Suna no Kitsune Chapter 14

Stricken by Disturbed.

I'd like to direct anyone who wishes to look to wiki/Anjin_Uzumaki

On the latest chapters- NOOO NEJI!

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"Would the winners in the first-round matches come down, please?" called Hayate.

Neji Hyūga- a Jūkenpō prodigy of the branch house, with issues about destiny and the main house. Rookie of the Year, Byakugan. Defeated Hinata Hyūga.

Uchiha Sasuke- an Uchiha prodigy wielding the Sharingan. Skilled in Katon jutsu and taijutsu. Issues about older brother. Rookie of the Year. Defeated Kin Tsuchi.

Uzushio- a disguised Uzumaki Naruto representing Suna. Skilled in Fūton jutsu and seals. Kyūbi Jinchūriki. Rinnegan. Defeated Toramoto Tachi.

Aburame Shino- an Aburame wielding their family's kikaichū. Skilled in clan techniques. Defeated Dosu Kinuta.

Inuzuka Kiba- an Inuzuka and his partner Akamaru. Skilled in clan techniques. Defeated Yamanaka Ino.

Nara Shikamaru- a Nara genius. Extremely lazy but skilled in clan techniques. Defeated Haruno Sakura.

Sabaku no Gaara- the Shukaku jinchūriki. Uses sand, son of the Kazekage. Issues about squishing people. Defeated Choji Akimichi.

Temari- Wind Mistress. Practitioner of tessenjutsu and Fūton jutsu, daughter of the Kazekage. Defeated Abumi Zaku.

Kankuro- Puppeteer. Son of the Kazekage. Defeated Tenten.

When all of them were lined up, the Hokage smiled at such a display of talent. Hayate produced a box from somewhere, and asked all of them to pick a slip out of the box.

"Two," said Neji.

"Four," reported Shino.

"One," repeated Kankuro, glancing nervously at Neji.

"Five," drawled Shikamaru.

"Three," reported Naruto, smirking at Shino.

"Six," said Temari.

"Eight," said Sasuke.

"Nine," said Kiba.

"Seven," Gaara smiled.

"Ten," said a voice.

Immediately things ground to a halt as they looked at the nondescript genin. "Who the hell are you?" said Kiba accusingly. He smiled disarmingly, spreading his arms wide. "I'm Daisuke, genin of the Hidden Cloud."

"Then why weren't you in the preliminaries!" shouted half a dozen voices.

"I got a free pass." he shrugged. He shivered slightly at the cold, calculating looks he was getting from four of Suna and Konoha's best- Neji, Sasuke, Gaara, and the one called 'Uzushio,' who had effortlessly defeated his teammate's strongest illusions and sealed his other teammate's demon. For the first time, he wondered if he might be out of his depth. Nah, the other two were weaklings. None could stand in the way of the Hidden Cloud's super-shinobi program.

"You all have a month before the finals, which shall be-

Kankuro vs. Neji

'Uzushio' vs. Shino

Shikamaru vs. Temari

Sasuke vs. Gaara

Kiba vs. Daisuke.

Good luck all of you!"

All of the genin saluted and ran out.

Hmmm... thought Naruto, lazily sitting on the roof, leg swinging gently. Where's Anjin-niisan? He said he'd be back a few days ago... Probably just making a bacon raid or something.

Now who could I get training from? Kakashi-sensei is off limits; Hokage-jiji shouldn't knpw I'm here; Baki knows almost nothing useful except that Kaze no Yaiba which I don't want to learn. Ah well. Might as well watch my recording seals.

Naruto removed a sheet of paper with a row of identical seals, and jumped towards Suna's hotel room. He leaped and twirled from rooftop to rooftop with his eyes closed, humming merrily and ignoring the strange looks he was getting from civilians and ANBU alike. When he arrived in the room, Naruto unsealed a small screen from a storage scroll Anjin had left behind. Transcribing the recording seal and activating his Rinnegan, Naruto sat back and rewatched the matches.

"Auditory genjutsu? That's a thing?"

"This Lee kid is a taijutsu monster. He's really crazy strong. I don't see any standard chakra in his coils at all. Who is this kid?!"

"These little points are opening and increasing chakra flow? Those must be the eight inner gates. Five at thirteen? That's crazy. Is he an apprentice of Bushy-brows sensei or just part of a team?"

"Do these jounins even realize that they're throwing out their techniques where anyone can see them?"

"And I arrive to save the dayyy-"

Ah, it was good to have yourself kicking ass on video.

Watching Kiba fight Ino, Naruto noticed something off about Ino's fighting- she kept leaving some sort of gap in her taijutsu, as if she was expecting something to be extending her reach- a sword? Since when did Ino use some sort of blade often enough for it to be an integral part of her fighting style? That was something that bore closer examination.

Inuzuka jutsu were really just brute-force, and with only one of them, their techniques would be easy to counter. Did they have any clan summons, perhaps? And how did they maintain a solid transformation without a crapload of chakra?

Shika, so lazy. Sakura is really still so weak? He felt a saddening, a heaviness in his heart. Sakura hadn't seemed to have changed at all after his disappearance, as if she didn't even care that one of her teammates had disappeared in the middle of an A-Rank mission? Even as he began to feel depressed, he noticed something in Sakura's chakra. It was molding repeated genjutsus over herself even as she ranted and was caught? He was sure he hadn't seen handseals being formed the first time around. Rewind-rewatch. A sealless genjutsu to start it off, to conceal the next handseals- inventive. But sealless genjutsu were a thing? Again, Naruto's knowledge of genjutsu was severely lacking. But think how much that would screw with an opponent- if say every time you hit someone, it was just an illusion and they passed through it? Then people would think you were intangible... hmm...that was an idea...

Well, I should work on that technique. Naruto collected a handful of kunai and disappeared in a spiral of water to the Forest of Death, the one place he could practice undisturbed.

Upon arrival, he casually leaped the fence, aided with a little push of wind chakra, and floated gently to the ground on the other side before making his way into the forest. Stopping in a clearing, he hurled the kunai around him, until he was in a circle of kunai that would make any Iwa-nin piss their pants. Molding his chakra, he mentally envisioned the small tags wrapped around the kunai.

Sasuke and Sakura found Kakashi, once more at the memorial stone. "Kakashi," started the Uchiha, still disdaining honorifics. "We think the Suna genin, the blonde one, is Naruto."

Kakashi stopped slouching and stood up a little straighter. "Spiky hair, mask and headband like me?"

"Mhmm." nodded Sakura.

"He moved differently than Naruto did, but then again, he was a bit of a klutz before. Probably some intense training with someone on his own time."

Sleeping in Tanabota Ford, Anjin sneezed in his sleep and rolled over.

"If the prelims were any indication, he's a lot stronger now. And he fought off that creepy snake pedophile in the forest."

"He drove off Orochimaru?! Even with Orochimaru trying not to attract attention or kill his victims/little boys, he's still an A-rank."

Naruto sneezed even as he appeared in the air, falling ungracefully to the ground. "Wonder who's talking about me..." Shaking his head, he returned to glaring at the innocent kunai, the little yellow tags frustrating him.

A/N:

I have no excuses for the extremely long time since the last update. I'm running out of ideas and motivation for this story and anyone who wishes may pick up the story and continue, unless there is an overwhelming response to have me continue. Thank you everyone who read and reviewed this story, you guys make my day.

This is Kaitan Atreides, signing off for what may be the last time.