Chapter Text
“Duck!”
Iruka just managed to avoid the projectile aimed at his chest, thanks to Genma’s shout. The Katon (Fire) jutsu flew over his head and fizzled out after setting the tree behind him on fire. His opponent, not about to let him recover, charged at him with his sword raised, poised to sever his head from his shoulders, when he fell over with a sword piercing his heart.
“Where’s the backup?” This question, asked between two coughs, came from Hayate, who was sliding his sword out from between the ribs of the shinobi who just tried to kill Iruka.
“Not a clue,” replied Aoba, in between dodging a suiton jutsu.
Mizuki’s murmured “Fuck!” summed up what Iruka thought pretty nicely.
These five – Aoba, Genma, Hayate, Mizuki, and Iruka – were currently accompanying a group of academy students on a field trip. They weren’t far from Konoha – maybe one hour by shinobi speed – and were very well guarded, with three tokubetsu jonin and two chunin.
In fact, normally this annual trip was done solely by the two instructors of a class. However, considering that this class was full of clan heirs – six heirs and the second child of a clan head, to be precise – extra protection in the form of three tokubetsu jonin was organized.
Theoretically, any possible attempts of kidnapping or attacks form shinobi would be easily averted by this.
In practice, they were attacked by two ANBU teams.
They were holding up pretty well, all things considered. They had killed three of the eight opponents, and another two were injured. The problem was that the injured two had gone after the children, while the other three were holding them back easily.
All of that was made possible by the leader, who used a mix of Doton (Earth) and Raiton (Lightning) jutsus. It was a rare combo, and the masked ANBU was wielding it with deadly efficiency.
Genma, Hayate, and Raidou were stalling him, trying to find an opportunity to kill him, while Iruka and Mizuki were facing their own foes. Before Hayate had killed the fourth opponent, Iruka and Mizuki were forced into a three against two, which almost cost Iruka his life.
The Konoha nin would probably win this fight, given enough time. Considering that two opponents had gone after the children, however, meant that time was the one thing they didn’t have.
“Doton: Doryuudan!” (Earth Element: Earth Dragon Missile!)
A huge dragon head suddenly manifested in front of the Konoha shinobi and started spewing mud missiles. The shinobi did their best to dodge. At this range, however, with the dragon being merely ten meters away from Iruka and Hayate, fifteen from Mizuki, and at point blank for Aoba and Genma, they didn’t have much time to dodge.
Mizuki was the only one who got away unscathed and earned himself a kunai in the gut from his opponent. Iruka, who was still laying downed on the ground, managed to roll slightly to the side and only had his legs hit by the jutsu. Raidou got the full brunt of the jutsu on his chest, knocking all the air out of his lungs and almost causing him to fall unconscious, while Genma’s right arm was now useless. Hayate had managed to defend himself with his sword. As a consequence, however, said sword broke, leaving him without his main weapon.
All in all, the Konoha ninja were defenseless. They knew it, and their opponents knew it too. It came as no surprise, therefore, when the leader started forming hand seals for a Raiton technique, while the other ANBU were approaching Iruka and Hayate to decapitate them.
What came as a surprise, however, were the two thuds that suddenly sounded through the clearing, and the shinobi that appeared in their midst.
The ANBU immediately fell into defensive positions, while the Konoha shinobi sighed in relief once they spotted the leaf hitai-ate on his arm. Only to tense up again when they got a better look at him. It wasn’t a jonin, like they were expecting, but rather, a child only ten years old.
Sun-kissed hair, ocean blue eyes, and three tell-tale whisker marks on each cheek – there was no doubt about who this was in their minds. It was Uzumaki Naruto, Konoha’s resident prankster – at least, that’s who he was until five months ago. Now…
“Heh, here I was, taking a stroll through the forest – and suddenly I see two ANBU aiming their weapons at children.” Suddenly, the light-hearted voice the blonde used turned into a serious voice edged with a warning. “Now I see three foreign ANBUs about to kill five Konoha shinobi… Would anybody mind explaining what’s happening?”
Instead of receiving an answer, however, the ANBU that gutted Mizuki charged at Naruto with a katana. Instead of cowering with fear, or freezing with the killing intent flooding the area, a grin spread on Naruto’s face.
“I see… You want to have a go, huh?”
With that, he extended his left arm to the side. Ink started to flow from underneath Naruto’s sleeve, running down his outstretched hand, until it dripped down his middle finger and dropped towards the ground. Seemingly from nothing a scythe formed underneath his left hand, which Naruto quickly caught before gravity pulled it to the ground. The whole process didn’t take longer than a second and was impressive to watch.
Suddenly Naruto began twirling the scythe in his left hand, bringing it in front of his torso before switching it to his right.
“Hijutsu: Saisho no aji.” (Hijutsu: First Taste.)
To the onlookers, nothing changed. To Naruto, a different world came into existence before his eyes. The chakra network of his prey – jonin, average chakra control, water affinity – became visible to him, and the surrounding hundred meters were scanned for hostile chakra sources. Two apart from my prey. No further chakra signatures apart from the children and the shinobi in this clearing.
Naruto straightened himself with a smirk, before bringing down his scythe in a seemingly sloppy draw. The beheaded body slumped on the ground before him spoke a different story, however.
“Well, that’s one down. Who’s next?” The wide grin on Naruto’s face, combined with the bloody scythe in his hand and the body by his feet, gave an eerie feeling to the enemy shinobi.
The leader of the ANBU quickly formed hand seals. “Doton: Doryuudan!” (Earth Element: Earth Dragon Missile!) Immediately after the dragon head started firing the missiles, he flew through another sequence. “Raiton: Raienyuu!” (Lightning Element: Lightning Dragon!)
The lightning dragon combined with the earth missiles and created a widespread attack that was close to impossible to escape from.
“Tch.” Naruto raised his scythe to defend himself and coated it in wind chakra, creating a barrier between the jutsu, his allies and himself. Once the jutsu died down, Naruto threw his scythe into the air, much to the confusion of everybody in the clearing.
“Enough fooling around. Let’s get serious.”
“Are you surrendering, boy? It doesn’t matter, I’ll kill you regardless,” uttered the leader.
“Who said anything about giving up?” A smirk coated Naruto’s mouth. “Hijutsu: Chimamire no Sekai.” (Hijutsu: Bloodied World.)
This time, the effect was easily visible to the spectators. Weapons of all kinds – senbon, shuriken, and kunai – rose from Naruto’s weapon pouches, launching themselves into the air, and remaining there.
“I hope you have already written your testament, ANBU-chan.”
The shinobi in the clearing stared half in awe, half in horror, as the weapons hovering over their heads were coated in wind chakra. Then, at speeds almost invisible to anyone below A-Rank, the weapons rained down on the opponents.
Without a chance to even cry out in pain, the two remaining opponents died. Every single vital spot was hit, every artery cut at least once, the heads severed, and the brain pierced. It was a gruesome sight, and the Konoha Shinobi understood where the jutsu got its name.
“Well, that’s eight scumbags less in this world. Good job you five.” With that Naruto extended his left arm again, and the scythe flew back towards it, disappearing into thin air upon touching his palm. The various thrown weapons were raised back into the air, and sorted themselves into their respective pouches. Thanks to the wind chakra coating them, no blood or gore had stuck to them.
It was kind of surreal to watch, even for ninja, who walked on water every day.
When Naruto turned to leave, Genma quickly called out to him. “Wait! Take us back to Konoha.”
“Are you incapable of walking or what? Some shinobi you are,” he ridiculed, but never the less obliged and formed five Mizu Bunshin (Water Clones), one for each fallen ninja.
As he picked them up, a smirk remained on his face, but it quickly changed into a frown when he got a glance at their injuries. Immediately his entire behavior changed.
“Shit. Alright, Scar, Gut, and Senbon need to be taken to the hospital immediately. My clones will head over there at top speed, so try to hang on. I’ll bring the other two to the Hokage to report, and use a few clones henged into you to get the children back. Sounds like a plan?”
“Yeah. We have names though. I’m Genma, and the other ones are Raidou, Mizuki, Iruka, and Hayate.” Genma pointed at each person with his working arm before slumping against one of Naruto’s clones.
Naruto rolled his eyes. “Whatever, let’s go. Mizuki, Raidou and Genma will need a visit to the hospital, while Iruka and Hayate will report back to the Hokage.” Naruto frowned when he heard Hayate cough. “Do you need a hospital too?”
“No, I’m fine. This is a chronic illness; I am already used to it.” Naruto just nodded once in response, before starting to run towards Konoha with his clones carrying the shinobi. Along the way, he created five more clones, who performed a henge and left to take care of the kids.
Two hours later found Naruto standing in his favorite clearing in Konoha’s vast forest, effortlessly slipping in and out of his katas at a fast pace, when a bird began circling over his head and cried out once.
Naruto looked up at it and suppressed a sigh. Seems like Jiji is calling for me. Damn, and I am in the middle of training, too. Letting the tension roll out of his muscles, he dispersed his trusted scythe, Shinrai, before heading out of the forest and into the heart of Konoha.
One glance at the sheer amount of people on the streets and Naruto took to the roofs. Ten minutes later he slipped into the Hokage’s office through the window, quickly flashing his chakra so that the ANBU on duty wouldn’t try to stop him.
“Hokage-sama,” he said in way of greeting as he landed before the aged man.
“Naruto,” the man acknowledged with a warm grin. “I see you got the summon.”
“Yeah. Did you have to pull me out in the middle of training though, old man?”
Hiruzen smiled at that. Ever since Naruto was placed on genin team fourteen, and thus officially became a shinobi serving under him, he may have stopped calling Hiruzen by the nickname he christened him with when he was young (at least in public), but Naruto still didn’t see the point – or need – for formality and pretty words between them. In all honesty, Hiruzen preferred it this way.
“I’m sorry, but this couldn’t wait. I heard about the incident in the forest.”
“It wasn’t anything too difficult. The shinobi going for the children were injured, the shinobi that charged at me stupid, and the leader worn out. They were practically ripe for the taking, especially with my jutsu.”
Hiruzen just grunted in response. In all honesty, Naruto’s skills were terrifying. Not because it was a particularly complex jutsu, or a certain death technique, or because it required a living sacrifice or was forbidden or something like that. No, Naruto’s technique – christened as ‘Shinigami’s Hijutsu’ by the person in question – was terrifying because he took one simple, basic skill, and turned it into a deadly weapon.
“Anyway, this by far isn’t the first time that I killed, I’ve been using these techniques for more than two years now, I wasn’t injured and it wasn’t a particularly violent kill. Why did you want to see me?”
“Naruto, I’ve decided that you’ll be placed in a genin team.” Seeing Naruto open his mouth, Hiruzen quickly raised his hand to interrupt the words Naruto was about to say, and continued speaking.
“You will be placed on one of the genin teams graduating next year. Considering that they were just attacked on a field trip, I have reason to assume that they will be targeted once they are genin and begin running their first C-Ranks.”
“But what about my ANBU application?!” Naruto was currently gritting his teeth, hoping beyond hope that the aged Hokage wasn’t about to utter the dreaded words.
“The children have priority.” This sentence was uttered with a tone of finality, but Naruto wasn’t about to take this laying down. Neither of the two noticed that they were calling Naruto’s peers – at least in age, if not in rank or skill – children, while not referring to Naruto as such.
Naruto’s eyes blazed in fury. “You know what that means to me! I’ve been working towards this for years! How dare you?!”
“I’m sorry, Naruto, but my decision is final. You will be taking the genin exams with them, and hopefully finally get promoted to chunin. On the bright side, you will be paid for an ongoing A-Rank mission for this assignment.” The Hokage’s voice was calm, without any trace of emotions in it, and if anything that made things worse.
“I DON’T WANT YOUR FUCKING MONEY!”
Everyone in the room, the ANBU included, winced at this statement. It was no secret among the higher ranked ninjas – i.e., chunin and up – that Naruto’s goal was to become an ANBU, and that he already had the necessary skills for it after training hard for years. However, it was also widely known that he would never be accepted as one until he was at least sixteen – the memory of Itachi a constant, bloody reminder of what happens with young minds in the Black Ops.
“Be that as it may,” Hiruzen started again in a calm voice, “I will not negotiate this. Your orders stand, Naruto – you will be placed on a genin team next year, and you will remain there until you pass the chunin exam. Until then, you may take on C-Ranked missions solo, and be partnered up with other chunin and jonin for B- and A-Ranks. Report in the mission office if you want to take a mission.”
Sarutobi expected Naruto to get up in his face about this, to start another screaming match, heck, maybe even having to dodge a few jutsu and weapons. He had even prepared an incentive to get Naruto to agree should he start trying to negotiate – he had authorized that Naruto may learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu. It was a jutsu Naruto had been badgering him about for months, ever since learning that this technique existed and having learned every other clone technique Konoha had.
What he didn’t expect was the fury in Naruto’s eyes to blaze up before being smothered in cold ice, his jaw clenching before relaxing, and a perfect poker face to mask Naruto’s emotions.
Naruto nodded, bowed to the wizened man, and turned sharply on his heels. A single, “Yes, Hokage-sama,” was tossed over his shoulder before he slammed the door shut behind him, his voice cold and emotionless. The Hokage sighed and looked sadly at the door.
“Did I make a mistake?” The question echoed through the room, only answered by silence. He closed his eyes, took a moment to collect himself, and focused on his paperwork.