Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the other things that may or may not have appeared by means of a crossover.
Spoken
thoughts
Kyuubikyuubi thoughts
voting is still going so get in those last minute votes as next chapter will have the teams. Pls don't make this a florida thing.
Chapter 4
It had been about two hours since Naruto was shown his house. It was more like a log cabin than anything. Apparently the Hokage had deemed it best that Naruto was as far from the willage as possible. His house was at the village outskirts and was basically surrounded by forests.
Naruto didn't mind one bit as he had come to enjoy a bit of solitude in his travels with Jin. Jin was overly active and happy at times and he just needed some time alone.
Right now, Naruto had taken his duffel bag and moved into the forest finding a nice place to start meditating. His return to the village had brought him more bad memories than he expected and he wanted to clear his mind of all that.
Finding a small clearing that was near a stream, Naruto got into lotus position and closed his eyes and started to take long drawn out breathes. Eventually, Naruto started floating in mid-air. (sorta like Picollo in DBZ)
Naruto was deep in concentration when a sound pierced into his mind. Naruto snapped his eyes open and abruptly fell to the ground. Getting up and rubbing his behind, he quiet stalked towards the direction of the noise.
Getting closer, Naruto found that the noise was actually sobbing. 'That's weird. Why would someone be crying out here?'
Naruto carefully got closer until he saw the person. It was a young girl, possibly around his age. She had dark blue hair and wore a creme colored jacket with a flame design on the shoulders. She had on blue-black pants and sandals.
She was currently huddled up near the stream and was trying to stifle her sobs. Naruto approached her and spoke, "Are you alright?"
The girl gasped and turned around to face the person that had spoken to her. She quickly tried to dry her eyes and looked up. "Y-yes, I-I'm okay." Tears started to continue flowing down her face.
Naruto set down his duffel bag and started to dig through it until he pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to the girl. She blushed a bit, accepted it and started drying her eyes.
"T-t-thank y-you."
Naruto took a seat next to her. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. What's yours?"
"H-h-hyuuga Hinata."
"So Hinata-san, why is a girl as pretty as yourself, ruining her face by crying?"
Hinata stiffened a little and started blushing heavily. Nobody had ever complimented her so openly before. It was either her family saying that she was weak or that people generally avoided her as she was a Hyuuga.
"I-I needed t-to get a-away for a-awhile because m-my father s-s-said I w-was w-weak. He says that as heir of the Hyuuga clan, I have to be strong, and be the best at the ninja academy this year."
A frown formed on Naruto's face. 'Why would a father belittle their daughter like this?'
"Oh, so your training to be a ninja?" Naruto was curious. If she was in the academy, then he might be able to help out.
"Y-yes. A-after this y-year, if I-I pass, t-then I'll b-be a g-genin."
Naruto contemplated how he was going to propose a way to help her. "Hinata-san...," Hinata gave her full attention to Naruto, "I don't know how strong or weak you are, but if you would like, I could possibly teach you a few things that might help you out."
"R-really?" Seeing Naruto nod his head, she replied "T-thank you. I w-w-would like i-it if y-you helped m-me, but w-why are y-you helping m-me?"
Naruto grinned at her. "I don't like to see people cry and your face is too pretty to be covered with tears."
Hinata's whole face lit up red with a blush and she resorted to pushing her index fingers together as a way to cope. 'She looks kinda cute when she blushes like that.'
"Would you like to start now?" Hinata fought to keep the blush down and nodded.
"H-hai, w-what am I g-g-going to be d-doing f-first, N-naruto-...sensei."
Naruto started to fidget a little. "Just Naruto is fine. I'm going to assume that you know how to use chakra." Seeing Hinata's nod, Naruto continued, "Well, I can't really help you with jutsus or with your style of fighting other than be a sparring partner with you, but I can teach you some chakra control exercises."
Naruto moved to a tree and started looking around the base of it. He picked up a leaf and started to float it on his hand using chakra. "Now you try." Naruto passed the leaf to Hinata.
She closed her eyes and started to focus chakra to her hand. The leaf floated up, but it's height was unstable. A few moments passed and the leaf stabilized. Naruto looked at Hinata with a simle. 'She had fairly good chakra control.'
"So you already know this one?"
"I-i'm s-sorry if..."
"Nani? What are you apologizing for? You did a great job, so now we get to move on to the next thing."
Naruto returned to his duffel bag. After digging around for a second he returned to Hinata with somethings in his hands.
"This knife," Naruto showed her the knife which he unfolded and brought out the 4 inch blade, "was forged using wind-type chakra, making it one of the sharpest knives ever." To prove this, Naruto brought out his other hand and in it was an apple. Placing the tip of the knife over the apple, directly on the skin, Naruto let it drop. The knife immediately pierced the apple all the way to the handle.
Hinata gasped in shock. If the knife had been longer or the apple smaller, the knife would have stabbed Naruto's hand. Naruto then took the knife out of the apple and handed the apple to Hinata, who was still to shocked to do anything except take it.
Naruto then positioned it over his hand and dropped it in the same manner as with the apple. The knife glowed as chakra enveloped it and kept it from digging into Naruto's hand. Hinata, by now was more than a bit nervous and afraid. She didn't think that she could do it.
'I can't do this, and when I tell Naruto , he won't help me anymore.'
Naruto took the knife and pushed the blade back into the handle. "That was just a demonstration of what you could do once you master the technique. I won't be letting you do the exercise without practicing on something less dangerous first. That would be stupid of me."
Hinata breathed a sigh of relief. She really didn't want to get stabbed in the hand. "Do you had a kunai?" Hinata reached for her kunai holster in her leg an took one out. Naruto took back the apple and started to eat it.
"The key to this exercise which is not all that different from the one with the leaf. You have to use the right amount of chakra. In the leaf exercise, you have to generate and keep a steady flow of chakra so that it can float. It's harder this time because the kunai is heavier. You have to send out chakra so that it covers the kunai and hold it upright. Too much chakra and the kunai flies off your hand. Too little and it'll fall over and cut you. To prevent any injuries, cover your hand with chakra first."
Hinata brought up her left hand palm up and it started to glow blue. She took a deep breath and then placed the kunai over her hand. Slowly and carefully she placed the tip on her hand and let go of it. It stood upright for a second before she saw it falling forward. Desperately she forced more chakra into her hand in an attempt to make it straighten out. All that chakra just made it fly forward out of her hand and make the handle of the kunai hit Naruto directly in the forehead.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow." Naruto clutched his forehead to try to live relieve the pain.
"I-i'm sorry. I-I'm s-so s-sorry." "It's okay. I'm not hurt that much." Naruto gingerly removed the headband covering his forehead and touched the impact site to try and gauge the damage. As it stood now, at best it was nothing more than a red spot that was slightly more sensitive, and at worst, it would swell and turn into a bruise.
Hinata saw the angry red mark and reached into her jacket pocket to bring out a jar. Naruto looked at her curiously as Hinata explained. "I-i-it's a h-h-healing salve. P-please use i-it."
Naruto took it, but then offered it back to her. "Can you do it Hinata-san? I'm afraid that I can't do it without seeing it."
Hinata blushed at the thought of close contact with a handsome boy like Naruto. She bowed her head so that Naruto wouldn't see the blush and took the jar. She opened it and rubbed her finger into it.
"Naruto-san, p-please hold back y-your h-hair." Naruto took his hand and swept his hair back and held it from falling back in his face. Hinata slowly reached out and started to apply the salve. Naruto closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling the salve had in cooling the area where he had been hit.
"I-i'm done n-now, Naruto-san." Naruto opened his eyes to see that Hinata was still blushing.
"Thanks, Hinata-san. It feels much better now. Would you mind if I could have the salve? It seems very good and I would like to have some."
"N-not at a-all Naruto-san."
"Why don't you keep trying. I have something I need to take care of." Hinata nodded and Naruto headed back into the forest. Naruto crouched down and taking his knife, he cut his thumb so that a trickle of blood flowed. Naruto then using that handed placed it on the floor and started to pump chakra into his hand. Slowly raising his hand he kept pumping out chakra and letting his blood mingle with it. The chakra slowly started to take shape.
Naruto had summoned out a fox. It was about mid-shin high and had completely silver fur except for the tips of it's two tails: they were white. "Zero, I would like for you to catch some food for me. Make sure there's enough for two people."
The fox yipped and took off into the forest. Naruto got down onto the ground and leaned against the trunk of a tree. He applied more of Hinata's salve on to the cut and was amazed that it started to hiss and smoke. Soon, it looked like there had been no cut at all. About five minutes later, a yip caught Naruto's attention. Standing before him was Zero and he had two rabbits.
"Please stay for a bit Zero." Naruto took out the knife and carefully skinned and gutted the two rabbits. Cutting some meat off, Naruto gestured to the remains. "Have fun Zero. Be sure to go back and give Kyuubi my regards." Zero yipped happily and started to eat.
Naruto took some broad leaves from some plants and placed the meat on them. Naruto then walked back to where Hinata was and saw that she was still struggling with the exercise.
"Hinata-san," Naruto called out to her, "please start a fire. I have lunch." Hinata put away her kunai and wiped away some sweat that had formed on her brow. Naruto went headed for the stream and started to clean his knife and the meat.
Hinata had gathered rocks and dry wood to start the fire. Putting the rocks in a circle and the dry sticks in the middle, she lit it with an academy level fire jutsu. By then Naruto had finished cleaning the meat and set it beside the fire. He then went to a tree and cut off some of the skinner branches and shaved them down until they were small stakes.
He returned to Hinata and together they staked the meat and set it over the fire. While waiting for the meat to cook. Naruto and Hinata started to talk. Hinata explained more about her father and her sister, whom she had to fight for the position of heir. She also explained about the branch house of the Hyuuga clan.
Naruto was shock and appalled by the way that the family had treated the branch house. Naruto absent-mindedly took some of the cooked meat and began munching on it as he thought about the Hyuuga clan.
'They seem pretty messed up. What kind of family forces one another to serve and die for them.'
His thoughts then turned to Hinata as he realized that she was also part of the clan. 'She doesn't seem so bad, nothing at all like the rest of her family that she described.'
"Naruto-san may we continue the training." Hinata's voice snapped Naruto out of his thoughts.
"Huh? Oh yea. Have you made any progress?"
At this Hinata's head bowed in shame as she replied, "I've only been able to get it for a second."
"Let me see how you're doing it."
Hinata brought out the kunai and showed Naruto what she was doing. She stood it upright on her had and let it go only for it to fall over seconds later.
"Why don't you try and hold onto the kunai until your chakra has had a chance to cover it."
Hinata once again and took the kunai. She held it and waited until the blue glow of chakra had reached from the tip to the handle. She let it go and saw to her amazement that it stayed up.
Naruto smiled at her. "Good job Hinata-san. Now lets see how long you can keep it like that."
The rest of the day continued in this manner, with Hinata continuing to try to keep the kunai upright without holding it until she had it. It was late afternoon when she had mastered the exercise.
"Thank you Naruto-san for helping me today."
"It was no problem. By the way, I live around here, so if you ever want to drop by for a sparring partner of something, feel free to do so." Hinata nodded and took off.
'Well today was certainly interesting. Lets see what happens when I get to the academy.'
The rest of the week passed uneventfully for Naruto. He just mainly stayed home not wanting to tempt fate by going into the village anymore than he had to, lest some villagers remember him and call for blood...once again.
Hinata had dropped by a few more times looking for a person to train with. Naruto happily complied and pushed each other to the limits in search of new strength.
At last the first day of the academy was in session and Naruto was leisurely walking towards the academy eating a sandwich for breakfast. Whistling a jaunty tune, Naruto wondered how things would turn out on his first day.
Upon entering the academy, he pulled out a piece of paper with the information on where his class was going to be that the Hokage had given him the previous day.
'Lets see...room 5B and instructor is...Umino Iruka.' Walking down a hallway, Naruto looked at the door numbers. '5A, 5B, 5C... wait a minute, what was that last one?' Back tracking he saw that it was 5B.
Naruto raised his hand and knocked on the door before entering. Naruto heard noise on the other side, but it was immediately silent as he entered. Whispers floated around the class regarding who the new kid was.
Looking at the man in the front of the class, Naruto asked, "Excuse me, but are you Iruka-sensei."
"Yes, I am. Who are you?"
"Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm the new student."
Iruka looked down at his attendence and saw that there was an Uzumaki Naruto on his list.
"Right, go take a seat." Iruka gestured towards the class. Naruto walked down the center isle and made it all the way to the back row before taking a seat...right next to Hinata.
Hinata was surprised that Naruto was going to be in class with her. He had made no mention of ever being part of the academy.
"How are you today Hinata-chan?" Hinata blushed bright red at the change in suffix. "I'm fine Naruto-..kun."
Naruto did not seem to notice any change as Iruka began talking to the class. "Alright class, settle down. To see what you can all do, I have today set up as a testing day." Massive groans filled the air. "First is a written exam, you have 45 minutes."
Iruka began passing out the test papers and pencils. "You may now begin."
'Just my luck to have a series of exams on the first day. Well lets see what I'm up against.' Naruto turned over the his exam and started to read through the questions. The test was on the history of Konoha and about some shinobi rules. Naruto started to look sheepish. 'I can't answer any of these. I haven't even learned about this.'
45 mins later the tests were collected and Naruto was the only one with a blank test. The closest one to that was Shikamaru as he answered only one question before giving up in favor of sleep.
Next up, target practice...
Out in the courtyard the class formed several lines in front of target dummies. "Now we're testing your aim. So throw 10 kunai and I'll evaluate your proficiency."
After several students went, Naruto's turn was up. Picking up the kunai, he tossed them up into the air a little to get a feel for the weight. Looking at the dummy, which was swaying gently in the air (these dummies aren't the ones on posts. Rather they are hanging ones from trees.), aruto took careful aim. Throwing the kunai, one right after another, only two hit. A gust had pushed the dummy to one side as he through the kunai. The dummy swung back to it's original position only in time for the last two to hit.
'What is this? The world is against Naruto day?' Naruto thought as he saw the abysmal results.
Next up, nin, gen and taijutsu...
Ny now Naruto was convinced the world was against him as he barely knew any ninjutsu other than making kage bunshins and summoning foxes and that was without making handseals. His genjutsu also relied heavily on fox illusions. Naruto chose to fail both these areas as doing things without handseals would do more than just draw attention to him.
As for taijutsu, lets just say that Naruto took his frustrations out on the training post and it was nothing more than a pile of debris in a matter of minutes.
Back in class...
"Okay everyone, that's it for today. I'll post up the results for the tests tomorrow and those results earn you your starting class ranking."
'Today was possibly the worst day in the world.'
Hinata noticed that Naruto seemed a bit depressed. She had noticed his poor performances during the tests and was amazed by the strength he possessed on the taijutsu test.
"Are you okay Naruto-kun?" Naruto turned around to see that it was Hinata asking.
"Yeah, I'm okay. I just had some bad luck today. Nothing to worry about."
The months passed by and the day of graduation was upon the entire class. After the first day of classes. It was posted that Uchiha Sasuke was first in rank and Naruto was last. Naruto decided it was for the best to continue hiding his skills except for his taijutsu as everyone had already seen it and to hide it would only bring suspicion.
Sasuke naturally thought Naruto was a dobe and payed no attention to him, except the fact that he possessed excellent taijutsu skills unnerved him a liitle. A rivalry started up between Naruto and Sasuke, more like a one-sided rivalry as Sasuke constantly challenged Naruto to a spar to settle who was the better at taijutsu, but Naruto refused each and every time.
Naruto just said it was pointless to fight just to see who was stronger and that if Sasuke wanted to be the strongest all he had to do was say so and he wouldn't mind.
This just angered Sasuke and he was always comforted by his fan-girls, which just made him even angrier.
Present time...
"Today you have to perform a jutsu to pass and graduate from the academy. You will be told the jutsu when you are in the testing room."
Naruto paid little attention to Iruka. Over the past year, Naruto worked hard to use the academy jutsus so that he could pass. Of course, the jutsu was performed in a weird way and he just hoped that he passed in this manner.
Looking over to his side, he saw Hinata was pushing her fingers together. A sure sign that she was nervous. "Hinata-chan," Hinata broke out of her worries and looked at Naruto, "I'm sure you'll do fine and pass."
"Thank you Naruto-kun." Over the past year, Hinata had started to like Naruto as more than a friend, but was too shy to say anything. Even if Naruto didn't show it in class, she knew he worked hard when he trained because they often trained together. She saw him working hard to make up for her weaknesses and wished that she could be like that.
Even if she didn't know, Hinata had been getting stronger and stronger. Her father had less to say about her weaknesses an saw that she had progressed an impressive amount.
"Hyuuga Hinata." Hinata was called and she got up to go to the testing room.
"Good luck Hinata-chan." Hinata blushed and nodded to him. A few minutes later, Hinata returned with a Konoha headband around her neck.
"I did it. I passed Naruto-kun." Naruto got up and hugged her. "I knew you could fo it Hinata-chan." Blood rushed to Hinata's face and she passed out. Naruto felt her go limp in his arms and looked at her face.
This wasn't the first time she passed out like that and he wasn't sure why. Naruto shrugged and placed he back into her seat.
"Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto strode into the testing room as his name was called. In the room sat Iruka ans Mizuki. On a table in front of them at one point were enough headbands for the entire class, but now only a few remained showing how many people had passed.
Iruka leaned over to Mizuki and whispered into his ear before getting up and leaving the room saying to Naruto that he was on a bathroom break. Mizuki grinned. 'Now I have the perfect chance to get the demon brat.'
"Okay Naruto," Mizuki's face struggled into a smile, "I want you to perform Bunshin no Jutsu and make three clones."
"Bunshin no Jutsu." Naruto faked the handseals necessary to perform the jutsu. Behind him three perfect copies of him materialized.
"I'm sorry, but you fail."
"WHAT?!? Why? The clones were perfect." Naruto couldn't believe what he was hearing. Something was off and all the while Mizuki just had a smirk on his face.
"I'm sorry Naruto, but you fail and there's no arguing against it." Mizuki had to restrain himself from laughing at the utter look of confusion on Naruto's face. By now Iruka had come back in.
"So Naruto, how'd you do?"
Before Naruto could complain to Iruka about Mizuki failing him, Mizuki jumped in and said, "He failed and he refuses to accept it."
'That's weird, I could have sworn I saw him do it properly last week.' "I'm sorry Naruto, but if you failed, then you'll have to try again next year."
Naruto absent-mindedly turned around and left. His blank stare was the only hint that at that moment he was talking to Kyuubi.
"KIT, THAT BASTARD'S MESSING WITH YOU. I SAW THE WHOLE THING. YOU SHOULD HAVE PASSED."
"Nice of you to drop by Kyuubi. Haven't seen you for a while. You're right, there's no way Mizuki-sensei could have known that I didn't actually to the jutsu. The only reason I can tell that he would fail me is on purpose and he wouldn't do that unless..."
"IT'S BECAUSE OF ME KIT. HE HATES YOU BECAUSE OF ME. DAMN...I WISH I COULD EAT HIM."
"Are people still hung up over that? Geez...maybe I should go to the old man."
Naruto had been on auto-pilot the whole time and reached his seat. Hinata had woken up to see Naruto returning to his seat with a dazed look. She immediately noticed that Naruto had not received a headband and that meant that he failed.
"What's the matter dobe, failed the test?" Sasuke's voice range out bring all attention to Naruto.
Hinata was getting worried that Naruto didn't respond. "Are you okay Naruto-kun?"
"YOU SHOULD LEAVE KIT. YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS GETTING WORRIED ABOUT YOU."
"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!!" Naruto yelled back, red in the face from blushing. He turned around and started to walk away down the corridor.
"YEAH, JUST KEEP TELLING YOURSELF THAT." Kyuubi snickered as he left. 'Man, that boy is dense.'
The world can back into focus as Naruto heard Hinata's question. "...okay Naruto-kun?"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine."
"I'm sorry that you didn't pass."
"That's okay. It's no big deal." Hinata could tell it was a lie. There was a small waver in his voice.
"Hey dobe, so you didn't pass. A loser is always a loser."
Naruto ignored Sasuke as Iruka came out and announced the end of the exams and to come tomorrow to get sorted into teams.
Naruto dragged himself out of the class on onto the nearby swing in front of the academy. Hinata had given him a goodbye telling him she had to go home. Naruto watched as the kids told there parents that they passes and also some not so nice comments about how it was good that the demon kid had not passed.
'I guess I should go talk to ji-san now.' Naruto was about to get off the swing when he felt a hand on his sholder. Looking behind him, Naruto saw it was Mizuki.
"Mizuki-sensei, what do you want?"
"I just wanted to tell you to not be so mad at not failing. I'm giving you a second chance to pass."
"CAREFUL KIT. HE'S UP TO SOMETHING." Kyuubi's voice entered into his thoughts.
"Really, Mizuki-sensei."
"That's right Naruto. All you have to do is break into the Hokage's office and steal the Forbidden Scroll there. Go to the shack about 4 miles into the west forest and deliver it to me. Accomplish this task and you'll pass."
Naruto thought it over. 'He's definitely up to something. Is this part of why he purposely failed me or is really a second chance? Maybe I should go along with this but ask ji-san if this is really part of the exam.'
"Alright Mizuki-sensei, when should I get the scroll." 'Jackpot. Once Naruto get's me the scroll, all I have to do is hide it and kill him. I get a super-powerful scroll and be a hero for killing the demon.'
"You should get it at around midnight. Oh and if you don't go in trying your hardest, then you fail."
Mizuki started to walk away. 'This couldn't be any easier. Now all I have to do is wait and when the time is right...' Mizuki broke off and started to laugh.
Sorry if the academ scenes are a bit weird. Cuz really naruto starts at the end of the academy and well i really have nothing to go on.
Also i just realized how hard it is to make characters have thoughts. Geez.. it was pretty hard for me to Sasuke in there and i think he wasn't exactly in character.
So i've decided that i need help. if you want send an email to to apply.