I DO NOT OWN NARUTO.
I OWN ALL THE OCs in this story.
This work is my own work and cannot be published by someone else without my consent.
Chapter 10
The Genin Days Pt.1
Walking on a dirt path on the outskirts of the village, the lone redhead had his hands in his pockets as he meaninglessly wandered around, trying to get his thoughts in order.
'An S-rank ninja...
...they are on a completely different level than the Jonin I fought.'
An S-rank shinobi is a ninja whose skills are so refined that it cannot be compared to others, creating a benchmark of its own. While an elite jonin can reach up to an A-rank, being an S-rank is much more difficult. An S-rank ninja can easily defeat dozens of A-rank ninjas. They can also single-handedly change the course of a war. Moreover, the strength of a country is determined by the number of S-rank ninjas it possesses.
'To think that the Sannin took down seven S-ranks together simultaneously. Then there was Hanzo, who kept up with the Sannin in multiple battles. Then the kages who were more powerful than Hanzo, and then...
...the Uzukage who took down three kages with him.'
'Just how strong are those shinobi? How will I ever achieve my goal if there are such.... monsters in my way? Even with the Rinnegan, this won't be an easy task.'
'I need to get stronger, and fast.'
Naruto's desire to get stronger surged deeper and deeper, the flames of his desire which were ignited at the night of the invasion now burned with even more intensity with his recent humiliation at the hands of Jiraiya. He knew that even with fuinjutsu, the outcome would still be the same, as Jiraiya was also a grandmaster like him.
The bright side was that he now had the opportunity to train under Jiraiya. He knew that the aspects he needed to improve at the most at were his katon, doton and fuuton ninjutsu.
After a while of wandering around, Naruto stumbled into an empty clearing, which seemed for a lack of better word... unused.
Naruto felt that the place was perfect for him. It was covered with bright green grass all along the way, and had a small pond at its edge. It was also surrounded by numerous trees, which just like the grass had their own bright green shine. It was nice, quiet, and away from prying eyes. And it looked beautiful as the stars in the night sky seemed to adorn the crowns of the surrounding trees.
'Well, what better time to start than now?' he thought as he prepared for his training with fuuton.
He specifically needed to train his fuuton, as he had an inkling suspicion of a certain event happening.
And if it does happen, he would need his fuuton.
—X—X—X—
Eventually, Naruto had completed his training for the day. He had finally started to progress in fuuton, much to his delight. If his calculations were correct, then it would take him around six to seven months to fully master the element.
Meanwhile, he had also started on A-rank jutsus for raiton and suiton. Having complete mastery over both these elements, he could now easily use high ranked jutsus of said elements.
And finally, he had also decided to train his Amenotejikara more. Amenotejikara was almost as fast as the Hiraishin, but the Hiraishin consumed far less chakra and was considerably faster. On the other hand, Amenotejikara could teleport anything within its vision. That meant that if fighting on a cliffside, he could teleport the enemy to fall to their deaths.
He desperately needed to reduce the chakra intake of the jutsu. Currently, he could do five before exhausting himself. As per his knowledge, he should be able to do seven by the time he is done with it. Further improvements can only be reached when he grows up and increases his chakra capacity.
Breaking out of his thoughts, the Uzumaki finally entered his apartment. He was the only person there as Kushina was currently on a date with Minato.
Thinking of that left a sour taste in Naruto's mouth. His issue wasn't that Kushina was dating Minato. It was the fact that Kushina looked so happy, so...
....content.
It was as if fate itself was mocking Naruto. Kushina had lost her clan too, just like him. Then why was it that she could bounce back and find happiness so... so easily, while all he was left with were responsibilities and ambitions? Sure, being with Kimiko, Kushina, Minato, and Sakumo made him happy, but...
but he still sought the contentment of being connected with someone on an emotional level.
He wanted love.
Naruto wasn't the type of guy to rush in in the matters of love. Shiroi ka-chan had always told him that love was patient. He just wanted to find someone that clicked with him. Someone who would compensate for all his flaws.
He needed someone that would complete him.
But deep inside, he knew. He knew that there was almost a zero percent chance of finding such a person.
Could there ever be someone who could love him?
—X—X—X—
As Naruto strode into his room, he took in the grandiose design - brown walls, a king-sized bed, and luxurious furniture. The pretty decorations served as the cherry on top, adding a refined and polished feel to the space.
It was, after all, the best room money could get you in the entire village.
Naruto took a quick cold shower and changed his clothes into appropriate sleepwear. However, he was not planning to sleep anytime soon.
Making sure to lock his room to prevent Kushina from seeing anything when she returned, he bit his finger to extract his blood, which he rubbed on the corner of the floor. Soon, a wide and complex sealing array appeared, which he used to summon a few scrolls.
Five of them held the bodies Naruto took during the invasion. However, his business was with a simple blue scroll lying in the pile, which held a storage seal.
Taking the scroll in his hands, Naruto released a small amount of chakra into the seal, which was the key to accessing the seal.
The stored items were then released, revealing a stack of paper and files, that, to the common eye, would be nothing significant.
However, what those papers truly contained was something far more dangerous.
For the papers had tons of information, both public and classified, on Kumo, Iwa, and Kiri.
For years, Naruto had worked incessantly, creating an effective blueprint for his revenge. He had visited the library several times and copied all the information on the kages, their families, their top jonin and jinchurikis, to even their missing nins.
It was, though, much more tricky to get the classified information. But he eventually managed to get that too.
Every year, Konoha shinobis caught many foreign ninjas traveling through the Land of Fire, carrying classified information. Naturally, all those scrolls would be retrieved and brought back to Konoha.
Such scrolls generally had a special seal on them that gave access only to certain people. If the receiver of the intel was found and detained, then accessing the scroll was usually a child's play using the blood or genetic material of the reciever.
However, if they were unable to retrieve any genetic material pertaining to the receiver, it was impossible to bypass the security seals, making most of the scrolls useless.
Well, one man's trash is another man's treasure.
Since the scrolls were technically useless, the security for such scrolls was usually lax, something Naruto took heavy advantage of.
Over the years, he managed to get his hand on several such scrolls. With his knowledge of fuinjutsu and access to the bodies of the kages, he got access to the information in the scrolls with little difficulty.
If all his predictions and the data in the scrolls were correct, then Konoha was planning to invite Kumo and Kiri to its chunin exams this year.
Perfect.
And if his sources are correct, the Third Raikage's younger son had recently turned Genin.
Super Perfect.
—X—X—X—
The next day rolled in as the trio made their way to their newly assigned training grounds, where they were supposed to train in teamwork exercises and hone their skills. The ground was an empty clearing with a stream of water nearby and surrounded by trees. There were a few wooden posts in the corner to practice taijutsu.
Honestly, Naruto preferred the clearing which he had discovered last night. He couldn't quite put his finger on why, but the place felt lively and beautiful to him, especially at night. He had decided to make it his personal space and had set up some barrier seals around it.
Beside him, Kushina and Minato were walking hand in hand, clearly enjoying each other's company. It seems like they had a really good time last night, which was proved by the way Kushina returned home, skipping around and singing a happy song.
They finally arrived at the spot where they were supposed to meet up at, only to discover that Jiraiya sensei was late.
So they took it upon themselves to get a light warmup in. After running a couple of laps around the ground and some light taijutsu sparring, Jiraiya finally appeared in a puff of smoke, performing a kabuki pose and wearing his usual grin.
Jiraiya looked over the trio with a calculating face. He hoped that Naruto had learned his lesson that there is a long and hard way to achieve true strength. The humbled look on the redhead's face told him that he had succeeded. But still, he couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something different with Naruto. The feeling only intensified when his sensei told him of his suspicions that the Uzumaki might be hiding something.
Oh well, as long as he does not harbor any negative intentions over Konoha, there was no need for intensive action. But he would be sure to keep a close eye on him.
He then turned his gaze over to Minato and Kushina, and a pervy grin soon spread across his face. Immediately recognizing their posture and chemistry, he realized that the two of them must be dating.
'Oh hell yeah, I was planning to write another book after my 'Tale of the Gutsy Ninja', but this time with a little more spicy content. And I just found the PERFECT research material. I can see it already- 'Two ninjas on the same team hopelessly in love....' '
Kushina, seeing the pervy look on Jiraiya's face, immediately pulled her hand back with a blush on her face, something that Minato soon reciprocated.
—X—X—X—
Jiraiya almost felt bad for his genin as they were going to be subjected to the cruel horrors of D-ranked missions, the key word being almost, as he himself had to go through the same when he was a genin. If the legendary Sannin went through D-ranked missions, then these brats were gonna do it too!
But, even then, he knew there was no real need for D-ranks. The main purpose of such missions is to develop bonds and teamwork among the genin team, while their sensei prepares them for higher-ranked missions. But the trio already had great teamwork among them, and were strong enough to impress him in battle.
He could just skip the D-ranks and jump straight to C-ranked, but doing so would be considered favoritism, something that neither Jiraiya nor Hiruzen was inclined to do. So, they had to do D-ranks, if only as a mere formality.
'I guess there is no choice. But oh well, it's not like I will have to do anything.'
However, what he didn't know was that the trio was long since prepared for this moment. They knew all about the mission rankings and how they were assigned. And obviously, none of them wanted to do chores in the name of a mission.
Just as they started their walk to the Hokage tower, the trio quickly made shadow clones, which hid themselves in the nearby trees.
They made the switch when Jiraiya entered the Hokage's office, to ask permission for the entry of his team.
—X—X—X—
The trio quickly escaped from the Hokage tower, leaving their shadow clones to the fate of completing the chores.
All three of them decided to train in this free time. Naruto decided to take Kushina to his new clearing, where they would practice their kenjutsu, while Minato took off to the Namikaze estate to study his family's notes on Seikakuna Kanpeki.
—X—X—X—
Soon, Jiraiya and his team were assigned a mission...
...to weed the flowers in a civilian's garden.
Jiraiya quickly noticed that there was no disappointing sigh or complaints from the genin. Even Kushina had settled with an 'Alright, Goatee ji-chan'. Maybe they really were prepared to face all this.
As they were walking towards the client's house, Jiraiya began to get suspicious of his team. There chakra levels were not as high as yesterday. Either they had really exhausted themselves this morning or....
.....'These cheeky brats!'
He quickly pulled out his specialized seal, which could identify an original from a clone.
They were all clones....
Now, Jiraiya could pop these clones and search for his brats themselves, but that would take up more of his time, which in turn, would reduce time for his research.
'Oh, to hell with it.' Jiraiya thought as he himself switched with a shadow clone and left to go to the nearest bathhouse.
—X—X—X—
Once again, Sannin no Jiraiya found himself impressed by the skills that his genin team displayed. Despite being shadow clones, which meant limited use of chakra, the trio worked in perfect tandem and coordination. Jiraiya was now convinced that they did not need to do any D-ranks, and as such, would allow their clones to continue the formality, till they completed the advised amount of 35 D-ranks before moving on to C-ranks.
He was, in particular, very surprised to see the versatility Naruto showed in sealing techniques, which made the D-ranks even easier for the trio. He, along with three shadow clones, fabricated a D-rank barrier in a single second, trapping the pet cat they were supposed to catch. He even used storage seals on the fence and sealed paint in them, making it easier for them to paint it. Jiraiya knew that he could have used another seal to spread the paint out too, but that would have defeated the whole purpose of D-ranks.
Overall, Jiraiya was satisfied by the work done by his team, or rather, Jiraiya's clone was satisfied by the work done by his team's clones.
—X—X—X—
"Great job today, everyone. Moving forward, we will be alternating between missions and training every other day on a regular basis. During our training, I will be teaching you all about the Konoha teamwork formations, our anti-invasion strategies, and the protocols to follow if a mission doesn't go as planned. Additionally, I will be helping you develop your personal skills."
The trio nodded at that. All of them were very enthusiastic to study and train under the legendary Sannin no Jiraiya. Naruto, in particular, was the most excited. After Jiraiya's display of his true power, Naruto understood that he could not achieve everything by himself. He needed a capable teacher who could make him stronger, just like the Sannin who were trained by the Sandaime Hokage.
'I always thought of Sakumo-san as a sparring partner or a guide. Perhaps I should take him as a teacher too.'
"And yeah, NO SHADOW CLONES FOR THE TRAINING DAYS." Jiraiya declared as he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
The trio grinned sheepishly, realizing that they had been caught, not that any of them expected to fool Jiraiya. That's when they noticed that Jiraiya had been a clone all along too.
"He said no shadow clones for training days, so we can use them for mission days..."
Yo guys! This chapter marks the final changes in Naruto's mindset before he sets out in his path. Mainly, it was done to make him realize the importance of a good teacher. The main story will begin from the next chapter, hope you enjoy!