Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Naruto of the Mirage ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 5 )

The day following the mob attack on Naruto dawned with grey skies, threatening to pour rain, and an unusual humidity for the fall weather. Both boys were sleeping soundly when Anko decided to wake them up around eight in the morning. After their display last night they deserved to rest up. Quickly shaking Naruto and Sasuke awake, she hurried them out of bed and told them that breakfast was ready and that they had matters to discuss.

 

The boys entered the small kitchen/dinning room after a few minutes and rubbing the sleep from their eyes muttered a `thanks' as they accepted their breakfast of cereal and toast.

 

“First off,” Anko started, her face holding no emotion, “I want to congratulate the two of you on your performance last night. The way you boys were able to use the water barrier at your age shows great potential and chakra control. Secondly, I want to know what you did to Mizuki.” She spat out the silver haired man's name like she was cursing.

 

The boys exchanged sheepish glances, which were quickly covered by mischievous grins.

 

“Well, ever since I discovered the magnetic bloodline, I was looking for a way to attack people directly with it. I've been trying to pull the iron from the ground and tried to do the same thing to humans. But since I can't go and try it on people, I haven't gotten very far. Last night…I think I used the fox's power, and that was how I was able to beat Mizuki-sen…Mizuki.” Naruto explained. If nothing else, Naruto had adopted his mother's ideals about hating people. If they crossed him wrong like last night, they were forever an anathema, and he would treat them as such.

 

“I just wish he would have used some cool jutsu, so I could have copied them.” Sasuke complained.

 

This elicited a laugh from everyone and the mood switched to lighter conversation before the boys had to leave for school.

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

Life settled down and fell into routine for the three. Two years passed without incident and the boys were starting their, hopefully, final year in the academy. The two had grown up and closer together than anyone could have hoped for. Sasuke had grown close to five feet three inches, and showed no signs of slowing down, while Naruto was smaller, at four feet eleven inches, but was a bit quicker than his brother, who was physically stronger.

 

That day at the academy, the class was reviewing the different techniques that they might have to demonstrate at their graduation exam. The selected skill today was the Henge no jutsu or transformation. As Iruka-sensei called each member of the class up to change into a copy of him, he couldn't be more proud of his students. They were easily one of the best overall groups he had ever taught.

 

“Haruno Sakura!” The brown haired chunnin called out.

 

The pink haired Sasuke fan girl quickly moved to the front of the class and formed the correct hand seals before calling out “Henge!” A puff of smoke appeared and after it disappeared, a perfect copy of Iruka smiled back at the teacher.

 

“Very good, Sakura.” He admonished the girl. “Next up is Uzumaki Naruto.”

 

Naruto made his way down the rows of desks and stood in the front of the class. It had been decided after much arguing and yelling, that Naruto should keep the name Uzumaki, since Orochimaru would come back for the boy if he found out he was alive. The only people who knew him as Mitarashi Naruto were Sasuke, Anko, Iruka, Kakashi and the Hokage. Iruka had originally been skeptical of allowing the Kyuubi container into the academy, however after seeing how hard the boy worked and how he interacted with the other students; he grew to like the energetic boy.

 

Naruto adopted the classic Sasuke pose and slouched a bit, before performing the technique perfectly.

 

“Good job Naruto. Next up Uchiha Sasuke.”

 

Sasuke sauntered to the front in his typical lazy/I don't care type of manner, before lazily forming the seals. No one noticed the unusual twinkle in the raven-haired boys' eyes before it was too late.

 

“Henge.” The boy said, in a very lazy manner. It was so lazy that it made Shikamaru seem energetic and playful.

 

As the smoke cleared, the sight of a naked woman with black hair greeted Iruka. As his nose erupted in a fountain of blood, he could only think one sentence.

 

`The hell? I figured Naruto or Kiba would try something like that, but Sasuke?'

 

The class erupted in laughter from the male population and indignation from the females of the class. They couldn't bring themselves to believe that their beloved `Sasuke-kun' would do something so...so…perverted. In another cloud of smoke Sasuke returned to normal and broodingly walked back to his seat. Or rather, he walked back to Naruto's seat. As Iruka got back up from the floor with wads of tissue stuck up his nose to prevent further blood loss, he noticed the two Sasuke's and groaned. He had been pranked. He watched as the second Sasuke disappeared in a cloud of smoke and was replaced by Naruto, who promptly doubled over in laughter at his teacher's expense.

 

“Kami, Iruka-sensei, you should have seen the look on your face when I did that!” The blonde and black haired youth cried out in laughter, rolling in the aisle.

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

That night was…interesting, to say the least. Anko was torn between outrage and maternal pride at her son's antics. She was very proud of the fact that he could keep up two illusions, which admittedly were his worst skill, and that he had pulled such an elaborate and hilarious ruse. On the other hand he had done something perverted, and like all women, Anko despised perverts.

 

She settled on increasing the ferocity in her training. Neither Sasuke nor Naruto showed up to class without sporting new cuts from their mother's kunai.

 

“Ok, today we're going to be reviewing the Bunshin no jutsu.” (Clone technique) Iruka explained. Naruto groaned; Bunshin was his worst skill. It wasn't that he didn't know how, he had copied the seals with his sharingan and practiced the technique for hours, but he simply couldn't do it correctly and for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why. Sasuke didn't know what was wrong and his mother wasn't much more help. She figured that it had to do with his abnormally large amount of chakra and, in comparison, his poor chakra control. Truthfully Naruto had been practicing his control since he started training with Kakashi, but with all his extra chakra, he always seemed to be behind the others. Suddenly inspiration struck him like a…like a…well it struck him. He'd ask the old man! He'll know what to do.

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

After class, Naruto told Sasuke to go on home without him and that he had something to talk with the Hokage about. Sasuke was about to follow his brother anyway, but was side tracked when a group of fan girls began to chase after him.

 

Naruto headed towards the Hokage's office and asked to see the old man. The secretary told him to wait, because the Hokage was in a meeting and couldn't be disturbed. As the meeting ended, representatives from the surrounding villages exited the office and Naruto walked past them all into the Sandaime's office.

 

“Hey, I've got a problem.” Naruto said, when he saw that he had the Hokage's attention. “I can't do a Bunshin and I can't figure out why. Mom thinks it's `cuz I've got such high amounts of chakra, but she's not sure.”

 

“Can you perform the technique for me?” Asked the grey haired leader.

 

Naruto performed the technique and was rewarded with three dead and deformed clones.

 

“Hmm. Yes, I would agree with your mother, you do have too much chakra.” The Sandaime said. “Now, Naruto, there are other forms of the Bunshin, that are actually more useful. There's the Mizu Bunshin that creates a solid clone out of water, and the Tsuchi Bunshin is made of earth. These require more chakra than normal, so you should be able to do those without problem. The only problem is that we don't have any way to teach you those particular techniques. If you ever encounter them, do me a favor and copy them, that way we can write them down.” The old man chuckled at the joke. “The only other variation we have of the Bunshin is the Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clone) which takes up a large amount of chakra, but it creates solid clones. Unfortunately, since it uses such a large amount of chakra, it would be a bad idea to try and copy it, so you will have to learn it the old fashioned way. Now it is a Kinjutsu, so I can't just give you a copy of the jutsu, but if you'll stop by my office, oh say, this weekend, I will teach you how to perform the jutsu.”

 

Naruto sat in a chair and stared at the old man. He was going to learn a Kinjutsu! Plus, he would be able to pass the graduation exam this way!

 

“Okay, I'll stop by over the weekend to learn this jutsu! See ya later, Old Man!” Naruto exclaimed as he exited the office.

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

That weekend Naruto returned to the office of the Hokage to learn the forbidden technique Kage Bunshin. It turned out to be easier than he expected, but the old man didn't lie when he said it used a lot of chakra. The principle behind the skill was simple enough, take a normal Bunshin and put about ten times more chakra than necessary to create one clone, and then another three or four times as much chakra to sustain it for any reasonable length of time. In the end it was very easy to see why it was forbidden. He had agreed to show Sasuke, but both boys realized that the full-blooded Uchiha didn't have the chakra reserves necessary to perform the technique. However, the two did find another form of solid Bunshin they could both use. They were watching some of the different shinobi of the village train, and found Kakashi was dueling with a green- spandex clad man with thick eyebrows and a bowl cut, except that `Kakashi' was a Mizu Bunshin. The two boys then conned the lazy jounin into showing them the technique, which they learned and used in their training routines.

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

Time moved quickly after that weekend. The two boys continued to train, although they also found time to do other activities. Both Naruto and Sasuke had become friends quickly with Shikamaru and Chouji, although it was mostly Naruto who hung out with the lazy boy and the potato chip addicted pre-teen. Sasuke had struck up a rivalry with Hyuuga Neji, the previous years number one rookie, and seemed to be competing against each other in just about everything.

 

After nearly three straight years of being rejected by Sasuke, many of his fan girls decided on another tactic, they tried to become friends with Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji. Naruto hasn't been able to walk through town without being hounded for the last four months, while the other two boys have only recently become targets. Luckily for them, or terribly unlucky for Naruto, Shikamaru's laziness and Chouji's constant eating seemed to be turn-offs in their own right, while Naruto couldn't claim any of the previous self defense mechanisms and was sorely tempted to try his mother's tactics and begin to throw kunai indiscriminately.

 

The graduation exams rolled around and as expected Sasuke was slated to become rookie of the year, while the position of top kunoichi was in a heated argument between Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura, both of whom were GIGANTIC Sasuke fan girls. Naruto was moving between the top half and top quarter of the class, largely due to his poor effort on written assignments, as he often responded when asked about his poor grades

 

“Who cares what the middle name of the Nidaime's brother's third youngest sister was? And who cares if Tsunade of the legendary Sannin is the granddaughter of the Shodaime, I mean honestly, when will that ever save my life.”

 

Of course, what people fail to notice while he is ranting on like this, is the fact that he knew that Tsunade was a) part of the legendary Sannin and b) was the granddaughter of the first Hokage. It was during one of these rants that he actually got to know Shikamaru, after the lazy genius noticed that Naruto knew those facts. While Naruto may have given up physical pranking for the most part, he still loved to mess with people's heads.

 

As Naruto entered the exam room he felt confident that he would pass. Before he would have been worried sick over his inability to perform a Bunshin, but now he was able to two different kinds of Bunshin, he felt very sure in himself.

 

“Okay Naruto, you have to perform a Bunshin to pass.” Iruka said

 

Deciding to play it (relatively) safe, Naruto created three Mizu Bunshin from the glass of water on Iruka's desk.

 

“Congratulations, you pass!” Iruka said, after he found his voice again and handed him a Konoha forehead protector. After that there was time for celebration.

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

The next day, Naruto and Sasuke showed up for their genin team assignments.

 

“I'd like to congratulate all of you for passing the exam. You are all true shinobi of Konohagakure and should always wear the symbol of the leaf with pride.” Iruka explained as he began assigning teams. It wasn't until he reached team 7 that Naruto paid any attention.

 

“Team 7, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto,” At this, the two brothers exchanged high fives and head nods in silent approval. “And Haruno Sakura.” Iruka finished.

 

“Team 8 will be…” But before Iruka could continue, he was cut off by Sakura's voice

 

“Iruka-sensei, why am I on a team with Naruto? Won't that make the teams unbalanced?” She asked in a way that made it sound less insulting than it really was.

 

“Normally you'd be right, Sakura, but Sasuke was the number one rookie, Naruto ended up around the middle of the class, and although you are the second ranked kunoichi, all of the teachers thought you could learn the most from being with Sasuke and Naruto.” Iruka explained.

 

“Now, Team 8 will be Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba. Team 9…” and with that Naruto quit paying attention again. However he was rudely interrupted from his lazing when team 10 was announced.

 

“Team 10, Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji, and Yamanaka Ino.” This got a groan of displeasure from Shikamaru and Ino.

 

“Your jounin sensei's will be here shortly to collect your teams.” Iruka explained before leaving the room as various jounin came into the room and picked up teams. Eventually the only team left was team 7. Sakura was trying to talk with Sasuke who had created a Mizu Bunshin and then used a basic camouflage jutsu to hide while he sat with Naruto, who was somewhere in between sleeping and daydreaming.

 

Two and a half hours later, a very late Kakashi entered the room, only to be hit on the head with an eraser. He was then forced to dodge two kunai, thrown by Sasuke and Naruto, while Sakura simply tried to stammer an apology for her `rude and childish teammate', completely ignoring the fact that Sasuke had also thrown a kunai at the jounin, and if anything was aiming to do more damage than Naruto, since he was aiming for Kakashi's `family jewels'.

 

“Well, my first impression of you guys is…I really don't like you.” The pepper haired jounin replied. “Meet me on the roof.” With that he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

 

When the three genin arrived at the roof, they found Kakashi sitting on a ledge, reading one of his perverted books. He noticed that Naruto and Sasuke arrived first, followed by a very wet, and very angry Sakura.

 

“What happened?” The jounin asked.

 

“She tried to hug a Mizu Bunshin.” Came Naruto's reply, his face creeping into a large grin, which was mirrored by Sasuke.

 

“Anyway, why don't you all introduce yourselves, you know, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future, those kinds of things.” Kakashi ordered.

 

“Why don't you go first?” Asked a drenched Sakura.

 

“My name is Hatake Kakashi, I don't feel like telling you my likes, my dislikes are personal, as for dreams for the future…I suppose I have a couple of hobbies. Ok, you're up Pinky.”

 

“My name is Haruno Sakura, my likes are” She glanced at Sasuke. “My dream for the future…” glanced at Sasuke again. “My hobbies…” stared at Sasuke. “I hate Naruto and Ino pig!”

 

`Oh great, a love struck fan girl. How come all the kunoichi these days only care about boys? Why couldn't I have gotten one like that girl Gai has? She's very talented and useful.' Kakashi sweat dropped, for the first time in his life, he actually envied Maito Gai. The world was ending, he was sure of it.

 

“Ok, one of you two, I don't really care which one.” He said and motioned towards Naruto and Sasuke.

 

“My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I like my family, I dislike, no I HATE, my fan girls, I don't have any hobbies, my dream is to start my own family and to help kaa-san.”

 

Of course this is what Sakura heard:

 

“I like my family…and Sakura. I want to marry Sakura and love her for all of eternity.”

 

This caused her to try and hug the Uchiha again, only to find herself hugging Kakashi, who Sasuke had used as a replacement. This, it was safe to say, caused Naruto to fall to the ground laughing harder than ever, clutching his sides.

 

“HA HA! My name is Uzumaki Naruto, HA HA HA! I like ramen and my family; I dislike any one who would hurt my family. My hobbies are trying out new ramen flavors, and training, and I want to become Hokage and HA HA help my family achieve their dreams!” He stated, his words turning into fits of laughter every once in a while.

 

“Well, that's it for introductions; meet me tomorrow at seven o'clock at training ground 32 for survival training.” Kakashi exclaimed as he went to leave. But then he noticed that both boys had their sharingan active, hoping to copy the technique he used to teleport away earlier. He decided to simply take the stairs. As he walked away he heard the angered cries from the two:

 

“Damn you, we will figure out how you do that cool technique!”

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

(A/N: All right! Now it's time for the increasing long pairings count!

 

Naruto/Hinata: 68

 

Naruto/Tenten: 33

 

Naruto/Temari: 30

 

Naruto/Anyone but Hinata/Unusual Pairings: 63

 

I'm only going to keep voting open until I post the next chapter, so vote now! That is, if you haven't all ready done so.

 

If you have a question you want answered, feel free to PM me or email me, or put it in a review. I can't promise I'll get to all the questions in reviews, but I'll try.

 

For everyone who is reading this and votes against Hinata PLEASE DON'T ABANDON THIS STORY! If Hinata does win I know some of you will stop reading, and have pointed out many different reasons why it just won't work out between the two. I agree with many of your points, but I would like to point out that if it does end up being Naru/Hina, that I would have to come up with new ways to get the two together and that would solve many of your problems about the pairing. Please just stick with me until I finish the story, and then you can flame me all you want.

 

On a completely unrelated note, I have a beta, so I won't be updating every weekend, although I hope it will still be about a week, but don't hold me to that!)

That beta is me, Matt and T.K. more specifically me, Matt. And on another note, I don't like Naru/Hina but it is a good story. I suggest not abandon a story for a simple matter like that and just skip any scenes you don't like.