Naruto
slowly opened his eyes, finally succumbing to the morning light that had now
been shining on his eyelids for a full half hour. He sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes with
his right hand as he glanced over at the calendar that hung on the wall to his
left. Even as he did, he knew the
date- it had simply become somewhat of a ritual for him, albeit an impromptu
one.
“Fuck”
he cursed, flopping back onto the bed.
Today’s date, the fifteenth of August, was circled in a little red
swirl. “The chuunin finals are
today. Oh, well. Might as well get up.” Naruto rolled out of bed, standing up
after sitting on the edge of the bed for a moment. Clad only in a pair of boxers half a
size too large for him, he made his way to his bathroom.
/It’s
been four years now,/ he thought to himself as he went about his morning
routine. /I’ve been a genin for
four whole years./ Time had done
Naruto well; over the last four years, he had gained quite a bit of height. He was still significantly shorter than
Sasuke or even Sakura, but that had never really bothered him in the first
place. Naruto slid open the shower
curtain and stepped into his tiny shower stall. On a genin’s wage, he couldn’t even
afford a proper Plexiglas door for the shower. Hell, he couldn’t even afford what most
people would consider decent food.
Of course, cup ramen was, and always had been, somewhat of a delicacy to
the young man, so he never really could bring himself to care. He turned the hot and cold water knobs
inside the shower on, and turned his face up to face the falling water. As the steaming liquid rushed over his
body, he found himself reminiscing…
*** 3
Years, 6 Months Ago ***
“Well, things have been pretty crazy here for the past six months,”
Tsunade said to the eight young shinobi arrayed in front of her. “But here we are, the chuunin exam
completed, and on time.”
Arrayed
in front of her were basically the same people as had been there six months
prior; only Gaara and his team had not returned. In their places stood a pair of mist ninja,
looking dark, mysterious, and badly bruised in their neoprene suits. Also, a lone representative from the Wind
country had come and survived to the finals. He had, however, drawn a rather short
straw, and had fallen to Sasuke in the first round after only a few short
minutes of rather brutal punishment.
Finally, a single Thunder ninja sat in a wheelchair at the far end
of the room. Naruto had gotten
a little carried away in the first round…
In the
end, the tournament had come down to Naruto and Sasuke in the finals. The fight had been grueling, and
long. Sasuke had eventually
triumphed, but it had been a close thing.
Naruto had had to be taken away on a stretcher, unconscious, but Sasuke
hadn’t been able to walk away from the fight unaided either. Naruto was still upset over how Sasuke
had fought. It had been two days
since the fight, and everybody was in, more or less, condition to walk and stand
before the Hokage and the Raikage, whose country was hosting the tournament this
time.
“You
have all fought well, and are to be commended. Even those,” the Raikage said, looking
notably at the dejected wind ninja, “who feel they did poorly are to be
congratulated for making it this far.
However, as you know, this is a test, and only one of you has passed this
time.”
“The
graduate, as most of you have probably guessed, is Uchiha Sasuke,” Tsunade
continued, smiling faintly.
“Sasuke, you displayed excellent tactical knowledge and a truly
remarkable level of skill. Would
you accept the honor of a promotion?” she asked, bowing slightly to the
raven-haired youth. The Raikage
bowed along with her, remaining silent for now.
“Yes,
Hokage-sama,” Sasuke replied, bowing more deeply than either the Ho- or Raikage
had. Tsunade and the Raikage filed
out of the room, and the remaining genin gathered around to congratulate
Sasuke. A few began to talk to each
other about how they were going to go all the way next year.
“But…”
Naruto said in a defeated, surprised voice.
“Hey,”
Sasuke called in his direction.
Naruto looked up and met the new chuunin’s gaze. “There’s always next year,” Sasuke
taunted, smiling insultingly. The
dark-clad boy moved to leave the room ahead of everyone else, but turned back at
the door. “Dobe-kun,” he added,
then stepped out the door.
“Hey!”
Naruto shouted, his knee-jerk response to the familiar taunt coming
automatically. “I’m not…” he
trailed off, as he realized that nobody was paying him the slightest bit of
attention.
*** 2
Years Ago ***
“…three shinobi have proven themselves worthy of the chuunin rank today,”
said the Mizukage, whose country was hosing the festivities for this particular
event. The Tsuchikage, who had not
said a single thing throughout the entire ten-minute speech that the Mizukage
was wrapping up, flanked him. The
Mizukage had extolled those virtues that the graduates possessed over and
over.
Naruto,
though he was still nervous as hell, was even getting bored. He had won the tournament handily this
time, unlike the one that had been held six months ago. He glanced to his right, for among the
lined-up shinobi, he was the one set furthest to the left. Sakura fidgeted two people over from
him, and that wind ninja from his second chuunin tournament had found his way
into the finals this time, after defeating Sakura. Naruto tried to remember what his name
was. Jun-something. Ahh, it didn’t matter, he decided. He’d beaten the blisteringly fast ninja
in record time in the finals; though the kid was fast, one well-placed punch to
the face had ended the tournament for him.
Leaning
against the wall was Rock Lee, who had been promoted six months ago, and had
fought against Naruto in the finals.
Naruto grinned, remembering that fight. It had been intense. Both he and Lee had enjoyed it
thoroughly.
“Our
three choices are Haruno Sakura, Yamashita Junpei, and Kunou Akiko. Congratulations,” the Tsuchikage
announced, nodding to the three.
Sakura looked like she’d been struck by lightning, her shock was so
great, and another girl, who was furthest away in the line from Naruto, seemed
to share her surprise. The guy
Naruto had faced in the finals leapt up with and excited cry and dashed from the
room, calling for either his parents or his teammates. Lee ran to Sakura in excitement and
embraced her. This seemed to shake
the girl out of her shock.
Suddenly, excited words about her plans and hopes came spilling out of
the girl as she talked quickly and excitedly to Lee. She didn’t even seem to notice that he
had embraced her. Eventually, Lee
seemed to realize that Naruto was still in the room, and stopped, staring at
him. Sakura turned to follow his
gaze, and realized that Naruto, indeed, was standing
there.
“Uhh…
Naruto… I don’t know what to say,” Sakura eventually managed, real concern in
her voice. Naruto immediately
covered his true emotions with a cocky grin and scratched the back of his
head.
“Ha,
there’s always next year,” he returned, then looked away. He didn’t finish the statement, but he
didn’t have to. Sasuke had said it
to him after each and every failed attempt at the chuunin exam, almost
verbatim. Always at the end,
however, was the insulting, sniping ‘Dobe-kun.’
*** Six
Months Ago ***
“Hey,” Tsunade said as she walked up on him from behind. Naruto turned to look at her, then
turned back to face the way he had.
He was sitting on top of one of the buildings of the Hokage monument, his
legs dangling over the edge of the building.
“Hey,” he replied, not bothering to cover the dejected tone in his
voice. He had just failed the
chuunin test for the seventh time.
Tsunade was perceptive; even if he had tried to hide his emotions, she
would have known. “So much for the
seventh time being the charm, huh?” he asked wryly, chuckling a bit at his own
humor.
“I guess,” the Hokage replied, joining him at the edge. “You fought well yesterday,” she tried
to cheer him up.
“I know, ya old hag. You
didn’t need to tell me that,” he shot back, rolling his eyes. He’d barely had to fight at all; all his
opponents had forfeited rather than face him. /Well,/ he thought, /I did have to fight
in the finals, but that was a joke.
The poor guy didn’t even have time to perform a single jutsu before I
downed him./ Even as he thought
this, Tsunade sighed in exasperation.
“Do you know why you haven’t been passed, Naruto?” she asked after a
short pause.
“I know what you guys always tell me,” Naruto sneered at her. “You say that I’m ‘uncontrollable,’ that
I lose my head whenever I get into a fight.” Naruto turned to look at her, his eyes
cold. “I also know that that’s a
crock of shit.”
“Well, not entirely,” Tsunade hedged, trying to comfort the boy. “You are a little too… enthusiastic,
shall we say?” Naruto just
continued to stare at her with his cold, hurt eyes. Tsunade sighed and sat down next to
him. “But you’re right too,” she
admitted, sadness in her voice.
“You’ve been held back because the other Kages see you as a threat. I can’t promote you without approval
from another of the Kages, and they’re too scared of you to see straight. So I do what I can, giving you missions
that will challenge you, trying to make sure that you don’t hate us all for a
few stupid people. I just wish
there was more that I could do.”
“That’s why I’ve been doing nothing B rank missions for the last year or
so, huh?” Naruto asked. Tsunade
nodded in reply. Naruto leaned
back, letting his arms catch him against the cool cement of the building’s
rooftop. “I know that I’m no
leader. It’s okay. I just wish that Sasuke wasn’t so damned
right.”
“Huh?” Tsunade said, confused.
“Sasuke always called me ‘Dobe-kun.’ I hated it coming from him, and I hated
it even more because I was scared that he was right,” Naruto explained, tilting
his head to meet Tsunade’s gaze again.
“And Chouji just made chuunin today. That’s the last of the ‘rookie
nine.’ Everybody except me,” he
continued dejectedly.
“Naruto…” Tsunade started, trying to find some way to comfort the
youth. “There are other ways to
make your dreams come true.” Naruto
shook his head and pulled his legs underneath him. He squatted there for a moment, then
stood up.
“Don’t try to make me feel better,” he said, his voice carrying his
pain. “You really suck at it,” he
sneered, then ran off, hopping down the side of the low building and off into
the afternoon distance.
***
Present ***
Naruto sighed as he turned off the hot water knob, then the cold. He stepped out of the shower and toweled
himself off, then tied the old, almost tattered towel around his waist. In the cramped bathroom, he brushed his
teeth quickly, then ran a comb through his hair, giving himself a ragged part
over his left eye. He no longer
wore his hair in the wild, unkempt style that had been his trademark for so
long. Now the strands of blond hair
were forced down, and to the sides of his head, where they inevitably sprung
back up, somewhat. He put a few
silver ornaments in his hair, each etched with the name of some barely-readable
entity. They represented the
summoning contracts that he’d acquired.
He had three total, one for the Toad clan, one for the Fox clan, and one
for the Wolf clan. Naruto hadn’t
had to call on any them for help in months. A nice side effect of his new hairstyle
and ornamentation was that he could now look rather intimidating when he wanted
to.
He walked out of the bathroom and into the main room of his apartment,
and pulled open one of the wall panels.
Inside, hung or folded depending on what they were, were his clothing.
He put a fresh pair of underwear
on, then pulled on a pair of orange pants.
They were similar to the ones he had worn years ago, but much more
practical. Far less baggy, they
were just roomy enough so that he could move in any way he needed to. The pants had black piping along the
major seams, and some black cording along the right side. A wide area along the outside of each
leg was black cloth.
Now somewhat decent, Naruto pulled a white undershirt on, and followed it
with an orange zip-up jacket. This
too was similar to the style he had used to wear, but it wasn’t nearly as
heavily padded. He liked the extra
lightness that this jacket had in particular. It had a pair of pockets in the front,
colored a little darker orange than the rest of the jacket. It had somewhat of a neck on it, but it
was loose and thin. The shoulders
and the neck were the same darker orange color as the front pockets were. The inside lining, visible only once in
a while, was a dark royal blue.
Dressed, Naruto made his way to the ‘kitchen’ area of his apartment. In reality, he had simply removed the
sliding screen from this section of wall, and had put in a microwave and a
minifridge. While he nuked some cup
ramen, he grabbed a compact digital music player from the table. He hit play and tucked the ear buds in
each of his ears.
/Music,/ he thought as the ramen finished cooking. He ate it, moving around the room,
collecting kunai, shuriken, and other things that he knew he’d need for the
tournament today. /Damn, it seems
like music is the only thing that I’ve always had,/ he continued. Naruto had had little human contact as a
child, and he’d latched onto music as a source of comfort. Then, for two magical years, he’d had
Sakura and Sasuke. Team Seven had
given him companionship where before he’d had none. Even if he fought with Sasuke every day,
and even though Sakura wouldn’t give him the time of day, he’d had people to be
with. Then Sakura had been
promoted, and he’d been out of teammates.
Sure, every now and again he’d see her or Sasuke, but A and B rank
missions were handled differently than the genin level missions. They were assigned to individuals based
on their skills, or teams selected for their combinations of skills. Of course, as a genin taking B rank
missions, few chuunin would work with him.
Even those that knew him and would work with him were rarely assigned
to. As such, Naruto did most of his
missions alone… except for his music.
He and Sakura had remained close.
They trained together when they could, and hung out any other time they
could. Sakura felt bad for him, for
his loneliness, and out of her compassion had come a real
friendship.
Into a small trash bin went the empty ramen cup. Naruto grabbed his keys and his forehead
protector. He tied the forehead
protector around his neck, like Hinata did, except that his rested outside of
the neck of his jumpsuit. He
stepped outside and locked the door.
“Here we go again,” he said to himself, then grinned. Konohamaru had graduated from the
Academy five months ago, and had completed enough missions, along with his team,
to become eligible for the chuunin exam.
He had cruised through to the finals- the fights. Naruto grinned as he walked towards the
arena. He and Konohamaru were to be
the first match of the tournament.
Naruto knew that he was better than Konohamaru in a straight fight, but
the kid had grown up well. He was
smart, and had lost much of the reckless abandon that had characterized him
since Naruto met him at age 8. His
stealth skills were still more than a bit lacking, but Naruto had heard that he
was good in a fight, and had quite a few tricks up his
sleeve.
“Hey! Naruto-sempai!”
Konohamaru’s eager voice called. Naruto
turned and waited for the young ninja to catch up to him. The youth wore his hair short now, and
his still-new forehead protector on his forehead. He was dressed in baggy black shorts,
covered with pockets. He didn’t
wear the usual Kunai or Shuriken holsters; instead, he kept all of his weapons
inside the ubiquitous pockets of his shorts. He also wore a gray sleeveless t-shirt,
and over that a black fishnet T-shirt
Naruto was reminded of Shikamaru for a moment before blinking the memory
away.
“What’s up, kid?” Naruto asked as they walked together toward the
arena.
“I’m looking forward to our fight,” Konohamaru replied with a wide grin
on his face. “I know I won’t beat
you, but I’m gonna try and give you a run for your money!” he
declared.
“That a fact?” Naruto asked, meeting Konohamaru’s gaze. /What that kid doesn’t know,/ he
thought, grinning wryly, /is that he’s the only reason I’m even in the fights
this time. I owe him one for
sticking with me all this time./
“Well, then, don’t hold anything back,” Naruto goaded, thinking ahead to
the tournament. “You’re gonna need
everything you’ve got to beat me.”
* * * * * *
Naruto stood across the arena ring from Konohamaru. The crowd, seated fifty feet up, was
buzzing with excitement. Quite a
few cheers wafted down from the stands.
All of them, it seemed, were for Naruto, who had become somewhat of a
staple at the semi-annual genin tournament. He had won the last six running; nobody
was foolish enough, it seemed, to cheer for anybody that happened to be his
opponent. Konohamaru, a few feet
away, cast about nervously. He had
obviously not been ready for such a crowd presence against
him.
“Scary, isn’t it?” Naruto called above the crowd. He still wore his music player, but he’d
turned it down enough that he could hear both the crowd and
Konohamaru.
“N-no way!” the youth denied, shaking his head. The nervous sweat and stammer gave away
the feeble lie for what it was.
“Well, maybe just a little…,” he admitted.
“Hey, now. Focus on me,
Konohamaru. A ninja never lets his
guard down, right?” Naruto encouraged the younger shinobi. /Buck up, kid, or this’ll all be for
nothing,/ he thought nervously.
Konohamaru didn’t know about his plan, which was exactly how Naruto
wanted it.
“Right!” the young ninja shouted back, focusing his gaze on Naruto. His right hand drifted to one of the
side pockets on his shorts, while his left stayed close to his waist. His nervousness seemed to evaporate as
the youth focused, and a grin began to spread across his
face.
“That’s what I like to see,” Naruto said eagerly, sliding into a ready
stance. A broad smile crossed his
face.
“Ready?” the exam proctor asked, raising his right hand. Neither ninja replied, but neither
backed down either. “Begin!” he
shouted, dropping it and jumping backwards. Konohamaru whipped his right hand
forward, slinging as kunai towards his opponent. Naruto faded to the left, then heard the
sound of a muffled explosion. He
glanced back towards where Konohamaru had been, and there was only a cloud of
thick, purple smoke. /Smoke bomb,/
he thought.
/Nice./
Instinctively, Naruto pulled out a kunai with his right hand, and
deflected three other kunai.
Konohamaru, who had thrown them from a great jump he had taken out of the
smoke bomb, landed lightly and charged toward Naruto, throwing a full complement
of six shuriken. Naruto, to even
his own surprise, was forced to dodge the three on the left even as he deflected
the other three with his kunai.
/Nice!/ he thought excitedly, his already broad grin widening. /This ought to be fun!/ Then there was no time to think, as
Konohamaru had closed to melee range.
The younger ninja, blessed with ambidexterity, had his last two kunai out
and was attacking Naruto with them viciously. The older ninja gave ground, deflecting
and dodging the furious assault, but making no move to strike
back.
“Fight me, Sempai!” Konohamaru grunted between swings with his kunai,
then jumped, flipping over Naruto to land behind the older
ninja.
“I am,” Naruto replied, spinning on his heel so that, when Konohamaru
landed, he was facing the younger shinobi.
“But I’m also doing my best to make you look good,” he continued,
deflecting kunai slashes with the ease of a veteran.
“I don’t look good if you’re not taking me seriously,” Konohamaru
shouted, sweating from exertion now, instead of nervousness. He spun a furious corkscrew, piling
slash after slash on Naruto’s left side.
The older ninja was forced to turn sideways so that his right hand, his
dominant one and the one holding his kunai, could meet the blows and deflect
them away from his body. After a
few rotations, Konohamaru was forced to stop, or risk dizziness. Naruto met the slight pause in attacks
with a brutal side kick to Konohamaru’s forehead, which sent the youth tumbling
back away. The youth had the sense
to roll with the blow, but he’d dropped his kunai in the first
landing.
“Fine,” Naruto replied cockily as Konohamaru used the last of the
momentum from his roll to find his feet again. Naruto’s eyes widened as he saw
Konohamaru performing a pair of hand seals. /He dropped them on purpose!/ Naruto
thought, surprised, /so that he’d have time to do the seals!/ Naruto’s own hands came up to form his
own seals, but Konohamaru had already finished.
“Kono Ha Maru Ha no Jutsu!” Konohamaru shouted with a smirk, as a disc of
crackling fire roughly the size of a dinner plate sprung up vertically in front
of his hands. For a moment, it
seemed to grow, then it contracted violently, expelling a thin beam of pure heat
straight forward… and directly at Naruto.
Naruto’s hands blurred violently as the disc expanded, and as the heat
beam struck him, he exploded in a burst of smoke. The beam lanced straight through,
striking the arena wall, and heating it enough to redden the stone before the
beam collapsed, a few moments later.
The billowing smoke blew away a few seconds later as a panting Konohamaru
watched revealing… a smoldering log, with a charred and blackened hole burned
through the middle. Konohamaru then
felt the cool blade of a kunai placed against his throat from
behind.
“Nice move,” Naruto said from his position behind the younger ninja. “I like the name in particular. But next time,” he continued, leaning
forward, his head next to Konohamaru’s, “pick a move that doesn’t leave you
rooted to the spot if your enemy manages to get away.”
“Y-yeah,” Konohamaru nodded, shaking with tiredness, the just dispelled
fear that Naruto had actually been hit, and relief that he hadn’t. Whatever else the jutsu he had just used
was, it was definitely lethal if it hit.
“Hey, Examiner,” Naruto called, standing up straight again. He pulled his kunai away from
Konohamaru’s throat and stepped back.
“I quit.”
“Huh?” Konohamaru exclaimed, turning to look at his mentor. The examiner looked just as
surprised.
“Are you sure?” the chuunin asked, taking a few steps
forward.
“Yep,” Naruto declared, spinning his kunai on his index finger, then
holstering it. “I’m not cut out to
be a chuunin. I just decided to
come and try to give everybody here a good look at what the Third’s grandson
could do. Besides, he’s an old
friend. I wouldn’t feel right
taking away his next round, especially after he fought so
hard.”
“All right,” the examiner replied, then turned to face the crowd, which
was rustling about at the sudden cessation of hostilities. In a much louder voice, the examiner
shouted, ”Naruto withdraws.
Konohamaru wins by forfeit!”
The crowd exploded in noise, shouting their surprise and
disappointment. Many had bet on
Naruto’s victory, and many had just lost.
Smiling, Naruto just turned up the music on his player and walked out the
gates of the stadium. As he pushed
through the heavy wooden gates, he stopped in surprise. Sakura was standing there, waiting for
him.
“Sakura-chan?” he asked, bit uncertain.
“No, just normal Sakura,” the young girl replied. Naruto relaxed a bit, relieved that it
was just Sakura. After Konohamaru,
he wasn’t sure if he was up to his and Sakura-chan’s usual verbal
sparring.
“What
are you doing here?” he asked, smiling.
He hadn’t expected to see her today- she’d told him that she was getting
ready for a big mission.
Sakura
had grown up quite a bit in the last four years, and had become quite the
beautiful young woman. Her hair had
grown back somewhat, but she kept it trimmed well above her shoulders. Gone were the pretty, somewhat frivolous
dresses of her youth. Today, she
wore a white button-down vest, which showcased her burgeoning curviness quite
nicely. There was a little beaded
ornament hanging from the left side of the lower hem. After her bare midriff, she wore a pair
of dark red stretch jeans, secured at the waist by a wide, white leather
belt. They allowed her excellent
mobility, and had, on several occasions, distracted a male opponent for long
enough for her to pull victory from the jaws of defeat.
“I was watching you,” she replied, a weak smile crossing her face. “You know, the last of the old team
seven.”
“Thanks,” Naruto replied, returning the smile. “Sorry to disappoint,” he said with a
shrug, continuing his walk away from the arena. He could hear the examiner calling out
the names for the next combatants, but he wasn’t paying
attention.
“Why’d you do it?” Sakura asked suddenly, and Naruto stopped. A short silence passed between the two
of them. “Forfeit, I mean. You didn’t need to,” she said, trying to
break the tension.
“Yeah, I really did,” Naruto said, turning to look at her. “I wasn’t going to get passed. The Mizukage has always been against my
promotion, and I don’t think that I could do anything to persuade him
otherwise. It’s kinda the same with
most of the Kages. At least I could
make Konohamaru look good.” He
looked at her for a while, and eventually Sakura’s eyes rose to meet his
gaze. After a few moments, Naruto
turned away again. “I’ll see you
later, Sakura-chan. We could have
lunch or something,” he called back over his shoulder, waving his hand at
her.
Sakura
reached out towards him, paused for a minute, then called, “Wait, Naruto. I need to ask you a
favor.”
“Huh?”
Naruto asked, looking back at her.
“Sasuke
and I… Well, he’d never admit it, but he does,” she rambled nervously. “Well, we need your help,” she
continued, shaking her head.
“What is
it?” Naruto asked, turning around to meet her attention
properly.
“The
jounin exams are in two weeks.
We’re required to make our attempts in teams of three. We’re allowed to make our own teams, and
Sasuke asked for my help a few weeks ago, but we haven’t found a third team
member,” she continued more confidently.
As she spoke, she approached Naruto, until she was standing at a normal
distance for conversation.
“Sasuke’s controlled power, and I’ve got precision covered, but we don’t
have the kind of power that you have.
The kind of power that everybody knows that you
have.”
“Are you
asking me to take the jounin exam with you guys?” Naruto asked, his eyebrows
raised. “Is that even
allowed?”
“I don’t
know, but without you we can’t even try,” Sakura replied with a shrug and a
helpless look. “Registration forms
are due tomorrow.” Naruto looked
down for a moment, then shook his head slowly.
“Knowing
these sadists,” he said with a nod towards the arena, “the test probably
involves fighting real jounin.
There’s probably a damn good chance that one, if not all, of us would
die, and even if we do make it, there’s no way they’d let me be a jounin
anyway.”
“I guess
so…,” Sakura trailed off as Naruto paused to draw a
breath.
“So,
basically, you’re asking me to risk my life for no damn reason at all, just
because an old friend asks me to?” Naruto asked with just a hint of a growl in
his voice.
“More or
less,” Sakura replied nervously.
Naruto looked up, his eyes shining excitedly and a vicious-looking grin
on his face.
“Lucky
team seven rides again, huh?” he said, the growl of what had seemed to be anger
turning to excitement. “Where do I
sign up?
I’ll be
running this as an alternate universe fic, with everything following Tsunade’s
return cut out of the story. I’d
write it otherwise, but there’s a lot of characterization that I apparently
miss by not being further up on the story, so I think that it’s best for me
to write this sort of thing from a point that I know.
The
#1 Song on Naruto’s Playlist: (I’ll use this section to tell you what
song best fits the mood for the chapter.
Since Naruto is, in this fic, so attached to music, and since I listen
to a great deal of it while I write, I figured it’d be appropriate. I will also include a link to a location
where the song is downloadable, when it is applicable.)
“Wind”
by Akeboshi. I know it’s already
a Naruto song, but it’s so appropriate for this chapter.
Translations: (I try to keep Japanese to a minimum in
my fics, but some of it, like for the Justus and the honorifics with which
these characters actually DO speak, is unavoidable. I will give the translations for such
things here.)
Sempai:
an honorific attached to the end of the name of an upperclassman or a mentor
that is, relatively speaking, at the same level you are. Konohamaru uses it here after growing
out of Oyabun, which is somewhat closer to Mafia Boss.
Shinobi:
a synonym for ninja.
Ninja:
Please don’t tell me that you need this translated. If you do, you’re reading the wrong fic.
Genin:
Lower person, used to denote a lack of skill in Naruto’s world.
Chuunin:
Middle person, a term of relative respect, compared to genin.
Jounin:
Skilled person. Denotes a high
level of ability.
Hokage: Literally, ‘fire shadow.’ In Naruto’s world, the five most skilled
ninja in the world. To understand
the other –kages, just think of what country they’re from. That’s what the prefix means.
Dobe: Literally, ‘Dead Last.’ Sasuke uses this to talk down to Naruto,
because Sasuke has the world’s BIGGEST superiority complex. The –kun suffix at the end makes it a
nickname.
Ramen: Dude, give me a break. Go to college. Then you’ll know what ramen is.
Kono
Ha Maru Ha no Jutsu:
Hehe. Okay, I admit it, I made this up for Konohamaru
just because I could. It translates,
more or less, as ‘The Fire Circle Wave Skill,” which makes a pretty decent
name for a technique. Much better
than the Uzumaki Naruto Combo. Anyway,
I just thought that it’d be fun to give Konohamaru a unique technique, and
since I’m writing this fic, I get to do it. So there.
Jutsu: Skill. This is added at the end of any technique performed in Naruto.