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Another day dawns in Konoha, but this time it was more agitated and full of nervous tension in the air. It was the long-awaited day that would decide if the students of the ninja academy would finally be able to graduate, for that they would need 'only' to take the test in which everything they had learned during the long years of studies would be judged. In other words, it was the most awaited and feared day for all the students and their families.Naruto, like every good young boy on the eve of an important test, had been excited, but also very nervous and anxious, so he had had trouble sleeping the night before. He woke up blinking his eyes slightly sleepily, smiling as he remembered what a day it was. However, his smile vanished when he saw what time it was, which made him stumble out of bed, and even fall to the floor when he reached for his clock to check that his eyes were not deceiving him."Ah, damn it!" the blond boy shouts in desperation and starts jumping around the room picking up clothes to get ready in a hurry. He wondered if the clock had a personal problem with him since it always failed him. Although deep down he knew that the object had been sold to him with a defect, just like every time he tried to exchange it or buy a new one. "I'm very, very late!"He quickly eats his breakfast and rushes out of the house in an almost futile attempt to get to class on time where Iruka-sensei is waiting for everyone to start with the exam. When Naruto finally arrives, unfortunately, he was already 15 minutes late. So he has an idea: to enter the room without his sensei seeing him. However, as always in these situations, his plan went wrong and he found himself face to face with an angry Iruka with his problem student. This made him wonder if the teacher could sniff out his discomfort every time he was late."Ohayo, Iruka-sensei..." said Naruto smiling ungraciously at his situation."Ohayo, Naruto... Why are you arriving at this time today if you knew there was an exam today?" asked Iruka with a serious look on his face, but sighing disappointed that his day had already started with the boy causing trouble."Gomen, Iruka-sensei... I just missed the time... Hehehehe..." the younger boy replied, scratching his head."You always miss the time, Naruto," said Iruka, rolling his eyes, already used to the boy's excuse, which caused laughter from the other students in the class."It's not funny!" Naruto looks frustrated at his classmates in an attempt to get them to stop laughing. It was the damn clock's fault, not his."Go to your seat and wait to be called to take the exam. Until then, make sure you don't do anything foolish, you hear?" Iruka asked, more orderly than anything else, seeing that Naruto wasn't paying attention."Huh? Hai..." replied Naruto a bit confused that he had heard almost nothing his sensei had said. Although he had a notion of what the elder had said, that of always "not causing any more trouble" and how the test would work, which he knew because he had already taken the final test two other times.Naruto sat down while he saw his classmates looking at him and whispering to the others. 'I don't understand why they look at me with such contempt like I'm a freak or something. But one day I will be strong and the greatest Hokage of all time, then they will have to respect me! That's right!' he thought trying to pass on his confidence, like a mantra he had created to reassure himself. After all, no one was more respected than the Hokage.A few hours later all that remained was for him to take the test, all his colleagues had already taken it and been dismissed. As almost everyone had left with a happy and satisfied expression, confident that they had passed, the boy was sure that he would also pass, that he would also become a genin this time. He stood there imagining what his life as a ninja would be like and didn't even notice that he had been called."Naruto... Naruto! Uzumaki Naruto, can you hear me?" called Iruka, almost shouting at the boy distracted in his thoughts."Ahh," he jumped, startled. "You scared me, Iruka-sensei!" the nervous young man protested."Come, come. It's your turn," said Iruka as he led the young man into the examination room.When they entered Naruto was amazed at the size of the room. His teacher led him to a table where there were two seats, one of which was occupied by an old man with red and white clothes and a triangular hat of the same colors, the Sandaime Hokage (third Hokage). Someone the boy already knew well, although it was unusual for him to appear on these occasions."Shall we begin the evaluation?" the Hokage asked, giving the blond a slight, encouraging smile."Yes ... Naruto start doing the cloning Jutsu." guided Iruka."Hai... Kage bunshin no Jutsu!" said Naruto.When the clone appeared his observers soon noticed some differences between the clone and the real Naruto. The clone had evil chakra that did not belong to the young man, it had wild red eyes and the characteristic whiskers more prominent. This made the Hokage a bit worried. Then Naruto curious and confused because of the reactions of his sensei and the Hokage turns to look at his clone. 'It can't be that bad...' he thought."Ahhhhhhh!" he screamed as he saw the appearance of the 'copy', jumping away from it and closer to the adults. "Is he my clone?" Naruto asked, looking at the adults for help. 'No...It can't be ... I'm not like that ... I don't look like a monster, do I?' he thought desperately."Yes... Yes, it is..." the old man sighs, not expecting something like this to happen so soon. "Naruto, I'm afraid I need to reveal something to you." says the Hokage seriously, looking into the boy's terrified eyes.
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Flashback: on
"Ahhhhhhh!" he screamed as he saw the appearance of the 'copy', jumping away from it and closer to the adults. "Is he my clone?" Naruto asked, looking at the adults for help. 'No...It can't be ... I'm not like that ... I don't look like a monster, do I?' he thought desperately."Yes... Yes, it is..." the old man sighs, not expecting something like this to happen so soon. "Naruto, I'm afraid I need to reveal something to you." says the Hokage seriously, looking into the boy's terrified eyes.
Flashback: off
"Reveal?" replies Naruto a bit confused, and afraid of what it could be, since the Kage's tone half implied that it wouldn't be good news."Are you sure, Hokage-sama?" Iruka looked at the gentleman next to him. 'I don't think that's a good idea, to tell you the truth...' he thought, worried about the boy's reaction and how he would handle the truth."Trust me, Iruka." he tranquilized the sensei. "But first, Naruto, undo the clone." said the Hokage still serious."Hai!" Naruto tried to undo the clone, just as he had been asked, but nothing happened. "Nani?! Why can't I undo it?" he wonders aloud, not understanding anything anymore."As I imagined..." said the Hokage, thinking out loud, 'The clone is not under his control,' he added internally."That's not good... " agrees Iruka, annoyed with the situation."What do you mean? Old man, didn't you say you were going to tell me something?" the blond boy asks, hovering between curious and frightened.An unpleasant silence breaks out in the room. Until the Hokage orders Iruka to finish off the clone, thus beginning a short battle between the two. 'Strange, my clone doesn't fight the same way as I do as he should. He seems to have much more experience than me and fights in a wild and dark way that scares me...' thought the boy, without looking away from the movements of what should be his copy. When, at last, Iruka managed to finish off the clone (which took about 25 minutes) they got back to talking."Naruto, I think you have noticed that you are a little different from your classmates." the Hokage begins."Yes..." responds Naruto, it wasn't too hard to notice actually, since he looked more like an outcast within the village. 'But that doesn't explain or justify the way everyone looks at me!' he thinks indignantly. "But I don't understand why, old man.""I'll explain it to you now. But you can't interrupt me until I'm finished, understand?" the Hokage asks, seeing that Naruto was very curious."Okay..." agrees with the elder, after all, he has wanted the answers to this for a long time. The incident with the clone only made him more lost. "But when you're done I can ask questions, right?" Naruto asks."Sure," he says, smiling as he sees the curious nature of the younger man emerge. "You know that ten years ago a nine-tailed fox attacked the village, right?" he received a positive nod and then continued. "On that day, besides Yondaime defeating the fox, as told in books and classes, the monster was sealed inside a newborn child." the boy's eyes widen and he shivers with a bad feeling. "There are other giant beings like the fox scattered around the world. These monsters are known as bijuus and possess a large amount of chakra, much more than any human being can have. Their strength is classified according to the number of tails, which goes up to nine." pauses to see if the boy is following. "The people who have a bijuu sealed inside them are called jinchuurikis. Since a long time ago, the shinobi nations (ninjas) have fought to capture these bijuus, which, being powerful, could serve as an excellent weapon in wars. However, they were too dangerous to be manipulated and the only way to do this was to seal them in people so that they could control them, and so the jinchuurikis appeared. By the population of their villages, they are seen as the very monsters within them, which makes them unhappy and often makes them hateful." tells Hokage "Do you understand, Naruto?""Hm... A little... But what does this have to do with me?" Questions Naruto. 'Strange the way he said people treat 'jin' something, it sounds like the way people... The way they treat me...' he thinks increasingly uncomfortable by the idea forming inside him."Can't you really figure it out? Think: what happened on October 10th 10 years ago?" speaks the Hokage trying to help the young man to arrive at the answer."Old man, you yourself said that day that the Fox attacked the village and..." Naruto says until he remembers something important. "Wait, that's... That was the day I was born!" he exclaims. 'That day that monster was sealed inside a newborn child...' this phrase repeated in his mind. "Well... On that day someone else was born beside me, right?" anybody could hear the nervousness in his voice."No. You were the only one born that day..." Hiruzen replied. 'I think he's beginning to understand now,' he thought."So I was the only newborn in the village..." speak swallowing dryly. "That means that I... That inside of me is the nine-tailed fox?" He looks at both adults trying to hide his despair, 'That explains the way people look at me and treat me. But, that can't be true... No, not at all...' he pauses. "You've got to be kidding, right?" pleaded. 'Please say this was just a joke, because of all the things I've done in the village,' he thinks, pleading internally as the long-held feelings begin to come back into his heart."Yes, Naruto, you are the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi (nine-tailed demon fox)." said the Sarutobi, feeling a feeling of sorrow as he saw the boy's suffering as he absorbed the information."Why? Why me?!" he asks with his head down and fists clenched. "AND THAT'S NO EXCUSE FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE VILLAGE TO LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT!" screams angrily, feelings cascading out. "I AM NOT A MONSTER! I AM UZUMAKI NARUTO!!!!" now the young man's hatred was very apparent, his expression was starting to look like the clone he had made, although with tears in his eyes because of how much it had hurt him to know. After saying all that he hurriedly left the room and the ninja academy grounds."Is that Naruto?" Rock Lee asks after a figure in orange runs past them."That's what it looks like..." says Shikamaru. "Problematic...""He had some strange chakra on him..." says Neji with his Byakugan on."What a problem..." repeats Shikamaru."That's all you can say?" Tenten looks at the boy with the ponytail."Yep". Ino answers the girl with the two buns since she has known the Nara for years due to their family friendship. "But what could he have been up to?" she asks, returning to the subject of the blond boy.Little did they know that poor Naruto had done nothing, he was just running to get to the only place he could think straight and that was also his favorite: The Hokage monument. Although now it leaves him in a certain conflict after everything he had discovered. After some time he comes to a conclusion...
Continues...
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It was already evening when the little Uzumaki returned to his lonely apartment. His head was still full from the events of earlier in the day. Of course, the time he had spent at the Hokage Monument had helped him clear his head a bit and get a sense of what he was going to do from then on, but it was still very confusing. It would not be easy for anyone to discover that the monster from the stories that had attacked the village and that everyone feared was right inside. That all the hateful looks and words about him had some basis, even if he himself had no idea of the fact until today.For the first time in his life, he was not hungry. It seemed as if it had disappeared along with all the certainty he had about life. So he just put the headband he had received earlier when he passed the exam on his chair and headed for his room, finally getting into bed. Not that he was actually going to sleep. He just didn't have anything to do, he didn't know what to do. He had been like this for some time when he heard a light knock on his door."How are you?" asked the Hokage as he entered the boy's room, who had just sat down."..." the boy just shrugged, not really in the mood to talk. Which made the older man sigh with regret."We need to talk," he announced, getting more attention from the other. "About tomorrow. You're not supposed to be on any team.""What?!" the young blonde was alarmed. "Why?" he asks indignantly."Someone like you... A jinchuuriki needs special training..." he confessed."Why do I have to be different even in this?! Why do I always have to be excluded?" shouted the boy, making the Kage's eyes widen, it was a long time since the boy had acted like that."..." the pity in Sarutobi's eyes only made him worse. "I'm sorry.""Arg!" the boy just throws the pillow at the elder, who just deflects, in response."Naruto," he calls but the Uzumaki refuses to look at him. "I've found a way so it doesn't have to be like this.""How?" simply asks, a little curious."Don't underestimate me. I am the Hokage after all." says the Hokage, smiling slightly, trying to lighten the mood. "Baka-old man." mumbles the blond. "What are you talking about anyway?""You'll be able to be part of a team like the others," he said, managing to throw a little hope in the boy's eyes. "On one condition: at the same time you will have and commit to proper training.""But...!""No buts." rebates. "It's the only way around it, Naruto." tries to soften it, as the anger in the child's eyes was back."Isn't there another way?" he asks in a pleading tone. "No," the boy sighs dejectedly at hearing the answer. "Go to sleep, tomorrow is a new day. You will meet your teammates and your sensei," he commands, then ruffles the boy's hair and turns to leave."Okay...""And tidy up these things," he said already at the door. "I know things aren't great right now, but later on they'll get better. I promise." he smiled at the young boy before leaving."And when will that happen? You always say that..." Naruto murmurs, not putting as much faith in the older man's words as he used to.That night the boy couldn't sleep well. The memories of the conversation with the Hokage and everything that had happened tormented him throughout the night, not allowing him to sleep in peace. As a result, he woke up early that morning. He got ready and went to the kitchen, but as usual, there was not much food available. He ate one of the last ramen he had and drank the rest of the milk. Then he went quickly to the gym, not that he was late, but he didn't want to see too many stares that day. So he had to wait until everyone arrived and then for the Hokage to make his speech and announce the Genin teams."First of all, I would like to congratulate you all for becoming the newest generation of Konoha's ninjas!" the Hokage praises. "I see that everyone is wearing their headbands. Very well. Now let's get to what you've all been waiting for! At first, I will list them, but then they will be known by the name of the jounin responsible. They are:Team 1: Tenten, Hyuuga Neji and Rock Lee.Jounin in charge: Maito Gai.Team 2: Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji.Jounin responsible: Sarutobi Asuma.Team 3: Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino and Inuzuka Kiba.Jounin responsible: Yuuhi Kurenai.Team 4: Tsuchigumo Megumi, Kurama Ryuji, Sai.Jounin responsible: Mitarashi Anko.Team 5: Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto.Jounin responsible: Hatake Kakashi.Upon hearing who their companions would be, there were countless reactions. Many had never imagined themselves staying together with these people. For some, this was already predictable, but even so, they hoped they wouldn't. There were even those who had barely spoken to each other during all the school years. And, obviously, for some, it didn't matter. When he finished revealing the teams, the Kage recommended that they group up and wait for their sensei together."Won't you meet with your colleagues?" Iruka asked, stopping near the Uzumaki who was sitting on a swing away from everyone. "You are very quiet today. Is it because of yesterday?" thinks to himself that maybe it was not the time and the way for the boy to find out. But all he got was silence. So he was forced to give up. So he turned away, heading towards the parents who wanted to talk to him."Hey," someone said close to him, trying to get his attention. "Naruto! Didn't you hear what the Hokage said?""I'm sick of listening to that old man," he grumbled softly."What?! You can't call the Hokage that!" Sakura protested."I can do whatever I want." refutes Naruto."Trio." they are called by exactly who they are talking about. "Kakashi is waiting for you on the roof. He said that if you take too long he'll leave.""Why hasn't he come to call us?" Sasuke asks."He wasn't too excited about interrupting your little fight." Sandaime laughs a little."Oh my Kami! We made a horrible first impression!" trembles the nervous Haruno."Let's go!" claims the Uchiha, hurrying the group. And so they began to run."Naruto." called Sarutobi as a warning and recommendation."I know!" responded brusquely before running after the rest of his team.Because of this, all three arrived on the terrace gasping. They had run almost desperately for fear that the jonin had already left. But luckily for them, the Hatake was waiting leaning on the railing reading a book."There you are. Sit down." pronounces the ninja putting away what he was reading and focusing his attention on the children in front of him. "As the Sandaime said, my name is Hatake Kakashi and I'll be the jonin responsible for your team. Introduce yourselves. Say your names, hobbies, what you like, what you don't like, and your dreams for the future. You, on the right, start.""My name is Haruno Sakura. My hobby is... What I like is... My dream is... And what I don't like is Naruto." she told Sakura, and with each pause, she looked at the Uchiha."My name is Uchiha Sasuke. My hobby is training, especially shurikens. I like to train with my brother, but I don't like it when he says he can't. My dream is to become a shinobi stronger than Nii-san," Sasuke says, with a hint of pride and a little embarrassment for talking so much."My name is Uzumaki Naruto. My hobby... I think it's pranks. I like ramen. I don't like..." he paused for a while thinking about the looks he always gets. "I don't like it when I don't have money to buy ramen. My dream... I don't think I have anything like that." he finishes in a low voice.Everyone was surprised and confused to hear this. Wasn't he the boy who shouted to the corners of the village that he was going to become Hokage? That he was going to surpass all the others? Why was he suddenly saying that he had no dreams? What was the truth?'I seem to have gotten a complicated team. One only thinks about boys. Another only thinks about his brother. And the last one seems to be lost. Will they work out?' the teacher wondered. "Tomorrow, shortly after sunrise, be at training camp 3. We will have a little test.""What? Why? Didn't we just graduate?" questions the indignant pink girl."A test? What for?" asks the ravenette, getting to the point."You'll find out tomorrow. Other than that, treat it as a mission." the white-haired man leaves it up in the air. "Oh, I almost forgot! Don't eat breakfast," he says before disappearing into smoke."Oh heavens, this sensei... Can you believe it? "Sakura declares, shaking her head, while they walk away."Well, since we don't know what will happen. Maybe we should have lunch together, to get to know each other better. Then we could try to think about what might happen tomorrow and prepare ourselves." suggests the Uchiha."That's truth, Sasuke-kun! That's a great idea! No wonder you were considered the best student in the class!" agrees the pink girl excited by the proposal."Where do you want to eat?" he asks, trying to decide the subject at once."I'll pass. You guys go." says the Uzumaki going in another direction after leaving the academy gates. Outside, people were staring at them, analyzing and finding the group strange. The uncomfortable boy preferred to leave and so he did. Quickly leaving the other two behind."What's wrong with him? He could at least stay a little longer with us. We are a team now after all, dammit!" Sakura says, annoyed with the blonde's behavior."Let it go, Sakura. This guy's been acting weird all day." intervenes the Uchiha."True. Could it have something to do with what happened yesterday?" she asks, remembering the strange scene after the test."I don't know. Maybe. Look how they are looking at him." the other comments, while they see the third member walking away, making his way through the crowd. For the first time observing how the others were looking at the blond.After a while, when they had already lost sight of him, they gave up. And they went their separate ways, not so excited about having lunch together, each finally going home after discussing what might happen on the way. Back home, the blonde regretted the milk he had taken. It was spoiled, that's for sure because he was having a bad time. He would spend the whole day in the bathroom regretting it.
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That night the boy struggled to sleep but ended up blacking out from exhaustion at some point due to the previous one, in which he slept very badly. Although he was exhausted, it was not exactly a peaceful sleep. Nightmares, the most terrible ones, came to haunt the child's dreams, a mixture of memories and fiction of the worst moments he had ever lived in that village with its inhabitants. Inside the dream they chased him, everything was dark, no moon in the sky, all those people either had torches in hand or stones, they were crying out for revenge for the people they loved, people lost by the beast's attack."NOW THAT YOU KNOW, SURRENDER AND PAY FOR THE LIVES YOU HAVE TAKEN! IT'S NO USE TRYING TO FOOL US BECAUSE YOU ARE THE MONSTER!"With those words Naruto woke up in fright sitting up and bending over, still feeling the fear of escape from those madmen who were chasing him in his dream. It took him a while before he could calm down to the point where he could move. He lifted his head and looked toward the window, it was still late at night, but the moon was already lower, indicating that there was still at least an hour and a half before the sun rose."..." the boy sighed before getting up and turning off his alarm clock, now useless. "At least at this hour there shouldn't be anyone on the streets..." he forced a weak smile as he finished changing and left, walking quickly through the streets to the training camp indicated the day before.It was easy to get there, after all, he knew practically the whole village by heart. He had walked through it so much in an attempt to lose sight of those who wished him harm or just avoid seeing them at all, he had to learn not to call attention to himself in order to survive. He shook his head to stop his thoughts, after what he had dreamed it was better to avoid it, he needed to try to keep his head straight, he had a bad feeling about whatever that test was that Sensei had talked about. And his life experiences said that his instincts were one of the few things he could trust in that world. He knew it would be a while before the others on his team arrived, so he went to a tree farther away from the view on the way to the place and settled himself on a branch."Wow, why is this place so far away? And why didn't Sensei give us any instructions on how to get here?" Sakura complained as she and the third member arrived together in the clearing of the training camp"Because ninjas should be able to get anywhere with as little information as possible. You should know that." the Uchiha replied, as he yawned."I know, but could Kakashi-sensei at least try to be nicer? Oh, dear!" the girl continued. She was clearly outraged, which made her classmate next to her let out a laugh, which she quickly stifled. "Don't laugh, Sasuke-kun, I mean it! My mother was even scared when she saw me waking up at this hour.""I can imagine, after all, you was so dizzy because of sleepy that you couldn't even walk in a straight line, you were even spinning around the square between our houses and this place." Sasuke mocked the girl with a superior smile. "I'd probably still be there if you hadn't found me!""Stop, Sasuke-kun!" the girl shouted, blushing at the other's unexpected provocations. "Speaking of arriving, where are the others? It's almost time, isn't it?""Hmm, not yet actually." the ravenette answered, glancing around, Naruto shrunk himself among the foliage, not in the mood to talk to anyone."Really?" the pink girl laughed gracelessly. "Hey, Sasuke-kun, have you thought of any possibilities of what this test might be?" began the subject of the previous day. They had spent a long time discussing what Kakashi's mysterious test could be. But even so, it didn't last all the wait, because the sun was already high in the sky and the Jounin was nowhere to be seen."You're late!" Sakura blames the Sensei when she sees him sensei arriving."I know, but I had to change the way because a black cat passed in front of me and then I needed to help an old lady in need..." explained the Hatake. "So, everyone is here. Shall we begin?""But, sensei, Naruto is missing!" contests the Haruno, confused by the statement."Naruto? That one?" he indicated where the blonde was, who coincidentally fell from the tree, because he had dozed off and his weight went to one side only, causing such a fall."Ah, it's Delayed-sensei," he commented on the gray-haired man. "And the two noisy smart ones." he walked up to them, leaving certain dark spots under his eyes visible, which the other two genin also had a bit of."Hey, you three couldn't sleep by any chance?" -Kakashi asked as he noticed. "Were you anxious?""Of course!" said Sakura sulkily."Also the way you talked about today didn't help much, sensei." says the Uchiha with a face of boredom. Although his colleagues expressed themselves the Uzumaki just shrugged."Well, it's past time to start." began the Hatake, being faced by the three students who denounced whose fault it was. "Today we'll do a survival exercise.""What?" all three of them almost fell backward at the discovery, but it was the pink-haired one who verbally expressed surprise. "But, Sensei! We have already done this type of exercise several times at the academy!" she protests, being supported by her colleagues who nod their heads."Not like this. Let me finish explaining". he demands silence as he takes a pair of rattles from his pocket. "The objective of yours is to get one of these rattles. Think of them as a guarantee of life, a case of life or death. To get them, you have to be serious, as if to kill me. Only if you succeed will you be approved. Oh, and if you don't make it, you won't have any food. You have until 12:30.""But, Kakashi-sensei... There are only two bells..." Sakura says putting both hands together in nervousness."Does that mean that only two of us will pass?" questions Sasuke confused, but the sensei only smiled under his mask in response."Shall we start? Ready... Go!" he gave the signal for them to disperse, in this kind of situation the correct was to stay away, hiding until the right time. The older man looked around assessing how they had done until he noticed something wrong. There was someone who had not done exactly that. In fact, one of them was moving away, at high speed. The Hatake's eyes widened and he headed in the direction of this fugitive, making the other two strange and follow him, but the difference in speed and distance was great.Upon hearing the circumstances and proposals of the test the little Uzumaki noticed that there was something wrong, a cruel trap, so much that he didn't expect it. It was clear that someone was not going to pass, it was very clear that at no time had he had any chance of being part of that team. The Hokage had warned him. But he couldn't imagine that they would force him to understand his position in such a way, even if it was for him it was too cruel. He didn't want to be part of it, if this was the case it was much better to leave. Give up the foolish hope of being accepted."...!" with the gigantic experience of running away from someone it didn't take him long to notice that he was being followed. The anger of the frame-up was very present, so much so that he decided to make a little prank to get revenge on the one who wanted to make him an idiot and who probably felt like everyone else about him."NARUTO!" called the jounin as soon as he saw the blond. "If you leave, everyone will fail. And it will be your fault," he warned.When the jounin reached the boy, who surprisingly took a little longer than initially expected, he was already standing still, proving that he had noticed that the adult was coming after him for some time. Strangely and surprised the older man approached and touched the back of the boy who turned around with his head down."Why? Why did you do that, sensei?" the young boy asked in a low voice. "This is not an exercise. You are separating us." he accused, feeling. Causing the albino to wonder, he noticed what he was really trying to do? "You did this..." there was anguish and hurt in his tone. "You're just like all the others, aren't you...?" he raised his head, showing the same features as his bunshin in the graduation exam, bestial features with red eyes."Nani?!" Kakashi automatically moved away in battle position, ready to attack at any moment."I knew it..." the other strangely opened a smile. But this one was full of sadness. "You hate me too," he said with a serious tone."Naruto I..." the Hatake quickly regretted it, and again came close, trying to fix the mistake he had made. But he was surprised by another blond boy coming up and almost grabbing the bells attached to his waist, he grabbed his wrist and looked at the one in front of him who returned to his natural form, smiled, and disappeared. In this instant of distraction, the other caught a kunai in the sleeve of his free arm when it was also blocked and holding the blade part, but managed to cut the bells and kick them with his foot in the direction of the other two that had just emerged, which caught them by surprise. The blue-eyed one looked at the older one defiantly and with a winning smile on his side before passing out.Still shaken, the experienced ninja led them to where there were three trunks, the same field where he himself had one day taken this same test. He tied the rebellious boy to the one in the middle and gave the others a bento, giving them permission to eat before walking away to a distance where he watched them, immersed in thought. How had this boy completed the test by handing the bells to the others? He had really understood the trap of the test? Impossible, not even the greatest geniuses who have passed this test did it.A few minutes passed and Naruto woke up dazed, becoming agitated as he realized he was trapped."Hey, man, take it easy. If you move that much you're going to get hurt!" said Sasuke when he noticed that his colleague had awakened."What happened?" the blond asked."After sending the bells in our direction you fainted, then sensei brought us here." explained the other two."Hm... He's the one who tied me in here, right?" Naruto grumbled."Yes". Sakura confirmed and remembered the food in her lap. "Sensei said that you won't be able to eat, as punishment. I'm sorry...""Whatever," the tied-up boy replied rudely. But then his stomach rumbled. "I don't need it," he reinforced. The other two children looked at him unconvinced, becoming tense as they saw the other growing pale and looking as if he was about to lose consciousness again."Naruto!" calls Sasuke. "Who doesn't need what! You're starving to death!""How long have you not eaten?!" questions Sakura, she and the Uchiha now paid complete attention to the blond."It's none of your business!" -growls. But it was obvious the effort he made to speak."Eat it!" Sakura held out a portion of food, but the Uzumaki refused to eat, turning his face away."I don't need your pity!" Naruto shouted with eyes blazing with anger."It doesn't matter!" the Uchiha lost his patience and shoved a handful of food into the blond's mouth when it was still open. "Eat!" he commands, firing an angry look at the other."What do you think you're doing?" Kakashi suddenly appeared, making those who had the food remember the order not to feed him. "You broke the rules.""He was having a bad time," Sasuke replied seriously. He had nothing to be ashamed of or regret. If he didn't help a classmate when he needed it most, his mother would be very disappointed in him when she found out."Yes! We couldn't leave him like that!" -says Haruno, following the same thought."..." the gray-haired man looked at the trio, evaluating their expressions, keeping a serious face. "You passed." he announces, smiling."What?" the young exclaimed together, taken by surprise."Are you serious?" questions Sasuke."But we can't even get the rattles..." Sakura said, referring to her and the raven."You're kidding, right?" Naruto asks with an irritated and angry look, unlike the others, he really doubted what he had heard."No. I accept you. Now the four of us are officially a team." Kakashi answered, not understanding the blond boy's reaction. "If I apply another test, will you accept the result?" he decided to enter the game to see what would happen."..." the Uzumaki narrowed his eyes, what kind of trickery was this? All that hadn't been enough, did it have to be worse?"No, sensei!" Sakura became alarmed, looking from one to the other as if they were crazy to discuss this."You can't be serious about this..." Sasuke incredulously, making almost the same gesture as her colleague, only much less obvious. But the only one who responded to that was the older one, who gave a brief smile under his mask, the blond boy just ignored it continuing to stare at the other in defiance."Too late. Now everyone will have to participate," said Kakashi. "This time it will be simple. You just have to hit me with a direct hit. Only in the head, torso, or back. I don't count the ones that were defended or hit me lightly. Only those that were in no way impeded. And only the first hit counts, regardless of who does it. But this will only count if you do it the right way, only one way. Apart from these details the other rules also apply." he explained. "But it would only happen if everyone was free...""If I manage to beat you will you let me go?" the blond boy asks, as if bored and impatient. After receiving a positive nod the boy forces his arms forward to make a seal, which would have hurt a lot if he wasn't wearing a coat. "Cloning technique," he whispered, causing a clone to appear and quickly cut the ropes with a kunai. "I'm ready.""...!" the other two genins looked at him wide-eyed, surprised by a physical clone technique. But the other didn't understand the reason for the surprise, getting confused, since they had all learned clone technique at the academy."Let's go then." announced Naruto, preparing to run towards the older ninja, who had already moved a little away.-"ey! Are you sure you're better? You haven't eaten much of anything!" Sakura suddenly remembers."True. So you'll be an obstacle for us." Sasuke says."I...!" the Uzumaki was about to answer in anger, but he couldn't finish speaking because he held what was thrown at him."They're right. Eat up, after that, we'll start," said Kakashi going to sit under a stone monument nearby and taking his book."..." the blond boy frowned at the older man before turning his attention to the bento, looking at it suspiciously. And then he took the book from the nearest person, handing over the one he had received."Naruto!" exclaims the Uchiha upon noticing the exchange. "Why did you do that? Give me back my food!""Why? That one has more." the boy answered, eating what was the ravenette's without caring. And when the other decided to stop arguing and was finishing eating, he added. "Besides, this one could be poisoned.""And you warn me now?" Sasuke exulted after spitting out the last portion he had put in his mouth, indignant."Pff..." Naruto hides his mouth with his fisted hand, trying to stifle his laughter. Which disarmed the other, since so far the Uzumaki hadn't shown anything like his usual personality. But it didn't last, when he opened his eyes again they showed none of that momentary joy. "Let's get this over with." he declared, looking at his sensei, then going in his direction."Don't think that this time you'll catch me unprepared." warred the Hatake, referring to when the boy had grabbed the bells, after stopping the boy's punch with his hand.With one hand caught, Naruto used his left hand to try another punch, but it too was blocked. Since he couldn't use either hand now he tried to get momentum, jumping and spinning to kick Kakashi in the stomach, but it didn't work again. Frustrated the boy looked into the older man's gray eyes, the blue eyes were getting cloudy, but a small flame of anger was beginning to appear. That was when he made his last attempt, almost headbutting the older boy, who managed to react quickly and threw him away.'Kuzo...' Naruto clenches his fist. 'That damn sensei... He's going to pay for all this...!' frustrated with the whole situation, the feelings that had been intense since the last exam at the academy get mixed up, making him want to take it all out on someone. The idea of upsetting someone never seemed so appealing, which made a lopsided smile spring up on his face. "Kage bunshin." he created 8 clones, setting off towards the professor, blending in as they ran. The attacks that followed after that had no pattern or any apparent logic. Something that gave, incredibly, work for the jounin, since it was unpredictable, no longer sure of the goal of the attack, until one of the clones suddenly walks away, with a victorious smile on his face.'Savage.' resumed Hatake in thought, about the boy, until he noticed that one of them was walking away. 'What's he up to now?' but his eyes widened when he saw what this one was holding."Is it okay if I destroy it here, 'Sensei'" he asked with his eyes closed, with a tone of debauchery on the last word, his smile had changed to a mischievous one, as he lightly shook the most recent book of the Icha Icha collection, which the ninja in the vest had not yet finished reading.'When did he...?' he asks himself surprised. "You can destroy it if you want. I can easily buy another one." he bluffed to discover how serious the smaller boy was."Ah?" the blond boy looks at the book. "Okay." he held tightly and began to push in opposite directions with his hands to rip the book in half."!" Hatake was alarmed to see this and part of him was going into desperation for his precious book.'An opening!' perceived Sasuke, throwing several shurikens that hit the sensei in the back, which made Naruto stop what he was doing and Sakura get nervous."He did it!" whispered the pink girl. "Kawarimi?" Sakura looked up as she saw the stricken body turn into a log of wood."That's mine," said Kakashi as he appeared behind Naruto and took the book in his hand, which soon became a clone and disappeared."Did you really think it was going to be easy?" asked all 8 remaining Narutos together, all with books in hand.'I think this is really going to be a lot of work...' thinks as he observes the situation. 'Naruto already proved that he doesn't care about really destroying my book, and now the little Uchiha has entered the fight as well, and in terms of techniques he is ahead, but the other is too unpredictable to ignore...' try to solve the dilemma that was forming in his mind: did he give priority to the book or to his test?"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Sasuke launches the Jutsu, in a silent warning not to underestimate and ignore it.The blondes and the Uchiha had basically surrounded him, leaving only one path open, which coincidentally led to Haruno. Just when Hatake was thinking of taking the book first, to end the distraction, Naruto changed his posture again, putting the books away and advancing toward the albino. He piled on top of him, now having far more than the original 8. Strangely after a while, two stand back."We win, Sensei." one of these two declares. Kakashi's concentration turns to them, stretching himself in the middle of the blond crowd to look at these two. A little later they are revealed to be the Haruno and the Uchiha, making the older man realize that the two he thought were really just illusory clones.'They took advantage of my distraction with Uzumaki to put this little plan into action. It wasn't arranged, but instinctively they used each other as support to achieve a goal. Maybe they are more promising than I imagined. The only problem is...' his line of thought was cut short as he had to dodge another attempt at a blow from the blond man. "'That's enough. It's over." he said seriously, but the boy didn't stop, trying to get free of the older man. "Naruto!" he called, making the other look at him, and he didn't recognize his eyes. The amount of anger and rage there was, was not what one would expect from a child who grew up in a time without wars. But before he could take a closer look, the younger changed his gaze, hiding and appearing as if none of this ever existed, and taken by surprise he was kicked in the shin before he let go."Dammit. This one doesn't work." the boy grumbled, referring to the conditions of the blows. "I lost. I have no choice but to accept, right?" he lowered his head, stepping away from his sensei. "I'll still beat you, Kakashi." he declared after throwing the book he had stolen, no longer interested in it."Hey, Naruto! He's our sensei. You can't call him that! Have a little more respect!" claimed Sakura indignant at the blonde's attitude. Who snorted indifferently, making her more irritated. "Didn't your parents educate you?" when she shouted, a flash of something dark passed through his blue eyes before he turned, waving before leaving."That was cruel, Sakura," comments Kakashi looking to where the boy had gone. Sakura looks at them confused. But quickly Sasuke complements."Naruto has no parents, Sakura. He is an orphan."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
That same day, in a different environment, the beginning of the platinum-haired ninja's test was observed by a crystal ball, in fact well before it actually began. Its user, an old man in red and white robes, was contemplative and attentive to the events to come. But his concerns were interrupted by a knock on the door."Come in." Hiruzen raised his head to see his visitor. "What is it, Iruka?""I would like to speak with you..." the younger man began half-heartedly."Is it about your problematic former student?" the old man hits the nail on the head. "Are you worried about him?""Yes. I don't think that was the best way for him to find out about his situation...""I know." Sarutobi agrees, looking out the window. "But in that situation, it was the right thing to do, if we lied it would be worse when he found out the truth.""What will happen to him?" Iruka asks curiously, although he was not close to the boy, no one was."He's going to have to get strong." the other ninja shook his head nodding, they both knew this probably wouldn't be a choice."Why did you put them together?" the brunette asked looking at the crystal ball that was still in effect from the Jutsu, which showed Kakashi's testing the team."Why the question?" the older man wanted to know."I don't know... It doesn't seem like it's going to work out, they... You know?" the tied-up hair man said, interspersing his thoughtful gaze between the ball and the Sandaime."Yes, it will be a complicated team to interact with." he agrees and looks again at what was happening inside the crystal, where the conflict between the platinum-haired and the blond boy was shown."Then why...?" the Chūnin asks again."Exactly because of this." the elder states making the young man turn to him startled. "Kakashi was never the same after losing the members of his team, one by one. It only got worse. Sasuke is quieter and more proud, but he is usually kind and cares about those close to him. Sakura has a good heart despite her strong will and is slightly self-centered, she may be the one to keep them together. Naruto is extremely rebellious and solitary, that's why it's difficult for him to approach others, that although he doesn't show it, he harbors great resentment and sorrow inside. I hope they help each other, I believe they are the only ones who can save each other. If they succeed, I believe they will be an unbeatable combination." confesses Hiruzen, although not delving so deeply into his true thoughts."..." the bushy-haired man nods, without saying much, perhaps because he was surprised by the leader's answer. But before he could even ask them to talk more about it, the office door opened after a light knock, and a ninja entered, whom Umino recognized as one of those who worked in the tower."Hokage-sama, everyone is already waiting in the room for the meeting you have called." the shinobi announces after a reverence."Thank you for telling me, Isao. I'll go there right now." Hiruzen says to the man who waved and left. "It was nice talking to you, Iruka.""It was an honor, Sandaime-sama." the younger man bowed and walked away, probably back to the academy."It's about time, huh?" he says to himself, looking one last time at the globe, watching the boy they were going to talk about faint at the feet of the copying ninja and be carried to the trunks, before undoing the Jutsu and leaving the room and heading towards the council meeting room."You are late, Hiruzen." his two advisors speak in chorus as he enters the room and goes to his seat at the table."I know. I'm sorry, Hiruzen. I had to take care of one last matter before I came." the Sarutobi explained as he put his Hokage hat on the table. "Shall we begin the meeting?" all agreed."We need to decide how we will deal with and what we will do with Uzumaki Naruto from now on." Shimura Danzo spoke up, drawing attention to himself."Exactly." Homura, the male counselor, readily agrees."And it's about time! The time he had certain freedom is over." Koharu, the female counselor speaks up next. "The proof is that the fox has already begun to manifest itself, as reported in the graduation exam.""The seal is deteriorating much earlier than anticipated." the other counselor adds, fearfully. "The seal used by Minato should only gradually weaken by itself in at least 3 to 4 years. Only then would Kyuubi be able to manifest on its own, without any training or will of the jinchuuriki.""And the fact that he knows his condition now could be like a double-edged blade, due to his unpredictable and unstable personality." the counselor ponders, looking at the papers in front of her, specifically the one reporting the boy's ordeal."His personality has always been a big problem. You can never really know exactly what he is thinking." the Mitokado agrees, doing the same, but also looking at the record."You have created a bomb that could explode at any moment, Sarutobi." Koharu declares, with undeniable certainty, being supported by her companion. "With the way you insisted that he grow up.""What did you want? Would you rather he had no feelings at all? Like the NE (ROOT) anbus?" questions Hiruzen."It would be better than this case." the counselors argue, clearly taking turns to speak. "He's a jinchuuriki, he should know how to behave like one.""By Kami, he's just a child...""He was never a child, and never will be. You know that." the counselors glare at the Hokage."You remember, don't you? How quickly the boy can change or hide what his eyes show," recalls Danzo."No human is born with this ability. They can only achieve it when taught." Homura Mitokado states, implying how non-human they considered the 'child'."..." Hiruzen was silent."Not only is the population unhappy with the situation, from the beginning." said the only woman present. "Letting the boy loose out there has brought a lot of problems.""We left it as it was until now. And as agreed from now on, with the awakening of the Fox, things will be resolved with the sole focus on the good of the village and the nation.""We need to resolve this soon. I don't have all afternoon." Homura complains, already out of patience for procrastination. "We have to decide the tutor responsible for proper training for the jinchuuriki.""I thought of Jiraya. Because he is a Sannin and has the sage mode of the frogs of Mount Myōboku he would be able to handle this case well.""Except that he could have been handling it for years since he should have been in charge of the boy after Yondaime's death. But even then he didn't return to the village or take responsibility. What would change now?" the woman points out without any mercy."We talked while we were waiting for you. Danzo was willing to be in charge of him, just as he was years ago." announces the advisor, making clear in his tone his opinion on the subject."It would be ideal if someone with firmer, more focused hands would be in charge of it." Koharu points out, looking at the Hokage."I don't think so..." Hiruzen didn't like the idea. He knew how rigid the other was, and he didn't want it, he never wanted it for the boy, and that's why he always postponed this conversation."Why don't we do it your way and let the boy choose?" suggests Shimura in an even-handed manner, trapping Sarutobi against his own pride and decisions."So it will be then." all agreed and sent someone to call the young boy.
Back to the present...
Hurried footsteps echoed through the trees. But they soon stopped. After all, why the hurry if there was nothing to do for the rest of the day and no one at home waiting? The little boy sighed and made himself keep walking, calmer this time. Thinking about which way he should go, after all, yesterday he saw how much the village liked that he had become a genin."Uzumaki Naruto." he heard someone calling him, which was a good sign, after all the threats didn't speak to him, so he looked up. It was an Anbu, much taller than him and wearing a bird mask. "Hokage-sama sent for you to come to his office." he continued, as he received attention."Ah..." his spine chilled as he remembered his current situation. He hadn't expected the Hokage to speak of such training so quickly. He swallowed nervously. "Okay. I'll come by later.""You should go there immediately." the older man replied."I can't. I'm busy right now." he just didn't want to have to listen to whatever the guy in the hat was going to say now. Then he started to look around, looking for anything that might give him an idea. That's when he saw a pink head and a ravenette coming toward him. Well, that would do. "I had already arranged to go to eat with my team. I was just waiting for them. Hehehehe... I have to go!" he lied and practically ran towards the pair, dragging them with him. "Just cooperate," he asked when one of them was about to ask what was happening."You've done something wrong, haven't you?" Sasuke asked, deducing what must have happened after they stopped with the city buildings in sight."Probably." Naruto answers, which made his colleagues start to wonder what their lives would be like having a rebel member on the team. But they decided not to get involved, after all, they hadn't heard that the Hokage had called him, otherwise, they would have sent him there immediately. "Naruto... I wanted to apologize for before..." speaks the Haruno, clumsy."Why? It wasn't a lie after all." Naruto looks at her without understanding, causing them to be confused."But it wasn't nice of me! I'm sorry!" the girl insisted."Okay." now the blonde seemed to think she was strange. What had she done wrong to be apologizing anyway? He didn't understand. 'Where are we eating?" he asked, surprising the pair, as he had refused to eat with them previously."There's a dango store nearby." suggested the Uchiha, remembering that his brother always said that eating dangos was the best way to bond."Sweets?" Sakura whispered to herself, couldn't believe what she had heard. 'You mean Sasuke-kun likes sweets? I never would have imagined... Shanaroo!' she thought. "Maybe!" she agrees although she's not really a fan of it."I've never tasted it..." Naruto spoke after his colleague stared at him wanting an answer to the proposal."What? How?" Sasuke stared at the other as if another head had sprouted in him.So they went on laughing, discovering that the boy didn't even know what dangos were and saying that they had to introduce him to the 'good things in life'. This was one of the first good times the blond had with someone his own age. Although he didn't say much in fact, keeping his guard up, was uncomfortable and mostly not knowing what to do. Thanks to his attention being on the conversation he wasn't paying so much attention to the people around him and how they were looking at him."Hey!" he heard a female voice shouting. "Don't you dare ignore me, forehead!" someone jumps on top of Haruno."Ah! A pig." the pink one says looking at the blonde, strangely calm."Your...!" the blonde practically growls at the other, and the sparks were almost visible."Yo!" says Shikamaru approaching together with Choji. His eyes scanned the group, crossing them with Naruto's, he soon noticed that something was strange, but before he could analyze this anomaly disappeared."Were you with your Sensei?" Choji asks, stopping beside his friend with a packet of potato chips in hand."Yes, the same for you right?" Sasuke says, receiving a positive nod."You're quieter than I remember." the Akimichi comments, looking at the Uzumaki."I'm too hungry to do anything else." tells Naruto scratching his head."I understand! I also get that way when I'm hungry. I'm hungry too. We were on our way to the steakhouse now, why don't you come with us, guys?" invited. Soon all the boys were leaving the girls behind, who were still looking at each other in irritation."Don't leave us behind!" both shouted when they realized this and ran after them, causing laughter in the group. When they arrived they chose a table and waited to be served while listening to the thousands of compliments from the Akimichi boy about the "wonderful and divine" barbecue and the meat that was served there."Welcome! What would you like..." the attendant stopped talking as soon as she noticed the blond boy's presence. "Excuse me." she quickly left, leaving everyone confused. Soon a commotion began in the restaurant."What is he doing here?" said a sudden voice, making them look in her direction. It was the owner of the place."What?" -questions Ino, not understanding."He's not welcome here." the woman spoke firmly."Gomen (sorry)... I completely forgot... Hehehehe..." Naruto speaks up, only then making them notice that the woman was talking about him, scratching the back of his neck with a sheepish smile on his face. "I owe you a lot of money, don't I?" the boy stood up went towards the lady and took a large amount from his wallet, and handed it to her, it was more money than was necessary to buy lunch for the whole group."That's right. Now go away!" the woman quickly agreed."Hai, hai..." the boy turned and started walking towards the exit, after waving goodbye to his classmates."Ah! Gomenasai!" they heard a shout from one of the attendants and the sound of things falling. The group of Genin who was still standing in shock stretched out in their booth to see what had happened. Apparently, there had been an accident and some glasses had fallen on the Uzumaki. However, the woman's voice contained disgust. But the boy just acted as if it had really been an accident and said "It's okay" with his usual famous smile before leaving, knocking over the sign at the entrance and giving the woman the tongue before running away."This boy..." the woman had a lot of disgust in her tone before turning to the group. "Were you on the same team as him? You should go ask the Hokage to change. And you should stay away from him, all of you. He's bad luck." she said before walking away to talk to the first attendant asking her to put some aromatic herbs to clean the environment.Naruto's hair was soaked and he smelled of green tea. He was surprised at himself for thinking he would be at peace that day. He was walking aimlessly among the people when he was called by a voice he knew."Naruto!" the shout came from inside the ramen store, from Mr. Teuchi Ichiraku, the owner of the establishment, who called him insistently to come in. !I heard that you've graduated! Congratulations!""Congratulations, Naruto-kun! You better not have gone to eat anywhere else but here, huh?" said Ayame appearing from behind the counter, greeting the younger boy and joking with the 'number one customer' as his father called him."Arigato..." he smiled lightly while drying himself with a towel handed to him by Ayame. "But...""No but! It's on the house!" he insisted, already with his daughter. "After all, this is the third time you've taken the graduation exam and you finally got it. It's something to celebrate!""Yo! Didn't you say you were going to eat with us?" says Sasuke entering the store along with Sakura and the other team."Yeah, you left us behind and you're going to start without us? This is a low blow, Naruto." the Haruno complements."Don't forget about us!" says Ino, sitting down as well. The gentleman smiled at the scene and looked at the blonde as if to ask if they were his friends."They are my team and colleagues from the academy who graduated too," he answered softly."IT'S ALL ON THE HOUSE!" he declared, starting to cook, surprising everyone. In fact, he was happy for the blond boy who for the first time was not going to eat completely alone. Naruto blushed and lowered his head, hiding his face after the man blinked at him, understanding the unspoken words.Everyone savored the ramens with gusto, almost all of them wondering why they had never stopped to eat there. To their amazement, at some point, it almost became a competition of who could eat more, the blond or Choji, as everyone stopped at one or two bowls and the duo was already on their ninth. It was a pleasant atmosphere when they were startled by an Anbu who suddenly appeared."You'd better come right now, Uzumaki Naruto." the same Anbu from earlier spoke in the boy's direction."Okay." he stood up and turned to the father and daughter. "Thank you." but he could barely say goodbye to the others before he was dragged away by the masked ninja.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
After they arrived at the Hokage tower the Anbu, who had practically dragged him there, merely informed him that the Sandaime was waiting in the council meeting room before disappearing. Naruto walked through the empty halls, alone, every step getting more tense, it was as if he was being cornered, with no option or choice. He didn't like that, he didn't like it one bit. And he was scared, afraid of what was waiting for him up ahead. But there was nothing he could do, all the other options seemed even worse. The only way he saw as a possible solution was to get stronger, he needed this to protect himself, and there were not many ways to do this.To his surprise there was someone outside the room, apparently waiting for him by the door. It was an old man wearing dark robes, and a cane, and he had one eye, and part of his face, covered by bandages, he was no stranger to him, but he didn't remember him. The boy stopped a little way off, waiting for the older man to speak up, to say what he wanted to talk to him about. Besides that, it was a great excuse to roll up enter that room and listen to what would be done."Uzumaki-kun." the man spoke in a neutral tone, which piqued the child's curiosity.e," he answered, looking at the taller man's face."I suppose you know that there it will be decided who will train you from now on." the stranger spoke, basically stating."..." Naruto blinked a few times and analyzed the older man, after all this guy didn't treat him like he expected him to be a complete idiot, as everyone believed he was. "Yes... And...?""I believe you have a right to know your options. Hiruzen plans to suggest that you choose Jiraya, a man he trusts and who was his disciple." the stranger told, staring at the boy, who until now had trusted the Hokage almost blindly. "Which is not bad, but this same man was supposed to be your godfather. To take care of you in place of your parents," he revealed and explained, for it was visible on the boy's face that he didn't recognize the title or what it meant."What? Why?" the blond boy asked, as soon as he had assimilated the words, wide-eyed."This man is a great shinobi, one of the strongest in the village, but no one knows why he didn't come for you when you were born and lost your parents." the gentleman spoke with a tone and expression almost bordering on disappointment, although the boy noticed that there was much more behind it."I get it..." Naruto murmured, still looking a little suspicious of the elder's intentions, but not ignoring the information. After all the old man basically said that there was someone who should have taken care of him, to be his family. And now, just now, he would show up, even to train him to become the village's weapon? Was this what a godfather or a family was and would do? If so, he would never be his family, if so he wouldn't need a family. And with each thought, his anger grew and the gentleman looked, without the boy noticing, satisfied."Come on. We've been waiting for you," he called, indicating the door with his head before disappearing into the smoke, leaving the boy a bit shocked before taking a deep breath, gathering his courage, to finally open the door and enter the room."There you are, Naruto." Hiruzen greets him, waving at him and giving him a brief smile."He really had the audacity to ignore the first call and had to be dragged here." an older man with glasses and white hair whispered, but the boy was able to hear, not that they were trying to hide it."It's past time to discipline him more strictly," the lady in front of him said back, looking at the boy with a certain contempt and superiority. "You know why you're here, don't you? Let's get on with it." she looked at the Hokage hurrying him, they had already been there for a while, since the Uzumaki had been called almost half an hour ago."As I said, besides the activities as a genin you will also receive training appropriate for a jinchuuriki. We have called you here so that you will at least have the chance to choose your tutor." the Sarutobi explained with a serene tone, but where there was also some apprehension. "The first choice is Jiraya, one of my pupils who is one of the legendary Sannin.""Shimura Danzo has also volunteered to train him. He is in charge of a part of Anbu and a strong shinobi of our generation, also a member of the village council." the counselor spoke indicating another man, sitting opposite the Hokage, who turned out to be the man she had met outside the room."It's a pleasure to meet you, Uzumaki-kun." Danzo looked at the young man with a brief smile."These are your options, kid. Now choose." the counselor who wore glasses spoke seriously and impatiently. Soon, everyone, there was staring at him expectantly, except Shimura who seemed unshakable and, as had been said, strong. Which made the boy at that moment wish to be like him, to feel like him, since he felt scared and afraid. And he looked into the familiar face of the old Sandaime, who had often spoken words of comfort or to calm him. An acquaintance who had made many promises that had not been kept and had secrets that when he found out hurt him, hurt him. And with this pain, he raises his eyes to them, rebelling for the first time against the will of the one he trusted."He." is all he says while pointing to the gentleman with one eye covered by bandages."Are you sure about this, Naruto?" Hiruzen quickly speaks up in astonishment, shaken that the boy had chosen precisely what he wanted the least."He's already made his choice, Hiruzen." the counselors spoke together. "Just as you wanted him to have the possibility to do.""You must respect his will," Danzo speaks up in support, ending the Kage's protest and standing up to face his newest apprentice. "I will begin planning your training and as soon as you are ready for us to begin, I will send for you to the place where I will teach you everything you will need to be a powerful ninja," he said, signaling to the boy that he was free for the time being, and he nodded silently before leaving. While with the genins of Konoha... The group was still in Ichiraku in silence, shocked at the way the blond boy had been taken from there. Especially his team, who were seriously worried about what their friend had done this time and how bad it must have been for an Anbu to come and get him."Will you be okay with a rebel like Naruto on your team?" Ino turned to the pair. "You can be disadvantaged because of this.""But with ninja life, he won't have the time or courage to keep doing these things, right?" the pink girl looked hopeful at her teammate, who shrugged."Well, he didn't even stop during the academy, and there were days that were hard," said Choji as he finished eating his last bowl of food, very satisfied."It seems that you will have problems to evolve as shinobi, forehead." the blonde teased her friend, who sent her a death glare."Hey, you said something about Naruto having taken the test before? Is that true?" Shikamaru asked the restaurant owner since this had intrigued him as soon as they had caught up with the blond after leaving the steakhouse behind the boy. The events from earlier made the Nara thoughtful."From what I remember he already commented on doing her a couple of other times," Teuchi replied without much thought, but soon turning back to work and walking away from the boys."That doesn't make sense. He's our age, how could he have taken the test a few times before?" the one with the spiky ponytail spoke confused."My brother managed to graduate before his class, but he's a genius." Sasuke pondered. "Naruto's performance at the academy was never very bright, he didn't even seem interested in the classes.""Guys, I wonder if he isn't mistaken? I mean, Naruto might have talked about taking the end-of-the-year exam to see if he could pass the next one." the Yamanaka suggested."Maybe." Shikamaru nodded. "But there's still something problematic about it. As I recall, this shop has been here for years, so he must have heard similar things to get confused like that...""You're right. It's been here as long as I can remember," comments Choji, stopping to think shortly after they say goodbye to the owner and leaving the establishment, since he probably knew all the places that sold food, on an internal list for all the ones he had to go eat one day. "I think my father has already commented about coming to eat here with his colleagues before we were even born." he complements, which was enough for them to believe that the possibility of it being a mistake was very low."I still think that this confusion may well have been caused by the way Naruto spoke. He has always been quite exaggerated and loud." Ino points out again, receiving nods of agreement from her friend."And there's no way he would have tried to graduate before, why would the teachers let him do that anyway? He was the worst in our class after all." Sakura speaks with certain certainty."That's right! Remember all the pranks and messes he used to get into?" the blonde girl laughs. "I feel sorry for Iruka-sensei to this day. With the amount of punishment and detention he got, it's a surprise he actually get graduated at all.""Really. I wonder how his test must have been, he always failed the practical exercises." was the pink girl's turn to laugh. They spent some time talking and remembering the pranks of the blond with the spiky hair while the rest of the group remained silent, except for some Akimichi's participation here and there. After a while the Nara stopped, remembering a detail he had never really thought about, which made everyone else stop and look at him."I wonder..." his eyes widened." Why didn't I ever notice this before?" he cried aloud, receiving completely lost looks from the others."What haven't you noticed before?" his best friend ask curious, after all, there were few moments when the brunette acted like this. Since despite his laziness the one with the ponytail was always lost in thought."His name." the boy answered, this time receiving confused looks, but thinking that maybe he had thought so hard that he had burned his neurons, after all, everyone knew the blonde's name. "I'm not sure yet, but we can meet at the library to check it out," he said with a cheerfulness that none of them decided to contradict, and they agreed to meet there in the morning. Trying to put a little faith in the thoughts of the same since he practically passed the theoretical tests.The next day they were already gathered in the library shortly after it opened. They were all curious about what they might discover, which was no big surprise since this trait was classic for children so they couldn't stop themselves from satisfying their curiosity and looking for answers to their questions. Soon they followed Shikamaru to a specific section and watched him pick up a book, quickly leafing through it until he found a specific piece of information."Here." he turned the book over for his colleagues to see, which made their eyes widen and they understood the phrase he had said the day before: there was no sense in them ever noticing and thinking about it."Wow!" exclaims Ino, being the first to speak after the initial surprise."Could it be? Like Naruto..." Sakura started to say something."I what?" they suddenly heard someone ask, causing them to be startled. As they tried to locate the voice they looked up to find the boy they were talking about lying on top of the bookcase looking at them curiously. None of them had the slightest idea when the boy had arrived there, they hadn't even heard anything nor the reason why he was on top of the bookcase. "What are you doing?" the Uzumaki jumps from the bookcase, landing softly on the floor near the other children."We were researching you." it was Choji who answered. The blond looked at them as if he was wondering why the hell they were researching about him, in a library included."About your last name. Uzumaki." Sasuke explained as he noticed that the other had no idea what they expected to find about him there."My last name?" he repeated even more incredulous and confused."It's, like, you know? Uzumaki, like the Uzumaki clan." Sakura spoke up, neither of them understanding the other's confusion."Clan?" Naruto repeated one more time what they had said before his eyes widened. "I have a clan?" he muttered softly, clearly in shock at the new information, not for the first time in the last few days. Something he wasn't enjoying one bit."Didn't you know?" Ino looked at him confused, after all the Uzumaki clan had been mentioned a few times when learning about the history of the village and the previous wars."It's Naruto, Ino. Do you really think he paid attention in class to remember something like that?" the pink-haired girl rolled her eyes as if it was obvious. The blond boy looked at her indignantly, which made everyone laugh for his discontentment. It wasn't his fault, it wasn't that simple. But he was sure he would remember if he was hearing something to do with his name, it wasn't as if he had no interest in knowing more about himself."The Uzumaki clan came from a country called 'Uzu', the country of the whirlwind. They were Konoha's allies, so much so that when it and the country were decimated our village began to use their symbol, a red whirlpool, on the vests of the chunin and jounin ninja as a demonstration of their friendship." Shikamaru explained patiently, watching the younger boy. Naruto almost laughed upon hearing this but managed not to express it physically, so his facial expression didn't change much. If he really was part of that clan, what the village felt for him was certainly nothing close to friendship."They were also known to have red hair, so your name might just be a coincidence or you might be a half-blood or descendant." the Haruno points out."Do you know who you inherited that name from? From which of your parents?" Choji asked curiously. The blond frowned, why the hell they were so interested in him now? What about the subject of parents? It was literally the second time either of them had mentioned the topic."I don't know." he answered briefly."Don't you remember their names?" Sakura questioned incredulously."No." this time the boy's voice was almost a grumble."No? How could you not? Like, they were your parents!" Ino exclaimed, how could someone not remember their parents like that?"I never knew them!" the conversation was getting uncomfortable for him. It was the turn of the other Genin to look at him in disbelief, and some even opened their mouths to ask how this was possible. "As far as I know they died the same day I was born." he cut them off before they could verbalize it as his face closed up a little bit more and more, the signs of spontaneity, energy, relaxation, and the usual smile fading away."But you don't know who they are..." the boy's eyes flashed a silent warning. They were crossing the line, and this was not a subject he liked to return to. There was no way he could know about it if no one told him, and he had learned long ago that it was no use dwelling on it. No one would tell him anything, not even the Hokage. Silence reigned as everyone stared at each other, but that was interrupted when a figure came up behind the blond and put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed, which made his body tense instantly at the contact."What do you think you are doing here?" the librarian asks in an acid tone, causing the group's attention to turn to her."What does it look like?" he replied with a sarcastic smile as he indicated the group holding a book."You know you're not welcome here." the woman said looking at him with disgust as if what was in front of her was some kind of curse. Her grip on the young man's shoulder intensified to the point that it began to hurt, and she began to want to drag him away."I have a right to be here. I am a ninja from Konoha." Naruto retorts as he feels himself beginning to be pulled away."It doesn't matter." her indifference to his statement made him shudder. It didn't matter that he was now a ninja? It didn't make any difference to them? The answer made him so disoriented that he forgot to fight the woman's action, only coming to his senses when he noticed he was being pulled harder, halfway to the exit."Let me go!" he protested, his face no longer clearly visible to the other children, who watched in astonishment. But not even the boy himself knew what his face showed at that moment."It's not like anyone would want to touch this thing," she replied in a mumbled voice with disgust in her tone without even looking at him - she was focused on getting him out of there, but he knew she was talking about him. "Like I'm going to let you come here as you please, you destroy everything you touch!" she exclaimed, angry when she saw that the young man was still trying to get her to let him go. The young generation of ninjas stared wide-eyed at their colleague being carried away. Did the librarian believe that he was a threat to the books and information contained therein? All because of his famous pranks? Their thoughts were interrupted when the blonde was pushed out the door and had to balance to keep from falling because of the violence used in the act."Hey!" he shouted, turning toward the door he had been thrown through. He wasn't really thinking about the amount of attention he was getting from the whole scene. Not when he was still learning to process how the villagers didn't mind treating him like this in front of those who, as far as he knew, knew nothing. But he didn't have the courage to look at their faces now, even if he could see that they were looking in his direction. He felt humiliated enough without this, so he just stared angrily at the person who had thrown him out of the building one last time before turning his gaze to the floor, letting his hair hide part of his face and biting his lip in an attempt to restrain himself."Don't you ever dare put your filthy feet in here again!" she screamed before slamming the door in his face, turning back inside, clapping her hands together to wipe them off as the group of children shot toward the door and opened it."Naruto!" they called looking around for him, but there was no sign of the blond."He's gone..." Sakura realized the obvious, stunned that he had disappeared so quickly since barely a minute had passed."Hey, why did you do that?" the Uchiha turned to the woman who had expelled the third member of her team."Because his entry here is forbidden." answers as if it were common knowledge."Why?" they ask not understanding."You wouldn't understand." the older one rolls her eyes. They could see some others nodding their heads in agreement."Is it because he's an Uzumaki? Because he is a delinquent?" Shikamaru questions, also trying to get some explanation."You could say that," she replied not being very specific about which option, and sighed as if the subject tired her. But she complemented when she saw by the look on their faces that they didn't understand and that they were going to ask even more questions, things she didn't want to talk about and couldn't. Liking it or not, the young Uzumaki was a village secret. "Look, you are too young to know and understand everything he did to the village. If I were you I would get as little involved with him as possible, he will only get you in and bring you trouble" she advised before turning and going back to his work. Leaving behind a group of recent graduates intrigued by her certainty that the blond was a threat to the library books and worried about her advice. After all, they knew that the boy loved to prank the village, but he was a shinobi now, he couldn't continue with this, so they had no reason to worry, right? The advice didn't make any sense to any of them. Frustrated, they gave up thinking about it and went home, they all wanted to enjoy themselves and be prepared because soon the free time would be over and the missions would begin.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It was another normal day starting in the Leaf Village, its villagers slowly coming out of their houses to start their routines, merchants opening their stores, and people gradually filling the streets. And of course, since this was a shinobi village it was no surprise that there were ninjas running from one place to another fulfilling the most varied missions. Especially the newly trained ones who were on their first, more basic ones. In one of the forests that existed in its extension, it was possible to hear footsteps echoing among the trees, probably some genin behind someone or something. "This is Onix in position B. The target is nowhere visible." a childish and serious voice sounded over the communication radio. "This is Cherry. The target just passed point A, but I lost sight of it." another voice quickly reported. "This is Sapphire. I've spotted the target, it's heading for the business district. I'm going after it." a third voice spoke, not waiting for an answer before going after him. So the third child went alone after the one they were chasing, who was clearly agile and fast enough to escape them. And they had been chasing him for at least half an hour. By coincidence and luck, or not, this third member of the team, a kid with blond and frizzy hair, was probably the fastest of them. So it was not so hard for him to stay on the back of this one until he finally managed to corner and capture the damned runaway cat. "I finally caught you, Tora! I can't believe you made me follow you up here." Naruto said to the cat, lifting it up with his hands and looking down at the terrace he was standing on. "Hey, that hurts!" he complained as the cat fought and scratched him to get away again. Distracted by the feline he didn't notice that there was someone behind him, when he saw it he turned off the microphone of his communicator and hugged the animal, ignoring the claws that were stuck in his arms. "What do you want?" he asked the people in front of him, trying to be indifferent despite being alert. "What do you think you are doing here?" the man in front of him spoke with disdain. The others in the group looked at him with equal disgust. "You know you're not welcome here." another added. The Uzumaki frowned, what was everyone's problem these days? Why did they now insist on saying they didn't want him there? What was new about that? He was under the brief impression that the attention he was getting for graduating would only get worse, and from their eyes, he knew that the chance of them making his life even more difficult was great, almost a certainty in fact. "I'm just doing a mission." he made himself answer hesitantly, sincerely hoping that they would accept this and leave him alone. Unconsciously taking a step back. "Your presence is disrupting our lives and disrupting the commerce." another person declared hostilely. "I don't...!" he should have known better than to confront them directly. "Get out of our way, freak!" the first one pushed him away. The last thing he saw on their faces was a smile as he fell off the building. He cringed and used his body to protect the cat, in the meantime accidentally pressing the microphone button, so that the rest of his team heard the sound of his fall, fortunately somewhat cushioned by some empty boxes in the alley. "Naruto? Is everything alright?" Hatake asks over the radio. 'No' was what the boy wanted to answer, but he didn't want to talk about it either. What was the point if all the adults knew that the village hated him? What was the point if apparently nothing he did was going to change that, since the reason was something that was neither his fault nor under his control? Kakashi knew what he was, he couldn't forget the way he reacted when he used that trick on him in the test. Could he trust him? He grunted before answering, his head and body aching. "I'm fine. I just fell," he answered finally, part of his attention focused on the cat that lay motionless in his arms. Fortunately, the cat was all right, he sighed with relief. "We heard it, dobe," Sasuke remarked, half divided between finding the situation comical or being worried about a clumsy person on the team. "You have to be more careful, Naruto!" Sakura was having exactly the same problem. "Did you get Tora at least?""Yep". the blond agreed. He had let his guard down too much, having become a ninja hadn't changed anything. It didn't matter to them. "I'm with him. I'll meet you near the tower, okay?" -he asked, getting up. In a few minutes, they were together, going to report the mission completed. "Are you sure you didn't get hurt, Naruto?" the teacher asked, eyeing the boy from head to toe. "If I was hurt I wouldn't be walking, sensei." the younger boy rolled his eyes as if it was obvious, but the adult was not very convinced as if he suspected that the boy did not have the normal parameters for these issues, not that it was not true in this case. "What did you do to the poor cat to make him so quiet?" Haruno asked, looking at the curious little animal. "He's been known to scratch anyone who tries to catch him when he runs away.""I don't know. But I wouldn't want to hurt someone who fell off a building with me." Naruto spoke up. "Well, he has a point." the ravenette agreed with the logic. "You fell off a building with him?!" the pink girl shouted in astonishment, hitting her irresponsible colleague on the head, who winced slightly at the blow. "I tripped." ...after they pushed me Uzumaki mentally completed, fighting the urge to sigh. "And you still call yourself a ninja?" his colleagues looked at him incredulously. "Ninjas aren't perfect, you know. Nobody is!" the blond defended himself, feeling small flames of rage go through his body. He wanted to scream that it wasn't his fault, so he made a point of locking his jaw to make sure he wouldn't say anything. "Let's go, trio. The sooner we solve this the sooner I can get back to reading my book." the sensei spoke slightly disinterested in the children's discussion before leading the group into the room. "Tora-chan! Oh, Tora-chan, I was so worried about you!" a lady approached when she saw the feline in the boy's arms. Naruto tensed unconsciously at the approach; he tended not to trust adults. And he was almost certain that he had never had good experiences with the female half of the population. They tended to be somewhat protective of their families, and consequently more cruel to him. Since he was a d... He stopped his thoughts there, he was not alone, he was not safe. Then, with trained ease, he opened a smile for the woman. "Here it is." he spoke as politely as he could since it was clear from her clothing that she was not just anyone. The wife of the Daimyō of the Country of Fire, his mind supplied after seeing a familiar symbol she wore proudly: the symbol of the country Konoha served and that only the country's royalty could bear. His eyes searched her again looking for an indication, which was beginning to turn into paranoia. Did she know? She was an adult. Does she know? Children don't know. She? But she's not from the village. Does she know? But she is royalty, even the old man had to obey them, shinobis were their military power. He is the village's military power, in more ways than others. He bit the inside of his cheek hard, not noticing until he felt the metallic taste of blood in his mouth. He forced himself to stop thinking again. "He's fine." he frowned as he felt the cat's claws digging into his arms as if it didn't want to return to her possession. With more difficulty than expected, he managed to hand over the animal, which was struggling to get away from her again. He stared at them both while he and the rest of the team waited for sensei to finish the procedures and receive their payments. His silence continued even after the pair left, he could feel his colleagues looking at him. Probably wondering why he was so quiet since this was certainly not part of his usual personality. But he didn't know what he was feeling, what the scene with the cat had caused him. But he knew that it had moved him. And they couldn't judge him, they certainly wouldn't be acting 'normal' either if they were in his place, not with so much going on, not with what he knew now. The bitter thought almost made him laugh. He was pulled back to reality when his team was dismissed, but the Hokage asked him to stay. "Danzo asked me to give this to you when your activities today were over," Sarutobi spoke indicating a simple gray parchment in front of him. "About the beginning of the training?" the blond asked even though he knew the obvious answer. "Yes. It contains the location and times of the sessions." the older man said, and the boy nodded and took the parchment. "I got it. Is that all?" Naruto looked at the older boy, who looked at him with sadness and a bit of disappointment. Their relationship, which was the closest thing to a bond the boy had had until then, was getting weirder and weirder since the revelation. 'This is what you get for hiding things and lying to me,' the child thought angrily. "It is." Hiruzen finally confirmed, feeling slightly defeated. After the boy had turned to leave, the man asked softly, but loud enough for the boy to hear. "Are you going to stay mad at me?" 'Will you forgive me?' he didn't say. "I don't know," he answered in the same tone without turning to look at the other. 'You who betrayed me first, Jiji,' he added mentally before walking out the door. Outside, to his surprise, Kakashi and the others were waiting for him. "You didn't do anything wrong this time, did you?" Sakura asked nervously. The Uzumaki denied it with a shake of his head. "What's this?" the Uchiha asked, indicating the parchment in his colleague's hand. "I don't know. Probably some absurd set of demands from the owner of the building I live in." the lie came out easily from his lips, and worse that it was something that for sure could happen counting that everyone avoided contact with him if possible. And he shrugged at the platinum man's inquisitive look, he was under no obligation to tell his sensei anything about his life. "He probably had a busy day and wanted to make sure I got this or whatever," he added as they were confused as to why they would leave something like this with the Hokage instead of leaving it in the mailbox or on the door. "Do we have anything else today?" he changed the subject. "No, you're free today. Tomorrow we'll start an hour earlier, we'll meet in the same place as today." the adult answered. "Ok. I'm going home, read this thing, and see if by any chance they raised my rent again," he said before leaving, being the first. "Rent?" Haruno repeated a bit shocked. "Rent is something people pay to live in a place they don't own." Sasuke looked at her as if she were an idiot for not knowing. "I know, but does he pay rent?" she looked at the only adult present."Naruto has lived alone for a few years as far as I know, Sakura." the Hatake answered and disappeared before the pair could ask any more questions. Why did Naruto, a child like them, live alone? It was another unanswered question that was put on a list that was slowly beginning to form. After discovering where he had to go, the young Uzumaki headed for the training camp where Shimura was waiting for him. It was located in a slightly isolated spot, on top of the mountain, well after the Hokages monument. A place that few knew existed, possibly. Or that they had ventured there since many inhabitants believed that there were only the carved faces, the archives, and the shelter built in there. "Was this a test? To see if I could get here?" the boy questioned, looking and approaching the man standing in the center of a large clearing. The scroll he had left for him only gave a basic guide. "You know the village better than most. Even our shinobi." was the answer he got, feeling the counselor's gaze measuring him. "You have potential." he declared, which unsettled Naruto. He hadn't expected that, how many times had he heard that? Has anyone ever said that? "That is, with the proper refinement. What I aim to achieve.""Potential? Me?" he repeated, bewildered. "Yes. It was so wasted..." the older shook his head disappointed. "You know better than anyone that the academy didn't work for you.""How?" Naruto asked, his eyes widening in surprise. "I've always been watching you," the senior ninja admitted, without taking his eyes off the boy. Satisfied that he had caught his attention. "Years with difficulty mastering a cloning jutsu, with negligent and incompetent teachers who were unable to fulfill their duties properly." he shook his head in disapproval. "A simple jutsu correction would solve everything.""Correction? What are you talking about?" the boy looked at the older man intrigued, waiting for further explanation. "The reason why you always fought with this jutsu is because you have too much chakra to perform a rank E jutsu. That's why your attempts ended in failure, you have too much chakra and too little control over it. Wanting you to be able to do jutsu that require little chakra is impossible if you aren't taught to control it first." he explained patiently to the smaller one, clearly shocked and a bit confused. "Why?" he started, a bit unsure of exactly what he wanted to ask before giving up and changing focus. "How do you know this?""As I told you before, I have always watched you. When I saw you fail at this for the second time, I decided it was necessary to intervene," he said. "I couldn't let you fail again when I could change the jutsu to a similar one that you could learn. "So the clone jutsu I do is not the Bunshin no Jutsu?" asked, since until then he thought it was the same. "No, the jutsu you use is actually the Kage Bunshin." the man clarified. "A rank C jutsu that allows the user to create physical clones as opposed to the mere illusory ones.""Isn't this taught at the academy?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer from the way it was being said. "That explains why my teammates were confused when my clone cut the ropes," he remarked more to himself than to the other. "Exactly." the other nodded, pleased with the younger boy's thought process, an indication that he wasn't stupid as many had declared, just unencouraged. "Clones that have physical bodies are able to help you during a battle. Something you employed very well during the bell test. "I did well?" he blinked a few times, pausing to mentally check if he had heard correctly, after all the two things were practically never in the same sentence. The adult nodded his head in confirmation. "The academy only gives some hints on how and in what historical context situations it was possible to make use of clones. I must comment that you used them with extreme skill. Especially since you have never used the technique outside of the exams." complimented without stopping watching the boy, who clearly didn't know what to do when he received a positive comment, before adding. "That's why I say you have potential, almost untapped.""And that's a good thing?" the younger boy asks. "It depends. It means that you will improve a lot with the right training, but it's bad because having this neglected until now puts you in an unfavorable position in relation to your colleagues.""They've always been ahead of me," he comments without thinking, particularly to no one. "Not for long." the man replied even though it was not directed at him. "Really?" the blond boy's eyes widen at the unexpected statement he received out of nowhere. "If you dedicate yourself to training, I can guarantee that you will become strong," he answered, looking into the eyes of the younger. "And what are we going to do today?" asked, confused for a moment, they were there for that, weren't they? Why was the man talking to him? "It will be something simple. We will measure your physical abilities without the use of chakra to use as a reference for comparison the next day." Danzo explained calmly as he picked up an item from a storage bag he was carrying. "This bracelet was made with seals that will emit light if it notices that the wearer is using chakra." he quickly demonstrated by placing it on his wrist and making a clone, which instantly made the accessory glow. "We'll use this to see if you use your chakra at any time without realizing it, understand?" completed, handing the item to the boy who, after a brief moment of insecurity, put it on his wrist. "Huh?" the boy exclaimed as almost immediately the object began to glow. "I had my suspicions, but it seems that your chakra really is active all the time," Danzo spoke contemplatively but then continued because he knew what the boy was going to ask or was curious. "It's something that happens sometimes, some due to the amount that the individual possesses. Sometimes it can even be the result of generations of actively using chakra or training starting very early, as in the case of the shinobi clans. In theory, even a strong instinct can cause this. We can call it passive chakra.""I understand..." answers the blond intrigued by the explanation and wondering which of the options would be his case. Maybe instinct? He always tried to trust it, after all. But soon his ponderings were interrupted by an explanation of the day's activities and a second bracelet to temporarily block chakra. The exercises that followed were basic and physical ones to test speed (running), agility and reflexes (dodging objects), dexterity, and strength (throwing shurikens and kunais). All with varying levels of intensity and difficulty, which positively also served to measure the boy's stamina level. Fortunately for him, his new instructor gave him breaks and snacks during short breaks after some of the more intense activities. "Let's stop for today. In the next session, we will redo them with your chakra released and compare the results." the Shimura stated. "Now take off the bracelets and tell me if you feel anything different." as soon as he did the boy's eyes widened, and for the first time, he felt his chakra flowing through his body so clearly. Such a reaction made the older man smile satisfied. "You felt it, didn't you?" he asked rhetorically. "It's like that popular saying 'you only miss it when you don't have something anymore.' Except that the most correct way to describe and compare it is because the senses have become sharper due to the loss of one of them, as in some cases hearing can become more accurate due to the loss of sight.""Wow..." was all he could say, still surprised by the sensation. "Since you put in so much effort and did so well in our first lesson I'm going to reward you with something that you might find interesting and that I don't think you've noticed yet," he spoke quickly gaining the blond's attention. "Make a kage bunshin, leave it here, then move so far away that you can't hear me anymore and undo the clone when I wave my hand," he instructed, quickly being complied with, as curiosity totally overcame the boy."I can remember what the clone lived through?!" the Uzumaki exulted in amazement after all the steps were completed, how did he not notice something so useful before? Well, it's not like he had used the technique that much or in situations where it would be obvious. "Yes. And if you do as well as you did today in our next lesson I'll show you more interesting things about this jutsu." promised and purposely reinforced the compliment. He gave a few more brief warnings and then dismissed the younger. At home, Naruto noticed that there were some bags with some supplies since Shimura wanted him to have a more adequate diet. He would receive one day's supplies always after his training, which for the time being would take place every two days, but could change as needed in the future. Of course, what he would receive would not be enough for every day, and he would have to try to maintain his diet on his own. 'A good shinobi should not depend on anyone,' was what was preached. Not that independence was a concept unknown to him. "..." he looked at the food exhausted, pondering whether or not to eat, especially since he would have to prepare something. He sighed and put the things away. The bed was what was most attractive at the moment. He had no idea that having chakra circulating made such a difference in the level of tiredness someone would feel. The next day he had a good (and healthy!) breakfast, something he couldn't remember ever doing before. It was also the first time in days that he had had a relatively peaceful night's sleep, thanks to the physical exhaustion of the day before. So part of him was hoping for a good day, for his luck so far. Too bad the village seemed intent on proving the opposite to him. The mission they had to complete was cleaning an orphanage. Something completely basic, like all missions D. But the matron and everyone who worked there knew him, because of course it had to be the orphanage that the Sandaime wanted to put him in when he was little. Not that he counted or knew precisely how many Konoha had, but considering the number of orphans he could guess it wasn't just one. What mattered was that they had refused the mere idea of having him there after noticing the marks on his cheeks, which everyone quickly associated with the fox. And now he knew why. So when she refused to let him in with the rest of the team he was not surprised. His colleagues were completely confused by the look on their faces. Since he was relatively accustomed to the villagers' behavior of wanting him as far away as possible, he 'volunteered' to weed the garden with the help of clones to be faster. This while reflecting on the village's contradictory behavior in firing glares at him and wishing him gone. He preferred only the second option, it was less bother than their eyes all the time. And he would have to go shopping later if he wanted to keep the diet they set for him. Which would probably be tricky since he had graduated the village seemed to have entered into a plot against him and decided almost collectively to be much more vocal about their displeasure. Not that it was going to change anything for any of them, except unsettling the blond. But it couldn't get any worse than this, right?
To be continued in part 2!
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A few days later... It was one of the days when the team would meet, where Kakashi would try to teach them strategies and test possible formations for them. But that day the blond didn't show up, even though the teacher was late as usual, and waited a bit with the other two. "Sensei, I don't think Naruto is coming today..." Sakura looked at the adult confused, not knowing what they would do. "It doesn't look like it..." the silver one answered sighing and turning his attention to the team present. "Do you remember the lesson I always repeat?""About who abandons his companions being worse than trash?" the two students answered. "That's right." the masked man smiled with his visible eye. "In the future, this will be important, you will need to count on each other. So I think this is a good opportunity for you to get started. Let's go to Naruto and find out what happened."The older ninja signaled for them to follow him and began to guide the pair through the village until they stopped in front of a building, relatively in the center of the village, that looked a bit worn and neglected. The two genins exchanged uncertain glances and swallowed nervously, neither of them knew what to expect, after all, neither of them had ever been to a place like this or to the house of someone their own age who lived alone. They walked up to the top floor and to the last door. Again the duo looked at each other and nodded, it was now or never, they weren't going to chicken out just because they had never done it before. As soon as the jounin opened the door they heard the sound of something falling to the ground and footsteps coming towards them. Soon they were greeted by the sight of the blond. "Naruto...?" the boy seemed to be barely able to stand, swaying slightly, face flushed, eyes half-closed and half-open, and breathing labored. It seemed to take a few moments for the younger boy to recognize them and then collapse to the ground, which caused the adult to approach him and place his hand on his forehead, which caused the boy to flinch slightly. "You're burning up with fever." the silver man said, withdrawing his hand, but not moving very far away. "Don't tell me, I hadn't even noticed," Naruto spoke with a mixture of bitter laughter and grunt, which took everyone by surprise. "Why did you get out of bed?" Kakashi asked, leading the boy back to his room, the other two following him looking at everything in silence. "Someone was entering my house." the smaller one pointed. "What are you doing here?""We came to see why you didn't come today," Sasuke explained, but the other's confused face didn't change much. "Today..." he stopped thoughtfully as if he had forgotten what day it was. But as he remembered, his eyes widened and some emotion too quick to be named flashed through them before he lowered his head, his bangs hiding his face. "Why?""Those who abandon their companions are worse than trash. You should know better, Naruto." the older man recited, since it was a moral that he really wanted the students to adopt. But the blond only nodded silently and covered himself with the blanket. "When did you start feeling sick? Are you feeling anything besides a fever?""Oh, early in the morning? I woke up feeling sick, I don't know the time... I think it's more of a fever, I'm also very sleepy and nauseous." he answered after a moment of thought. "Have you eaten anything today?" the blond boy looked at his sensei as if to say that the question was stupid. "Do you have any food to cook here?""I think it's just enough for one meal. I was going to go shopping after training today." the boy answered. The adult nodded and went toward the kitchen to check and see what could be done. A short time later he returned with a straight face. "I found out what made you sick. Your water is poisoned." Kakashi said, examining the younger boy's face. "Poisoned?" Sakura cried, half horrified at the idea, and turned to her teammate as if he was going to drop dead right there. "Who would poison my water?" Naruto replied."Naruto...""Maybe because the pipes are old or they forgot to maintain the water tank." suggested interrupting and keeping his gaze on the older man. "It's nothing serious.""You've been poisoned! Shouldn't we take him to the hospital?" Sasuke replied, shocked at the blond's disregard for his own health. "No!" the boy quickly denied it. "I'm fine! It's not like I'm dying either." "Naruto, you idiot..." the dark boy looked at him indignantly. "It's just a fever! I'll be fine if I just get some rest. Tomorrow I probably won't have anything anymore." the blond rolled his eyes. "Ok, why don't you two go to the market and buy some supplies for him?" Kakashi interrupted, handing a list to the Uchiha, who had no idea when the adult had stopped to write it down. After some protests from the pair, they went to fulfill what had been asked of them, leaving the other two alone. "This isn't the first time something like this has happened, is it?""And what difference does it make?" the blond boy turns to the window. "It's not like it changes anything." he shrugged, he was reluctantly beginning to accept that. Hatake just sighed. "Are you sure you're going to be okay?" he then asked. "Sure. I survived all these years on my own, it's not like I need your help now." the boy replied seriously, more seriously than the professor had ever seen him. But it wasn't that he was lying, as much as it pained the older man to admit it, he really had grown up depending on himself alone. The adult knew that it would still take time for the boy to get used to (and accept) the idea that people would care for and help him. So he let the conversation stay there, there was no reason or hurry to interfere. Especially this independence of his was not something bad to nurture in a shinobi, something the sensei would probably have to insist more on with the other two. For now, he decided that he would try to keep an eye out to see if the Uzumaki's situation would escalate, or maybe it would be better to think about interfering in the missions and choose some that needed little interaction with the village. That was what he decided to do for the time being. So when the others came back they just did something and ate with the blond, keeping him some company as this was something he needed to get used to. Kakashi obviously just didn't expect it to go so wrong. After a few more missions where it was clear, he didn't know how he hadn't noticed before or how people thought they were being discreet with their dislike of the blonde child, but it was basically blatantly obvious that they didn't want him there or even remotely near them. The silver-haired ninja couldn't remember it being this bad before, not even in the reports he received and read before taking over the team. So, with the best of intentions, he decided it was time to take the matter to the Hokage and ask for missions further away from the village center to let things settle down and let people get used to the idea that he was now a shinobi. The mission had started out simple, everything was fine. It was something easy, on the edges of the village, helping harvest a farm. The day had gone well, without any incidents, so much so that they were already finishing. So they didn't expect that when it was his turn to take a bale to the shed, the last one missing, the Uzumaki would not return. As time went by and nothing came, the adult became worried and divided the team so that each one searched in a different direction. After a few minutes of searching, Hatake saw a small commotion at the edge of the woods, it was a group of 4 people around something fallen on the ground, shouting for it and speaking incoherent words. But before he could even process what was being said the shinobi recognized the orange heap at their feet. In a pulse of fury, he released a wave of killer intent without even noticing. And ran up to the boy instead of using a shushin to avoid scaring him. But by the time he got close the cowards had already run away. Soon he berated himself for letting his emotions get the best of him, for being blinded by anger he didn't even see the villagers' faces. However later he would worry about that, the priority was to check on the younger one. "Naruto? Are you listening to me? Are you hurt?" he asked in the calmest voice he could reproduce at that moment. "Kakashi-sensei?" the boy looked at him more shocked by his presence there than anything else. "I'm fine, they were too drunk to really hit." shrugged his shoulders. "I'm just dirtier really, they pulled my jacket over my collar and knocked me down, causing me to roll over here. Common sense and instincts made me shrink and protect myself in case they started to resort to violence," he explained, seeing that what he had started to say was not enough. "Their kicks just threw dirt on me, and there was one idiot who spiked his drink on me. I hate the smell of alcohol.""Are you really not hurt?" he checked again, not knowing whether the boy was being completely sincere or not. "I'm fine!" he repeated in frustration. But before either of them could say anything else the other members of the team found them. "Naruto!" Sakura exclaims as she sees the other's condition. "Are you all right?" Sasuke asks, analyzing his colleague. "I'm fine." he was getting tired of having to answer the same question several times in the last few minutes. "What happened? Why are you like this?" was the pink girl's turn. "A bunch of drunks attacked me. No, they didn't hurt me, they just kicked the ground. So you can see how good their aim was and their condition. I think they mistook me for someone else or something." he explained briefly while the other two children looked at him stunned by the story. Who the hell did they mistake a blond kid for? It wasn't even a very common hair color there, apart from the Yamanakas and a few other individuals. Only the adult understood to whom the minor was referring and had to fight back a grimace at the almost casual way the boy referred to the subject. "And you did nothing?" "What did you want me to do? Fight with them? You know that ninjas can't fight civilians in the village, Sakura. And if I tried, even in pure defense, they would accuse me of attacking them, and I would be punished." he replied, which made everyone a little confused with the level of paranoia of the youngest of the group. They wondered where this side of him that no one had ever seen before had come from. "Why do you think that would be you?" Sasuke inquired, not knowing what else to ask. "Why wouldn't it be? When something that goes wrong in this village is not my fault? I am the village delinquent after all." he replied without even blinking, with a certain bitterness in his voice. Noticing his slip of the tongue he quickly changed the subject. "Were we going to make a camp and come back tomorrow? Don't we have to set it up? In a little while, the sun will set." -he left walking in front of them, obviously ending the conversation, leaving the three a bit stunned, but they would attribute the blond's bad mood to the previous event, so they let it go this time, believing it was something momentary. The group followed the blond boy to the area they were going to camp, where the blond boy went straight to his backpack and quickly tidied up his sleeping bag and grabbed a bar of soap and a change of clothes, and headed towards a nearby stream. A few minutes later he returns with his dirty clothes washed and wearing a pair identical to the previous one. After hanging his clothes on a tree near where he had left his bed, he returned to his colleagues and put away the soap. "Do you have several of these sets?" -Sakura was curious since the other always wore these orange clothes. And why orange of all colors? Granted, she couldn't exactly judge color choice since hers was almost red, but it drew far less attention than his orange, she thought. "Don't you?" he looked at the others confused, wasn't this the most practical thing for a ninja? If one piece was damaged you wouldn't have to worry about whether the rest would match or not. "I never thought I would say this, but... He has a point." Sasuke conceded, following the same line of thought. This kind of pragmatic thinking had been taught to him from a young age. Except that his line caused him to receive a grimace from the other boy. "Well, during the day did you collect the things I asked for to make dinner?" Kakashi asked the group, who immediately nodded positively and took out of their pockets the storage scrolls that the elder had handed out earlier when he had determined the tasks of each one. These scrolls and their use were surely one of the most useful things they learned at the academy, and everyone agreed. The Haruno handed over the branches she had collected to build the fire, the Uchiha the fish they would cook, and the Uzumaki the herbs they would use for seasoning. "Sensei, why did you send Naruto to get the herbs?" she turned to the adult. "Hey, I know what can and can't be used in food!" protested the blond. "Are you sure? You never paid attention in class!" justified the pink girl. "Survival exercises have always been my forte! It's just not as glamorous as the ninja trinity!" he replied indignantly. "And I've been living alone for years, I know how to cook and what spices to use! I've had to pick fresh things in the forest before!" all decided not to ask the reason, some for distraction and others for not wanting to know the answer at the moment. "You went to the forest together with him, Sakura. If anything he could ask you." the Uchiha commented, remembering earlier. "We went in different directions." the pink girl denied. "And how would I know? It's not like I keep paying attention to you." she turned to the blonde. Everyone there knew who she was paying attention to in class, and it wasn't the teacher. Kakashi didn't know whether to find the interaction of the children cute and funny or to sigh in frustration. Who was it that signed him up to look after a bunch of 10-year-olds anyway? He knew that it certainly wasn't completely of his own volition - it wasn't - (Yes, he was thinking of you, Third Hokage. He would be doing very well still in ANBU.) but here he was now. So he diverted their attention to the task instead of talking, surely they were hungry enough to focus on getting this done quickly enough to go to sleep. Tomorrow they would return early to deliver the mission report. Which was mandatory even in D-level missions, the genins needed to train for bigger missions after all. Days passed and more mini occurrences were piling up. Sensei was surprised by the number of them and by their boldness, that was for sure. The team had already completed several missions and learned the basics of the formations Hatake had taught them. They had begun to delve more deeply into the tactical and fighting skills of what was taught at the academy. With time the teacher had begun to understand better what might go better with whom. After finishing yet another mission, upon entering the room they discover that the Feudal Madam's cat had escaped again. And being the first team of genins she saw, she quickly begged them to retrieve the feline as soon as possible and put her out of her misery. She was a woman famous in Fire Country for her extreme attachment to her felines, being known to always travel together with her favorite, which changed basically almost every genin generation. So getting her cat back was almost a rite of passage that everyone, since she had assumed the position, went through. Kakashi's own team had retrieved the poor cat a few times, so they assumed that the others who formed with them had as well. The funny part was that the cat had refused to be held by anyone other than the blonde since the falling accident. "Hey, Tora? Why do you run away so much?" Sakura looks tiredly at the cat her colleague was holding, annoyed because she already wanted to go home. "Maybe because that lady squeezes him too tight. I'm the one who didn't want to be in his place." Sasuke suggested, shivering at the thought of the poor cat's life. "I know it feels bad for him, but even though it's a small mission, it's important to maintain the relationship between Konoha and the Daimyo. So the cat should be returned to its owner, regardless of how we feel about it." the platinum-haired man explained calmly. Despite all the lessons about companions, it was important that the young kids understood the importance of fulfilling the missions they were given. When they returned to the same room as earlier, to deliver the animal to its owner, the animal didn't want to leave Uzumaki's arms for anything in the world. The feline meowed, panted, and held on to the boy with all his might. The cat's desperation was so clear that for a brief moment the younger boy held him tighter. But reality returned a second later, and he forced himself to participate more actively in the task of untangling Tora from him. "I'm sorry," he asked as he released his grip. Who he was apologizing to no one was sure. Though the Hokage had a nasty feeling that the boy was starting to draw parallels between them. "Tora-chan seems to have really taken a liking to you, boy." the adult laughed, totally disregarding the minor's speech and the whole behavior of her pet. "I am honored, ma'am," he answered respectfully. But all his attention was on the cat and the strange sensations that only increased with each interaction with him. A feeling of helplessness and despair. Was this what he was to the village? Did he really at some point have a choice, or was his path laid out for him without him even knowing it? His spiraling thoughts were interrupted, fortunately, by the sensei who called the team. In the meantime, while the minor was distracted, he had talked to the Kage about an upcoming mission, something different than usual. When the news was announced the trio quickly got excited, they were all tired of level D, and besides being boring they were surrounded by bad luck regardless of always successfully completing all of them. While explaining what this time was about, they were interrupted by a door opening, with someone entering as soon as they were called to enter. "Are these the brats who will escort me back to the Island of Waves?" the man clearly dressed as a fisherman who entered questioned with a certain nonchalance, appraising the children with his gaze. "Aren't they too small for that?""I assure you that my team is capable of carrying out this level C mission successfully, even though they are young. Age is not synonymous with ability in the ninja world." Kakashi assured. "Hm... Okay. As long as they deliver what I paid for, it's fine. I'll take your word for it, Jounin." he accepted without picking a fight and stopped to take a sip from the bottle he was carrying. "When are we leaving?" there was a certain impatience in his voice this time. "We'll leave as soon as we finish packing our things. We'll meet at the village gate in an hour at the most." the Jounin announced and encouraged everyone to get organized as quickly as possible. The Genin hurried to their homes and packed their backpacks for the trip. It was the first time they would leave the village, they didn't know whether to be nervous or excited. All they knew was that this would be the first of many adventures outside of there. It was a C-level! Proof that their ability as a team was being recognized! They were sure that at this rate they were destined to do big and important missions in a short time, they thought innocently, barely imagining what the future itself held for them.
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In less time than the proposed time, somehow Kakashi was not late, everyone was already gathered near the main exit of the village. The older ninja was talking to the watchmen and handing out the team's village exit forms, where their permission was and the expected time they were going to be gone. The bridge builder, his client, was standing a bit aside, still watching the children with a suspicion that they would not be able to handle it, which annoyed them greatly. The trio, holding back from picking a fight with the client (that would not be nice), decided to open a map and see the path they would take to their destination. To see what interesting things they would see along the way. And since it was an escort mission they were theorizing about the best places for the (possible) bandits to ambush. Something that the sensei suggested they do (ninjas must always be prepared!). Of all of them, the most nervous one there was Naruto. The boy seemed to expect that at some point someone was going to show up and tell him he couldn't go. Danzo thought it was a bad idea, but that the experience would make him grow, he just complained that it would affect his training plans. He made him promise that he would try to meditate and focus on his own chakra during the days he would be away since one of the goals was to make the boy's chakra control improve. "We can go." the Hatake announced, calling everyone together. At this, the youngsters put the map away and began to head for the gate with the builder. Just as they were about to pass through it, they noticed that one member was missing. "Hey, Naruto, let's go!" Sakura shouted, and the group turned to see what the problem was. The boy blinked and returned to reality. "I'm coming!" he shouted back and ran to them. With each step to the gate, the blond could swear that he could hear every beat of his heart, his mouth was dry with nervousness and he was almost sure that his fingers were shaking a little. He didn't know what would happen when he stepped outside. When he was almost there, he stopped again, hesitating a little. Then he closed his eyes, swallowed hard, took a deep breath, caught his breath, and ran through the gate. As soon as he got over the walls and took another breath it seemed as if the world stopped around him and everything around him exploded in color. After walking a little the pink girl, who, since there was nothing interesting to look at at the moment, decided to chat with the builder, asking about his work and the bridge he was building and that they should protect as well. Sasuke was listening to what the man was saying with curiosity, although he tried to keep an indifferent face. From time to time the pair stopped to look at the third member of the team, who for some reason looked around as if he had never seen a tree in his life. Some time had passed, and they had walked a long way, and could no longer see the village. Strangely enough, they crossed paths with some puddles of water, although it hadn't rained for a few days and it was sunny that day. Imagine their surprise when two unknown shinobi emerged from them and promptly attacked and destroyed the Jounin with chains attached to each one. Without even having time to breathe the enemies moved on to the nearest target, which happened to be the blond. "...!" by pure instinct the boy took a few steps back and avoided a fatal blow, receiving only a scratch on one hand that was raised to protect himself. The enemies seemed a bit surprised that he had managed this, as he seemed distracted, but they advanced again. "Naruto!" Sasuke shouted, and with trained precision managed to pin the chains to a tree with a combination of shuriken and kunai. "What do you think you're doing, you idiot?" he pushed the other away from the threat while kicking both of them. He just didn't expect that they would break free of the chains and go towards the others, where Sakura and the builder were, to the terror of the first, who was holding a shaking kunai but determined to fulfill her task of protecting their client. Fortunately, a Hatake Kakashi emerged intact and stopped the two, holding them both and immobilizing them. Only stopping to calmly check the condition of the others when he made sure that the two shinobis were securely fastened to a tree nearby. That's when he saw the surprised and amazed faces that he was still alive and showed up on time (well, almost on time according to Sasuke, the blond almost died after all). He soon went about his business in order of priority. "Naruto, you'll need to bleed this hand, their weapons were certainly poisoned," he said seriously, looking at the younger boy, who paled a bit at the idea. "Then we'll discuss your concentration on your surroundings. Now take care of that hand immediately, before the poison spreads.""All right." the smaller boy took a kunai from his pocket and, unsure of how much to cut, stuck the knife in his hand harder than it really should have been. Frightening everyone with the amount of blood that came out. "Naruto, you idiot!" the dark-haired boy complained. "Don't scare me like that, baka!" the pink girl complained. "You exaggerated." comments the Hatake approaching to check the wound, which quickly healed, which did not surprise the older man due to the knowledge about the fox and its influence on the blond's body. "But everything will be fine." said more for the benefit of the others. "I'm sorry." the boy spoke clumsily, he himself didn't know what had happened in the last few minutes, he didn't even know how he managed to deflect in time when his mind was blank. "Sasuke, Sakura you acted very well. Congratulations." he praised the pair, slightly proud of their actions. "Thank you, sensei!" Sakura glowed with the recognition, while Sasuke just stretched and straightened his posture pompously. "Tazuna. You owe us some explanation." he turned sternly to the builder. "Those ninjas were clearly focusing on you. Which makes this a mission well above the level that had been established and what you paid for. Protection against ninjas is something level B and above, totally different from protection against bandits and simpler threats. It is not a mission made for genins." he indicated his team. "Your initial implication about them being small now makes more sense.""I-I know, it's just that..." he began to admit half hesitantly. "My country is going through difficulties. The money I had for this mission was all the money we could collect to ask for help...""And the lie and the lives of my students don't matter because of that?""No, that's not what I meant! I really didn't expect Gatou to hire ninjas to stop me from finishing the bridge. Usually, he only has bandits and common mercenaries at his disposal." he explained quickly. "Gatou? That famous merchant tycoon?" Kakashi stops surprised, not expecting his involvement. "He himself," he confirmed. "He took over our country by controlling the waters and the maritime trade. Now almost everyone who is not a nobleman or has some other way of earning an income has a hard time putting food on the table," he said seeing that everyone is paying attention to what he is saying. "He feels that his domain is being threatened by the bridge, so he wants to stop me from completing it. We are almost done with it, all that's left is to connect the two halves, that's why I was in the Land of Fire and came to ask for Konoha's assistance. If you don't help us I'm afraid we will be trapped in his tyrannical hands forever. Please don't give up on the mission, it will only take a week at most to complete!""Sensei, we can't abandon him like this. We can help!" Sakura said, turning to the platinum one. "If more threats like those two appear you are able to handle them easily, you are an elite Jounin, you were even a captain of Anbu once. You're strong enough that most of those opponents are nothing to you. My brother told me." Sasuke argues. "If they're just bandits we can handle it, you wouldn't accept the mission if you didn't think so.""We don't have to go back to the village because of me. You said it yourself that I'll be fine, I'm not feeling anything strange. Look," he showed the wound that was already practically healed, to the shock of his colleagues (and the client) who had never seen someone heal so quickly. "Do you think you can handle it if more ninjas show up?""If we work as a team we can manage, if not we will at least hold them off long enough for you to come and help us." she wasn't going to let fear paralyze her, after all, she had decided to become a ninja and had entered the academy for this. "It was for situations like this that you taught us those formations and made us review and correct the basic fighting style of the academy, right? All we need to do is follow them and watch each other's backs. Getting experience is important in a ninja's career." the Uchiha pointed and shrugged trying to give the impression of indifference although he didn't want to miss the opportunity to do a higher-level mission and be able to brag to his brother afterward. "I won't be a deadweight again. Definitely!" the blond declared, he also didn't want to know what would happen if they went back to Konoha now, he didn't know if he wanted to go back, if leaving the mission would have some bad repercussions or something. He wanted to explore more outside, he didn't know when and if he would have the opportunity again! What if they never let him go out like that again because of what he was? "And you always talk about it being wrong to abandon teammates, but wouldn't it be the same if we abandoned someone who is asking for our help?" faced the older man who was surprised by the words. "Okay." he smiled, but then became serious. "But if at any time you look like you can't handle it, we'll be back. Don't think that your life is disposable.""Thank you very much!" the old man spoke extremely appreciative of their decision. They moved on after this, returning to their journey. When they finally reached the shore, there was a boat belonging to an acquaintance of Tazuna's waiting for them, so that they could return as discreetly as possible, away from the official routes and taking advantage of the thick fog that was at that time, so thick that it was barely possible to see an inch in front of them. The fisherman guided them out of pure habit and knowledge of the waters surrounding the island. By coincidence, they passed close to the bridge that was being built and were amazed by its gigantic size.In the meantime, both residents of the island explained further how things were with Gatou's control ov er them. How he approached it with his company out of pure greed and took power initially through commercial treaties, which for being an island it lived purely by sea trade. And that is why the idea of other possibilities that the bridge brought was a threat to him, and why he wanted to kill the engineer responsible for the work, preventing its completion. And because of this, they had to go as unnoticed as possible, to gain time and go as safely as possible. So the boat only docked at a pier far away from the harbor, well hidden and out of sight, but not obvious or not used enough to be suspicious. "Thank you, Isamu. Your help and courage will surely help our country out of this misery soon, my friend!" the builder thanked him. "Good luck with the bridge. We are all counting on you to clear the way!" the fisherman answered back before pulling away and mingling with the other boats in the distance. "If we follow this trail we'll reach your house in no time, right?" the Hatake looked at him to confirm the direction to be followed. "That's right, if we follow it, my house will be visible a few minutes after we pass through the trees. My house is near the river, so as long as we can hear the sound of running water we'll be fine. Please take me back to it safely. I'm counting on you." he asked the ninjas in front of him humbly. They quickly followed the path cautiously in an attempt to avoid another ambush. Naruto particularly looked around frequently, sometimes making strange faces, the reason for this no one knew and they chose not to ask, at least he was paying more attention than before. Until one moment he, out of nowhere, focused in one direction and threw a shuriken, scaring the hell out of them. "Naruto, what was that?" Sakura was the first to say something. "There's a presence there!" the blond defended himself, not knowing how to explain what he had sensed. "It's just a white rabbit. That's strange." the Uchiha, who had come closer to check it out, said. "Don't go throwing weapons like that without thinking straight." Kakashi scolded, but without any heat in his words. Stopping to analyze the bizarre fact that it was a white rabbit and that this species only looked like this in winter. "Stay alert," he said softly, just so his companions could hear, while he looked around more carefully, looking for the threat. "Get down!" he shouted seconds before a huge sword came flying and whirled towards them. It stopped when it struck a tree in the opposite direction from where it came from, and in the blink of an eye, an unknown shinobi was standing on its handle. "Momochi Zabuza, nukenin of the Mist Village." recognized from the Bingo book, a book that contained information about nukenins, criminals, and enemies of the village, each having their own version. The genins tensed at the jounin's tone, it was an obvious warning to them. "Hatake Kakashi, the famous copycat ninja of Konoha." the stranger, named Zabuza, watched the white-haired one carefully, knowing the fame and stories the other possessed. "Independent of this I must warn you... This old man's head is mine.""Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, don't try to enter the fight. He's on a totally different level compared to the ones before. He's a jounin like me." he clarified as he straightened his posture for the inevitable. "The goal and focus of you are only to protect our client, understand?" he looked quickly at the younger ones just to confirm that they understood, they nodded positively and positioned themselves around Tazuna in one of the formations the elder had taught them in case they had to go on the defensive. "Your opponent is me, Zabuza. Leave the children out of this," he said, as he prepared to lift the bandana from his eye to reveal his other eye. "I'm someone worthy of having the Sharingan right from the start like this? I feel honored." the enemy spoke, already turning towards them. "Sharingan?" Sasuke startled briefly before he remembered. 'That's true, my brother told me that he possessed an eye, even though he was not an Uchiha. If I remember correctly my father spoke that he is one of the few with that honor, that it was a gift that should be respected.' 'Our sensei has a Sharingan even though he is not from Sasuke's clan? I didn't know that! How amazing!' Haruno looked at her teacher in amazement, he was stronger than she expected. 'Why does this term make me uncomfortable now?' the blond thought confused, it was not the first time he heard about the famous red eyes with tomes. "I wonder if all the rumors about you are true. Did you really copy 1000 jutsus?" he inquired curiously, totally ignoring the brats. "Why don't we stop talking and you come to find out for yourself?" he replied with a wry smile but remained totally alert. "You're right, I need to kill the old man." he agreed, and in less than a blink of an eye he was already on his way, forcing everyone to retreat, and the sound of clashing blades resounded in the clearing. The Hatake had intermediated the sword with a kunai. "But first I will have to deal with you." he went to the river and made a few seals with his hands before declaring. "Ninpou: Kirigakure no Jutsu!" in an instant a fog had formed over the whole area, thicker than the one they had passed by boat earlier. "Everyone gets down!" Naruto exclaims suddenly, pushing the builder along with him. "It seems you have sharp instincts, kid. What an inconvenience. I'll have to get rid of you too," he kicked the boy aside, but the other two genin, already armed, stood in front of the builder. The adult looked at the scene with disdain before grabbing the child he had thrown away by the neck. "I wonder what you would choose if you had to choose between your own life, the life of the one you are protecting, and the life of your colleague..." he tightened his grip a little on the blond who gasped in shortness of breath and pain, the other two looked at the scene in horror, divided on what to do. "Don't touch my students, you bastard." Kakashi emerged between them, released the boy, pushed him to safety, and stabbed the shirtless man in the liver, which dissolved into water. Which soon escalated into one fighting the other, sometimes blocking the blades and sometimes stabbing each other before getting frustrated that it was a replacement or a water clone, but until then both not spending much chakra, waiting for the opponent to do it first. Seeing that the current strategy was not working both started an exchange of taijutsu blows, but where one attacked another defended, when it was the opposite the other redirected the blow. While one possessed more brute strength the other had the agility and versatility to use that strength against him. "Sensei wasn't kidding. They are completely on another level." Sakura commented, approaching and helping the blond to stand up, taking advantage of the adults' distraction. "Are you okay?" the raven of the team asks as the two approaches each other. "I'll be fine, but I think this is going to become purple," he said a little hoarse from the pressure that had been put on his throat, although it was capable of fading fast too, he never stayed hurt for long. "Do you think he'll win?" the pink one looks at her companions nervously, as they all paid attention to the battle in front of them. "Shouldn't the Sharingan help him get the upper hand in the fight? Doesn't the doujutsu help to predict movements?" she remembered what she had read in books. "The Sharingan helps, it copies and predicts the movements and techniques used as well. But we can't forget that he is fighting to protect us, so this must be more difficult than an ordinary fight. So much so that he is preventing any of the nukenin's attacks from coming our way." the Uchiha explained, but not knowing how to answer the first question, he only hoped that the answer was yes. "Do you have a Sharingan?" Naruto asked the ravenette. "It hasn't awakened yet. As far as I know, it usually needs some triggers and very strong feelings," he told a little frustrated, after all, at his age his brother already had all three tomoes! Intending to surprise the enemy with the use of his own element, the Hatake broke the exchange of blows and jumped towards the river, but as soon as he landed he realized that there was something strange, because his foot sank into the water when it certainly shouldn't have. And in that millisecond of distraction, Zabuza emerged at the Leaf Village ninja's side and trapped him in a prison of water, from which the jounin was unable to get out if the latter's wide eyes were any indication. "Sensei!" the genins scream in terror, what should they do now? The sensei always said that they shouldn't abandon their companions and that it was very important, so why was he signaling them to run away and abandon him? "Time to end this make-believe of being a ninja." decrees, without moving from where he was holding the large water orb, making a seal with his free hand and creating another Mizu bunshin, which went towards the young ninjas. "No!" Naruto denies it. "We're not playing!""Oh? No? So you think you can defeat me?""We don't have to beat you. You only trapped our sensei in a trap because you know you can't beat him.""Naruto is right." Sasuke widened his eyes understanding his colleague's idea. "We don't need to win against a jounin, just free Kakashi-sensei." he spoke low. "Plan A?" Naruto suggested, looking at them both with a brief smile, they smiled back at him and agreed. "Tajuu Kage bunshin!" he announced after making a seal and hundreds of clones appeared, surrounding the renegade ninja's clone, who was taken completely by surprise that a genin knew this technique and was able to make so many clones at once without dying in the process. Even the other two were amazed, but they had to focus on their role in the plan. "Attack!" After all the blondes shouted together, they jumped on top of the water clone while he was still surprised. When those on top of him were thrown away, they each picked up kunais, one imitating the other, and threw them in his direction, who dodged several before being caught off guard again when some contained exploding seals. The adult clone was also confused by the other two apparently doing nothing, just standing there smiling at him for some reason, which made him annoyed and irritated by the audacity of a bunch of brats. "Now!" one of the blondes proclaimed, taking advantage of the dust and distraction the explosion had caused. This time their target was the real body of the renegade, who had not expected such courage and intelligence from the children. With a seal, he created and spat a water ball in the direction of the kunais to slow them down and disable the bomb papers. This also destroyed several of the clones that were closer to the edge and that had not been affected by the explosion before. "We..." "...got you!" a pair of blondes proclaimed coming up from where two other kunais were passing by his side, they had been thrown and because they weren't even going to touch him, he had ignored them. A second wave of smoke one of the blondes revealed himself as the ravenette as they both spun around to kick and stab the nukenin who was forced to release the white-haired ninja. "Fucking brats!" he growled with rage, especially since one of them managed to scratch him near the eye. "But I guess it's my fault for underestimating you. Now you're going to die!" he ran towards the blond, who was closer, and who had been the first to get in his way ready to drop a kunai on the boy's head. "No, Zabuza. You're the one who's going to die." Kakashi informed stopping the weapon with his own arm and shoving another one into his opponent's abdomen before kicking the exact same spot. "Nobody threatens my team.""Arg!" the renegade spat blood and hit a tree, but before he could recover, he was pierced and stuck with more kunais, thrown with strength and precision enough to trap him there. But before the Hatake could get close enough to strike the fatal blow, giant needles practically appeared on the nukenin's neck, so fast they were thrown. "That's right. He had to die." announced a new stranger wearing a porcelain mask with the symbol of the Mist Village. "An Oinin from Kirigakure, a hunter of renegade ninjas," Kakashi speaks for the benefit of the genin who were looking at the newcomer with suspicion and apprehension while approaching to check if the other was really dead. "He came after Zabuza's head I presume." he nodded after confirming. "That's right. I must thank you for your assistance in killing him." the masked boy replied and in an instant appeared near the body after the jounin had joined with his own group. "Thank you, but now I must leave to destroy the body." he disappeared, in fact carrying the body along, leaving behind only the blood on the ground and on the tree as proof. "We survived!" Sakura sighed with relief, she was responsible for keeping guard with an illusion of the ravenette while the other two freed the professor. "You did well." Kakashi praised the group. "But the next time I order you to run, you'd better obey." -he oscillated. "Kakashi-sensei?" Sasuke approached, looking worried at the adult. "I'm fine, the Sharingan only drained a lot of my chakra, the blood loss and the time I spent without breathing in that bubble don't really help." he clarified with a smile to relax the smaller ones. "With a little rest, I'll be fine.""We are already close to my house. Let's go." called the builder, who helped the youngest adult to walk there, as it was obvious how much effort he made to stand up and not scare the children. Arriving at the house they were greeted by his daughter, who was clearly relieved to see her father alive and had brought help from ninjas. For the next two days, they rested from the journey and battle before the teacher decided it was time to train them more because his instincts told him that the situation had not yet been fully resolved and they would need all their strength soon.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
They were in a clearing not far from the one where they had faced Zabuza, but further away from the river and deeper into the small woods of the port city. Their objective that day was to train and clarify some things that the jounin had noticed during their trip. During the days they stayed still it was evident that something strange was happening to the little Uzumaki, since they left Konoha he seemed more distracted and startled than usual, seeming to be frightened by the slightest movements and presences after the adrenaline of the attacks had passed. "Naruto," he called after teleporting with a shushin to his side without any warning, even though the boy had already turned his face in that direction and was huge-eyed from hitting him. Which confirmed the platinum men's suspicion. "You can feel the presence of the others, can't you?" "I... I don't know. I can feel something coming towards me, but... But I can also feel everything around me. It's as if even with my eyes closed everything shines, each thing with a different intensity, I don't know..." he said, a little uncertain. "Everything?" was the older man's turn to widen his eyes. "You feel the energy, the chakra of everything?""I only know that my senses have been screaming since we left the village. I've never felt anything like this." the boy added after confirming. "Sensei, what does this mean?" Sakura looked at her teacher, curious about the exchange. "It means that Naruto is a natural sensor." "But how can that be, when he himself said he had never felt anything like that before?" Sasuke's turn to ask, somehow the two intelligent people in the group had fallen into this dynamic without even realizing it. "If the sensation is as extreme as he is describing he may have unconsciously suppressed it to protect himself since it would probably be too much for him, it would overwhelm him to stay if it is active in a ninja village." he theorizes, as he thought about the possibilities and what he needs to check out. "Overload how?" the pink girl looked at her colleague a bit worried. "In the ability to concentrate, paralysis by an overload of senses, it can even cause pain in more serious cases." the genins made faces at such an alarming answer. "I guess the reason Naruto took so long to react and was injured during the Demon Brothers' attack was because of this overload.""It makes sense, he was really acting strange after we left the village." the Uchiha remembered the random faces he made as he looked around. "You also wouldn't be okay if everything around you seemed to glow so brightly that you were blinded and the air became so intense that it was hard to breathe." the boy defended himself with a hint of bad humor, but it was his manner of speaking that alarmed the silver one. "Are you still like this? Everything around you is making you sick?" "It's slowly getting better, I think. For the first few hours, it was pretty unbearable, things were so bizarre that it seemed I couldn't even feel or hear the world around me anymore." the smaller one pondered. "The tendency is to get better as you get used to it and train this ability." the teacher said and looked back at the boy. "But I'm afraid we don't have much time to get you as functional as possible again, I think it's possible that we were tricked by that shinobi boy who technically killed Zabuza." "What do you mean, Sensei?" they asked, not understanding exactly what that meant to them. "The vital points that the needles hit would be perfect for inducing a false death, and it is suspicious that he did not destroy the body right there, which is usually the standard procedure for this type of situation, to avoid the possibility of a third party stealing the body," he explained, since he knew that the younger ones didn't have this information. "If you suspected this then why did you let them escape?" Sasuke asked genuinely confused. "The boy didn't seem hostile toward us and we needed the opening to get Tazuna to the house. Besides that the fight using the Sharingan left me exhausted, I couldn't fight another opponent at that moment. I didn't expect a second shinobi, which surprised me and was a mistake on my part that could have cost us our lives." the adult admitted, part of him ashamed and disappointed with himself. "You just bought us more time, basically." the ravenette understood. "Exactly, in these days I hope to be able to teach you some things that I hope will be useful and will improve your chakra control, which will help make you last longer in a fight." he clarified. "That's why it's important to find out how accurate chakra reading is and how much it affects you, Naruto. This ability can be a great asset since it decreases the chances of being caught by surprise.""I remember reading that sensors are useful but relatively rare, is that true?" Sakura asked, but the other two were also curious, especially the blonde. "They are, for both questions. Not every ninja has the aptitude to feel chakra with accuracy to be a sensor. And a well-trained and capable sensor can sense enemies and comrades from miles away, chakra-based surprise attacks are felt possibly before reaching the target, and a genjutsu needs to be extremely powerful to capture and confuse the sensor." the three are stunned by the information, but the elder signaled for them to wait. "But sensors, like anyone else, are not perfect. There are ways to fool and overload a sensor to the point that it becomes useless. Only 5% of ninjas have the potential to become sensors.""But sensei, you said that Naruto is a natural sensor. What does that mean?" looks at him confused by the term. "It means that he naturally has the ability of a sensor, and just needs the training to refine it. Only 1% of ninjas are born with this ability. But from his description, he is also able to sense natural energy, coming from plants, animals, and even the earth itself, which in fact is extremely rare and is what I believe is responsible for his abnormal behavior in the last few days, since he literally feels everything around him, I can only imagine how stunning this is. It was also the reason he was able to sense the rabbit that some of the ninjas used in the replacement, he instinctively understood that something was wrong and was a threat." he reminded them of the moment. "Natural energy? Is that a kind of chakra?" the blond asked trying to digest everything, the world was really enjoying filling him with information lately and he was already getting a slight headache because of this story of him being a sensor. "It can be considered that he is. It is an energy that when absorbed can be used as chakra, but it is extremely difficult to control. Known users are very few, as it can have negative effects on the body, in extreme cases kill untutored beginners. From Konoha, only 4 people were able to acquire the Sennin Mode, as it is called, and not all of them are able to control his full mode. The first of them was the First Hokage, theories say that it was thanks to this that he was able to create Mokuton but nobody knows how for sure, so he was the only wood user in the world. There is also some relation of this to the invocation type affinity and some claim that it is the invocations that are able to guide the users in the process." the youngsters were totally immersed in the adult's words. "Back on topic, I don't expect Naruto to be able to control this immediately, it may take years to reach its full potential. Him being able to sense nature's chakra is a possible sign that he might one day be able to use this kind of chakra. But what we will try to do is to try to help him to adapt, to get used to our chakras, and to be able to tell when somebody is nearby." "Does this mean that I'll stop getting headaches all the time because of the chakra around me?" Naruto looked slightly hopeful, the last few days had been terrible in that regard. "Have you been feeling this all the time?" he repeated, frowning. "Well... Yes. When we were attacked I think it decreased a bit, but they say adrenaline affects our bodies a lot, right?" the adult nodded in confirmation, not expecting the boy to come to this conclusion on his own. But the news itself was bad, it showed that he was more sensitive than he imagined and they didn't exactly have much time. "And why didn't you say anything?" it was a question that the adult didn't even know if he wanted the honest answer like in the poisoning situation, it just showed how much they had failed him. "It didn't seem important, and I thought it would pass soon." he shrugged his shoulders. "We have to increase his resistance then." he decided more urgently. "We need to find out your current limit." then he called the other two genins close by for a little test, they would all activate their chakras at the same time to see how the blond would do. Once they did, the boy only saw his vision go completely black before he woke up lying on the ground, he had briefly blacked out. After a few more tests, with two of them repeating the procedure and altering the doubles and then alone the grayish one came to a conclusion. "It seems that for the time being he can only handle more chakra when he is on adrenaline. The proximity of where the chakra also seems to be an important factor, since you only blacked out when we were all together and on your side. The amount of chakra each of you have changed the type of reaction from you, which is expected.""Is he going to be okay?" Sakura asked, still surprised that her colleague had fainted, so this is what sensei had meant when he said that you could overload a sensor? "He will be fine. You can rest assured. We will just have to be careful with the exercise, doing it one at a time to give him time to get used to it." "Sensei, you said that the exercise would help our chakra control. What are we going to do?" the Uchiha asked finally. "Kinobori Shūgyō. You guys are going to practice climbing trees." he was faced with confused and incredulous faces. "-But only without using your hands. Like this." demonstrated the technique without any effort, it was already as easy as breathing for him. "Wow!" the pink girl exclaimed, impressed and thinking how something like this could be useful. "What you will have to do is simple: take and focus the chakra on the soles of your feet while you are climbing. The exact amount depends per person, as it depends on biotype, body structure, and weight, so it will be by trial and error," he explained after getting down and handing a kunai to the ravenette boy. "You go first." "Ok." the Uchiha took a deep breath and ran towards a tree, taking a few steps before slipping to the ground. -New. -I don't know what to do," he said before running back to the same tree, this time putting too much chakra into it, which hurt the bark of the poor tree. "Dammit, I forgot to mark how far I went." "You'll have to do that later. Sakura, your turn," he said after checking that the Uzumaki was ok. "That's good! Here I go!" she declared and promptly went towards the tree, surprising even herself when she got there on the first try. "Huh?" she took a few slower steps up and down before sitting down on a branch. 'That was easier than I thought. I'm awesome, shanaroo! "Naruto, now you." "Hai." -he stopped facing a third tree before hesitating. He knew he had too much chakra and almost no control, that was the whole point of his current training with Danzo! He should go with everything to get a sense of what not to do right away? "Here I come!" he picked up speed and went up, but as soon as he started to climb his foot created a hole in the tree, which made him fall hard to the ground. To the point that his butt hurt. The other three presents looked at the damage caused in disbelief, although Hatake must have imagined something like this coming. "It looks like the ones who will need to keep training are Naruto and Sasuke. Which is to be expected since they have the largest chakra reserves." the two boys looked at each other in surprise. "Sakura, since you have a natural talent for chakra control, you will supervise the builder together with me while I give you another exercise to practice. As things develop from here we'll see if we can strengthen your taijutsu if there's any time left."Since the Uzumaki needed to get used to their chakra it was decided that the two boys would train together, which would help build up a resistance in the blond by the hours of exposure to the other's chakra constantly. Other than that the teacher decided that it would be good to teach the blond to meditate, also for the purpose of helping him get used to his new heightened senses. But since this was also a good exercise for control, the three genins would do it together a few times a day. The boys would only take short breaks for some snacks, and water and to catch their breath. But even if they struggled for a whole day they made little progress, so later Sasuke decided to ignore some of his pride and asked his classmate how she had managed it so easily, with Naruto listening equally puzzled. They also returned to Tazuna's house for meals, where they heard reports from the pink one about how the village was, now that she had seen it with her own eyes. She had never seen so much poverty and people in such a bad situation. On the second day, Naruto noticed that the normal way was not working for him, since the Uchiha was now far ahead of him in climbing. So he decided to try something different, something more like what he was learning in his sessions with Shimura. During them, he was learning that his chakra worked differently than others and so what was simple for others was not for him. 'How was it really? First I have to focus and feel my chakra going through my body...' he closed his eyes and concentrated. He spent a few minutes just doing this, which drew confused looks from his teammate. 'Now let's try to do it slowly and try to guide it to my feet and remember the feeling of it there...' when he was confident that he had already memorized the feeling he went slowly towards the tree, only in it would he be able to see how much he should take there. He synchronized his steps with his breathing, it was easier when he used the rhythm of something pre-existing to guide his chakra. Apparently, it was working and... "What are you doing?" Sasuke asked, causing him to open his eyes and lose focus. He narrowly managed to mark how far he had gone before he fell."I was trying to climb the tree until you distracted me!" said glaring at the other with his eyes, slightly frustrated. The other had the decency to blush since this had not been his intention."It's just that you stood still for a long time and then suddenly, when you moved, you climbed higher than before," he explained himself and pointed to the tree, where there was actually a considerable space between the previous and the most recent markings. -How did you manage to do that? You almost caught up with me just now, when you were having trouble earlier. "Huh... Doing it?" responded, to the other's frustration. "Don't 'doing it' me! You had a whole preparation process before getting it!""I can't explain it, okay? My chakra works in a strange way," he spoke sincerely and shrugged. "What do you mean?" the Uchiha looked at him confused. "Can you explain how you can breathe?" the other denied with his head, it was something instinctive as far as he knew. "It's like this, you can't explain it with words." "I get it..." -he said without really understanding, but understanding the analogy. They went back to training and spent hours without stopping, they spent the night doing this without even realizing it. Both were just a few steps away from reaching the top of their respective trees. But they would still need more time to master the technique completely. In these two days the brunette noticed that the Uzumaki had much more stamina than he did, it took longer for his breathing to fail with the exercise. And the boy didn't consider himself someone who tired quickly, so he was impressed. Did this have to do with the possibility that he really was part of the Uzumaki clan, as they are suspecting? If he remembered correctly, it was a clan that possessed high vitality. At least that was what had been documented. However, he didn't approach the other on the subject again. He had not forgotten how the blond had reacted to the subject when they had spoken to him that day in the library. He had never seen the other one so closed off. And now with this confusion about him being a sensor, Sasuke thought it best not to press him any further. They had more to worry about and would have plenty of time to research this later. After they were basically exhausted they finally decided to take a break. Naruto sat down leaning against a tree in a shady spot and decided he was going to try to meditate for a while, something he was basically doing whenever he could since it was helping with the headaches and getting used to the chakra of the others. When the older man looked at his colleague again, he looked as if he had fallen asleep, so he decided to fill his canteen with water. He was thinking how little was left to master the skill on the way back and was surprised to see that there was someone approaching the blond's sleeping form with an outstretched hand, he immediately tensed up seeing that it seemed to be going towards his neck. But before touching the boy's shoulder, to the Uchiha's surprise (and relief), the Uzumaki opened his eyes and silence settled on the scene. "Who...?" he was interrupted by the unknown person, who seemed to be around their age. "You're awake, that's good! At this time if you sleep outside you might catch a cold or something worse." the person smiled, leaving them both a bit stunned; it seemed to be a girl. "Who are you?" Sasuke asked the question they both wanted to know. "Oh, he wasn't alone?" the other boy just showed the water canteen as an answer to that. "My name is Haku, this is the best time to harvest medicinal herbs so I was startled to see someone lying here.""Is this what you came here to do?" Naruto asked, rubbing his eyes to dispel his tiredness. "Yes, someone important to me is ill so I want to help him recover." the girl smiled thoughtfully but went back to picking the herbs she had gone to get. "And you? What are you doing here so early in the morning?""We're ninjas, so we have to train," Sasuke answered proudly, pointing to his bandana, the other's gaze lingered there longer than usual. "These herbs... Are they for pain?" -the blond looked at what she was collecting. Clearly, they were not the same as the ones they had in the village, but they were very similar. "Yes, they are good against infections too." she was amazed that the boy seemed to know a little about the subject. "Why are you training so hard? she pointed to the boys' dirty clothes. "To get stronger," they answered together, which made both of them blink and look at each other. "Why do you want to get stronger?" she looked at them both with curiosity. "Is it to protect someone?" at the suggestion, the Uchiha stopped what he was about to answer, confused by the sudden suggestion, while the Uzumaki frowned, what do you mean protect someone? He didn't have -need- anyone! "What?" the dark-haired boy tilted his head to the side. "A person only becomes really strong when they have something they want to protect. Only then do we become really strong." he explained, as the two Genin looked on and stopped contemplatively. "Do you understand?" "Yes." Sasuke knew what it was like to have someone important to him, he loved his family and wanted to have the strength to protect them as they would protect him. "No." the concept was completely alien to the blond, he was always alone, and people always left him alone. "What a shame." she looked at the smallest of them. "I hope you find someone someday, living without a purpose is sad." she turned to the other boy. "You are already on the road to becoming truly strong.""Huh... Thanks, I guess," he answered without knowing what else to say while his teammate seemed stunned by the conversation, stopping to think he had been seeing many sides of the blond that didn't make much sense and were totally different from what everyone knew from the academy. "We'll see each other again." said goodbye, getting up and holding the basket with the herbs he had collected during the conversation. "By the way, I'm also a boy," he said this more for his own amusement, to the amazement of the others, who didn't expect it since the clothes he was wearing were more feminine. But it was a great way to disguise yourself, people expected less threat from girls who appeared fragile after all (the look on their faces when she revealed herself to others was always priceless too). "..." the two Konoha ninjas stood still while they processed the information and Haku was leaving. When they finally came out of their trance they turned towards the house, where they hoped it was time for breakfast, they were starving. "Sasuke?" Naruto called after a while, the boy turned to his classmate. "I think he's a ninja.""Why do you think so?" he asked before feeling like an idiot. "Did you feel chakra on him?" "Yes. I wasn't sure at first, but after a while, that alone makes sense, because training with you doesn't give me a headache anymore," he said after thinking about how to explain. "So you're sure it's an unknown chakra." Sasuke added. "When we get to the house we have to talk to the sensei.""Yes. We do." he agreed, and they walked the rest of the way in silence. Both were thoughtful about what had occurred that morning and the words they had exchanged.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
When they arrived at the house the pair informed the jounin what had happened and their suspicions. But to their surprise the adult just told them to eat and ignored the subject temporarily. After they had put some food in their stomachs the Hatake resumed the subject, although the meal was not over. "So you think you've found a ninja." he began, looking at the boys. "Naruto said that he possessed chakra," Sasuke said, knowing that the boy could explain better than he could in this case. "And you're sure of this?" he turned to the blond boy. "Yes." he nodded positively, putting his glass back on the table. "Really? You're not experienced enough to notice these things so quickly yet." the whitish man raised an eyebrow. "I know." he knew he didn't have the experience for it, but he also wasn't stupid enough not to notice that there was something strange near him. "I'm sure, sensei.""How many chakras can you feel here?" asked without breaking his gaze, deciding to put it to the test. "9." answered with his eyes closed and frowning with the effort, he had already started to get a headache too. "3 are yours, 2 are not with us at the table," he said, opening his eyes and looking at the older one. "Hm... How do you know they're mine?" he asked checking. "They are equal energies and no one has the same," he said without hesitation. "And you wouldn't let us talk about it if you thought we were being watched by other people." the other two team members looked at the boy, surprised by the analysis. "What about the other 6 chakras?" "They belong to everyone in the house, not counting you. Mine included," he added, in case it wasn't clear. "We have chakra too?" Tsunami stopped curious, her father and son also didn't know the answer and were waiting curiously. "Well... Chakra is a kind of energy and..." Sakura was about to explain, but was interrupted by the Uzumaki. "Everything has chakra." the boy said, gesturing to everything around them. "Animals, trees, even the air has some energy. Like it's different, but everything has it. With people, it's funny because everyone has chakra but depending on whether you're a civilian or a ninja the sensation is different, the chakra is more active and has more strength in our case." he explained well, to the shock of his colleagues who were not used to a Naruto who knew more about something than they did or who jumped in to give answers. The blond always shied away from having to answer in class first. "How interesting. I always thought only ninjas could have and use chakra." the woman spoke intrigued. "Naruto is right. The ninja are only trained to mold this energy to use it in different situations in combat." Kakashi clarified, turning his gaze to the blond pleased with the answer since he also answered what he had previously questioned. "What difference does it make if you are all going to die anyway?" the little boy spoke for the first time since until then he seemed to avoid them all. "Inari!" his mother quickly scolded. "But it's true! They're trying to be heroes, and we all know that heroes only die in the end!" he protested indignantly, slamming his hands on the table. "Heroes?" someone repeated with enormous contempt. When they looked for who it was they were stunned to see that the person who had spoken was Naruto, who had a frown on his face and his eyes shining with... Anger? As if the word had personally offended him. "Who the hell would want to be one? Who even mentioned it? Wanting to get strong to survive and win is completely different from wanting to be a damn hero!" fuzzled the boy with his eyes. The attitude was so unexpected that no one knew how to handle it. 'It was a hero who cursed my life!' he thought with a growing revulsion against the one who had turned him into a weapon before he even had a chance to be something more. 'The Sandaime had said that Naruto had an inner anger well hidden deep inside him, but I don't like the direction this is going...' the Hatake thought ruefully. 'Without knowing the whole story I can't blame him for resenting sensei, it's just that if this continues like this when he finds out the rest I don't know how he will react.' "You came to help and are trying to save everyone here, this trying to be a hero!" the smaller boy replied, almost shouting. "No, it's not! This is called doing the mission!" the blond boy replied in the same tone as before, but it was obvious that he was getting exalted too, losing any patience. "No, you are a bunch of idiots who think you can be heroes!" he shouted. "And what do you know about heroes, brat?" the Uzumaki confronted angrily. "They die!" the boy replied promptly. "Exactly!" he slammed his hands on the table, taking everyone by surprise for agreeing to something that the boy himself internally found absurd. "And they don't think about the damage they leave behind or the impact it can have!" 'If they care!' he mentally added and stood up. "Sensei, I'm going to go rest. I've lost my appetite." he turned and walked out of the room, leaving behind a silent audience, processing what had happened there. "Inari! That was rude and disrespectful of you! They are here to protect us!" Tsunami scolded her son seriously, who looked at her indignantly. "But Mom...!""Your mother is right. You can't treat others like this." Tazuna looked at his grandson, who was about to argue. "Whether there's a reason or not." "But they're not even from here and they're trying to meddle and..." was interrupted by his grandfather. "They're being paid, and they had the goodwill to continue helping us even after they found out that their lives might be in danger." he looked at the younger boy seriously. "You can't and shouldn't treat our guests like this." the mother spoke in the same tone and turned to the ninja. "I'm sorry for his behavior, it won't happen again, will it?" she looked at her son at the end. "It's okay. Naruto also exaggerated his tone a bit." he spoke soothingly, although he was still worried about the young blond. "No, no. Inari, who shouldn't have approached you like that. It was good for him to learn that every action has at least one reaction." sighed. "Don't think I didn't notice, finish eating your vegetables, you know how hard your grandfather works so that we have food, no matter how much better off we are than many others don't you dare waste food!" she said quickly to her little boy before turning her attention to the other adult. "I am really sorry, you are doing so much for us that the least we can do is to be good hosts, especially since you have already saved my father's life twice just to bring him back to us intact. We will be eternally grateful to you for that." she smiled genuinely, although she was saying it so that the boy would understand. "It's nothing, as my student himself said: this is our role as ninjas on a mission." he smiled at her. "I apologize for my student's behavior too, he's been going through some tough times lately." the two teammates took interest in his speech, could this be the reason why the other had been acting different and a little strange since the academy test? But what could have happened? As much as they wanted to ask, they knew they would be ignored and the answers to that would not come now. "And what does he know about difficulties?" the child asked dismissively. "What do ninjas, who are oh so powerful know about the problems of ordinary people?" his mother sighed in frustration and ready to scold him again. "Naruto, he... He's an orphan, he became one the day he was born in an attack that happened in the village. He has no one to call family and practically raised himself. He has lived alone since he was 5, which is not an easy task for any child, even one who is from a ninja village. He has been through countless hardships. So yes, he knows very well." he said to the boy but Sakura half shrank and looked down half ashamed that before they were on the same team she didn't even remember that about her colleague, being that it was obviously common knowledge since even the sensei that didn't even know them before seemed to know that with details, it didn't cross her mind that there could be other reasons. "..." Inari opened and closed his mouth, clearly not expecting an answer like that nor the serious tone with which it was spoken. "It's not as if he saw someone he loves dead..." he mumbled, but his voice was still clearly audible. "If he can't even remember them, then it doesn't count!""Hey!" Sasuke was the one who protested although they were both equally offended on behalf of their teammate. "That wasn't nice!""Inari, your grief over Kaiza is no reason to act like no one else has a problem. He didn't fight so you could then act so rude." the builder spoke seriously and the boy looked at him with tears in his eyes and a betrayed look, getting up again and throwing the plate, fortunately already empty, on the floor in protest and anger. "Inari, to your room. Now!" she said firmly, and the boy ran out and slammed the door when closing it. "Dad, we've talked about this, don't mention this name in front of him! You know how sensitive he's been since that happened.""Who would Kaiza be?" Kakashi asked, after making sure that the boy was no longer listening. "My husband... He was Inari's stepfather." Tsunami revealed with sadness and longing in her voice. "How... How did he die? You talked about fighting..." Sakura spoke half-unknowing how to ask a subject like this, she didn't want to be rude to a family's grief. "He fought to try to save our country from the hands of Gatou. He led a group of rebels to his mansion to try to convince and force him to leave. But as you can see and imagine, it didn't work very well." the older man recounted. "The next day they were all exposed dead on the walls of the estate. They were made an example of against anyone who wanted to rebel. This silenced most of the population out of fear. Even the few nobles who supported the cause kept quiet for fear of retribution, since there is no military power here. And after that day it became very clear that Gatou did not mind hiring mercenaries and using force." "The people were losing hope until my father started to build the bridge. It is our last act of rebellion and our greatest hope. All those who are helping are the rebels who didn't attack that afternoon and some joined the cause later. They all helped with the money we used to hire you." the woman added. "I understand. I'm sorry for your loss. But from what I understand, Kaiza was a man of noble heart and immense courage. You have a right to be proud of him." he said and looked at the family photo on the wall that was partially torn. "At some time your son will understand when the worst of the mourning is over.""How long has this been going on?" the pink girl questioned. "Months." "It's a surprise nobody knows anything then. Especially since this island is near the coast of the Fire Country and has trade relations with it all the time." the Uchiha commented. "From what I know he kept the trade relations operating as if nothing was happening. And few can leave the country or make it without him noticing." Tazuna shook his head ruefully. "I was lucky that I managed to get out and build the bridge so far." "You have resisted well. Now leave the security part to us. Once this mission is over we will report Gatou to the Fire Country authorities and they will deal with it and help you." Kakashi reported, it was the least they could do to help. "Not Konoha?" Tsunami looked confused. "Ah, people always get confused. Konoha is just a shinobi military power that defers to the Feudal Lord. We don't deal with political issues or issues that affect the entire country unless we are ordered to do so through a mission." the silver-haired man clarified. This ended the conversation, there was nothing more to talk about but to think about what they heard and what was said. The local residents would be extremely grateful for any help they received, and if they could get rid of the tyrant, even better. It would be like receiving a gift before the date for them. With each passing day, you could feel the tension rising among those who participated in the construction, practically, of the bridge. Fear was in the air, as if Gatou's henchmen would emerge from the shadows at any moment and attack them. Some people, those who were the most fearful and who believed they had the most to lose by staying there were even apologizing and going back to their homes and families, hoping that they would not know about their involvement in the bridge and would not become targets anymore. The leaf ninjas continued training, the boys getting closer and closer to reaching the top of the trees. Each in his own way and using his own form to accomplish the task. The important thing is that they were getting the hang of it, they practically didn't need to run and get momentum to start climbing. But staying fixed to the trees for too long was still proving to be an obstacle. In these days when the team was separated, Kakashi was training the third member, since she was better with chakra control. "What are we going to do today, sensei?" she looked at her teacher curiously, would they continue with the same exercise? "As tempting as it is to continue with the same exercises and make you improve your endurance, no walking on water today." he declared, which made the younger girl's eyes widen and she looked at him with anxiety and anticipation. "What are we going to do then?" she was already excited to be ahead of the others in this regard, she could hardly believe she could learn something more! "As you know, you have a very good control over your chakra. Which is impressive for your age and comes naturally to you. So you have some options of what you can do with that control, besides saving chakra when it comes time to use some ninjutsu. What I would recommend to you, precisely because of the level and potential you are showing, is to invest in genjutsu and Iryō ninjutsu." laughed a little at her excitement. "Iryō ninjutsu?""It's a type of ninjutsu made for medicinal use, the use of chakra to heal wounds, diseases, and even poisoning." he explained. "Wow, so I can become an Iryō-nin?" she widened her eyes, that sounded so cool! "Everyone can become almost anything with training. That's what I believe." he smiled at the younger one. "But I'm not good with medicinal ninjutsu and they're a little complex to learn, so back in Konoha, you can apply to learn them at the village hospital.""So that means you will teach me genjutsu?" she remembered the other option presented. "Yes. Something simple for now, something you can learn in enough time for the attack that is sure to come soon." the girl certainly picked things up quickly. "I don't think you'll have any problems with it.""How can you be so sure?" she asked, intrigued and honored by the confidence. "Because you have a talent for henge. I noticed that you used a henge to pretend you were Sasuke after you made a simple bunshin of yourself, because you thought the enemy would go first to Sasuke since he was more of a threat than you, so you would try to get rid of him first, which would keep Tazuna safe longer." he said. "When someone has a talent for henges it's an indication that the person can do well in genjutsus.""I get it. And what does the jutsu you're going to teach me do?" she nodded positively and smiled proudly at herself. "Depending on how you go with this one, maybe I'll teach you a second one that can be used very well with it." the girl seemed to almost glow at the idea. "The first jutsu works in an area of 5 meters around you and is to hide the presence and confuse the opponent about where you and whoever is nearby are really, the name is Genjutsu: Presence Concealment. "The idea is to use the genjutsu to protect our client, right? Does that mean I will be on guard again?" she didn't know how to feel about it, whether to be disappointed or honored by the trust. "Exactly. I can trust you for this role as you have been the one most focused on protecting him since we left the village. You have done well in two pressure situations." he said seriously, in a complimentary tone. "The boys will need to work together against the second ninja, but I don't know if they will be enough actually, while I fight against Zabuza. And of course, someone needs to stay with the builder, you're the best choice, plus since you've proven yourself to him, he'll trust you and that will calm him down. A client freaking out in the middle of the action would complicate everything.""What about the second jutsu?" she agreed after accepting her role a little more good-humored. "It's the Genjutsu: False Presence. The ideal complement to the first, since it works as a mixture of the henge with the basic bunshin, only without the creation of smoke." he speaks. "Both are D-level jutsus, for genins, so they are easily dispersed when noticed, but buy some time when they are not waiting for them or when they are not good at sensing the chakra around them.""I get it." she nodded determinedly. "When do we start?" this was something Hatake couldn't complain about his students, they were always eager to learn new things, he was pretty sure that all three of them were a bit competitive, no matter how hard they tried to hide it. With that, the days left for both Jounins to recover full strength passed, the wound on Kakashi's arm was already healed and his chakra completely recovered. Zabuza was ready too, he and Haku were already planning their next attack more carefully, knowing that the Konoha ninja would do everything to get in their way. The boys had already mastered tree climbing the day before and were already joining the patrol on the bridge. But the teacher was smart so he never left the house completely defenseless, in case someone decided to attack Tazuna's family. Especially when he discovered that the boy knew the maximum use of the kage bunshin. That was exactly what happened that day, mercenaries appeared ready and believed that it would be an easy task since someone had reported seeing all 4 ninjas on the bridge. What they didn't know was that the blond man on the bridge was a clone, so they got a big surprise when there was a ninja in the house and he quickly went to the defense of the two inhabitants there. With clones at their disposal, they were quickly overwhelmed. "You saved us." -Inari looked genuinely shocked by the event as if he really couldn't believe it. "Thank you very, very much!" Tsunami thanked him, still hugging her son tightly as if there was a chance he would disappear if she let go. "It was nothing, I just did what I was supposed to do." he replied a bit clumsily, not used to this kind of behavior and gratitude coming from others to him. "I-I'm sorry for being so rude to you!" the little boy said in tears. "Thank you for saving my mom, I d-don't know what I would have done if I had lost her too." Naruto nodded to the boy that it was okay, they didn't have the best start and he didn't care much for the boy himself, it was just too much going on in his life right now. And he had been through worse times in the village. "It's okay, you'll be fine now. But if I were you I would hide, who knows if more people will come and..." his concentration was interrupted when he felt the bridge clone disperse. The bridge was under attack.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
On the bridge, the day had been calm until that moment. Too calm, even. As they say: before the storm comes the calm. And that was perfectly what described that day since they were very close to completing the bridge. There were only about 20 meters to go. They believed that the next day they would finish it. Those who had stayed until the end were even talking about the party they would have the next day, even with the poor conditions they had, they believed it was an event worth celebrating. It was hope returning to the island, to their beloved home. The genins, still keeping an eye on the surroundings as instructed by the jounin, looked at the joy of the bridge workers and felt a twinge of happiness and pride for having chosen to continue the mission. Those people didn't deserve to go through so much hardship because of one man's greed, they just wanted to live their lives in peace and be happy with their families and friends. "Hey, don't get distracted," Kakashi spoke up, drawing their attention. "So far things have gone well. I'm sure that Zabuza has recovered completely as well. So don't let your guard down just because things seem to be smooth so far.""Okay." the Uchiha replied, turning back to a serious and much more focused expression. "Sakura, don't lose sight of Tazuna, understand? Sasuke, watch out if anyone is acting suspicious or if they appear or disappear out of nowhere.""We got it, sensei!" the pink-haired girl replied by nodding her head. "Naruto." he turned to the clone. "If you notice anything strange, let us know," he spoke in a subdued tone, cautious so that only the team would hear, but without actually whispering. Since the clones were exact copies of the blond in this jutsu, they carried his abilities with them in a limited way. That is, they could sense the chakra around them, but the focus needed to do so was double or triple what the original needed to sense anything. They discovered this through tests they did when the blond could already cope well with the presence of others using chakra without so much bother to him. The original goal at the beginning was to explain to the boy that the jutsu had other possibilities of use, such as for learning and obtaining information. That's how the jounin had the pleasant (?) surprise that the boy already knew about it somehow. So they just confirmed the possibility of the clones being able to sense their chakra and directions like the original or not. The moment was good for the other two genins to clear up their doubts about the other's physical clone technique. Since they hadn't focused much on it since the rattle test, where they had their first contact with it. Before they were too focused on the missions and too distracted by the little inconsistencies and mysteries of the Uzumaki to remember to research or ask. However, the younger one used the jutsu sometimes in missions that required more physical work. Imagine their surprise that it was a rank B jutsu and that the other apparently could also perform its rank A variant. "Okay." responded promptly, after all, all either of them wanted least was to fall into a trap by carelessness or something. But before he could even blink, the bridge was suddenly covered in fog. It didn't take long for the ninja team to recognize the technique and its user. It hadn't really been too long since their last encounter for them to have really forgotten. In a matter of seconds, they remembered their roles, located the client, and put themselves in a defensive position after ordering everyone else to evacuate. If they stayed they would only be dead weight and would get in the way of them actually protecting the target from the enemy. And they were not considered important enough to be used as hostages in this situation. Those who would be were being guarded and protected by the original blond, and the sensei doubted that the enemy would send or have more shinobis to send after them when the biggest obstacle, himself, was on the bridge. "Sakura," he spoke in an orderly tone, she knew what she had to do. The girl just nodded, moved closer to the builder, and performed the two jutsus she had learned in sequence. She hadn't put so much effort and dedication into learning both to avoid using them. Seeing this, the plane went into motion and confirming the state of everyone else the clone dispersed. So that the original knew the situation and came to do his part. "It's been a while, Kakashi." a voice greeted from the middle of the mist, it had a hint of teasing in it. "I didn't think you had the courage to expose your precious students to such a life-and-death danger. Although you have so many stories and legends to your name, it's no wonder. They alone should have warned me that your blood is colder than it seems with your words of comfort and reassurance for them.""Zabuza." -was all the Hatake spoke, acknowledging the other's presence without leaving his position or even appearing concerned. "I see you've even taught them a trick or two. Since the pink-haired brat is nowhere apparent, neither is the old man, although I'm sure I saw them on the bridge before I launched my jutsu." the nukenin continued in the same tone. "But what can only two of you do against many? Like your little blond-haired boy did last time with me." this time several voices sounded at once, coming from all directions, surrounding them and getting closer, soon coming into their short field of vision. "Sasuke." the older Konoha ninja invited the smaller one to act. In the blink of an eye, he threw countless shurikens at all the visible Zabuzas all at vital points, this without any visible hesitation on the part of the brunette, who was until then a little nervous about the inevitable confrontation but managing to hide it until well for someone his age. "It seems that you managed to predict that everyone was just water clones, I wonder if you trained that with the help of your teammate." he replied aloud. "But well, at least that means my little ninja won't get bored dealing with this brat." both Zabuza and the young masked ninja came close enough to be seen. "I'll fight him. Don't underestimate me!" said the last part specifically to the masked boy, especially if Naruto's suspicions were correct and it was the same person they found in the woods. Just remembering the nerve with which he talked about true strength and everything else with him while fighting with someone who didn't seem to care about anyone made him deeply angry. "If that's what you want." the boy spoke before emerging in front of him and with a powerful kick launching him away from his jounin. Soon the Uchiha boy discovered that besides the previous ability they knew of the other with senbons, he was also extremely fast. The only thing he had in his favor was that he was relatively used to practicing with his older brother whenever possible and this one was faster than the enemy, thanks to the training with their cousin, who was known for his speed being so great that there were residual illusions of him where he was before. And his brother was paranoid enough about his safety to always encourage him to improve and get faster. As the two boys traded blows with their respective weapons the two jounins faced each other waiting for who would make the first move and start their fight. "Do you really think your baby ninjas are ready for a real fight? Are they capable of doing whatever it takes to win a fight to the death? Do they even understand what that is? Soft children like them are never prepared to get their hands dirty." the former Mist shinobi spoke with a twinge of curiosity and disbelief. Konoha was not exactly known for encouraging such behavior, despite its history of winning and doing relatively well in wars. But it usually did so purely through power and skill. "A sensei has a duty to prepare his team and believe that they will survive," Kakashi replied, not exposing an ounce of his inner worry, he would only be a little calmer to focus on his own fight when the Uzumaki arrived to support Sasuke. Although the boy is doing well on his own so far. But the Momochi knew that Haku had the advantage on the spot, due to his Kekkei Genkai and the amount of water around them. That's what the Uchiha soon discovered when his opponent, using only one hand to make several seals, which surprised even the Hatake, transformed this water into ice needles and sent them in his direction. With nowhere to run in time, luckily he remembered the training he had gone through in the last few days and released enough chakra to repel the needles. It wasn't exactly a recommendable tactic because it was a waste of chakra, but it was better than letting the needles hit him. From that distance and with that speed they were capable of incapacitating him. The two shinobis continued to watch the dispute over who was more agile and faster escalate, but without stopping to pay attention to the opponent. Both boys seemed to want to prove to each other who was the fastest, taking turns using weapons and taijutsu, when they finally disarmed the other. When at last the Uchiha seemed to be gaining the upper hand, with his clan's taijutsu, the long-haired boy performed another technique using the water around them, this time forming a large dome around the leaf genin and then solidifying into many mirrors before the user entered one of them. "It's over for your boy. With this jutsu he's finished." "Sasuke!" Kakashi exclaimed in alarm as he heard the boy scream in pain after a few seconds of silence. But the mist shinobi would attack and try to find where his target was and he couldn't afford to worry or do anything for the Uchiha now. Sakura and Tazuna looked at everything nervously and worried, but they didn't dare, they couldn't, make a sound since they could be discovered. The pink one just prayed that her teammate and her crush were okay. She hoped that the other teammate would arrive soon so that the brunette wouldn't have to keep fighting alone. As tempted as she was to throw something in the direction of the enemy she couldn't, if she did she would reveal their direction and put the client at risk. All she could do was watch and wait. Sasuke tried to use a fireball to melt the mirrors after noticing that there was no way out of there from the inside. It didn't work, the ice didn't even seem to be affected, at most they had blurred a bit. This disturbed Haku a little and forced him to slow down. Then a shower of kunais came at him from the outside. Most of them hit the mirror where he was standing, but he grabbed one in case he needed to defend himself. An orange figure passed by him and entered the dome. "Hey, teme. Are you okay?" Naruto asked, looking at the Uchiha, who took advantage of his enemy's distraction to remove the needles that had pierced him. "You're late." he grumbled, taking the last one and throwing it on the ground. "I know, but I had some setbacks before I came." the dark-haired boy quickly understood that this meant that as they had predicted, they had actually gone to attack the builder's family. "Don't get distracted. He is able to move between mirrors very quickly and throw needles from all directions," he told him the current situation, the plan, and about the client, which the blond already knew because of the clone. "Ok." he looked around trying to feel where the enemy was. "Sasuke, watch out." he shouted and threw them both aside, narrowly escaping a flurry of senbons. "Huh? Were you able to dodge it?" the older boy commented intrigued. "It looks like you could even sense my attack. Let's see how much more you can do." now that the mirrors have defogged, he could see better and attack again. In a moment the genin were forced to dodge at all costs the needles that came at random. "Well, well... Even the boy with sharp instincts arrived for the fight. I have to admit, Kakashi, your brats are brave. But they are no match for Haku. They're too newbies for that." he turned again to the leaf jounin, with a confident smile. "That we'll see, Zabuza. We'll see about that." with the two boys together he was already more comfortable focusing on his own fight. "I think we can stop stalling now, don't you?""Let's do this." the other agreed, until then he had enjoyed himself with provocations and seeing the reactions of the other shinobi. Kakashi quickly began to make several seals with his hands and launched a water jutsu, making the area where both were very wet, then raised where he was with a docton jutsu and then launched a raiton jutsu, electrifying the whole area in a way that would immobilize the opponent immediately if someone stepped on it. Too bad the nukenin at the moment he saw the jutsu lifting him had the good sense to jump from there too. But it was a sign that the silver one would take the fight seriously. When the electricity ran out, Hatake advanced in order to prevent the opponent from drawing his sword, since this would allow him to have a greater range. In a ninjutsu battle he had a relatively better advantage because he had a larger arsenal and relied on his taijutsu, but he no longer had a sword like when he was much younger. Not to mention that the other's sword was bigger and heavier, worthy of a former Swordsman of the Mist. He would try not to use his sharingan too much this time so as not to exhaust himself so quickly, especially since both were more intent on completing their goals this time. "Did you forget that I am a genius at silent assassinations?" the ninja with the stripes mask spoke up. "Do you really think a genjutsu like that of a child can stop me?" he started to move but was stopped by the platinum with the Sharingan on display since he had needed it to track the other and get to him in time. "Sakura, move to position D. Your current location has been compromised!" he warned raising his voice, he knew that moving with the genjutsu active and taking it along was going to cost the girl, but they thought about maybe that is necessary during the fight. The sound of a sound bomb was her positive response that she had understood and used that to cover up the noise of the movement. "Don't forget that to get to them you'll have to go over my head, Zabuza. I may not have your hearing and my vision may be a little impaired because of the fog, but my sense of smell is good and I'll need a company to avoid you thinking you can go unnoticed." he jumped back, while the other was bewildered by the noise and summoned his ninkens briefly clarifying what they needed to do in an instant. It had been a while since they all had a good fight together. And they had some pretty cool combos in ninjutsu and taijutsus that it had been a few years since they had last been able to use. "Do you think the plan is compromised?" Naruto asked his partner after hearing the whole situation from outside as they tried to cover each other's guard, standing with their backs to each other and protecting themselves with kunais. "Sensei wouldn't be so calm if it was." he denied and dodged a few more needles while others grazed them. Although getting trapped in an ice dome was certainly not part of the plan. They needed to shut this jutsu down somehow, there they were practically at the mercy of the enemy boy and the Uchiha hated that situation. "Fire doesn't work on ice. That means it's a kind of kekkei genkai.""I didn't expect you to pick it up so quickly. You must be the smart one in the group." Haku paused momentarily. It was hard to hold a conversation while being transported between mirrors. And for some reason, both boys had intrigued him in their conversation in the forest. They were like opposites of each other somehow, he couldn't explain. "Like the Sharingan of the Uchihas?" Naruto asked, suggesting the comparison. "Exactly. Except that Konoha is not known for exterminating its clans like Kiri is. The Yuki clan, my clan, possessed ice manipulation. That's why almost all of them were hunted down and killed." he said to the two boys, who were horrified by the story. How could anyone do this? They were families, children, and someone's loved ones. It would take a lot of cold blood to order something like this. "Zabuza rescued you, didn't he? He rescued you and took you with him when he left the village?" Sasuke assumed, remembering the other's words about important people. "Zabuza-san gave me a reason to live. I will be eternally grateful for that. That's why I don't mind being just a weapon in his eyes." the other boy replied. "He's just using you!" Naruto reacted immediately to the idea of someone being a weapon, nothing more. Since that day he hated that notion. "And it's okay. I owe him my life." Haku replied calmly, to the horror of the two boys. How could he accept something like that so easily? "This is wrong." the Uchiha spoke up. He knew that ninjas were military power and that to some extent they could be considered weapons, but they were people too. Not inanimate objects with no will of their own that could be discarded. "It doesn't matter. What is important now is that you are in the way of his dream and therefore, as much as I don't want to, I will have to eliminate you. For his dream to come true I cannot hesitate." the Yuki reinforced and drew his weapons again. "I'm sorry, it's nothing personal. But you need to die here." he looked sincerely sorry for having to do that, at the same time it really didn't look like he was going to change his mind about it. So he launched the needles at a greater speed than he had done before as if he was really just taking the idea of seriously hurting them now. The Uzumaki was still distracted by the words exchanged and the mention of the other being a weapon so he didn't notice they were coming towards him until too late. But someone else had noticed with a sharpness he hadn't possessed before and did something about it. With wide eyes, he saw in slow motion the ravenette boy next to him push him away and take the damage instead."Sasuke!" Naruto spoke up in a panic as he saw the amount of blood that was starting to pour out of the new wounds as the other fell into his arms, who tried to keep the needles from going in any further and went to the ground with him, completely ignoring how vulnerable the position left them. "Why? Why did you protect me?" "Because you're my teammate, you idiot." he said, coughing up a little blood, much to the blond boy's distress. The ravenette remembered the first time his mother had carefully pointed out the other boy, told him how lonely he was, and encouraged him to try to be friends with him. Sasuke had no idea exactly why his mother cared so much about the Uzumaki a year before they were even classmates. But he promised himself that if they survived he would try to find out more and really try to be friends with the other because it seemed like she was right after all. Naruto didn't have anyone, he had admitted it himself when he said he didn't understand the idea of getting strong to protect someone. He closed his eyes as he thought about this promise he had made and his determination to keep it. "Sasuke... Sasuke!" he called again in desperation, shaking the other lightly to see if he would wake up, but not strong enough to make his injuries worse. "He died to protect a friend. He is worthy of respect." the masked man spoke after a minute of silence. "Shut up! -the Uzumaki shouted angrily. Who did the idiot think he was? It didn't make the slightest sense. Didn't he know that he would be more needed by others than Naruto himself? "This is the life of a shinobi. Loss and death. Fulfilling orders. Shinobi are weapons that will be discarded at some point." "No. Shut up." repeated. "Shinobis are weapons." the more experienced one stated firmly. "No... No," he shouted, which echoed through the place, refusing to listen. Refusing to believe it. He didn't want to think about it. As his emotions intensified, the feeling inside the dome began to change, to the confusion and shock of his opponent who was watching everything in the mirror. The very air seemed to have changed as if a new presence was revealing itself, but there was nothing new there. Something oppressive and ominous was certainly present. It was coming from the blond boy, Haku noticed, that somehow the wounds were beginning to close.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Weapon.
Being a weapon.
It was something that was becoming more and more common for the blond to hear lately. To his growing agony and dread. It seemed that the world was making a point of reminding and reinforcing what he most wanted to forget and pretend was just a bad dream. His status as a jinchuuriki. His status as a weapon of the leaf village. Naruto didn't want to be a weapon. 'None of them did,' something in his mind echoed. 'I DON'T WANT TO BE A WEAPON!' he mentally shouted, perfectly in sync with the mysterious, strange voice. His anger with this fate burned in his chest, making him want to scream at the world about it and make it clear how much he hated the idea of being forced to be something he didn't want. Confused, he raised his head, his eyes closed so as not to face the Uchiha's body, it was hot. He swore it was quite cold before because of all that ice. That's when he noticed the red aura around him, redoubling around him and going up to the ceiling of the dome. On top was the figure of something that he couldn't exactly identify from his point of view. But one thing was certain, his feelings were a mess. At that moment it seemed that his feelings were no longer his alone. 'Angry,' the voice reminded him. True, he was angry. Anger at the injustice of the world, at the people who wanted to use others as weapons without caring about anything, at the idiot Uchiha who decided to give his life for him, at the enemy who tried to kill him. His eyes searched and focused on the masked boy in front of him. The intensity in his gaze made Haku want to back away. Those were not the same blue eyes as before, there was something inhuman about them. "What are you...?" the long-haired boy asked, but his question only made the oppressive aura intensify. The worst part was that the blond boy didn't even know he was exuding murderous intent, as far as he could tell. And Naruto had no intention of answering that question, answering would mean he had accepted it. Without breaking the silence the boy moved forward with a speed he didn't possess before, it was his turn to attack now. On the other side of the bridge, the two jounins stopped their own battle when they felt the shadowy presence. Both with their own doubts and assumptions about what was happening on the other side. Only one of them recognized the evil chakra that had already spread everywhere and was impossible not to notice. It seemed to demand fear and respect, it was something almost ancestral and definitely supernatural. 'That chakra... It can't be.' Kakashi felt his blood freeze for an instant. 'Did the seal break? That's definitely the fox chakra.' "Hey, Kakashi, you clearly recognized this chakra." Zabuza looked at him, seeing the glint of identification in the copying ninja's eyes. "Did one of your brats happen to have a kekkei genkai as well?" he assumed, 'A really obscure one since the aura doesn't lie' the ex-ninja of Kiri thought with a grimace, it didn't even cross his mind the possibility that there was someone there with a bijuu after all these were too powerful weapons to be used deliberately like that. 'I wonder if Haku still has the chakra to fight something like that, if not he will die a useless death. Though I doubt the brats of Konoha have the stomach for killing just yet' he forced himself to remember, all shinobis started somewhere. "..." the platinum-haired man looked at his opponent briefly before completely ignoring the question, even though the answer was yes. He just returned to his line of thought and analysis. 'No. If the seal had broken completely the sensation would be more intense and there would be much more chakra and Ki in the air. That means that the seal is getting weaker and weaker, ever since the test at the academy where the fox first manifested in it. It hasn't been long enough for the seal to have weakened enough for the chakra to leak out, as there was no sign of that before. Which possibly points out that there must be some sort of trigger that made it easier for the chakra to manifest...' tried to remember possible situations he had heard his sensei or his wife talked about in the past, however, any memories of them were unpleasant to think about. 'Kyuubi has access to and influences the negative emotions of the bearer. Something bad must have happened. What could have happened for Naruto's emotions to get so stirred up like this?' "'Have focus, Kakashi." a pug spoke from his side, Pakun, reminding him that he was not alone and on the priorities of the moment. 'Damn, I can't do anything about this right now. I need to deal with Zabuza or Sakura and Tazuna will be in danger.' he mentally cursed himself and faced the nukenin. "Worried about your pupil, Zabuza?""Hah! Haku is nothing of the sort. He's just a tool." he shrugged, as if without a care in the world. "So it's okay if my students finish him off?" he asked, probing to better understand the relationship between the two, and if there was any way to exploit it. "Well, he is a tool with unique abilities." which proved the theory that the boy had some bloodline ability. "But if he dies to mere newly formed genins, as your brats seem to be, that proves he was weaker than I thought and not worth the time and effort I put into him." the Momoshi spoke with care to sound as nonchalant as possible, for he knew that any perceived slip by the other could be used against him, that was the basics of a shinobi's handbook. "Too bad. It seems that Mist really doesn't teach its shinobis any lessons about companionship. No wonder it earned the nickname 'Bloody Mist' for its brutal methods of selecting genins." the Hatake spoke with equal measures of defiance and disgust. "I wonder about that about yourself, or are the rumors false, Kakashi Friend Killer?" Zabuza teased back, completely touching a nerve that the other hadn't even imagined was still that sensitive. Kakashi moved forward without any hesitation this time before he had thought of capturing the other alive to teach his students one lesson or another on how to deal with nukenins in a legal way. But he had changed his mind, a trash like him was better dead than alive. So his attacks were now more precise and with more lethal intent or to stun the other with louder jutsus since he had found out that the opponent had a sharp and sensitive hearing to move around better inside the mist. He didn't need the Sharingan so he put it away at some point. The dogs attacked in perfect synchrony with the Hatake, something that was only possible after years of coexistence, experience, and training. When the enemy was close he took a few bites, when he tried to hide in the dense fog these dogs located him with his scent and guided the offensive in that direction. Only by luck and the sharp reflexes of a very veteran shinobi did the shirtless one not lose any more blood or body parts. But he no longer had any idea where his sword had gone, so he was limited to ordinary kunais and his water-based jutsus. In the ice dome, the two boys who were still standing were in a chase. Where Haku was moving from mirror to mirror in an attempt to find an angle or gap so he could attack. But the Uzumaki was pursuing him with almost frightening diligence and precision, like a predator following its prey, looking for the best moment to strike. His speed seemed to be increasing every second along with the amount of chakra exhaled. The blond's appearance had also changed a bit. His cheek marks were much more prominent, his hair was even spikier, the pupils of his eyes were almost slits, his canines were more prominent, and his fingernails were practically claw-like. These changes upset the other, who didn't know what to think of them. He had never seen anything like it. And if the boy had all this power, why didn't he use it before his companion was hit? This short distraction with his thoughts cost him some speed, which allowed him to be hit in the face before he could get into a new mirror. He rolled out of the dome, his concentration and control under the technique as destroyed as the mask he wore, the mirrors collapsing around the Konoha ninja. "Arg...!" the Yuki struggled to get up, the pieces of the porcelain mask he was wearing falling off his face and smashing even more on the ground. 'This boy, he's no longer the same boy I found in the forest. I'm sorry, Zabuza-san, but I don't think I'll be able to beat something that seems to be more a force of nature than human.' he thought as he watched it take off in his direction again, stopping after knocking him to the ground again, holding his neck with one hand and the collar of his clothes with the other. "You really are the boy from that day in the forest." Naruto spoke when he really looked at the other's face, it was good to know that he had guessed right. "Did you know?" the last thing he expected at that moment was that the boy knew who he was. "It's not like you tried to hide your chakra." he said, not worrying that the enemy knew what he had done wrong. "You are a sensor..." he said a few seconds after the answer. "I'm a little box of surprises, don't you think?" the blond spoke with acid humor, since this aspect had only brought him headaches so far, sometimes quite literally. All he wanted least was for more problems to appear. "You're not going to kill me?" he asked perplexed, after a few minutes of silence between them. Where they just stared at each other. "I'm not like you. I'm not going to be like you," the Uzumaki replied forcefully, unconsciously tightening his grip on the other as the anger returned. He had not forgotten the other's words. "But you won't let me go." he assumed with a certain certainty, the boy's expression made it clear, he was not happy. That was a problem, that he had lost proved that he was no longer a useful weapon for the nukenin. "No." Naruto agreed, shaking his head. "You killed my..." he paused, he had no real friends. "You killed my teammate. Then you won't get away with it. You'll pay for it, somehow. I'm sure Kakashi-sensei will think of something, Sasuke had said something about our teacher being part of Anbu." this made the long-haired boy pale a little, he had forgotten the stories that even Zabuza had told him after the first meeting with the Konoha ninja. "He's going to kill me then, maybe torture me first to try to extract information." he assumed with a hint of hope, although he certainly didn't like the idea of torture. "Why do you want to die so badly?" the blond boy didn't understand. "Because I have no further use for Zabuza-san. Since I was defeated, my purpose in life is no longer valid.""But why does everything have to be about him?" frowned at the notion of living for someone like that. "Because he gave me a reason to exist in this world, when everything else wanted me dead, simply because of the blood I have in my veins." he clarified and Naruto shivered, it sounded a bit like his situation, although in his case it wasn't the blood as far as he knew. But both were problems they had no control over. "Because of your Kekkei Genkai?" the Uzumaki asked and the other nodded. "There were many civil wars in the Mist Country, in which the clans that possessed some bloodline received a bad reputation due to certain advantages they gained in fights. So those who survived the mass exterminations hid and pretended not to have their abilities. My mother was one of these people." he continued. "And what happened?""My father found out, and then he murdered my mother. He tried to kill me too. Without even thinking, my bloodline activated to save my life and I ended up killing my father that day." he paused for a moment, to take a breath and gain the strength to continue telling. For they were still painful memories. "That's when I really understood that in this world people like me are unnecessary. But Zabuza-san wanted me and brought me to his side in spite of all this.""..." Naruto didn't know what to say, but he knew the feeling the other was talking about, he had already felt this way and asked himself the same thing. "Don't you really have anyone like that for yourself?" was the blond boy an orphan, someone so lonely that he could not even understand the concept of wanting to protect someone precious? "I..."It was at that moment that they both saw a flash of light arising and the sound of a thousand birds invading the bridge. It was coming from the direction in which they assumed the adults were. Haku, being more experienced, quickly assumed that it was a lethal jutsu that would go in the direction of his precious person. Since he knew and knew the arsenal of the one he was following and he did not possess any such jutsu. Taking advantage of that the blond boy had also become distracted, he used his hands to press the tendons of the other's wrist to force him to be released. When he freed himself he instantly left in the direction of the noise. Only when the Uzumaki located him again and got close enough to see something, luckily he could use his sensory ability to guide himself a little, he was shocked by the scene in front of him. He couldn't have imagined this happening, even if he should have, from the way the other boy spoke and had told him before. The first thing he saw was the blood starting to seep from the hole in the boy's chest where the sensei's hand had gone through, in slow motion. The second thing was the metallic smell of blood far stronger than he had ever smelled in his entire life, as the other spat and coughed up blood. When Hatake took his hand away, he too had been surprised by the sudden appearance of the young ninja in front of Momoshi, Haku lost support and without strength in his knees fell backwards, but the one he was protecting did not catch him."My destiny is to die, Kakashi? Looks like you were wrong about that." the other laughed as he walked past the fallen body, placing himself slightly in front of it. Apparently continuing a conversation the two adults were having earlier, which the two boys caught in the middle. "Good job, Haku. You have served me well." from where he stood Naruto saw the Yuki crack a bloody but genuine smile to his anger. How could he be happy about that? With an ending like that? The jounins started fighting again after the Kiri-nin left on top of the one from Konoha having recovered his sword. But most of their attacks hit the air or the gray-haired one deflected. Taking advantage of the distraction of the larger enemy the Uzumaki ran close to the former masked man and knelt close. "You... Why did you sacrifice yourself for him? Why do you want to die so badly?" he asked, bewildered by the situation. "Because living without a purpose is worse than death.""But you could be other things!" he replied, not accepting this narrative for anything. "There's a lot more to life. Like... Like..." he couldn't think of anything to give as an example, since even he didn't know what he was doing with his life at the moment. "I've been useful." there was an ecstasy in his voice at the idea that he had somehow managed to be useful until the very end that made the blond's stomach twitch and feel sick. The worst part was seeing the satisfied and proud smile on his face as his eyes lost their sparkle and his breathing stopped. "No, you're wrong... This is wrong..." he shook his head in denial, muttering it again and again. "Naruto!" someone whispered near him, startling him. By the voice and chakra, it was Sakura, who also took advantage of the distraction and the fact that the enemy was losing, to the point of losing control over the mist that was dispersing rapidly. "Where is Sasuke-kun?" there was real concern and fear in her voice. "There." he pointed to the direction without looking at the place, he didn't want to think about that either. That he had witnessed two deaths that day. Slowly the Haruno headed there along with Tazuna, maintaining the genjutsu that was starting to get too much for her. She didn't know how much more she could take to keep it going. And the moment she arrived and saw the state of her first love she almost screamed before she stopped herself and felt her eyes filling with tears. At that moment she wished she knew some of the healing jutsus that sensei had commented on while training her. All she wanted more than anything was to try to save him! "Sasuke-kun. Sasuke-kun, you can't die! We've only gotten to know each other and get along better now! That's not fair. You can't die like this!" she said, although she tried not to cry, for that was not recommended for a ninja. Ninjas shouldn't show emotion, and shouldn't shed tears. The important thing was the mission and to accomplish it. That was what she had always read at the academy. But nothing had prepared her for moments like this. Without thinking she opened one of her bags and grabbed all the bandages and medicines she had to spare. She was going to save him. She was going to make it! As she started to remove the needles to sanitize and bandage the wound she heard a grunt of pain and a gasp. Wide-eyed she looked at the Uchiha's face which had contorted in pain and opened his eyes. "Sakura...? What?" he looked confused, wasn't he dying before? "Sasuke-kun! I'm so glad you're alive!" this time the tears flowed, but they were of complete relief. Not containing herself and hugging him, totally forgetting about the senbons only remembering and pulling away when he poked himself and both complained in pain, especially the raven. "I'm sorry!" she said embarrassed, turning red for having forgotten something as important as the other's injuries. "I'll help you with the needles and treat the wounds!" she did it again with extreme care so that the boy wouldn't feel more pain than necessary. "Thank you." he thanked her sincerely and then looked around. "Where's Naruto and the masked boy? What happened?""I couldn't see properly because of the fog, but from what I understood the masked boy was fighting Naruto before he threw himself in front of the ninja that the sensei was fighting to protect him and died in his place." she began to explain everything she knew up to that point. "Sakura..." the blond called out, approaching, stopping in shock to see the other teammate's eyes open and alive. He blinked a few times to confirm if what he was seeing was true. "Sasuke? How...?""I have no idea." the other answered. "I think I know why. I think the kid you guys fought wasn't really trying to kill you, like he didn't hit any real fatal spots." she indicated the needles she had taken out and the ones that were missing. "I believe he hit places that would make Sasuke-kun lose consciousness and look dead like he did with Zabuza," she concluded, and it was in those moments that one could remember that she had always been one of the best students in the class in the theory part. But the explanation made sense. The other was more skilled and could have killed them early and easily. "That reminds me... Kakashi sent me here, the bridge is being invaded.""The bridge was already being invaded, baka!""Not by them! It's that Gatou guy and at least a hundred mercenaries who have arrived." the blond answered exasperatedly. "The sensei sent me as reinforcement to protect Tazuna." he looked at the builder who had observed everything in silence while contemplating what it was really like to be a ninja and the lifestyle of those children. Was it really a life that allowed them to be children? For how long? Soon their attention went to the entrance of the bridge, where the greedy tycoon who had taken over the island was. He was standing in front of his subordinates, looking at everything and everyone with a look of disgust, as if he considered them beneath him in every way. Until his eyes focused on Zabuza, who had stopped along with Kakashi after the sudden appearance of his contractor. "I thought the Mist Demon would perform better. How disappointing." the merchant spoke with disdain. "Well, at least this little fight of yours was useful in exhausting you. Now it will be much simpler to get rid of you.""Get rid of me?" Zabuza didn't know whether to be surprised, annoyed or admired for his courage. "Exactly, you see, I never really intended to pay you back. I only used you while you still had some use for me, but you ninjas understand that well, don't you?" he smiled at them. "It's a shame that your brat is already dead, I wanted to watch him die a painful death to make up for the audacity he had in touching me."A wave of irritation went through the Uzumaki's whole body at his speech. The cursed man was also one of those who believed that their life was something that could be thrown away like trash. He clenched his wrists and restrained himself to keep still and not say anything. The lack of reaction from the one Haku died to protect also contributed to his anger. How did the boy think that someone like that was worth dying for? He would never understand. "Yes. He's already dead." the shinobi agreed apathetically. "A pointless death I bet." Gatou laughed in disregard as he approached the abandoned body, kicking and spitting. "Why did you keep something like that on your side for years? Wasn't it a waste of time in the end?""His blood was unique and was a good weapon for years. I used it to the very end. As you want to do to me." he replied, his eyes not leaving the lowest, though he didn't believe he was capable of it, even badly wounded from the fight with the ninja of Konoha and with less than a quarter of his power he didn't believe that mere mercenaries could kill him. "Kakashi, it seems that I no longer have any reason to continue with my mission or fight with you.""And what do you intend to do?" Hatake asked, curious about the turn of events. "I will not let that dwarf take my name to the mud like that." he declared, containing his anger; he had not become an elite shinobi if he did not have good control of his feelings. And old habits die hard. "Kakashi, will you do me one last favor and lend me that kunai of yours?" he pointed with his face to the same weapon that had injured and almost totally disabled one of his arms (the dogs had practically done the same to the other). As soon as he picked up the kunai, he started attacking the tycoon in the blink of an eye. The tycoon didn't even have time to react before he lost his head, which flew off before falling somewhere. The Momoshi took down two dozen before discovering that some of the mercenaries' weapons were poisoned and feeling his body failing. Fortunately, the rest of the mercenaries were startled by the number they lost to a single person in a few minutes, plus their pay guarantee was dead, so they scattered and fled. It wasn't until they were all gone that Kiri-nin allowed himself to weaken and crawled to where his protégé's body lay. To the Uzumaki's complete shock, he saw the ninja who until then had shown nothing shed tears and apologize to the dead boy. He regretted that he had made the boy live as a weapon and believed it was just that until the end. But instead of being relieved, he felt worse because internally he knew that his situation was not the same. The one who had turned him into this was not even alive to ask him if he regretted having sacrificed a newborn baby. "Good bye, Haku. If we meet in the next life I promise to try to treat you better." he said goodbye before he himself died. Later it was discovered that the inhabitants of the island had caught the mercenaries with traps and some improvised weapons. Fortunately, at most a few villagers were badly injured. The criminals were handed over to the few authorities on the island, who would then send them to the Fire Country, which was an ally and better able to deal with them. They also recovered everything that had been taken from them in the months of their rule, breaking into the tyrant's house. "Sensei, why did we bury them?" Sakura looks at the teacher. "Because they all deserve a decent burial to give them a good final rest. And they were honored when they fought with us. ""Why did you let Zabuza kill Gatou? Weren't you going to turn him over to Daimyō's guard?" Sasuke questioned, wasn't the decision kind of counterproductive? "We didn't need him alive to turn him over to Daimyō for his crimes, with the evidence we gathered from the mansion we have more than enough for Fire Country to take over the company's operations," he explained easily. "But won't that leave the island dependent on the Fire?" they looked at the sensei, wanting to understand better. "That was already going to happen anyway. Our country is the main alliance here and they were already going to depend on this connection to try to recover anyway, the only thing that changes is that now Fire has chances to gain more sovereignty over here, depending on how things unfold. But they already knew that this was a possibility." the adult informed. "Sensei? From what the boys told me and from what I heard, they all talked a lot about ninjas being just tools. Is that true?" was the pink girl who expressed the doubt they all had. The jounin sighed, this was a difficult question to answer, it was something very complex for them to understand. "In a way it is." his eyes went to the blond who clearly wanted an answer and frowned when he heard the sentence. "In times of war and conflict, or high-level missions, one is expected to do one's best to carry out orders, regardless of whether it costs one's life or not. Currently, we are not in such turbulent times, so the chances of you finding yourself in this kind of situation are much lower."The three students noticed that he didn't say it was impossible or that it wouldn't happen at some point. But their time to think about this was over, for they had to finish watching the bridge as they were completing it. On the day of the inauguration, it was announced that the name of the bridge would be "The Flame of Hope", in honor of the help they were receiving from the Land of Fire for the restructuring. After saying goodbye to everyone the ninjas of Konoha put their feet on the road to return to their village. "You're still thinking about what they said, aren't you?" Sasuke came a little closer to the Uzumaki. "Huh?" the blond boy looked at the black-haired boy, confused by the sudden approach. "About the conversations with the masked boy." he clarified. "Ah..." he looked away briefly. "Why do you think that?""You've distant look on your face since the fight. I think it got a little worse after the conversation with sensei.""I just don't like this idea of someone being a weapon." Naruto spoke, it wasn't so simple but it summed up a bit for the other. "I don't like it either." the Uchiha agreed. "I think it's wrong to take away someone's humanity like that.""Yep". he smiled lightly, grateful for the other's words. They couldn't say he wasn't human, he could still feel, that's what made someone human, wasn't it? They exchanged smiles and focused again on the path, in silence. But both are more content, for their own reasons. When they arrived they would have much to report. The more stagnant and boring missions would probably come back after they had had some rest. Only after they had gone through real danger on this mission, they could enjoy the peaceful moments more. And they promised to dedicate themselves more with their training.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Weeks had passed since the battle against the two Mist ninjas. The news that a simple rank C mission had suddenly become a rank A mission spread quickly among the senseis. All worried about the safety of their genins, secretly happy that it hadn't happened to them. The procedure for applying for a mission became stricter, to prevent something like this from happening again. All the senseis began to train their teams more, in an attempt to prepare them for possible situations in which a mission got out of hand. Especially Hatake Kakashi, all he wanted least was to lose his team so prematurely. He really didn't want to have to go through such a situation again. So he began to put in place more intense combat training for them, with the styles that he thought would best match each one, and improve the skills they already had as much as possible before moving on to the next, besides always trying to improve their teamwork. But it wasn't just the jounins who were relieved that the genins were safe, their families were too. Those who came from civilian families knew that their parents were extremely relieved that it wasn't them and that they were safe. Those from ninja families knew that although their parents trusted and trained them from a young age, they were also happy that they always, until now, returned home alive. In one of the houses in a clan district, a family was quietly and calmly eating their breakfast. Although everyone had their own routines and responsibilities it was practically a rule of the house to always have at least one meal together a day, except when one of them needed to go outside the village. "How are your missions going, Itachi?""They are like always, Tou-san." the eldest son answered serenely, raising his eyes to his father in a sign of respect, as his father liked them to do when answering him. "I think that maybe soon I will be able to give myself some time off to rest a bit.""Very well, you've been working hard for the village." the eldest nodded approvingly and turned to the youngest of them all. "And you, Sasuke? Rumor has it that your last mission was complicated, but you haven't commented much on it since you returned.""I've been thinking about it a lot, Tou-san." the younger boy looked at his plate for a few moments before returning his gaze to his father. "The boy we were up against... He had the philosophy that he was a weapon and that was the only reason he lived. That every ninja is really just a tool to be used.""And you want to know if this is true?" the patriarch analyzed the younger boy. "Yes." the younger one confirmed, and waited anxiously for his answer, after all, he had already heard the sensei during the mission. "It's a complex question, Sasuke. There will be times when you will be a tool in the hands of others, and times when you will be much more than that. The important thing is to know what you are fighting for." he watched the younger boy to see if he was following. "We, Uchihas, fight mostly for three reasons. To protect the village, which is our home. To protect our clan, which is our family. And mainly for what we believe is right.""So it doesn't matter if they think we are tools as long as we are sure of what we are doing?" the younger Uchiha tilted his head with doubt, slightly confused and surprised by the answer he got. "It doesn't matter what others believe. The truth has to be clear in your heart, my son." the matriarch answered with a slight smile as her husband nodded. "And I know that your heart is in the right place.""Even if you're not sure of things now you'll find your way, Sasuke. You're that smart, Otouto." Itachi's turn to contribute to the topic. "And whenever you're uncertain we'll be here for you.""I-I know that. T-thank you." Sasuke blurted out the words, moved by the affection they carried. But his heart warmed to them anyway, everyone had their own way of showing concern and affection, but he knew that his family loved him. They were his precious people, his fortress, and his strength. All he wanted was to make them proud and see their smiles directed at him. But not everyone had that luxury, his mind reminded him at the end of the meal. So he volunteered to be the one to help his mother take things off the table and put everything in their place. "Hey, Kaa-san?" he called."What is it?'' the woman turned her face to her son, without stopping what she was doing. They had already cleared the table and were now washing the dishes, the younger one handing the dirty part to her. "In the mission... We met the boy earlier, me and Naruto. We were training in the woods near the client's house and he came up to collect some medicinal herbs." he started to tell, the older one just hummed lightly to show that she was paying attention. "He talked to us for a while. About what made someone truly strong.""And what was it?" she paused for a moment to look at the boy. "To have someone important and that you want to protect." he spoke and sighed. "And what's the problem?" she asked, she knew that her son understood this well and that something else was troubling him. "Naruto. He made a whole face of confusion as if the words made no sense to him and that somehow it was an offense.""Ah..." Mikoto looked down, feeling her heart heavy and aching at hearing this. Her mind turned to the past and memories of the smile that a red-haired woman had when she told her the news of her pregnancy. "I think you were right, Mom. He really is someone who is lonely, without any friends." it was his turn to pause thoughtfully. "He always had a smile on his face at the academy, but since we graduated he's been smiling less and less. He doesn't even do his classic jokes and pranks anymore, which we all knew him for doing.""And you think something happened, don't you?" she said after opening a sad smile. "He ran out after the exam, he was yelling something, but I don't remember what it was. All I know is that he was upset, and the next day he showed up a bit strange. He was quieter and said that he didn't know what his dream was, even though he always shouted to the whole village that he was going to be Hokage." since they had been put on the same team, Sasuke was only discovering that, in fact, apparently no one really knew the blond. "You're right, something probably happened. No one would change that much without a reason." she had some idea of what could have happened to make the Uzumaki react so negatively, but she couldn't say because it was a state secret. "Kaa-san? Why do you care so much about him?" he asked finally, he had always had this doubt but until then he had never had a reason to really ask. But ever since he could remember as a person he had seen his mother looking at the blond from afar, always worried and sad. "I knew his mother." she admitted, a little reluctant as to whether she should say it or not. But she didn't like lying to her son. "You knew his mother... You knew his mother?!" Sasuke almost dropped the plate in his hand, so unexpected was the answer. Mikoto couldn't help herself and laughed a little at the look on her son's face. "She was my friend. I was one of the first to know that she would also have a child, I was pregnant with you at the time. She was so happy that our children could grow up together and be friends." without realizing it her eyes filled with tears, how she missed the other. "Kaa-san..." the smaller Uchiha looked at his mother half unsure of what to do, he had never seen his mother so emotional. "How was she? His mother? Who was she?" this brought her back to reality. "I can't tell you who she was." she denied regretfully. "Not to you, nor to him. It's been decided that it's better he doesn't know.""Why?" he asked confused, not understanding why someone couldn't know who his parents were, wasn't it his right? "It's for his safety, his family has enemies. People who, if they know who he is, will hunt him down for revenge," she explained. "He really is an Uzumaki then?" the older Uchiha looked at the younger one shocked, she hadn't expected this suggestion. "Shikamaru suggested it a few weeks ago, but from the way you are talking he is a real Uzumaki, isn't he? Knowing that, isn't it possible to find the answers about who his parents are? Doesn't he deserve to know?""You are smart, my son. I know you have the best of intentions about this, but... But sometimes finding out something when you're not ready for it can hurt. This won't all be kept a secret from him forever, but it has to be told at the right time." she stroked his head, ruffling his hair a little. How proud she was of him, of his heart. "If it were up to me, I'd tell him happily." if it were up to her, the boy would be much closer to their family. "So there's nothing we can do?""I guess I could tell him some stories or curiosities about her a little, things that wouldn't reveal her identity, but at least he would know something. Let's have him over for lunch this week since you're on the same team that wouldn't be weird." she offered, after thinking a bit about whether there was a way around the law. "Ok!" he agreed, though confused as to why the other going there without that context would be strange. But he ignored it for the moment, he was curious and anxious to know more about it. About their mother's friendship, which apparently was so close that they had expected them to be friends since they were little. He wondered if things had been different and the other's parents hadn't died, would they have been like this? Meanwhile elsewhere in the village other people were about to have a conversation about the same topic as the Kakashi team's mission. It was a training camp that had been in use for a few hours. But the mentor of the training was not easily satisfied."Again." a serious voice ordered looking at the boy kneeling on the ground trying to regain his breath. "..." all he could smell at that moment was the smell of blood, maybe it was because his nose was bleeding from the effort he was making trying to use his sensor ability inside the village. At least now the activity wasn't making him pass out since in the first few attempts it completely wiped him out. "Wait a minute...""Sometimes it's necessary to push your limits in order to increase them. This is one of those moments, if you don't do it your ability will be more of a hindrance than a gift." Danzo said. "Now get up and try one more time. You'll have time to rest later. You chose me because you want to become stronger, I'm showing you the way to that. For that you need to listen to me, understand?""Okay." the older man was right, this was what he had decided. And he needed to get stronger, they almost died on that mission. They were only not dead because the enemy had mercy on them. The blond would do it for himself, he never needed anyone so why would he start now just because Haku believed that? He would prove the other wrong about only being strong if he had someone and about being a weapon too. "Good. Now focus. How many presences are there in the trees surrounding this clearing?" he asked, guiding the training again. With each attempt the number of clones around them changed, the pattern had been agreed upon with members of the NE as soon as they learned of the Uzumaki's new ability. "4? 5?" the boy answered half hesitantly. It was so much harder to concentrate and feel chakras when the whole village was full of them everywhere. In the Land of the Waves it had been so much easier, the chakras there were much more erased, probably because there were no ninjas like Konoha had. "There are four of them." the older man confirmed the first attempt. The boy tended to be more wrong due to the large presence of chakra within the village, but the more experienced ninja was sure that with time and experience the young man could be extremely accurate at great distances. If his initial claims of sensing the entire village were correct. Shimura had not seen such sensory talent for a few generations. The idea of training and gaining the loyalty of someone with such potential... It was something he could not make wrong decisions and lose so easily. Luckily he had received the boy into his care just when he was at his most insecure in the world, thanks to a series of extraneous decisions that had led to such a situation. But this was better than anything she could have foreseen in the past. Emotions were dangerous for reasons like that after all. "Ah..." Naruto gave a dejected look, apart from the fact that the headache that was already there before was getting worse again. "Don't get distracted." the other warned. "Which direction are the chakras?""There, there, there and..." he started pointing, some with more certainty than others. Finding out where the presences he felt were coming from was always the most exhausting part for him, it demanded too much from his body at the moment, since his senses were already overloaded. He could already feel blood dripping from his nose again and his consciousness oscillating. The next thing he knew he was on the ground again and saw blood dripping onto the grass. "You got half of it this time, and a third came very close. It was much better than the previous times." Danzo announced. "Let's take a break and then we'll train your chakra control a bit more. Eat this, it will help with the wear and tear your body had during that part of today's training." he handed a pill to the boy, it looked like a soldier's pill but it was light green. "Wow, that tastes strong." he grimaced as if he had swallowed a strong portion of wasabi. "What are these made of?""Just herbs that are good for your body. Even if I told you their names you wouldn't recognize or be able to find them easily." the adult explained. "Herbs..." that took the boy's mind back to that day when they found Haku gathering herbs for Zabuza. "I... Can I ask you a question?" he looked at the elder half uncertainly, he knew that their purpose there was not for things unrelated to his being a jinchuuriki, whether he liked that or not. "You can," Shimura said. "I don't know if you know, but in the Wave mission my team met with other ninjas..." he began, thinking about how he was going to ask. "I'm aware of that." the older man nodded positively confirming. "The boy that Sasuke and I fought against said some things... About all ninjas being weapons and stuff..." Naruto looked at the ground as he spoke before getting up the courage to look at the other again. "And you want to know if that's true?""Yes...""No, you already know it's true. You want me to confirm it, otherwise, you wouldn't have asked me." Danzo began and the blond flinched back, he didn't want it to be true. "He's right, shinobi are weapons. Created and trained to fulfill orders and missions.""But shinobi are also people..." he replied uncertainly. "That doesn't prevent them from also being tools. A good shinobi knows what is important and doesn't care about mere details or terminology like this.""Oh..." he had no way of refuting that. One thing didn't really prevent the other, did it? "Don't make that face. You chose me as your mentor because I was honest with you and told you something that no one else has told you your entire life. I'm not going to change the truth just because it would be easier for you to digest just because of your age." the Shimura said. "I don't think you're so naive that you can't hear the truth as it is.""..." Naruto didn't know whether to take this as a compliment or as an insult. The truth was that he never had many opportunities to be naïve like many children did. He started living on his own at age 5 after all, he needed to learn fast if he wanted to survive. "So what am I? Doubly a weapon?" the words left a bitter taste in his mouth. "Somewhat. Your main status is as Jinchuuriki, and Jinchuurikis are usually shinobi too." the older man was tempted to smile, but the boy really understood quickly. "And what's the difference?" he was confused, in fact, everything that was happening now made him more and more confused. "The life of a Jinchuuriki is more valuable than that of an ordinary shinobi, more valuable than even hundreds of shinobi. For as much as there are those who can give area damage, nothing surpasses the Bijuu's power of destruction within the jinchuuriki." the Shimura calmly explained. "While a particularly powerful shinobi can deal with dozens of enemies at once and sometimes destroy one or more neighborhoods, the jinchuuriki has the power to destroy entire villages, not necessarily having to get close for that.""That means I'm...""A weapon of mass destruction?" the boy's eyes widened, no one had ever told him this detail before, only that he was a weapon of the village. "Yes, Uzumaki-kun, you are a weapon of mass destruction," he repeated to reinforce the concept to the younger one. "What if I don't want to be one?" Naruto looked at the ground, trying to process what he had heard. "You don't have a choice." the veteran quickly answered. "Can't you put the fox in someone else?" he asked in anguish. "Why me?""Because not just anyone can become a jinchuuriki. There are requirements that must be met. No one else possesses a chakra reserve as large as yours naturally is. If the fox had been sealed in an ordinary person that person would die almost instantly." he gestured to the boy to wait a little longer before saying something. "Death is also the consequence of having a bijuu extracted from inside a jinchuuriki. So no, it's not a burden that can be passed on to someone else like that. And I don't think you want to die.""Wonderful, so there's something special about me that made me become a jinchuuriki, to begin with. I have no choice in the matter and death is what awaits me if someone tries to take the fox away from me? Simply amazing!" Naruto didn't even notice the bitter laugh that came out of him and the tone dripping with sarcasm, he was so indignant about the whole thing. "If you have no more questions, let's get back to your training. First, we will review what we have done so far and if your progress is adequate we will move on to the next step..." the rest of that day was basically just improving his chakra control. Since apparently after he returned from the mission with his sensor senses awakened his chakra control took a turn for the worse. In theory, because of the level of concentration, he needed to avoid his senses getting overloaded with so much information around him. But he was slowly getting used to it, in this sense, the training with the head of Anbu NE was really helping although it was wearing him out.When he got home that day the young Uzumaki was thinking about the last words Danzo had said to him that day: 'This time he had managed to leave the mission with clean hands, but this would not be forever. He should be prepared for that. He would have no choice, for a shinobi's life was filled with battle and blood. This was something that was bound to happen, none of them could escape it.'. It seemed that the number of things he could not escape only kept increasing. He wondered if the world was trying to set a new record with him. There was nothing he could do about it now, so he just shook his head and set about making dinner. Kakashi had scheduled one more training session with the team for the next day, so if he wanted to be in the least bit of a good mood tomorrow he needed to try to sleep earlier. Especially since he had the impression that he would have nightmares again, after the conversation earlier that was practically guaranteed. As always on those days, he woke up early. This had pretty much been a routine since he found out about the fox, he had no desire to see the eyes of the villagers. After eating, he went to the training ground assigned to his team and sat on a tree meditating. He had discovered that besides helping him to feel and control his chakra better, the action also helped to calm his feelings, which had been in chaos lately. "Good morning." Sasuke greeted him when he arrived, for some reason he had been talking to him more and more. He just had no idea why, the only thing different that had happened between them was that the Uchiha almost died for him. "Good morning," he replied back, not knowing what else to do. Apparently the other also had no idea how to proceed because they both stared at each other in silence after that. "Good morning, Sasuke-kun! Good morning, Naruto!" Sakura was the one who broke the silence when she arrived. "What do you think we'll do today?""Training...?" Naruto suggested the obvious first, being glared at by the girl for her answer. "Climbing more trees?""Walking on water?""More teamwork and formations?""We're going to do exactly the latter today!" Kakashi replied giving all the genins a scare because he had literally just appeared there. "Naruto! You're a sensor, it's your job not to let him scare us like that!" Sakura protested, looking at her teammate. "Hey, you know I'm still getting used to this here in the village!" he defended himself. "Mah, mah... Kids don't fight!" the sensei interrupted before this turned into an argument. "Why don't we start our session for today? If you behave yourselves, I owe you all a snack." it was rare for the jounin to offer to take them out to eat. This was more the sensei of the Ino-Shika-Cho team, Asuma, the Hokage's son. With that, the training began normally, with Hatake teaching the group a new attack formation. In it, the goal was to surround the target and attack it from all sides. They would repeat the strategy with several blows against the sensei, for him to judge what would work and what would not. Only in one of these attempts, something strange happened. The blond was focused on jumping on the sensei from above when he felt his chakra behaving strangely. At first, it seemed that it was moving to attack with him, but then the energy seemed to pause before practically screaming that something was wrong. He didn't even know that chakra was possible to pass emotions and sensations, but he had no other way to describe it. It was as if his chakra was trying to communicate with him. So in a matter of seconds, the only thought that kept repeating itself in his mind was that something was wrong. It was as if his chakra wanted to leave his body, to do something, only it couldn't and that was wrong. That's when he felt something explode. "Argh!" he shouted, falling to the ground, hugging himself as his whole body ached. And the chakra was moving violently through his body, as if he considered everything around him as an enemy, as a threat. "Naruto!" the teammates shouted together as they saw the other fallen and with his wrists and ankles bleeding profusely while a chakra storm seemed to form around the younger man. "Damn it, Naruto!" Kakashi looked at what was happening without understanding what was going on. But his priority was to help the boy. So, ignoring the danger, he entered the middle of the storm without caring about the cuts the boy's chakra was making on him and knelt down to catch him. "Sensei? It hurts..." the Uzumaki had tears in his eyes. "Hey, it's going to be okay..." he tried to calm the smaller one, but to his despair, he saw that the other had fainted. And with that, his chakra calmed down, but he was still bleeding. With the other genins following him, he left for the hospital. Where he demanded that the blond man be treated immediately, even though several doctors and nurses clearly did not want to attend to him. Until a small group, who seemed to know the boy, if the tired looks were any indication, guided them to a room. There they quickly treated the wounds and bandaged him, putting him on an IV just for the blood loss and because they didn't know when he would wake up. After asking what had happened for the young boy to get to that state they recommended that it was best that the Uzumaki not use chakra for a few days and after that only monitor himself. "Sensei... What happened?" the Haruno asked still scared, they were outside the room so they didn't bother the unconscious boy. "I don't know, Sakura. I've never seen chakra behave like this." the platinum-haired man answered sincerely, he himself had been terrified by the scene. "His chakra just exploded. And then it acted like it had a life of its own, when it stayed around his body, it was like it was trying to protect him." Sasuke described what he remembered. "But why would it act hostile towards us? We're his team!" the pink one protested. "Maybe because he was scared of what happened and in pain. He wasn't thinking." the professor tried to smooth things over. "It's not as if he thinks of us as his enemies and..." that's when they heard a commotion coming from the bed where the blond boy was, and they went inside again. The moment they passed through the door and could see what was happening they were surprised by what it was. Contrary to medical predictions that he was expected to take a long time to wake up, there the blond was fully awake. He had shrunk away from the nurse who had gone to check on him and his lips were twisted as if he was tempted to snarl at her to stay away from him. But the part that caught everyone's attention the most was the fact that his eyes seemed to be almost glowing as if all the energy from before had passed into them and there was something sharp in them. He didn't look much like what they were used to seeing of him. As if his presence had changed, as much as his facial expression. He didn't even seem to have acknowledged their presence in the room. He was totally focused on the nurse and alert. The movement reminded him of his wounds, which ached again because of him. "If you want to leave soon just take this blood replacement pill and let us check how your wounds are doing." the woman spoke clearly uncomfortable in the boy's presence and handed him the medicine. "..." Naruto hesitated to take it and looked briefly suspiciously at the medicine before putting it in his mouth and swallowing. "Good. I'll call the doctor in charge for a check-up." she nodded satisfied and hurried out of the room, only then did the boy relax a little and see the others present. "Kakashi-sensei? Sasuke? And Sakura?" he tilted his head, not understanding what they were doing there. But his presence immediately returned back to normal, as if it had never changed in the first place. "How are you feeling?" the sensei asked what everyone wanted to know. "I'll be fine. Better when I'm not here." he answered, shrugging his shoulders. "Fortunately, your case won't require hospitalization. Given your history, injuries like these aren't enough to incapacitate you." the doctor said as soon as he entered the room. "Good to see you awake, Uzumaki-san. How about we check you over at once so you can leave?""Okay..." he sighed before reaching out and presenting his injured limbs. The doctor expertly removed the bandage and saw that they were practically closed already. "Apparently, despite the amount of blood, it was nothing serious. But you will need to let your chakra system rest for a few days as a precaution. We don't want any more accidents like this, do we?" he looked seriously at the boy. "Continue cleaning and bandaging the wounds until they heal completely. Other than that, you're free to go.""Okay." the blond boy agreed, he hadn't heard anything new either. It was just the obvious. Although he was sure that his other mentor would not be happy that they had to wait a few days to get back to their normal routine. "Has something like this happened before?" Sasuke asked as they waited for the other to put on his shoes. "No, never." Naruto denied it. "Any idea what might have caused it?" it was the Haruno's turn. "No," he replied after thinking for a moment and disregarding talking about the strange feeling he had. It didn't seem right to talk to anyone about it. "It doesn't exactly make a lot of sense to me either.""Let's take the next two days off. That should be enough time to start getting back to normal." Hatake announced and said goodbye to the group. The pinkette also said goodbye, today was a day that she was helping her mother to organize some things in the house. "Since you are well, but you have to rest... Do you want to have lunch at my place?" the Uchiha asked as soon as they left the hospital grounds. "What?" he turned surprised to the brunette, not in a thousand years would he have imagined this invitation coming. "Do you want to have lunch at home?" he repeated. "My mother wants to meet you. She said she knew your mother.""My mother?" the words sounded alien coming out of the other's mouth, and the blond was so bewildered that he stopped walking. "What do you mean?" "I found out a few days ago too." the dark-haired boy explained. "She said she could tell you some stories about her for you.""Really?" the idea of hearing about the family he didn't have was extremely tempting, so he followed his teammate until they were near the Uchiha district. "You're back early from training today, little brother?" they heard someone speaking behind them. "Nii-san!" the youngest Uchiha smiled when he saw his brother. "Have you brought a friend for lunch this time? I think this is the first time you've ever brought a friend home." Itachi commented to the embarrassment of the younger one, who blushed. "Nii-san!" he protested. "This is my teammate, Naruto.""Oh, I've heard of him." the older Uchiha turned to the blond, who was uncomfortable with his words. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Naruto. My name is Itachi, Sasuke's older brother." he held out his hand for the other to shake. "Pleased to meet you too," he replied a bit lost, never having done anything like that before (he was still shocked that he had accepted the other's invitation!). Much less be called anyone's friend. Sasuke considered him a friend? Since when? He was so confused! "It's good to see my little brother getting along with someone. He's always been kind of quiet and shy, you know?" he smiled fondly at the younger boy before turning again to the blond. "I hope you'll be good friends from now on.""Nii-san, stop!" Sasuke asked, blushing like a tomato, which made the older man laugh. "He may be like that, Naruto, but know that my brother is actually an amazing person! He was only in the academy for a year and he graduated! He is a genius, he has been a master with the Sharingan for years! And at our age, he joined Anbu! He is very strong!" he told his colleague enthusiastically, taking the opportunity to brag about his spectacular brother. It was the first time he could do this with a friend! "Really?" the blond boy's eyes widened and he looked at the teenager, slightly shocked by the information. How could he become an Anbu so young? He remembered the age at which he himself had become what he was (and had to fight a grimace). He was sure, at least as far as he knew, that it was a position that was earned and offered. "The world was still at war when I was born, things were different years ago." the teenager tried to argue. "Not at all, Nii-san! Don't even try to be humble, you're a genius! The pride of the clan!" the younger Uchiha didn't even give time for another to think of any other lame excuse. 'They seem to be very close, is that how brothers are?' the Uzumaki held back from laughing, especially since he hadn't expected to see his teammate acting so casual and excited with someone. Although he had said he wanted to get best than his brother during the introductions Hatake had asked for when they first met. 'Is this what it's like to have a family?' he thought with a hint of envy, the term reminding him of the news that he had a godfather. But he would only come back to train me to be a weapon,' he clenched his fists at the memory. Thinking about it always made him more sensitive and aware of everything. At that moment it reminded him of his status, his body froze as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice on it. All the fun and curiosity he had was washed away along with the smile that had formed on his face. Suddenly he found himself fully aware of the eyes on him, of the whispers around him.The village knew what he was. Only the children didn't know. That meant that Sasuke's brother knew too. Well, he felt judged briefly when the elder looked at him when he spoke of knowing him. He had heard rumors before, strange stories about the Uchihas. The villagers used to pretend he didn't exist so he sometimes heard things. Some people believed that the Uchihas had done something wrong to have to move their district to less privileged lands in the village, despite being one of the founding clans. Something connected to the fox attack, the sharingan could control and manipulate living beings after all. "I-I don't think I'll be able to have lunch with you guys." he cut off their debate on humility. "I'm starting to feel tired again, so I think I'll go home and rest." he excused himself, taking a few steps back. 'If I get involved with them, they could get in trouble. I don't want to cause trouble for Sasuke and his mother just because they're trying to be nice to me,' he swallowed dryly, he knew he was giving up what might be one of the few opportunities to find out more about the one who gave him life. "Are you sure?" the teammate (his friend?) asked, not understanding the sudden change. "Do you want us to accompany you? You're not going to faint again, are you?""No, I'm fine. I know a shortcut to my house." smiled at the others, lying without hesitation. "I'll see you later, Sasuke. Who knows another day?""Yeah..." the young Uchiha gave a discouraged look. And he was so eager to hear the stories too! "That was kind of weird.""It happens, Otouto. I'm sure he has his reasons." Itachi tried to console his brother. 'He's more perceptive than I imagined. It's surprisingly difficult to read him, though he doesn't appear to do so consciously.' the young anbu analyzed. "The one who will be disappointed is our mother.""Ugh, don't even remind me," he grunted. "I'll call him another day, today was a rough day, he ended up in the hospital.""Hospital? Is that why he was bandaged? What happened?" the pair went on their way to their house, with the younger one explaining everything on the way. As he walked back to his apartment, the Uzumaki walked a bit gloomily. He wished he had actually gone, very much. He had never had an offer like that or someone actually willing to say anything about who his parents were in his entire life. But not making it was just like his luck really. It just kept getting worse and worse. And there was nothing he could do about it. "And it's going to get worse." he muttered to himself, already at his house, while looking at the calendar stuck on the wall. October had arrived.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
October had never been a special time for Naruto. Perhaps because one of the first things he learned about the world was about the Fox's Attack. About how it had been a terrible tragedy and that it should never be allowed to happen again. Only later did he discover that the day people were born was something that was celebrated. When he was already living alone and, one day he saw a family celebrating their son's birthday.
But it didn't take him long to understand that since his birthday fell on an unfortunate date, it shouldn't be celebrated. Because it was always a sad, heavy, a day of mourning. People would visit the cemetery and remember those they had lost. The smiles given on that day were always smiles of longing and sadness. Even so, with the naivety of a five-year-old, he had tried to imitate what he had seen people do on those occasions and celebrate his birthday. It was the first time he had felt the village's discontent with his presence there, people had thrown him out of the restaurant he had gone to, and some had chased him and shooed him away, with varying degrees of hostility. Always with looks of disgust (not that he knew what that was at the time) and hatred. He remembered that a drunk had thrown a bottle at him, even though he hadn't finished it, hitting him on the head. It was the first time he had been so scared, he hid for the rest of the day. Since then he had never celebrated.
Lying in bed, the blond sighed, he didn't know which was worse: the memories or the nightmares. He had no idea what it would be like now, with him knowing why he was hated and feared. The only thing he knew for sure was that his days off because of what had happened at training would be a bit of hell. There were so many things he didn't want to think about. Not even the books his mentor had given him to read would help him completely escape his mind, that much he knew. In fact, it would be a miracle if he could muster the focus to actually read, but he would try. He
had
to try. He knew that the older man would require it of him.
Remembering of his mentor reminded him of a conversation he had had with him before. The part he didn't want to remember. The young Uzumaki didn't like the answers he had received, no matter that a few days had passed. And the worst part was that most of them he couldn't even counter-argue to himself, convince himself that they were actually wrong. That things didn't work like that. The feeling that with every new piece of information he received, he discovered how little control he had over his own life, how little he even knew about himself, came back with full force. He felt that more and more chains were appearing around him that he would never have even imagined had existed.
"Damn... -he tossed and turned in bed and buried his head in the pillow, feeling his mind spiraling. He really didn't want to think about it, he really didn't. It was hard enough to swallow and accept that he was Kyuubi's vessel, but to accept that he had no choice was too much. His childhood dream of being like everyone else and being accepted by everyone was becoming more and more distant. What's worse, he didn't even know if he truly wanted that. He didn't want to be a weapon. But that had been decided for him the moment he was born. Had they not even thought about the weight they were putting on a child? Or hadn't the Yondaime thought of that when he took an orphan to be the sacrifice? What was the price of one life compared to thousands? Was that what they called fate? "Why me?” he murmured and felt his eyes fill with tears at the injustice of his life. It had been a long time since he had felt the urge to cry because it never solved anything. It made him think of what his colleagues had suggested shortly after he joined Team Kakashi, that day in the library. Was he chosen because he was a Uzumaki? Was he really part of a clan? Because he was a descendant of an extinct clan? Someone no one would care about? The only thing he had managed to read before the librarian kicked him out was about the large chakra reserves that clan members possessed and this fit with the fact that he had so much chakra that it was difficult to control.
His situation was indeed similar to Haku's, he remembered. The boy was also an orphan from a clan with a powerful lineage who ended up becoming a weapon in the hands of someone more powerful than him. But unlike Haku, he wasn't going to accept this role forced upon him willingly. He refused. It wasn't fair! How could they ask that of him? No, they weren't asking. It was a demand. ‘You have no choice,’ the words echoed again in his mind, making him shrink into himself.
"But I want to have a choice…” he muttered to himself and stopped to think. How could he have more choice? The imposing image of the Hokage and Danzo appeared in his mind. Indeed, in the shinobi world, power was the key. What they learned about history at the Academy reinforced this. Those who had the most power dictated history and dealt the cards. So if he had more power... Then he would be able to decide for himself. Gaining back some control, little by little. He looked at the pile of books that Danzo had given him to read. He had to start somewhere. And if he couldn't train, he would learn some other way, and surely there must be something useful among the things his mentor had sent him. He wouldn't do anything to waste their time, that's something he had made clear right from the start.
Reading was not his favorite activity, he had too much energy to sit still and read for hours on end, and sometimes it was hard for him to concentrate. But he could do it when he set his mind to it and dedicated himself. There were times when he couldn't get to class for some reason and then studied on his own. Although most of the time he found out later that the texts had been changed or had unreadable and incomplete parts.
The first book was about the chakra and how meditation could affect it. The second was about different ways of using chakra creatively, as puppet users did. It was a fun book to read, although he doubted he had any talent for using puppets. Then there were some books on chakra molding, ninjutsu, and genjutsu. A light bulb went off in his mind. Could there be an answer to what he needed? To his problems?
With this in mind, he strove to read everything that was handed to him. He had never read so much in his entire life in such a short period of time. But the feeling he got when he finished everything in time was comforting, a pang of pride in himself. And it was good because, contrary to what he had expected, it helped him to distract himself while he had to rest. He reported everything he'd learned and understood to his mentor as soon as their next training session came around (after all, shinobis were expected to report on missions), taking the opportunity to clear up any doubts about the parts he hadn't understood.
“C-can I ask you something?” he began a little unsure, not used to asking things like that, especially as he was still getting used to the interest he was receiving from the older man. The Shimura nodded, intrigued by what the boy was about to say. “Is there a jutsu that hides someone's presence, that can hide who I am from someone I don't want to know? Can you teach me?” he finally asked. This was something he had given a lot of thought. A simple henge could help him pretend to be someone else, but that would work against everyone. What if his colleagues asked him out again and he didn't want to be bothered by the prejudice of the villagers?
He certainly wasn't thinking about the possibility of the Uchiha asking him out again, no he wasn't.
“There are a few jutsus that fall into this category. But one in particular I think might work well for what you want.” Danzo smiled with satisfaction. “It's a level C genjutsu.”
“But don't you need good chakra control for genjutsus?” Naruto looked at the older man in confusion, he didn't think he already had that level of control. Not after whatever had made his chakra stir that day.
“Normally, yes. But I believe you have some talent for genjutsu.” he saw that the boy wasn't understanding the logic. “One of the greatest signs that someone has the talent to be a genjutsu user is their skill with Henge. A super-simple technique classified as ninjutsu, although I believe it is also a small genjutsu, after all, it is an illusion that takes physical form. And as far as I know, by far the best jutsu in the academy. After all, how many people leave the academy having already created their own variant of a jutsu?” the Uzumaki blushed at being reminded.
“But the “Sexy no jutsu” is so silly…” the boy knew, it was a technique he had made up because he
knew
it would annoy the others. The magazines and books he had used for reference were usually hidden and not something spoken about or openly demonstrated.
“Maybe. That's not to say that it doesn't have its uses and merits. It's a great jutsu for distraction, for example. But I know you know that. You've already used it like this.”
“I-I... Yes. -he agreed, although a little shocked that the other knew such a detail. Although the other had already commented that he'd been watching him for a while, so it shouldn't be that surprising. Still, someone noticing and
recognizing
him like that...
-Well... Let's get started. Let's see how long you'll need to learn the jutsu. -the adult spoke after a moment of looking at him, purposely phrasing it as a challenge. The boy couldn't contain the determined smile that emerged on his face, it was good to have someone who had some faith in him, in his potential. Who was investing so much in him that he agreed to train him every day so that he could master the technique as quickly as possible.
The only condition Shimura set was that he avoid using chakra outside of their training sessions, because of the recent episode that sent him to the hospital. So he made an excuse to his team's sensei that he was still unsure about using his chakra after that and asked them to focus on taijutsu for the time being, something that was already part of their training routine but interspersed with other aspects. The sensei agreed without thinking too much about it, it was an important skill and he could always reorganize it so that they could focus on the rest later.
It was an ordinary day until Sakura arrived a little later than usual (even Kakashi had been there for a few seconds), but bouncing with energy and an excited look on her face. The male part of the team looked at her waiting for her to speak, which they all knew wouldn't take long, knowing the rosy-haired girl's personality.
“So, on the way here I bumped into Ino. Today was her day off so she was helping out at her family's flower shop, she'd gone out to make a delivery actually, that's why we met.” she started chattering without any apparent focus and none of them understood what all the hype was about. “She told me that tomorrow would be the birthday of the late mother of her sensei, Asuma-sensei, he's the son of the third Hokage. And that it's their family tradition to commemorate the memories they had with her and to honor her life instead of just mourning her death. Their sensei called their team to participate, something about this being an important lesson and the sooner they understood it, the better. Then she was already preparing a bouquet of his mother's favorite flowers because of course, she asked. And then…”
“Get to the point, Sakura,” Hatake ordered, the older man well aware of what a painful month it was for most of the village, he himself had his mourning period and customs (usually involving visiting graves, spending the rest of the time ignoring what month it was and all his failures. It was either that or revert back to his ANBU days).
“They don't want the month to be marked only by sad things, especially as this month is also their sensei's birthday, on the 18th. So they're also preparing a surprise party to celebrate it,” she said to put it into context. “I thought it was a nice idea and I thought we could celebrate each other's birthdays too, for the sake of team spirit.”
“Mah... It's a really interesting idea.” the girl from the team practically glowed at the compliment.
“When's your birthday, sensei? -she asked.”
“It's already happened. It was September 15th, last month.”
“Why haven't you said anything?” Sakura was visibly upset.
“Well, there was no way I could have predicted that you'd want to celebrate with me.” in fact, the adult hadn't celebrated the date for years if one of his few friends hadn't literally dragged him to it. Usually, it was Gai who was in charge of it, if none of them were on a mission.
“But what now? Who's next? My birthday was in March and Sasuke-kun's in July... Are we going to have to wait another year to do this?” she began to talk to herself thoughtfully and a little sulkily.
“Naruto? Isn't your birthday this month?” Sasuke intervened and looked at the team member who was strangely quiet, and who looked back at him seriously confused as to how the other knew this.
“Is that right? Your birthday is this month?” the pink one repeated before the blond could even blink, her eyes now completely focused on him. “Please tell me it hasn't passed yet!”
“No. It's the 10th.” the Uzumaki replied, not knowing how to deal with the sheer enthusiasm he was seeing on the girl's face.
“That's it! That's perfect! Let's celebrate your birthday!” the Haruno was practically vibrating in her seat as she tried not to jump up and down with excitement. “What do you usually do? What do you want to do? What do you like?” she asked without even pausing for breath between each question.
“Ah... I... I... I don't know. I-I've never...” With each word, the blond's voice became lower and more uncertain, until he could barely admit it at the end. His gaze flicked to the side, avoiding looking at either of them.
“You've never celebrated your birthday?” the Uchiha frowned as he listened to the other boy's words, unable to believe what he had just heard. “Not even when you were still at the orphanage?” the younger boy just shook his head to deny it, without bothering to correct him.
“I know that in orphanages they can't pay attention to everyone and dedicate themselves to each child and so on. But never having celebrated anything?” the girl shook her head, clearly indignant. Then she turned her attention to her colleague, determined. “We have to correct this absurdity. Like, urgently! Relax, Naruto, you're going to have the best birthday ever! Or I won't be called Haruno Sakura!”
“Okay...?” accepted with no idea how to respond or react (this was
really
becoming a trend with him lately, wasn't it?). This led to a few awkward seconds of them looking at each other, which to everyone's surprise was interrupted when the third member of the team started laughing.
“Sorry!” Sasuke said, still laughing lightly, although he was trying to contain himself. “It's just that you talked just like Naruto did when he shouted to the village that he was going to be Hokage.”
“Regardless, you can believe that this time your birthday will not go to waste. We will celebrate it properly. It's a bit late to organize everything, but it'll all work out!” she smiled encouragingly at her teammate, who still seemed to be processing what was happening.
“This is all very nice, very cute. But... We have a training session to start.” Hatake interrupted them before the subject went any further. Already used to the routine with their teacher, they soon shifted their focus to the older man. “Today we're going to see how you're doing with the fighting styles I've given you each, and if you've mastered them we can move on to their next stances.”
“Hai!”
A few hours later, as soon as practice was over, those on the team who started with the same letter said goodbye to the others and went to find their classmates. It was relatively easy to find Team Asuma compared to when they first started meeting.
“We're going to need your help!” the pink girl exclaimed before the other group even had a chance to think about opening their mouths to greet them. Something that left the two boys blinking slightly in bewilderment for a few seconds because they hadn't expected such intensity out of nowhere, but the blonde opened a smile that widened in proportion to the speed of the other girl's speech.
“Would you like my help, forehead?” The Yamanaka obviously didn't miss the chance to annoy her rival.
“Oh, shut up, Ino! This is important!” to the blonde's surprise, the Haruno didn't fall for the provocation.
“What's so important?” Ino asked, not knowing whether to be offended at being ignored or to surrender to her curiosity and put her pride aside this time.
“Naruto never celebrated his birthday! We need to change that!”
“WHAT?” the blonde exclaimed, extremely shocked.
“Right? I thought the same thing!”
“It's amazing how much they understand each other, isn't it?” Sasuke said to the other boys.
“We don't understand each other at all!” The two girls protested together and then glared at each other.
“Yeah…” Shikamaru said while the others tried not to laugh because they knew how they would react.
“Ok, guys. Focus!” Sakura asked after clapping her hands to attract attention. “What can we do to make it an unforgettable birthday?”
“The cake is essential.” Choji quickly suggested. “I think he'll enjoy the experience of blowing out the lucky flames. At least I always find it fun.”
“Yes, that's definitely a must. The tradition is to have red candles, so I don't think we'll be able to find orange ones. Besides, if we want him to have the original experience, they
have
to be red!” Yamanaka added.
“We'll have to buy a birthday lantern then too. My mother always insists on the importance of releasing one.” Sasuke remembered. “Where are we going to celebrate?”
“I don't think we're going to celebrate in his apartment... So in the park? Or one of the training grounds?”
“I think those are good options. As far as activities go, I think the game of matches and fireworks are classics.” The one with the ponytail commented after a moment's thought.
“That's it!” Ino flashed a big smile and started jumping around excitedly. “What? I love birthday games! And this is my favorite!”
“Ok, Ino, we're in charge of the cake and candles. And the boys for the games and lanterns.”
“We can leave everything at my family's flower shop and collect it at the time of the party!”
“That's a good idea.” the pink one agreed.
“Is it just going to be us or are you thinking of calling someone else?” Akimichi asked, intrigued by the idea of celebrating a birthday with someone who had never done it before.
“I was thinking of calling the rest of the class that graduated with us. Our sensei really stresses the point of teamwork and knowing how to cooperate with others, so I think it's important that we all keep in touch, because you never know when we're going to have missions together.” She began to express her point, but when she saw the Uchiha give her a worried and slightly tense look, the girl quickly added more reasons. “I think it would be good for him to have more positive interactions with the others. And then they'll get to know him better too, we both saw how much we didn't know him. And it's natural to call acquaintances of the same age on their first birthdays! Everything will work out fine and it'll be fun!”
“I hope so, Sakura.” The Uchiha finally agreed.
‘All we don't need is for his first party to be as traumatic as our first mission outside the village, especially when he was already having bad luck in here.’
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Naruto had been standing in front of the mirror in his room for a few minutes by now, staring at the black coat he had dyed and the only dark blue pants he owned, trying to work up the courage. He had already checked whether the genjutsu he had learned was working, at least three times. He knew it was working all right, but he was still paralyzed on the spot. His nerves were on edge at the thought of going out today and meeting his colleagues. Why had he told them his real birthday? He should have said that it had already passed. He was well aware of his history of luck on that day, but spending time with them today...
“It's going to be okay, it's going to be okay…” he found himself repeating it almost like a mantra, to see if he could calm down. When he opened his eyes again, he looked at the clock. “I really should be going. They're probably already waiting.”
After checking everything one last time, he left the house. And his assumption was correct. For when he arrived at the bridge where his team always met, the agreed location for the day, his two teammates, plus Asuma's team, were all there.
“I don't understand you! You might as well wait at home! Which is literally on top of the flower shop!” Haruno gestured energetically at the other girl.
“And miss all the hype from the start? Are you crazy?” the Yamanaka made a face that perfectly represented her last question.
“It's nice to see you, Naruto.” the boys said relieved, since the girls had been in this half-discussion ever since they arrived.
“Sorry for being late. I'd forgotten that my current clock works fine and doesn't run any faster than it should.” the boy explained, scratching his head a little awkwardly. Even though he knew he was lying about the reason.
“These things only happen to you, Naruto.” Ino laughed, and Naruto laughed too, but with his eyes closed, his two teammates looked at each other. “If I'd known that, I'd have bought you a new clock as a present in advance.”
“Present?” The blond looked briefly at his teammates before turning his attention to the other blond in the group. “Why?”
“Because it's your birthday, silly! Of course, you'll get presents!” the girl explained, waving a finger and smiling excitedly. She was probably the person in the group who liked to socialize the most.
“I know that!”he may never have actually celebrated, but that doesn't mean he didn't know anything! “But you don't have to give me presents.” he just didn't know if the idea bothered him because he didn't like the possibility of owing something to others or because he had no idea how to react to it.
“But that's one of the best parts of a birthday!” Ino argued, of course, it wasn't the only good part but who didn't like presents? Naruto apparently. But why?
Meanwhile, the rest of the group watched them arguing, trying to decipher the enigma that their former classmate was increasingly proving to be. Those who hadn't been placed on the same team as the boy were less used to the fact that they didn't actually know Uzumaki, not really. His teammates, on the other hand, were becoming increasingly worried about him.
“Guys, guys, we'd better get going, right? We've got to find the rest of the guys and get the stuff!” Sakura decided to intervene, and anyway, it was something they had to do, they couldn't waste time if they wanted their colleague to have a full experience. And a bit of a rush on the day was part of it!
“That's right! Let's go!” the Yamanaka immediately refocused on the more important issue than any discussion about whether or not the boy would accept the gifts (of course he would! She had made it extremely clear!). The boys rolled their eyes and tried not to laugh, but the Uzumaki blinked for a while at the sudden change. But as no one protested, they all started heading in the direction of her family's flower shop.
The girls led the group at the front, followed, surprisingly, by Shikamaru and Choji, for although they tried to stay at the back, they lost the contest of wills to Naruto, who was accompanied by Sasuke. The Uchiha was the one the boy was most comfortable around, proof of the dark-haired boy's efforts to get close to the other.
“Nervous?”
“Why would I be?” the boy turned his head so quickly that the Uchiha almost stumbled from shock. The boy's eyes almost seemed to ask if he should be, and his steps wavered briefly, as if he was wondering something before he recovered, but with a certain caution in his stride.
“It's normal to be anxious when trying something new.” the Uchiha made a point of explaining, as he had noticed that his colleague (at some point he would be able to refer to him as a friend!) didn't have the same standards as others their age. Which was a bit strange, since they were all from the same village and all.
“Normal, huh?” the Uzumaki then mumbled a noise that could have been a sigh or a laugh, Sasuke wasn't sure which it was because it had happened so quickly.
The rest of the journey was silent, listening to the girls talking animatedly in front of them and sometimes Choji laughing at something they had said. A few times Shikamaru looked back, the first time almost as if he had forgotten they were there, then a few more times shocked that they were both silent. At the front of the store, a few more colleagues were waiting.
“Hey, guys! Over here!” Tenten greeted them as soon as she saw them, waving an arm to attract their attention at first. “The rest should be here soon.”
“Ok. Ugh, the store is full today. Do you mind waiting outside while Sakura and I go and get the things? It'll be quick!” the Yamanaka said after checking out her family's surprisingly crowded business.
“No, Ino. Just go.” Shikamaru answered for the group, making a gesture to shoo her away.
“Hey, Naruto! We weren't in the same class, but congratulations!” Rock Lee was the first of the new group to turn to the birthday boy, the others soon joining him, Sasuke had to look twice to believe that the boy next to him tensed slightly the moment attention turned to him. Shikamaru noticed too and they both exchanged confused glances, didn't the boy like attention? Wasn't that why he was such a pest during his academy days?
“Thank you.” He thanked everyone in the second half of the group after they had wished him the same as the ninja in green. The smile he gave had something about it that the two who noticed the other was looking a little strange couldn't identify or distinguish exactly from the ones he usually gave, but something about it bothered them.
From then on Lee took over the conversation, going on and on about a springtime in our youth and how birthdays only made it stronger, or something like that. Sasuke was beginning to think that the blond had lied when he talked about nerves earlier, because his behavior was strange. More than usual, and he and Sakura had already established that the Uzumaki was different since the day the teams were formed. Today in particular, the boy was extremely quiet.
“Ouch!” someone passing by bumped into the blond with such force that he turned his back to the group. “Oh, I'm sorry…” the lady simply stopped talking as she looked at the young boy, her eyes widening and her face starting to contort. “
You
!” she uttered the word as if it were a curse and gripped the thing she was carrying tighter with her hands, as if wondering how to proceed.
Without waiting to see what would happen or even saying anything, Naruto turned and ran off without looking back. Leaving the woman muttering curses before she left too and his colleagues unable to understand anything. Calling out to him didn't help.
“Where's Naruto?” Sakura asked, looking at her teammate as he returned with Ino, but before the boy could answer the obvious was just when the rest of them decided to arrive.
“What have we lost?” Kiba looked confusedly at the larger group, his Niken approaching with Neji, Hinata and Shino.
“We just lost the birthday boy.” Sai answered and Hinata widened her eyes and covered her mouth with her hands.
“How did that happen?I thought you were going to look after him!” Ino gestured angrily at the boys of the first part of the group. The Uchiha and Nara exchanged a look, Shikamaru shrugged and it was left to Sasuke to answer.
“It was all too fast. He ran before anyone knew he was going to.”
“Jeez, what now?” the Haruno said, a little discouraged and worried.
“We have a team of trackers here. How about asking for their help?” Shikamaru pointed and Akamaru barked excitedly and wagged his tail.
“Akamaru's up for the challenge! We'll find him with our noses!”
“We'll help.” -Neji agreed to the request, it would be good training, something useful that day. After all, he had agreed to go because of his cousin, who had insisted when Tenten had commented that he had declined.
After storing the things from the party in a scroll given to them by Tenten, the group began to track down their fugitive colleague. Shino had released his insects to search the village, ensuring that his insects had the chakra of everyone who had studied with him already memorized. Meanwhile they were following the Inuzuka, with the Hyuugas looking around.
“His scent goes in that direction.” Kiba said a little perplexed, stopping and pointing in the direction of the hospital.
“We don't see him in there.” -The eldest Hyuuga said after arriving, out of politeness, with his cousin.
“This way. My bugs found him.” Shino took the lead and guided them to an outbuilding behind the main building, one could assume it was an old warehouse or something, as it didn't seem to be used much these days.
“N-naruto-kun is in there.” Hinata confirmed quietly, not used to interacting with that many people, especially at the same time.
“Naruto?” they called out, following the corridor almost to the end, turning towards an ajar door on the left. “Naruto?”
The boy himself was startled, clearly not having heard them coming or being called. His teammates looked at each other in puzzlement, for he was a sensor, even if the village overwhelmed him at times, he should have noticed them in that proximity.
“You all came looking for me?” he asked, unable to believe his eyes.
“Of course! We're not going to let you spend today alone!” Sakura answered seriously, with Sasuke following close behind, supporting and confirming.
“Why did you run?” the Uchiha asked, avoiding the word “ran” on purpose. But the minutes passed with the younger one refusing to answer.
“Is it like that day in the library?” Shikamaru suggested, those who hadn't been there that day not understanding. The Uzumaki clearly tensed up for a second.
“There are people who don't like me. I'd rather avoid them.” he hesitated for a while before adding in a relatively low tone. “And I don't usually get lucky today.”
“Comprehensible! These people are to be avoided.” the girl with the buns agreed, in an attempt to lighten the awkward mood.
“I didn't expect you to be superstitious.” the Inuzuka admitted.
"It's not like we talked to him much at the academy.” Sasuke replied so that the one he wanted to call friend wouldn't have to. He already looked uncomfortable enough.
“What is this place?”
“It's the old annex, it was abandoned a few years ago.”
“Wow, I didn't even know this place existed.” Ino commented, looking around. “How do you know all this?”
“I know things in the village.” Naruto shrugged as if it were nothing. But some noticed how evasive that answer was. “It kind of became my secret hiding place when I was little.” he confessed, scratching his head a little awkwardly and laughing. And that relaxed the abnormal atmosphere that had previously existed.
“What is there to do here?” the group began to inspect the room with their eyes and spread out more.
“It looks like some kind of exercise room.” Sai noticed.
“I know, why don't we each do the course once? Let's test our flames of youth!” Lee suggested, seeing a golden opportunity in front of him, and what better to bond and interact with colleagues than a friendly competition?
The course itself wasn't extremely complex, but it was unfamiliar and would activate along the way, triggered by mechanisms they hadn't yet managed to decipher. Just the fact that there was something like this in the building was a mystery, why would there be something like this in a hospital? There didn't seem to be any visible clue to this question, and the birthday boy just shrugged when asked.
The one who proposed the challenge was the first to go and test it. They had decided that the winner would be the one who completed the route in the shortest time. Which apparently meant that team Gai had the advantage with the most stamina and the best results so far. Teams Anko and Kurenai had already gone too and Team Asuma had declared that they were going last (Shikamaru hoped they would forget about him).
“Why don't you go now, Naruto?” Sakura suggested, after returning from her attempt, which had been her team's first because of the Yamanaka's provocation, who doubted that she had improved at all since the academy.
“Hm? Ah, okay.” the blonde replied and stood up. As he positioned himself at the start of the course, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, concentrating on the activity.
Uzumaki began the course as he opened his eyes, zigzagging between the first obstacles. He then jumped onto the first block along the path, of which there were about 20, of varying heights with just enough room for one foot. And that's when the boy went into a trance, his body moving on automatic, pure muscle memory. But that was his mistake, because those challenges were not designed with ninjas of their age in mind, as they had noticed. So it was no surprise when on the very last one he made a mistake, stepping in the hole that was just beyond and tripping over the fence that had to be jumped afterwards.
The mistake activated the mechanisms of the next stage in a different, more aggressive way. The boy only dodged a kunai coming towards him because he had instinctively rolled to recover from the fall. He picked up one of the kunai that had fallen to the ground in previous challenges and used it to defend himself against some of the weapons thrown at him when dodging would have been detrimental to his performance. After a few more obstacles, with weapons still flying from both sides of the path, the blond hit the mechanism that signaled that the course had been completed.
“And…” Ino stopped to check the chronometer, having taken it upon herself to measure everyone's time. “1.12 minutes. Naruto has passed Tenten and is in third place with a difference of 7 seconds.”
“What? How could he still pass me?” Tenten approached to look at the chronometer in bafflement at the result.
“Are you okay? You looked a bit lost there, before you fell.” Sasuke whispered to his colleague as soon as he got close enough, worried. The rosy-haired girl was too and looked anxiously awaiting an answer, leaning into the Uchiha's side. The two of them had been watching their teammate attentively, they had been doing this more recently.
“It was nothing, I just got distracted, it was silly really.” Naruto laughed sheepishly, especially at the attention he was getting.
“Is that all?” the Haruno narrowed her eyes at him, trying her best to reproduce the expression her mother made when he doubted her and made her confess.
“Yes, it is.” The blonde was taken aback and obviously knew even less how to deal with it. “I... Today is different. I didn't expect so many people to come too.” he said softly.
“And that's bad?” the Uchiha looked worried.
“If it is, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, I just…”
“Relax.” the Uzumaki laughed lightly, not letting the other finish. “It's just different.”
The classmates looked at each other and smiled when they saw the boy's laugh, which was lighter and softer than any they had seen before. They were so involved and focused that they didn't even notice that everyone had already gone and finished the course. The result hadn't changed much since their turn: first was Lee, followed by Neji in second place and Naruto in third.
“Guys... I know we've all graduated, but what did you think you'd be when you were a kid? Ninja doesn't count!” Tenten tossed the question into the air curiously as they rested, the mood relaxed. “I'll start: I wanted to be a blacksmith like my grandfather. That's why my specialty is weapons.” she smiled nostalgically, after all, it was her way of carrying on the legacy of the only family member she could remember, even though he had died when she started the academy.
I wanted to be the best florist in the world! -Ino laughed as she remembered her determination and effort every time she came across a new flower.
-"Definitely taste and evaluate all the food there is. -Chouji said, getting hungry just thinking about it.
“Unemployed.” Shikamaru declared in a tone so serious that everyone burst out laughing.
They went on and on, each telling a childhood dream and stories to put it into context, of course not everyone spoke both or wanted to take part. Some had even declared that it was time for them to go and said goodbye before leaving. With each dream told, Naruto became more shocked, in fact he had been since the initial question and story. What did it mean? Was it a choice they could have? Ever since he was little... He sighed and stood up.
“I'll be right back. I'm going to the bathroom.” he said before leaving the room. He didn't really need to go, but he did need to get out of there for a while. His mind had been spiraling easily recently. He looked in the mirror. “It's all right. It makes no difference.” he whispered to himself. He flushed just to cover up and washed his hands, taking the opportunity to splash some water on his face.
On his way back, basically in front of the door, he stopped, a bad but familiar sensation passing through his body. It made him turn sharply towards the entrance to the building. His colleagues looked at him in confusion. The realization of what it was was like a bucket of ice suddenly being thrown at him.
‘Anything but that, not today!’
. In one quick decision he ran towards the entrance, ignoring the calls of the friends behind him, just shouting back at them not to come after him. And hoping,
almost praying
, that they would listen to him, at least this time. As he left, he had time to lock the door with a plank of wood after he left, before they even made any progress down the corridor.
“What do you want?” the boy asked the group in front of him. There were about five people, four men and a woman, all clearly upset. Naruto swallowed, part of him immediately regretting having gone outside.
“What do we want?” one of the men spat the words back. “The audacity...!”
“That you disappear from our village!” the woman exclaimed, looking ready to throw something at him, to force him to leave.
“I wasn't visible in the village. Not today.” he replied, a mistake in his last words.
“As if anyone would want your cursed presence here!” a second man proclaimed and laughed as if the opposite were a hilarious joke.
“Today? Do you know why, at last?” something in the voice of the youngest member of the group, a man who didn't even look 30, caused the boy to shiver. The novelty of the situation made his reaction, his fake confusion, take a moment longer than it should have, but the man apparently noticed and smiled.
“LET'S REMIND HIM THAT HE SHOULD BE GONE!” the rest began talking in chorus and throwing things, bottles that some were carrying, stones and woods.
The Uzumaki fell into a rhythm, he dodged the first projectiles, and would dodge the worst, but the truth was that he knew that if nothing hit him things could get worse and escalate further. This continued until someone had the idea of shooting dirt into his eyes. It forced him to keep his eyes closed for a while, not long because he always recovered quickly. But long enough for someone to slam him against the door, causing him to hit his head on the corner of the wooden board that held it shut and hold him by the neck. To his surprise, when he opened his eyes he was met with red eyes and it was too late.
“You
will
understand, cursed child.” was all he heard before his mind was filled with images of the Fox's attack, of destruction, despair and death. And he saw each scene from different points of view, sometimes as a spectator, sometimes as a victim, someone watching a loved one die or even the one doing the killing. His mind was lost in the midst of so much pain, chaos and hatred.
He had no idea how long he had been inside the genjutsu. His consciousness gradually returned after he unexpectedly came out of his vision, and the next thing he knew he was surrounded by some ANBUs, his attackers being arrested and taken away. He looked at everything around him, feelings swirling in his chest, without direction or knowing what to do. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that they were removing the wood from the door, but his attention was locked on the Hokage, standing there and watching.
With a speed that no one had anticipated, the boy on the ground threw himself at the Kage. His feelings were boiling over. The old man always said that everything was going to be all right, but when was it going to happen? When would this moment finally arrive? Why did he have to wait? Why always him? Each question was a blow that the old man defended, not reacting much other than to look at him with pity.
There were tears in the corners of his eyes. He seemed determined not to let them escape, fighting them desperately. But his control was lost when one of the ANBUs injected him with a syringe, knocking him unconscious. When his eyes finally closed, tears flowed and dripped onto the floor, becoming visible as they turned to take him back into the building. As were the wounds that the boy didn't seem to have noticed.
The older ninjas hadn't expected to find some genins when they opened the door. They were clearly unsettled by having been present for part of what had happened, and confused by not being able to hear anything clearly. The Kage's presence was a surprise to the youths, they didn't understand why he was there. But he promised to speak to them after talking to Naruto.
They then watched as the youngest was taken to a room and placed on a bed, where his injuries were treated. The room looked like it had once belonged to a child, given the size of the bed and the books on a shelf, although there weren't many toys. It was a strange space, because at the same time it was very empty and had a window facing the corridor, through which they watched. After a short time, the boy woke up, with the Hokage sitting on a stool next to the bed.
“How are you feeling?” the older man asked, but the younger boy refused to answer or look up, even after sitting. The adult sighed. “They'll be punished.”
“...” he raised his head, anger in his gaze. His hands clenched into fists, gripping the covers where he lay.
“You can't hold a grudge.” This rattled the boy, who opened his mouth, but Sarutobi held up his hand. “They don't know what they're doing. Hurt people do stupid things when drunk. Good people forgive and don't harbor resentment, Naruto. And I know you're a good boy.” he stroked the blond's head. The boy raised his arm and pulled the hand away.
“I want to rest for a while.” he lay down again and turned onto his back.
“Better. Call me if you need anything.” Hiruzen spoke and stood up, placing a fable book on the stool he had been sitting on, one the boy had read a lot as a child. One about a Kitsune cub who wanted friends and to be part of the world outside the forest. When in the corridor, he gestured for them to follow him. Ironically, or perhaps because of their number, they returned to the same room where they had spent the afternoon. “First of all, I'd like to congratulate you on your efforts today, even though it ended this way. I'm sure your attempt was appreciated. However, in your enthusiasm and focus you ended up forgetting one important piece of information.”
“What, Hokage-sama?”
“Think, what happened on October 10th, apart from the birth of your friend?”
“You said it yourself…” the group paled.
“The attack of the nine tails... How could we forget that?” Shikamaru was the first to speak in shock. It shouldn't be something they should be able to forget.
“It's not a day associated with birth, so it's natural that the two pieces of information don't connect in their minds. You don't have to feel bad about that.”
“But why is this a problem for the village?” Sakura asked. “Why is it a problem that Naruto was born on a bad day? It's not his fault!”
“You're right, it's not his fault.” the older man agreed and sighed with regret. “People are complicated beings. When things happen without explanation, superstitions and rumors tend to arise in an attempt to justify them. Some of the villagers associated the day with a curse and, because he was the only one born on that day, Naruto became the bearer of a bad omen in their eyes.”
“And only because of that did they attacked him?” Sasuke felt anger rising up inside him, his friend was innocent, he had nothing to do with the fox, he didn't deserve something like that on his birthday!
“Those people were drunk, not thinking clearly and acting on impulse. They were wrong but not fully aware. And they will be punished for attacking another villager in such a way and will be monitored.”
“What if they do it again?” the Uchiha pressed
“If that happens, the punishment will be more severe, including some time behind bars.” Hiruzen was pleased and happy to see the bond that was forming between the teammates. “Naruto knows how to avoid this kind of problem, so you don't have to worry so much. Today's accident only happened due to the alignment of several coincidences.”
It wasn't the first time something like this had happened, was it? -Haruno exchanged glances with her present colleague, wondering if that was the blond's reason for not celebrating.
-"I'm not the one you should be asking. I just knew something was wrong because sometimes he hides in the tower, because no one would try anything there. Not that he goes there every year. But this year...” the Hokage sighed, he knew that many were unhappy with the Uzumaki's graduation.
Thud!
The sudden noise put them on alert. Surprisingly, or not, the Kage was the first to act and headed towards the boy's room, stopping at the beginning of the observation window, seeing that the book he had left was now lying on the floor.
-Naruto! -Sasuke was the one who ran to the door, which made the boy pause his exit through the window, crouching on the sill. He briefly looked back towards the Sarutobi, somehow meeting his eyes, before leaving for good.