“Team Ten, reporting for duty.”
I stood with my hands behind my back in front of the Hokage and the mission desk, at attention. I couldn’t help but notice that I was bearing all of my vital areas to the most powerful man in the village. I absentmindedly wondered if that was a respect thing, to say ‘I trust you with my life’ with body language.
Iruka sat to the Hokage’s left, eyeing us critically as if he hadn’t seen us in a year. He looked like he hadn’t changed a bit in the last week.
To be fair, the baby fat is already shedding from my face. I thought as I considered the brutal workouts I had endured the past week under Gai.
“D-rank, I assume?” The legendary Hurizen Sarutobi asked from his throne on the opposite side of the room.
The Sandaime was dressed in the normal robes of the Hokage, with the hat resting on the table in front of him and a pipe in his mouth. The Kanji for fire was facing us and perfectly placed. It stood as a reminder everyday for what we fought for. His hair was fully white, on both his head and his goatee. He was obviously old, and my memory failed me as I tried to remember just how old. I could have done the math, but I was too busy observing him.
Every single movement was graceful beyond measure. He flipped through pages that barely wavered as he moved them. His eyes moved unnaturally fast as he read the words on the paper. The small amount of skin I could see under his sleeves rippled as his muscles moved. There looked to be zero deterioration in the man despite his age. That wasn’t even the most impressive part.
His chakra is …perfect. I noticed as I tried to analyze the sun in front of me.
It was the densest chakra I had even come close to feeling. It wasn’t oppressive, intentionally. In fact, it was welcoming and warm. But there was an edge that ran along the welcoming aspect. It spoke of unimaginable experience and power. I knew that at any moment, it could shift into an overwhelming force. This was the man who held a village together for close to forty years with pure strength. He lived through every single war, and led the village through the biggest and most devastating obstacles any village had gone through. Being in front of a living legend never failed to make goosebumps pop up on my arms.
And this isn’t even his prime. I couldn’t help but point out to myself.
Lee shifted slightly to my right.
The Hokage’s eyes locked onto the movement immediately, as did Gai. A big grin split the Hokage’s face, and Guy smiled slightly. I knew what was coming, but Sakura’s face told me she hadn’t even noticed anything.
“I apologize for making you go through this again, Lee-kun.” The Hokage said with a chuckle. Every breath expelled a small amount of smoke into the air above him.
Lee didn’t say anything, and remained in a professional position in front of the village leader. Guy ruffled his head a little bit.
“D-ranks aren’t so bad.” Guy told Lee as he smiled broadly at Sakura and me. I almost sighed, while Sakura just stood there confused. None of us were willing to question our Jonin, or any superior, in front of the Hokage.
“There is a fence that needs a new coat around the Sarutobi grounds. I think that will suffice, will it not?” The Hokage said finally as he grabbed a piece of paper out of the stack in his hands and handed it to Iruka.
I could feel my teammates dread beside me, although they did their best not to let it show. It was a miracle they weren’t throwing a fit about it. Not that twelve year olds in this universe were anything like my old.
“Hai, Hokage-sama.” Guy answered the leader of the village.
“Dismissed.”
We turned around immediately, and started back towards the old wooden door that led to the mission desk. I felt a brief flicker of the Hokage’s chakra and couldn’t help but turn around in response.
He was gone, and another woman in the standard chunin attire took the same seat. I crossed the threshold and Guy didn’t let me ask the question.
“It is tradition for the Hokage to assign the first mission of Genin. Ours was the last team, because of my special testing methods.” Guy explained as we crossed into the village proper. “Now he is back to running the village.” Guy finished as he motioned to the paper in his hands.
“And we have a fence to paint.”
----------------------------------------
I stopped with a flourish and shoved the paint brush in the bag, signalling that I was done with my third of the fence.
I looked up to see that Lee had been done for a while, and was on his hands doing handstand push-ups.
Everything is an opportunity to train. I echoed the exact words my sensei had told me as we started the mission.
“Very good, Naruto-kun. Yours is of a higher quality than Lee’s and you did it efficiently.” Guy said as he appraised my work in front of him. “You can consider the mission a success.” He teased me at the end and I tried not to glare at the man.
If efficiency means running around everywhere with these heavy ass weights.
“It’s actually genius, Sensei.” I couldn’t help but praise him. Guy looked to me, and nodded for me to continue. I obliged.
“Well, we’re still adapting to the weights. Painting helps retain the dexterity and hand eye-coordination we trained in the academy. Sure, you can just throw paint on a fence, but there is an art to painting if you want it to make it look good. ” I explained.
Guy just smiled at my deduction and nodded. “Everything is an opportunity to train.” Guy told me for what had to be the thousandth time.
I rolled my eyes, more for show than anything. I actually appreciated the saying, and what it was doing for me. Already, I was confident in my ability to smash my previous classmates with taijutsu and strength. It was ridiculous how fast muscles can heal and adapt when you factor in chakra.
I also had a suspicion that my heritage helped me in that sense. The Uzumaki have long since been believed to be off-shoots of the Senju, whose bodies were naturally stronger due to the yang chakra bestowed by Hagoromo, the Sage of Six Paths. If that was true, then it made sense why we were traditionally chosen to be jinchuriki. It also explained why we could survive the extraction of a biju.
I believed this had been applying to my physical growth in the past week also. I knew there were a lot of factors involved, like gender and hormones, but ever since Sensei had taken over Sakura’s food intake, there shouldn’t be any reason that I was growing so much faster than her.
I still got my ass handed to me everytime Lee and I sparred, not to mention Guy, but the improvement was there. I would feel confident in going toe-to-toe with Sasuke, and I used to lose to him very consistently in the Academy.
Then again, that’s assuming he hasn’t been improving with whoever he was assigned to. I told myself.
Sakura’s pink hair flashed in front of me, breaking me out of my thoughts. She threw her brush in the same bag Lee and I had.
“Done!” Sakura said happily and threw her hands up in the air dramatically.
I glanced to her side of the fence, the side closest to the entrance to the grounds, and what the Hokage would see immediately when he inspected our jobs. I didn’t have to look into it too much to see that she had the prettiest application of the paint.
“Beautiful.” I couldn’t help but comment, trying to be nice. I noticed that I had stopped talking nearly as much as I had used to and was trying to let go and relax more.
“Thanks!” She exclaimed with a smile pointed my direction.
Lee just couldn’t help but let his attraction to her show. “Yea Sakura-kun, you did great!” Lee said and shot her a thumbs up.
Immediately I broke out in a laugh, and I was surprised to hear Sensei snickering at Lee too. Lee’s face turned as red as a tomato and looked away from Sakura, who was trying her best to be nice to him.
“Thanks Lee.” Sakura responded, taking pity on the boy.
“What now?” I asked Guy, trying to get on with the day, it was already getting close to noon. It was crazy how fast you could do things as a ninja.
Guy smiled at me, and I knew the answer before his mouth even opened.
“Training!”
----------------------------------------
I sat down on my couch, and placed my plate in its normal position for dinner.
A beautifully seared rib-eye steak took up most of the plate, with green beans and brussel sprouts as the sides. I continued to be amazed at the culinary variety of this world. Apparently, food was not an extremely big deal in any of the nations of the world. Even the Land of Wind and Sunagakure had enough fertile land on their borders to feed their low population. So I didn’t have to suffer through re-learning food that I loved in this world.
Chakra is an amazing thing.
I dug into my steak and vegetables ravenously and washed it down with a healthy dose of water.
Almost immediately upon finishing eating I picked up the fuinjutsu book the Hokage had given me and flipped it open. I hadn’t had a chance to start on the book, because I wanted to pick up some of the sealing supplies described on the first pages of the book. They laid on the table behind my finished plate of food.
I found the first page with the experience only gained by reading hundreds of books in my lifetimes.
‘Normally,
The Uzumaki start their younglings with basic calligraphy. This does a couple of things. It develops hand-eye coordination, and dexterity early while also allowing them opportunity to teach them how to write and behave properly in a classroom or private setting.
That is not where we will start.
Assuming the Academy has still served the purpose I designed for it, your hand-eye coordination, dexterity, and overall proficiency with a brush will be up to par needed for fuinjutsu. Truthfully, exact application of ink isn’t as important as the Uzumaki will claim. I can show you three different seals, written by three different masters, that do the exact same thing and yet the ink will not be identical.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
As you progress and get to the truly beautiful applications of fuinjutsu, everything becomes almost entirely custom. And then, the use of ink and brush are nonexistent except to the most traditional and stubborn. Instead, chakra reigns supreme.
The first lesson I must impart on you is this: There is more than one way to skin a cat.’
I nearly fell off my couch as a saying from my old life popped up in a fuinjutsu book written by the Nidaime.
Fucking nuts. I thought as I chuckled and got back to the book.
‘Part One: Storage scrolls’
----------------------------------------
I landed in what would have been considered a superhero landing in my last life. I would have screamed about how hard on my knees I was being, but then again, chakra is a cheat code.
I looked up the tree to see my mark. I was nearing the top that I could reach, and would need to find a cliff soon. Or maybe I should just focus on staying horizontal, jumping from tree to tree? Let’s do both.
I went to work, now that I knew the amount of chakra needed to keep myself on the tree. It required some fine tuning for sure. The hardest part was keeping that chakra stable, while also enhancing the muscles needed to perform the maneuvers to jump from tree to tree and catch myself.
One thing I can say about this training. It was fucking fun. I would hold on to my youthful pleasures as much as I could in this life. So I smiled as I jumped around the training ground.
Sensei will increase my weights again at this rate. I thought for a moment at the ease with which I began moving again.
“Interesting training, kid.”
As a ninja, one is almost always aware of their surroundings, and if you weren’t… well you died most of the time. So when I heard the lazy drawl of a voice in my ear, I lashed out.
My backhand was caught, without effort. I still hadn’t gotten a good look at my attacker, so I launched myself backwards, hoping to gain distance. I executed a backflip and landed on the ground in the beginning stance of ‘Strong Fist.’
“Ah, you’re one of Guy’s then.”
If the facemask didn’t give it away, the headband covering the man’s left eye did. Not to mention the grey, gravity defying hair style. God, Kakashi looked so cool. Maybe I should get a facemask.
“Yes sir.” I answered, as he was still my superior and should be shown respect.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him do this training. Normally this is something you learn on the fly.” Kakashi countered. Everything about him screamed lazy. Except for the chakra he just released, now that he was done sneaking up on me. It was not as deep as the Hokage’s, but it was just as sharp.
“Or you die.” I filled in the part Kakashin didn’t say.
He looked away from me then, towards the sky. “Yes, or that.”
I wanted to ask him about my father, or my mother. The question was on the tip of my tongue. In the end, I knew I couldn’t. It was classified information, and there would be questions as to how I knew the information. I did not need someone digging in my head. So instead, I took advantage of an Elite Jounin being right in front of me.
“Will you teach me how to mold lightning chakra?” I asked innocently.
Kakashi didn’t miss a beat. “Is it your element?” He wondered. I thought he assumed I already knew my chakra nature.
“I don’t know, but it is the one I will train.” I told him confidently.
He did not show it. His body language did not change. But he did not answer me immediately, and that told me he wasn’t expecting that.
“Hmmm, fair enough. I’ll talk to Guy about it. Jounin have a certain level of respect for another's student, you see.”
I went to thank him, but Kakashi was no longer there.
----------------------------------------
I didn’t think it was a coincidence, that Guy tested our chakra natures the next morning.
“Just feed your chakra into it.” Guy said.
Like it was hard. The chakra paper practically ripped it from my coils. I was convinced I didn’t even have to try, it would have had the same effect.
As was expected, I inherited my father's nature, wind. Useful, no doubt, but not what I wanted.
“That is very unique, Naruto-kun.” Guy said as he looked at the split piece of paper in my hands.
The paper in Sakura’s hand crumbled into what looked like dirt, and fell to the ground beneath her. I didn’t remember her having earth nature. I wasn’t even sure if it was announced to be honest.
“Wind.” Guy-sensei said, pointing to me. “Earth.” He said, moving his finger to Sakura.
“One, highly offensive, the other, highly defensive. Although, depending on the situation those roles could reverse.” Guy summed up quickly.
“I have good and bad news.” Guy-sensei said. “The good news is that I have mastered earth, and know many jutsu suitable for genin. Bad news is that there are only a couple of wind users in the village, Naruto. Although, I think my good friend Kakashi would be your best resource.” Guy sent me a look then, it was permission, plain and simple. If you want to learn your chakra nature from him, so be it.
“Thank you Guy-sensei!” I said respectfully.
“Now, we won’t work on these during our training sessions for a long time. But if you take it upon yourself to train them outside our normal hours, that would be fine. Sakura, just let me know when and I can show you the basics.” Guy said as he turned to the pink haired girl.
“Thank you Guy-Sensei!” Sakura parroted me.
“Lee and Naruto, time to spar.”
----------------------------------------
My life was consumed by training for the next month. I would have thought that I could burn out, with that type of schedule. I would have, too, if Guy had not been my sensei.
He made things interesting, and switched up the routine every week. Sure, we repeated d-rank missions, but it was always in a way to challenge us. We developed team chemistry, and more skills in that short amount of time than I think I could ever in a year of my past life.
My taijutsu improved, at a rapid rate. So much so, it impressed Guy. I wouldn’t let myself become a taijutsu specialist, but I couldn’t deny how important it would be at every level of shinobi combat. So I tried as hard as I could, and threw thousands of punches and kicks a week to get the kata’s down.
After the daily mission, and training sessions, I would train my chakra control. I mastered tree climbing, and was confident in my ability to fight horizontally by week three. All I needed was actual experience. So I moved to water walking, and it was completely different.
I wasn’t able to take more than a step on the water until day four. It was completely different from tree-walking. On a vertical surface, it was a steady supply of chakra with hardly any variation.
On water, it was a constant expulsion of chakra, to stay on top of the water. And that amount changed every few seconds as the water rippled and moved. When you jumped, it required extra chakra through your feet, and enhancing your body, and reacting to the water underneath you.
When you landed? Don’t even get me started at all the moving parts involved.
But by the end of the month, I could safely walk on the water. Not run, not jump, but walk. It was an amazing accomplishment.
And then, Guy decided we were ready to become proper shinobi.
----------------------------------------
We left the village at 0600, moving through the trees at a speed that chunin normally moved at.
That wasn’t entirely true. The average chunin could step it up and reach jounin level speeds during travel, although they couldn’t hold it for very long. We moved the average pace a chunin could hold for a day.
Guy knew that Sakura couldn’t keep up the chakra output for very long, but he saw it as he saw everything else. It was a training opportunity, and a way to increase her reserves. How do you increase your chakra reserves? Simple, deplete them. It worked just like a muscle, break it down so that it could be built back stronger.
So when he gave us a break, Sakura was heaving and looked exhausted, but she could still stand and operate properly. I had massive respect for Guy and how far he was willing to push us, but still managed to stop it just short of too far.
“Eat, you have an hour, and then we approach the bandit camp.” Guy said with his serious voice. He was a much more serious person in this life. Although he was definitely less serious than most of his comrades. It was refreshing.
We did as he commanded, and Sakura began to stand a little straighter. Her chakra slowly got a little stronger too. I knew she had enough to deal with civilian bandits. Problem is that not every bandit is a civilian.
In fact, more often than not, the leader had some experience with chakra and its workings. So our orders were simple, leader first. The fact that it was a c-rank mission also told us that if the leader did have experience with chakra, it was no more than a genin. Of course, there was the off chance that it was labeled incorrectly, but that rarely happened.
“Ready up.” Guy appeared on a branch above us. All three of us were already prepped to go, so we hopped up to the nearest branch.
I couldn’t believe how easy it was to jump twenty feet into the air.
And we were off. Guy made a few hand signals that told us not to speak and we were five minutes away.
I mentally prepared myself for the mission. It was a simple one. Eliminate the bandits. Main priority, leader. Secondary mission was to eliminate everyone. I would get my first kill today.
Without warning, Guy disappeared. I had half a mind that I knew it was coming. He would watch out for threats and make sure we weren’t killed. But his job was to teach us to become chunin, or better. He could not coddle us along the entire time.
I sped up, to take point. I wanted to show my ability to lead, and my willingness to improve. I had already learned that you didn’t have access to all the techniques and teachers you needed as a genin. So advancement was the only way to catch up to the giants of the world. And I needed a fast track.
Lee and Sakura fell behind me, allowing me the lead. My eyes picked out tracks in the forest floor below me, and I climbed a bit further up in the trees to make sure we were unseen. An unaware opponent is an unsuspecting opponent. That is nothing less than an advantage for a ninja.
I stopped when I noticed the smoke of a campfire in the air. I held my hand out to signal my comrades to do the same. From our vantage point, we could see the members of the group laughing and fucking around the campfire. Four of them looked drunk already.
Our report said to expect more than six, but less than ten.
I counted eight, a perfect report if my eyes were to be believed. I relayed the information to my comrades via hand signals and got confirmation that they didn’t see or sense anyone else.
I made a quick decision and told them to take as many out with kunai first, before moving into close combat, where we could finish it up quickly.
Neither of them objected.
With a quick command, we split and got into vantage points. They would wait for my signal, which just meant that when I attacked, they attacked.
I stayed in the tree-tops, and picked out three targets. My hand dipped into my kunai pouch and I used the skills taught in the academy to draw them without making any noise.
I did not allow myself to think about the moral implications of my next deed. Instead, I just started throwing.
Four men fell to the ground with fatal, or near fatal wounds from kunai in the next two seconds.
“What the..”
I grabbed another kunai and began throwing again. Three other men fell.
And then two fifteen year olds made themselves known just as the eighth man started running through the forest. One was a boy, and the other was a girl. They ran into the clearing out of their tents stark naked and hearing the screams and gurgles from their fellow criminals.
The worst part about it was that it was obvious we interrupted them during intercourse. My adult mind felt disgust roll through it as I noticed the boy was still hard.
I threw two more kunai at them without thinking. Both moved slightly, allowing the kunai to pass by them. And then they traced where it came from, and started moving.
The boy jumped straight at me with a chakra enhanced leap. I couldn’t help but notice the tactical error immediately and pushed off of the branch I was perched on.
We met in mid-air.
He brought a forearm up to block my shin headed for his head. It was like I tried to block a full on kick from Guy. His forearm snapped, and my leg continued to his head. I was surprised I didn’t break his neck. He did lose consciousness immediately though.
I felt the girl jump, more than I saw or heard it. She saw me as an easy target, as I saw her lover as an easy target.
She was wrong.
I deflected the kunai she picked up from the ground with my own and pushed it over my head. Two quick jabs with my kunai later, and she had a whole in her heart and throat.
And then my feet hit the ground. Was that how fast things normally went?
I felt a hand on my shoulder, and reacted appropriately for someone who had too much adrenaline running through his body.
Guy grabbed the wrist I tried to kill him with. “That’s it, Naruto. I’ll handle it from here. You did great.”
I was breathing hard, and my limbs were shaking, but I managed to nod to him and drop the kunai in my hand. I looked around to the bodies around me, and saw that most were dying or already dead.
I had to get used to this?