Hey y'all! The reviews for the last chapter seemed to be positive. I'll discuss some of the things pointed out. About the seriousness/jokes, that is about what I'm going for. Especially for the chapters that don't have a lot going on, I want to make up for it with jokes. The first chapter was a decent example of that. I wanted to establish that Naruto is going to be smarter than the norm while also starting the base of the story. Anyways, someone asked in my Pms about my likes and dislikes. Little surprised, but I will indulge. I like dialogue a lot. I am a scriptwriter sometimes and dialogue is what is most important to me. I dislike description because I'm bad at it, I would like to improve, but in the element of film, I can imagine what they would wear and what they will do, but usually, I don't have to structure my description the way I do here. I can say they wear a blue shirt instead of describing it in the depth that the story requires. This chapter is once again very information-based and I apologize. I need to set up the characters however and this is the only way. I will preface, I stole the name of Ino's mom from a story called Outfoxed, I simply couldn't find a real name for her, so I used the name from that story. Not many fics I've read really mention her mom.
EXTRA. So uh… it's been a few months LOL. The finals wiped me out and most of them were 4-5 pages essays. God I hate college classes. But after that I didn't want to write anything for a good long time. Now that I am stuck at home in quarantine (I live in CA, we are all quarantined here) I can finally write again without having to focus on other work. I would also like to say that this chapter has been written since around the first chapter, I was just so unhappy with it that I didn't want to put it out. However, I am starting to realize that I need to finish this boring chapter so I can start writing more plot driven chapters which will be more entertaining. Thanks Y'all. Sorry for the delay. Stay safe out there from Corona.
Also I am restructuring the First chapter right now so it flows better. Jesus my writing is shitty.
Ino Yamanaka was a simple girl. She may have been young, but she knew what she wanted to do with her life. She wanted to be a kunoichi. She wanted to study flowers. And she wanted to be the happiest she could be. The academy was the first step for her to accomplish the first of her dreams. She wanted to make friends with most of the students. The current group would most likely be seeing each other for the rest of their ninja careers and they would end up working together for most of it as well. That would lead to them being very close anyway so it was better to start those bonds early.
The blonde lazily looked through the class as Iruka-sensei droned on. Her eyes shifted from one member to another. She could already tell that only a few of them had the actual potential to be ninja. The people who were in clans were a given. They had natural talent that most of the civilians didn't have. Her eyes settled on her pink-haired friend. Sakura was a civilian, but she was the most likely to become something. However, she needed the motivation to do well or else she would fail. Her eyes flicked to the Uchiha.
Maybe it would have been enough for Sakura to try to impress Sasuke by herself. But, ever since they had made their rivalry, Sakura had been trying even harder to beat Ino in being a ninja as well as beating her in love.
Did she like Sasuke? To be honest, she didn't really care for him. He was too quiet, too set on beating his brother or whatever. He brooded a lot and wasn't a great talker. It seemed unhealthy. A psychologist would have a field day with him.
Speaking of psychologists, her eyes went over to the only other blond in the room. She was certain he was at least a little insane. His perpetual rant about becoming Hokage and some of his actions in class proved her theory right, a least a little bit. As a ninja he was okay. In the Taijutsu lessons that they have done so far, he was the best. He had no real style, but his energy seemed endless. The blond would simply wear out the opponent. At the same time, his ninjutsu was subpar, and his written grades were absolutely terrible. The class hadn't gone over Genjutsu yet, but seeing how the reason his ninjutsu wasn't great was because of his abysmal chakra control, it was most likely he would be even worse at that subject. Not very Hokage like.
However, he was interesting. Her father had started asking about him recently and seemed genuinely concerned for him. He even asked her to ask him to dinner at their house sometime. It was odd because, to her knowledge, they had never met.
Flashback to night before
The Yamanaka family were sitting in their dining room eating dinner. Inoichi sat between his two lovely ladies, his wife and daughter. He looked over to his wife, a very young-looking brunette although she was near the same age as him. She had very similar facial features as their daughter, and if a picture was held with them at the same age, the only difference would be their hair color.
"Ino-hime how are your classes going?" asked her father.
"Good! It's been a lot of fun!"
"Great to hear, have you made any new friends?" inquired Kana.
"A few, but I'm not really sure about them. Kiba is loud and annoying," a tick mark appeared on her forehead as she recalled the dog boy's actions. "Shino is really quiet and the same with Hinata. I still talk mostly with Shika and Choji."
"How about Sakura?"
Ino snorted, "All she cares about is trying to get Sasuke-kun's attention. Still she's doing well in class. "
Inoichi nodded, he had expected as much, but he wanted to try to push the conversation towards Naruto. He had always supported the fellow blond and he was one of the people the Hokage had trusted to take care of Naruto indirectly. This afternoon, he had received a bunch of people in the Torture and Interrogation center due to their feelings about the gaki.
Holy hell, people were dumb. He never could understand the civilians' hate for the kid. Even if they did kill him, would it not occur to them that the Kyuubi would come back and kill them? If they would stop and think for a few seconds it should dawn on them.
In the initial announcement, the Hokage said Naruto was holding the Kyuubi inside of him and specifically stated that he was not the Kyuubi reincarnate. Many of the ninjas already knew this, but the civis apparently weren't listening.
He felt a hand on his arm that brought him out of his thoughts. Kana was looking over at him with a knowing look. They had discussed the blond many times, even going to call him, in private, "the Fourth".
They used this as a play on words to refer to him as the 4th member of their family and as the son of the Yondaime. He and his wife were close to Minato and Kushina. Himself, Hiashi, and Minato were on the same genin team and remained close until Minato's untimely death. Hiashi and him still talked very often. He knew that Kushina was pregnant and he swore to do his best to protect one of his closest friend's child after the incident.
He had tried to adopt him, but the Hokage wouldn't allow it, due to it making an imbalance in clan power. However, after the things he learned today, he would have to have a chat with the Third one more time.
Inoichi refocused on his daughter, "There wouldn't happen to be a Naruto in your class would there?" He already knew the answer. Something about Naruto made him unforgettable.
"Oh yea, Naruto. He's gotten pretty close to Shikamaru and Choji after the two offered him some lunch on the first day. I haven't really talked to him yet though."
This was an interesting development, he would have to talk to his buddies later about the boy's friendship with their kids.
"He seems like a nice kid, why don't you invite him over for dinner sometime?" Kana asked with a smile on her face. She wanted to get to know Naruto on a more personal level as well. She and Kushina had celebrated so much when they found out they were pregnant at the same time. She chuckled to herself as she remembered their talks to get their kids together so they could be really related.
Ino looked over to her dad who had nodded at the idea. Her dad never liked any boy. She knew he was joking, but he had scared the crap out of Shikamaru and Choji to "protect" his daughter, but now here he was, openly inviting her to bring a boy over.
"Sure, if we start talking more I'll bring him over." She said as she flashed a smile at her parents.
Flashback end
Ino sighed, something was up and her parents were being oddly secretive about it. She continued to think about the blond, searching for the reason her parents would be so interested. His chakra didn't make any sense. No civilian had that much chakra, so he had to be part of some sort of clan. Maybe that was it. She couldn't think of that many blondes in Konoha, so maybe he was distant family?
I'll look into that later, she thought.
There was also intelligence to his madness. Many of his pranks required meticulous planning and a lot of work. From what she heard from Shikamaru the way he played shogi was maddening. It was some sort of organized insanity. None of his moves should make sense, but a lot of the games put Shikamaru in his "thinking" pose, which she had not yet been able to accomplish.
"Ino?"
Ino was quickly brought out of her thoughts as she saw Iruka-sensei looking straight at her. "Sorry sensei what did you say?"
"I asked how many nations there were."
"Five, Iruka-sensei."
Iruka nodded, "Good, please try to pay better attention."
Ino sighed as the teacher focused his attention elsewhere. She was putting too much thought into nothing. Her parents probably were just curious about her classmates and she decided to leave it at that.
Naruto looked up to see Ino quickly look away from him. He shrugged and looked back towards Iruka-sensei.
Outside of Academy
"Kami today was boring…" Naruto grumbled as he put his hands behind his head. "Why do we have to learn about geography." he said to no one in particular. He perked up as he remembered he was supposed to meet the Hokage today.
"I wonder what Jiji is going to teach me today?" Naruto wondered out loud as he made his way towards the tower. He grinned as he saw the window of the Hokage's office open. "I might as well surprise him."
Inside the Hokage office.
The Third sat on his desk doing the killer of all kages, paperwork. He really had no idea how Minato had been able to enjoy his life outside of the office, even when he was Hokage. Sarutobi wished that he had passed that secret along back to him. He looked up as he heard his window rattle. Huh. Interesting. He got up and observed his window from afar.
Kami he's becoming like Jiraiya as well.
Sarutobi decided to end this prank before it got too far. "Hello Naruto-kun, how was class today?"
"EHH?" Naruto said as he fell from a ceiling tile close to the window. "How did you know I was there? I was so careful!"
"I would not be Hokage if I were so easily fooled."
Naruto nodded at the answer. It made sense. The Third was the strongest person he knew. "What jutsu were you going to show me Jiji?"
"Ah yes. I almost forgot," The old man reached into one of his drawers to pull out a set of scrolls, "I actually have a couple scrolls for you." He grabbed the first scroll, "This one is the most important to your training. It contains a jutsu called Kage Bunshin."
"Er.. Jiji? Why would a Bunshin be useful to me during training."
The Kage shook his head, "Naruto, a bunshin and kage bunshin are not the same thing." He quickly made the signs for the kage bunshin, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" A perfect copy of Sarutobi appeared. He moved towards Naruto and placed his hand on Naruto's head.
Naruto's eyes widened at the meaning behind the action, "So a kage bunshin is solid?"
"Yes, but not only that, they are very useful for training and spying. Anything they learn, you learn as well. Do you understand the possibilities of that?"
Naruto leaned back as he put a hand to his chin, "I could send out the Kage Bunshin and then dispel them to learn what is going on." his eyes widened once more as he thought about the second half of the Hokage's sentence, "You said I learn anything they learn?"
"Yes."
"Then any jutsu I learn or any katas I practice, I can just make multiple kage bunshin and I could shorten training time from months to weeks or days?"
"Yes! Good job Naruto-kun! You figured it out!" Sarutobi said with a smile.
"That seems a little overpowered, Jiji." Naruto deadpanned.
"Yes one would imagine it is," The old man replied with a slight sweatdrop.
"Why don't more people use it to train?"
"It requires a lot of chakra due to it splitting the user's chakra every time it's used. It goes from half to fourth to eighth, and keeps exponentially splitting the chakra, eventually killing the user." The Third looked over at the sweating Naruto's face, knowing what he was thinking. "Thankfully, it was as if this jutsu was custom made for you as you have a near infinite amount of chakra."
Naruto beamed, "Hell yea! Me and my Kage Bunshin army will beat everyone!"
"Now for the other things I would like to give you," The leader brought out a piece of paper, "You've learned how to channel chakra already I presume?"
Naruto nodded.
"Good, please channel some chakra into this paper for me, Naruto-kun."
Naruto did as he was told and the chakra suddenly cut in half. Surprisingly, it started turning into wood and then it went up in flames.
The blond freaked out as he threw the piece of paper, "AH! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!"
Sandaime chuckled at the boy's actions, but internally he was astonished. Naruto has the Mokuton? Wind and fire, sure, but Mokuton? That could only mean… Hiruzen looked over to the picture of his Team 7. He stood in the middle with Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade standing in front of him. Interesting. I'll need to call a few people back.
"Oy! Jiji! What the hell are you tryna do? Are you trying to kill me!?"
"Ah, sorry Naruto-kun, that was chakra paper, it helps me determine what sort of jutsus I should give you."
"Oh, cool! What did it tell you?"
He hesitated for a second, debating whether or not to tell Naruto about the Mokuton, "You have fire and wind elements that will come naturally to you." He stopped. Why not? He mused. Maybe Naruto will be able to master it early. It is better for him to know now and train it up instead of being very behind later. "You also seem to have a third element in you that is very rare. A kekkei genkai in fact."
"A what?"
The Hokage sighed. "Sorry, I forgot that you're fresh in the academy. A kekkei genkai is a bloodline. A good example would be the Sharingan and the Byakugan"
Naruto, who's already had a lot of revelations today, could not handle his excitement, "DOES THAT MEAN I HAVE A CLAN?!"
Hiruzen sighed mentally at his misstep, he decided to make this someone else's problem. "Naruto, your last name as it is, the Uzumakis, are a clan. Read about them in the book I gave you. But it does mean, I will have to bring some people back to train you."
"Who's going to train me?"
Hiruzen smiled with a glint in his eyes, "Some of Konoha's legends."
Naruto's eyes' glimmered with excitement.
Hiruzen looked at his clock. "Ah Naruto I believe it is time for your lesson with your tutor. Please go down to Training Ground 27 to meet with him."
Naruto nodded and started walking out the door but suddenly stopped and turned back, "Wait Jiji, seriously. What do you mean by green leotard?"
"Sometimes the best part of the journey is the discovery, not the end."
Naruto deadpanned, "Screw you, you old man."
Hiruzen chuckled as the soon to be ninja walked out the door. He turned towards the window that faced the city. The old man slowly lowered himself back onto his chair. Things are about to get interesting.
A Chunin secretary came bursting through the door almost the second after he sat down. "Hokage-sama, Inoichi-san is here to see you."
Oh Kami, why is the life of Hokage so busy. I have to pass this job to someone soon.
He sighed, "Send him in Ryu-san."
The blond man strode in like a man on a mission. "Hello Hokage-sama."
The Hokage watched the blonde man walk in and sighed once more. He had a determined face. This was going to be a long meeting.
Training Ground 27
"I wonder what could be so weird about this guy that Jiji would go and warn me about him?" Naruto thought out loud.
He sat down by a tree in the grounds and started reading his scrolls since he had nothing better to do while he waited.
Interesting. This Jutsu really is very simple. It's just like throwing a bunch of chakra out at once. Seems like a waste only a few people can learn this.
Naruto put up the familiar cross, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu"
*Poof*
A cloud appeared next to him as an exact copy came out.
"Yo, what's up boss?"
Naruto looked at him in surprise, "I didn't know you could talk."
"Of course I can. I'm basically just you, but you can command me around."
Naruto, "Huh so how are you teaching me things I don't know if you're just me."
The clone froze, "I- I don't know. It's just how it works, accept it."
Naruto sighed, "well thanks, I don't need you right now so-"
The clone was poofed away.
That was actually so cool though, what the hell? I can always have someone to bounce ideas off of, even if it's just me!
His mind started wandering away as he heard a distant "YOSH" and a rumbling as if a herd of elephants were running. What in the world?
He got up and saw a very… green man running towards him… in a green leotard. "Kami, he got me back, didn't he?" He said, thinking of the old man.
The man stopped,"YOSH! You must be Naruto! The flames of youth shine brightly in you! I am Gai, your taijutsu specialist!"
Kami save me...
For those of you who got through that, thank you. I honestly had so much trouble writing this chapter because I found it rather boring because like I said, it is supposed to set up future chapters. I just wanted to get the basics out of the way. Please be safe from the virus, stay home if you can. Sure the mortality rate is a little worse than the flu, but it's about not spreading it to people who may be more susceptible