Chapter 1
The slight chill in the air coming through the
window stirred the room’s single occupant, stretched out on his bed. It wasn’t
quite dawn, and the air felt colder than it should have, with the sun about
to rise and the rooftops already glowing slightly pink. The boy sat up in
his bed, yawning and scratching his spiky blonde head, before hoisting himself
off his mattress and heading to the bathroom.
Naruto grinned to himself as he started his shower, looking in the
mirror, and reaching for his toothbrush.
Wait’ll
they see this! This is better than my plan to take down Zabuza, and NONE of
them saw THAT coming! Transformation, substitution, doppelgangers, I can do
ANYTHING!
He
chuckled to himself, almost shaking with anticipation. Sasuke might not still
think him the hopeless case he used to, but he still needed to be shown a
thing or two before he actually respected Naruto. Kakashi obviously had taken
a bit of a shine to him, but he doubted that was an acknowledgment of his
prowess. And Sakura…. the thing he
wanted most in the entire WORLD was to impress HER. And by the gods, today
was the day!
Once
he was showered, he headed for the bridge, the spot they always met up to
discuss what would be going on. He abjectly and pitifully prayed to whoever
was listening that there were no jobs for old Team 7 today, his fingers crossed
in his pockets the whole way there. Even as he passed the Ichiraku noodle
bar, the mere sight of which usually sent him into paroxysms of delight, he
never wavered in his concentration.
He
came to the bridge, and immediately became its sole occupant. Kakashi-Sensei
would be late, he always was, but Sasuke and Sakura would be there soon. In
his concentrated pleading, he’d gone a bit quicker than usual without meaning
to, as the sun was only halfway up. Neither he nor his teammates were due
for at least another fifteen minutes. Fine. He could while away time with
the best of them.
Naruto
watched the sun for a few minutes, noting the fact that he could see his house,
before he became bored and started practicing his signs. He went through them
all, as quickly as possible, then practiced the combinations each of his jutsus
required. Horse….Flames…..Tiger…..Horse….Bird….his hands became a blur through
them all, and he almost broke his index fingers when Sakura’s voice finally
broke through his haze and messed up his control. He cursed and cradled his
almost-injured digits, groaning for a second.
“Oh.
Hey, Sakura chan! Um….what were you saying?” He grinned sheepishly at her,
and went to scratch his head, wincing as his finger throbbed again.
“For
the fifth time, I SAID you’ve gotten pretty fast with that. Which jutsu were
you practicing?” She put her hands on her hips, feigning exasperation, though
her face betrayed her interest.
“Um……all
of em, I guess. I just kinda go from one to another. I think I was on Fire
Breath.” He said proudly, almost quivering, hoping Sakura wasn’t noticing
the undiluted pleasure he was getting from her not just smacking him or something,
like she used to every time she said anything to him.
Sakura’s
eyes widened a little and her mouth opened. “You…can do that one already?”
Almost unbelieving,
“Yeah.
Haven’t tried it yet except for once, and I made sure I aimed it at the river.
Didn’t wanna burn my house down or something. I wanna try out that Water Dragon
Missile that Kakashi-sensei did, but I can’t remember the signs for it. I
just remember there were a whole lot of them, and Konoha doesn’t keep tabs
on other schools’ jutsus. Cheapskates.” His brows furrowed a little toward
the end of his tirade, having spotted Sasuke over Sakura’s shoulder. He didn’t
hate Sasuke as much as he used to, but he could seriously do without his attitude.
Lousy hypocrite. He needed help once in a while, just like everybody else.
Naruto might not want help, but when he NEEDED it, he wasn’t about to say
no. He LIKED help. He was two minds about how Sasuke treated Sakura, and was
actually grateful at times when Sasuke shot her down, which immediately translated
to self-disgust when he saw how that made Sakura feel. He of course wanted
Sakura for himself, which meant Sasuke had to not be nice to her. But he hated
to see her unhappy, and that was the almost inevitable result when she tried
to say or do something with Sasuke.
Sakura
immediately guessed what he was looking at, and turned around, her inner self
obviously chanting “SA-SUKE, SA-SUKE, SA-SUKE!!” with hearts in its eyes.
Sakura herself hid it just a little better, a giant grin immediately on her
face, and Naruto’s mind went completely and blissfully blank as he saw that.
He didn’t care if it wasn’t directed at him, she was just so damn CUTE when
she did that. He often wondered how in hell Sasuke resisted the urge to grab
her and kiss every square inch of her when he was the only one she’d ever
let do it, and had come to a conclusion; Sasuke was not human.
Naruto
watched Sasuke take his usual place by the railing, Sakura sidling up to him.
Oh, man. Kakashi-sensei better get here soon.
That’s not gonna last, and Sakura gets all mopey when Sasuke tells her off.
Thankfully,
Kakashi seemed to have remembered what time he’d told them to be there, and
was only about ten minutes late. Kinda
early for him, Naruto thought, remembering several times they’d been waiting
until almost noon for a lazy ass teacher to show. He walked slowly up to them,
immersed in his book, which Naruto supposed he had to have read at least five
times by now, what him reading it even while he was training them.
“Training
exercises today, Team 7. Apparently
everyone is still a little wary of that last incident you were all involved
in, and asked specifically for you not to be assigned to their task for today.”
“Hey!
It’s not MY fault Naruto’s an idiot and put shuriken holes in someone’s wall!”
Kakashi
looked at Sakura and his visible eyebrow raised a little. “That….wasn’t the
incident I was referring to, but….” He turned calmly to Naruto. “Perhaps someone
would care to fill me in?”
Naruto
grinned nervously and laughed, indicating that that was pretty far down his
list of things he would care to do.
Kakashi
sighed heavily. “Well, in any case, I was referring to the incident during
which you three were supposed to be weeding a garden and Naruto’s doppelgangers
trampled it until it looked like Sumo no kuni.”
Crap. Just had to bring that up. Oh,
well! I’ll show em anyway!
Kakashi
led the way to the training ground they had all been accepted as genin at.
Naruto’s ass still hurt whenever he thought about that damn “Thousand Years
of Death” that Kakashi had violated him with. If that was a jutsu, he’d eat
his headband. And if that was Konoha’s supposed “most secret and most sacred”
technique, then he really didn’t want to know who came up with it. Now that
he thought about it, if Kakashi-sensei HADN’T come up with that technique
on his own, someone had to have taught it to him…..Naruto twitched and banished
that thought forever. That was the absolute last thing he wanted on his mind
when he was preparing himself for this. Thinking about that meant instant
distraction, which meant no chakra. And there were a couple of things he’d
need that chakra for today. Probably on into the night, knowing his sensei.
He’d have to be the luckiest idiot in the whole village to get away with this,
but it was definitely worth a shot. As long as he didn’t pull out the sharingan,
which wasn’t likely, he’d have a decent shot. Nothing won a fight for you
like being underestimated, as Naruto knew full well.
The
use of weapons in their matches had been barred, since nobody wanted to die,
least of all Kakashi, who had noticed a marked improvement in their speed,
accuracy, and tactics. “All right.
Again with the bells. I expect each of you to manage to take one from me individually
eventually, and then we will begin out and out sparring. Who’s first?”
Naruto
and Sasuke traded a glance. Naruto grinned and stepped forward. Sasuke sighed
and went to stand against a tree to get a decent view of the area. Sakura
did the same, choosing to do so from about midway up one of the larger trees.
Naruto, always favoring a straightforward start immediately split into six
separate bodies, each leaping to surround his sensei, who yawned. Each of the Narutos, about a half second apart,
leapt toward him, the first pulling it’s fist back for a powerful punch. Kakashi
made his usual casual block, and Naruto’s entire body passed straight through
his fist! Through his BODY! Kakashi’s eye widened, realizing that Naruto had
incorporated both real and illusory shadow clones into this attack. He had
to know which ones were which, which made dodging a bad idea. Better to take
a chance and attempt a block on each…
The
next Naruto was indeed solid, and Kakashi caught it by the wrist and hurled
it up into the trees, accompanied by a strange Naruto-yell. As the next one
came at him, he made ready to perform a similar counter, but the clone itself
split! Now two were coming at him from opposite sides, and he had to admit,
much quicker than usual. He must have been practicing a lot on his own, to
have improved like this. The boy was a born strategist when he felt like it.
The two Narutos suddenly broke off their attack, and leapt up and back, away
from him, beginning to perform hand signs…..He recognized that technique!
Fire Breath! But…he didn’t even know if it was real or not. He decided not
to risk it, and leapt high and to one side as Naruto finished the jutsu and
sent two huge fireballs speeding toward him. Both hit the ground, burnt the
grass to ashes, and charred the soil. It sounded like an explosion, and Kakashi
landed near a tree on the edge of the clearing, noting that a good many leaves
were falling from the noise that last attack had made. He blinked as most
of them suddenly turned into Naruto clones, probably fifty of them, and one
single leaf landed at his feet, a Naruto appearing in a puff of smoke, and
snatching at his sensei’s vest, right where he kept his Icha-Icha Paradise!
He wasn’t even going for the bells! Naruto had it! He had the book! Kakashi
made to snatch Naruto and the book, but was left holding a log with a spiral
painted on it.
Kakashi’s
eye widened more than it had in a long time, and he called out. “Very nice,
Naruto. When did you learn to use the art of substitution so well?” When he
got no answer, he called out again, in a slightly sterner voice, “Now, come
back out here and hand that back. I’ll consider it a bell.” He turned to stare
at the sea of yellow outfits before him, and watched as, one by one, they
disappeared without a trace. Every last one of them had been an illusion.
He stood there for a moment, contemplating, as he heard Sakura giggling above
him, and even a faint repressed snort from Sasuke.
Naruto
tried his best to keep quiet, as to make a sound would mean almost certain
death. He had transformed himself into an inanimate object before, and this
time, though he knew how to do substitution, he’d simply transformed himself
into the log instead of replacing himself with it. Kakashi thought he was
LONG gone. He had the book. That was all that mattered. He wondered what would
happen if he laughed while being a log, and tried harder to stifle it.