitsune had become much more agreeable after Naruto used his Mokuton to restrain the fox. They had come to a sort of respect between the two beings, and they could sometimes work together…the emphasis being on sometimes.

“Alright…Blondie, you're next.”

The jinchuuriki obliged. “My name is Naruto. I-“ the blonde was cut off by Sakura. “No clan name? Huh?”

Naruto's eyes darkened. “I'm an orphan Sakura. I was born on the day the Kyuubi attacked. My birth certificate was never found, and both of my parents are assumed dead. No relations, nothing.”

This shut the kunoichi up, thankfully. “Anyways. I like ramen and plants. I dislike the three minutes it takes ramen to cook and people who judge other before they meet them. Hobbies…I guess that would be gardening and walking in the forest…As for dreams, I suppose I want to become a strong shinobi to protect my precious people, maybe become Hokage or something like that…”

Kakashi blinked. `This team might have hope yet.' “Anyways, tomorrow is time for your first duty as shinobi. It's going to be a survival test.”

“But we did plenty of survival training in the Academy.” Sakura complained.

“But this will be different. You'll be surviving against me. You see, the first genin exam was just to tell who had the potential to become genin. This test will determine whether or not you become true genin. It is a super hard exam that has a failure percentage of 66%! Good luck!” the jounin sad, before poofing away, leaving behind three very confused genin.

~

Sakura had easily taken up the title of `Genin with the Most Annoying Voice'. She proceeded to berate their instructor. Naruto zoned out while the jounin sensei gave the instructions, already having a vague idea of the test anyways. Only when their silver-haired sensei called “Start!” did he move.

The Mokuton user merged with a tree to give him enough time to think. Naruto knew there was some sort of trick to the test. `One genin going up against a tokubetsu jounin is suicide. The only way to get a bell would be to use the distraction of another genin, at the expense of said genin…Damn, that's messed up. I might as well use the distraction one of them will eventually cause to get the bells for myself…I don't know if I can bring myself to fail anybody…Ah well…'

With his plan formulated, Naruto fell into sync with the land around him, which allowed the jinchuuriki to sense all life forms. At this point he narrowed his search by ignoring the low-level chakras and searched for a much higher-level one. Eventually the blond found it, and discovered that Sakura was unconscious and Sasuke was fighting a completely one-sided battle against Kakashi. Naruto smirked and made his way towards the battle.

The mokuton user absorbed natural chakra from the landscape, almost doubling his normal reserves. Naruto quickly masked the surge, an art he had long since mastered. When the blonde sensed Kakashi dive underground, he leaped out of the trees and literally threw Sasuke away from the resurfacing jounin. Kakashi raised his one visible eyebrow. `That must have taken a lot of strength…'

Sasuke glared at Naruto for all he was worth. “What the hell was that for?!” the avenger shouted angrily.

“Is that how you treat someone who just saved your ungrateful ass?” Naruto asked calmly. “Look, are you going to help or not? The only way we'll ever get those bells is if we work together. Sakura is down for the count, so we can't expect any help from her.”

“Che.” Was Sasuke's response as he leapt forward to attack Kakashi. Naruto sighed, but followed suit.

Sasuke made a quick roundhouse kick to the jounin's head, while Naruto charged a palm strike with natural chakra and managed to give Kakashi a glancing blow in the arm.

Naruto's Shinrinken (Forest Fist) alternated between using normal attacks and adding natural chakra to the attacks. The natural chakra was forced into the opponent's body and deteriorated muscle fibers and tissue, even bones if there was enough chakra. And unfortunately for the jounin, that's exactly what happened to his arm.

With a taijutsu style like the Shinrinken, Naruto had a complex understanding of the human anatomy, and knew exactly what muscles and tendons to get rid of to prevent Kakashi from using his arm. First, the tendons in the jounin sensei's wrist were snapped, to prevent him from using his fingers. Then, Naruto forced chakra up the arm and deteriorated the muscle structure so that it was extremely weak.

Kakashi stared blankly at his student. “That…That's the Shodaime's…”

Naruto shrugged. “Really? I never knew.”

With one arm out of commission, it was easier for the two genin to get the bells. Sasuke used a few Katon jutsu, but Naruto didn't use mokuton. He wanted to save it as a surprise for later. Eventually Naruto got close enough to snatch the bells from Kakashi's belt. The silver haired sensei's eye crinkled up in a smile. It was at that moment that the kunoichi of the team decided to get up and join them.

Sakura walked over, and saw Naruto and Sasuke with a bell each. Her shoulders slumped, seeing that she had failed the exams. “Well, I guess I fail…”she said, disheartened. Naruto was right. He just couldn't stand to see anyone look so depressed. `Ah well. There's always next year…' he thought. The jinchuuriki sighed again and tossed his bell to Sakura. “There you go Sakura.” He said softly. “You pass. Kakashi-sensei, I'll heal your arm before I go home.”

Naruto focused natural chakra into his hand, and modified it to heal. He stepped up to Kakashi and healed the jounins arm by pushing in the green chakra that signified nature's energy. When he was done, the glow faded, and the blonde started to walk away. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Sakura, Sasuke. I wish you well. Ja ne.”

The other three shinobi just stared blankly after him.

~

Naruto was slurping up a cup of instant ramen when he heard a knock at his door. `who could that be?' he wondered to himself. Just to be on the safe side, he pulled out a kunai and hid it up the sleeve of his jacket. The blonde opened the door to see a silver-haired jounin, a pink-haired kunoichi, and a raven-haired genin standing outside. “Hello, Kakashi-sensei, Sakura, Sasuke. What do you need?” he asked.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. “Can we come in?” The jinchuuriki shrugged and stepped aside, allowing entrance to his apartment.

“So, what do you need?”

“Ahh, well actually I came here to explain the true meaning of the test.” Kakashi said.

“Teamwork? Yeah, I know. You basically have to pick the person you want to be stuck with for god knows how long…Anyways, I can't stand seeing people who I consider comrades get hurt. Pain of the heart can hurt so much more than physical pain after all…” Naruto laughed bitterly. “Trust me, I should know.”

Kakashi looks at the blond sadly. “You're not getting the whole point. If the team was able to work together, everybody would pass.”

“Nani?!”

“Since you and Sasuke worked together, and you gave up your bell to Sakura, you proved that you have the power to be a qualified genin, and are rather self-sacrificing. I actually didn't think this team would have passed, and they wouldn't have if it wasn't for you. So congratulations!” The jounin said, smiling beneath his mask.

Naruto blinked. “Okay…” Sakura turned to face her shorter teammate. “Naruto, I want to thank you for giving me the bell. I…I don't know if I could have done if I was in your place.” The blonde gave a small smile and noticed that Sasuke was looking at him and not glaring, which wasn't something that happened often. “Something up Sasuke?” he asked. “Tch.

Kakashi smiled. He could tell his team was going to get along just fine.

*Fuuko-chan*

The next chapter will take a little longer to come out probably, but I'll be as fast as I can. As for clothing, everyone except for Naruto is wearing the same thing. Naruto wears black cargo pants with the typical ninja gear as well as a dark brown pack on his left hip. He wears a black t-shirt underneath a forest green sweatshirt. (Forest colors…duh.)

Ja Ne!