Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Clone ❯ chapter 6 ( Chapter 6 )

A/N

 

 

Well this is the next installment of “The Clone” I apologize for the short Hiatus, however I felt very little motivation to write in face of my dismal review count and had (still have) much more pressing concerns in the form of overdue homework. Thanks again to all that took the time out to review, on with the story.

 

“Human speech”

“ Demon or summon speech”

“Human thoughts”

“Demon or summon thoughts”

Disclaimer: Jeez this is tedious; I do not own Naruto… short and sweet.

 

 

Chapter 6: The First Assignment

 

 

Naruto brought his hand into a seal, “Batsu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu” he had since gotten used to the additional chakra he had to pump into his new technique. Jiraiya had drilled him extensively in its practical application. The improvement he had thought up for the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was in reality very simple, he simply added a weak chakra “shell” to the surface of each Bunshin. While this was simple enough in theory in practice most ninja below jonin level did not have enough chakra to use it in a combat efficient manner, Naruto had for all intents and purposes created his first kinjutsu. It went without saying that Naruto had been in very good spirits for all of a month before Jiraiya decided to set him some sort of “Practical test”. Naruto summoned six of his new improved Bunshin and immediately used a Kwarami to flee to a nearby Mahogany tree. He was still far from Ero-Sannin's level but the Sannin would no doubt hold back significantly, and Naruto after years of sparring with him knew many of his preferred tactics. True to form after 10 minutes of no action Jiraiya rose up from the tall grass just 10 meters from the Bunshin. Naruto silently admired the skill it must have taken for the man to remain undetected that close to the Bunshin. Jiraiya had never been one to wait for a fight preferring instead to engage the enemy on his own terms. Besides there was no way in hell he would wait around on an opponent several times weaker than himself.

 

Naruto watched, tense as Jiraiya engaged the Bunshin in taijutsu once again he marveled in the skill the Sannin showed though his own progression was also evident in the smooth and precise movements of his Bunshin, that said Jiraiya quickly dispelled all of them but one. The last Bunshin had already taken a hit from Jiraiya and Naruto doubted it could withstand another attack from the powerful Sannin. The Bunshin went in quickly aiming a powerful roundhouse kick for Jiraiya's neck, Jiraiya blocked and grabbed the offending leg quickly the clone twisted in the opposite direction bringing its other leg round in a back drop kick aimed at Jiraiya's shoulder. Rather than block the attack Jiraiya let it land barely wincing at the impact. He proceeded to smash the offending Bunshin into the ground his eyes betraying his mild consternation when it evaporated like the others.

 

Naruto took advantage of that split second advantage hurling a kunai at Jiraiya from his hidden position, Jiraiya immediately detected and plucked it out of the sky but not before it tripped a nearly invisible wire. The ground the Sannin was standing on suddenly fell away revealing a pitfall. Jiraiya showcasing his superhuman reflexes immediately leapt to the side, just to see an exploding tag half buried beneath his foot. He leapt back quickly dodging the small chain off explosions the tags set off. Finally he came to a rest not noticing the final trap the tags had set off when they blew. A dozen kunai came whistling at the Sannin from behind.

 

Naruto watched as the kunai impaled Jiraiya's form but he knew it wasn't over. Sure enough the impaled Jiraiya disappeared in a burst of smoke but Naruto did not see any of the tell tale signs of Kwarami. It had been a Bunshin all along! Naruto knew he had to change location as quickly as possible. He turned and leapt towards a branch on the next tree. Jiraiya blurred into sight on the target branch and aimed a punch at Naruto's gut. Naruto grabbed Jiraiya's hand before it connected and tried to use it as a handspring to vault over the Sannin's head to the branch further along. He succeeded but Jiraiya grabbed his leg as he sailed by and slammed him into the thick tree trunk. Naruto choked back a cough as his vision swam, Hazily he registered a Jiraiya's follow up punch and crouched just as Jiraiya's fist smacked powerfully into the tree trunk. Immediately though he was still disorientated Naruto surged upwards with a powerful uppercut aimed for the Sannin's chin. Jiraiya leant back and Naruto's fist brushed by his forehead protector. He grabbed Naruto by his vest and hauled him over his shoulder down towards the verdant forest floor. As he fell Naruto reached into his pouch and flung a dozen Shurieken at Jiraiya. Rapidly bringing his hands into seals he screamed at the top of his voice “Tajuu Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu” hundreds if not thousands of projectiles tore at the Sannin blocking almost every avenue of escape and coming at amazing speed. The Sannin blurred out of sight suddenly much faster than before Naruto saw all his shurieken imbed themselves harmlessly in the foliage before he keeled over from chakra depletion.

 

After about an hour Naruto managed to rise, he saw Jiraiya sitting across the clearing watching him silently.

 

“Am leaving for about a month on some business I have to take care of.”

 

“Going to go promote the new Icha Icha?”

 

“ahahaha something like that.” Naruto could tell that Jiraiya was lying though. “More importantly I was impressed by your performance today.”

 

“Really I thought I got my ass kicked pretty bad.”

 

“Well yes but your last attack forced me to use more than jonin speed to escape serious injury, it was unexpected though it was really a last ditch attempt.”

 

“Thanks, I guess.”

 

“Don't be like that Naruto, if it's any consolation your stronger than I was when I was your age.”

 

“There are people… so much stronger than me, I can't see myself at that level.”

 

“Not yet no.” at this Jiraiya stood up. “When I get back we are going to up your training on one condition”

 

“Whats that?”

 

“If you complete the Rasengan by that time then we will take your training to the next level, if you survive it will only take 3 months for you to reach low jonin in terms of skill.”

 

Naruto watched astounded as Jiraiya walked away. When he broke out of his stupor he immediately formed the Rasengan and started to swirl the chakra for all his worth.

 

The next day Naruto was still exhausted from his fight with Jiraiya and training the Rasengan for an additional 2 hours. Waking up drowsily he performed his morning stretches before heading for a shower. After he was done he slipped down to the kitchen, grabbing a half empty bottle of milk and a few slices of bread he headed out of the compound eating on his way to his team meeting.

 

What kind of training he wondered idly could the Sannin give him that would raise his level by so much? He estimated that he and his teammates were at least high chunin now in sheer skill if not experience. The gap between a high chunin and low jonin was still considerable though and covering it in such a short time frame was almost unheard of in this day and age of peace. Seeing as the training would par neccesity be much more difficult than what he was currently going through he guessed that he would have little time for anything except eating, sleeping and training. Well at least he would have this one month to finally perfect the Rasengan. Jiraiya had guessed correctly that Naruto needed some sort of motivator to speed up his progress on the jutsu.

 

Lost in his thoughts Naruto once again did not notice that he had reached the bridge where his team assembled.

 

“Why are you late dobe?”

 

“huh? Ohh hey Sasuke, Hinata. Well I had some reeeeaally strenous training with Jiraiya last night and I ended up waking up late. He taught me a lot of cool stuff though.”

 

As usual Sasuke's lukewarm demeanor turned ice cold at the mention of Naruto's superior instructor. For some unfathomable reason Naruto did not fully understand Sasuke seemed to be jealous of him when it came to Jiraiya, that didn't mean that Naruto failed to use his training to provoke Sasuke at any chance he got. Turning to Hinata he smiled and though she didn't return the gesture she nodded towards him amicably enough. Since she had started training with her mysterious jonin Hinata had started changing subtly. She had grown a bit more open and talkative around him and Sasuke and recently he had caught her smiling tentatively at some of his funnier clashes with Sasuke-teme. Though her ice queen persona was still very much apparent and reared its ugly head at inopurtune moments it wasn't as bad as before. After an hour of semi-companionable silence and occasional chatter between Naruto and Hinata with the odd comment from Sasuke Kakshi made his appearance. Noone even bothered glaring at the errant jonin, he had since proved he was incorrugible when it came to deadlines. For once he was all business once he arrived silently handing a fairly bulky dossier to each of them.

 

“Let's find somewhere a little more comfortable.” Following his orders they quickly relocated to a nearby roof reminicient of their first meeting place.

 

“The Hokage has decided on my suggestion that it is time to test the plausibility of a combat orientated team.”

 

“Meaning?” Hinata inquired with an arched eyebrow.

 

“This is our assignment, a B possibly A rank mission.”

 

“Isn't such a high mission unusual for genin.” Naruto was slightly concerned, perhaps the most pragmatic member of his team he tried to look at things in a logical way.

 

Kakashi didn't bother answering instead going on with his narrative. “If you turn to the first page you will see a basic estimate of enemy strength Morimo Zabuza a jonin from mist is the most notable threat and the reason for the high ranking. My primary duty will be to engage and if possible kill him, with him out of the picture mission difficulty should drop to about a C rank.” This last said looking at Naruto. “The other notable enemies are the Demon brothers two chunin and Haku Zabuza's primary apprentice. He has a basic compliment of 30 ordinary thugs as well.

 

“So what are the mission parameters?” Asked Sasuke as he stared at a grainy photo of Zabuza taken as the man fled after his failed coup d'etat.

 

“The mission is in two parts, a hostage rescue and then an assasination, Wave country has recently come under the control of Gatou a western business man. He has taken over the country's shipping economy and the population is suffering under his rule. Tazuna a bridge builder decided to bypass his authority by building a bridge to connect the country to the main land, in retaliation Gatou hired Zabuza and his thugs to capture and execute Tazuna and his family to make an example out of them.”

 

“If he wants the man dead why are they being held hostage?”

 

“Good question Naruto, Gatou himself is currently inspecting his operations to the west, he is due back in wave in a month though.”

 

“So what is our basic mission plan?”

 

“Well no plan survives first contact but this is what I was thinking. First we need to rescue the Hostages, I will confront Zabuza directly while Sasuke you take Haku and Hinata you take the demon twins. Naruto I want you to eliminate all the lesser thugs, evacuate the hostages and then aid either Sasuke or Hinata depending on who needs your help. If all goes according to plan and we defeat Zabuza's people Gatou should arrive with only a light bodygaurd detail. The three of you will act as my support while I handle the actual assasination. Any questions?”

 

“Yes just one, If the Wave is in such big trouble how could they afford a B rank??”

 

“Well Konoha has not been payed in full, however they have granted hypothetical trade concessions to the fire country if we are to suceed.”

 

Naruto's eyes narrowed “So they're just exchanging one master for another?”

 

“It's not like that Naruto…”

 

“Sure”

 

“Listen kid it's a job, its best you just do your duty and leave the politics to the politicians. Expect conditions to be misty there so dress in neutral colours, I expect you to memorize that dossier by tommorow morning when we leave. Group dismissed.

 

 

 

A/N

 

Done, I know its kinda short but I just wanted to set the scene for the first part of the mission next time, I hope you liked my reinvention of the Zabuza arc. It's unbelievably hard to keep the characters from getting overpowered, oh well. Till next time.

 

Darklighter

 

Jutsu List

 

Batsu Kage Bunshin No Justu: A reinforced version of Kage Bunshin created by Naruto currently used by Jiraiya and Naruto.