Hand Signs [A Deaf Naruto Fanfiction]

Chapter 6: Team Seven

The story was really confusing and Naruto's rabbit trailing (oddly reminiscent of his own at times) made it hard to follow but the three boys got the gist though there were clearly gaps in the story.

Naruto rubbed his neck sheepishly as he added an additional note. "There are some things I can't legally tell you and I figure since I already broke one major law it'd be better not to break another..."

That made more sense.

"What technique did you learn from the scroll then?" Choji asked, crunching on a BBQ potato crisp.

Naruto grinned and made an unfamiliar seal by making a cross out of his index and middle fingers. In a puff of smoke there were seven Narutos.

"Clones?" Naruto couldn't do academy clones so these must be special if they were on the forbidden Scroll of Sealing, right?

Naruto stayed silent and suddenly six of the seven clones began hitting each other. They were solid clones, an advanced technique that took a lot of chakra (hence why it's labeled as Kinjutsu) and Naruto made six and looked completely unaffected.

"How many did you make when you beat up Mizuki, Naruto." If his tone was vaguely reminiscent of a parent speaking to their child it was because if his theory was correct then the blond had more chakra than pretty much anyone else in the entire village.

Naruto didn't pick up on it (probably because of his hearing).

"I don't know. Maybe a thousand? More?" He scrunched his face as he tried to remember.

Choji nearly dropped his chip and if he didn't spend so much time around Shino he'd have never picked up on his stiffening. They all stared.

"What?" Naruto was actually genuinely confused too. It was almost cute.

"You made that many clones and could still fight? You were still awake?" Naruto clearly didn't finish reading that section of the scroll if he still didn't get it.

"Yes? I wasn't even tired beyond just staying up all night. It might've been adrenaline though..."

What a drag...

~

Of course, Shikamaru knew that no matter what, he'd end up on a team with Ino and Choji. He'd known since he was a kid. It was pretty obvious when the last fifteen generations were the same way. The Ino-Shika-Cho formation would continue on as per tradition and nothing would stop it, no matter how much he would've preferred to be on a team with Naruto rather than Ino (girls were such a drag, especially Uchiha-Fangirls).

He hadn't expected Naruto to end up on a team with both of the people he absolutely didn't want on his team though. With so many other students in the class the odds were miniscule, especially since he'd gotten his grades up and was no longer the dead last in class (Shikamaru was pretty sure it was Kiba now but it could've been one of the civilian kids, he didn't really care too much regardless). The blond would've been better off with Hinata and Shino in terms of actually being able to work together but he did understand why they were both placed with Kiba. The three would make a great tracking team between Kiba and his ninken, Akamaru, Hinata's Byakugan and Shino's Kikaichu.

He also saw how a team with Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke was balanced--even if it was a terrible idea. Sakura was book smart, sure, but she was physically weak and cared more about appearances and impressing Sasuke (putting a fangirl on his team, honestly, what were they thinking?). Sasuke was trained within his clan before the massacre and had access to every scroll in its possession now that he was the sole heir/Clan Head. That's not even mentioning his enormous ego and mental state (did he ever get help after that night? He probably should have). Naruto was a special case, with his disability he was at risk for being a liability but he was a chakra powerhouse and was smarter and more skilled than he was given credit for. Underestimated. It was a good tool for a ninja and one Naruto wielded well--it made the blonde even more unpredictable.