Loyal servant – a journey to mastery
Summery: What if Naruto was a hidden genius, with skills the likes of which hadn't been since Uchiha Itachi's childhood climb through the ranks? What if he merely used his 'idiotic mask' through the academy to protect himself from the villagers? Watch Naruto as he drops his mask and uses the kage buushin's effects early on to quickly become a powerful shinobi in his Gennin years. What if he took Hinata under his wing as his partner and mate…?
Prologue – genius glare, the fake demon makes its appearance!
Deep within the forests of Konoha one would find themselves witnessing an interesting scene as the chilling wind hissed through the dark foliage and the full moon's silvery light cascaded through the tree limbs, casting all in a pale light. Several miles from Konoha's defensive wall deep within one of the many forests that surrounded the said shinobi village one would witness the betrayal of a shinobi and the birth of a legend.
Mizuki a young silver haired man whose hair hung elegantly around his lightly tanned face stood proudly amongst the trees, one would have considered him attractive if not for the viscous look of hate, vindictiveness and satisfaction marring his features. He was dressed in typical chuunin attire; blue trousers, blue zipped jumper with a green sleeveless chuunin jacket over that.
Below him lay a fellow chuunin instructor leaning against an old oak tree, covered in deep cuts and bleeding heavily, his breath was ragged. He gazed up at Mizuki with anger, confusion and resignation in his dark brown eyes.
'Why did you betray the village…Why did you do this to Naruto?' asked the tanned skinned ninja referring to his betrayal and revealing the truth of the Kyuubi. The smirking Mizuki who calmly removed the second fuuma shuriken strapped to his back replied
'That's simple Iruka I needed someone to steal the scroll for me and the nine tails kid was the best choice as none will be angry with him dead, I'll be a hero among the villagers and I'll soon have the scroll of forbidden sealing and I'll have access to all its kinjutsu, hahahaha!' throwing back he let out a quick bark of dark laughter. Iruka's eyes tightened slightly and announced in shock
'All this was for power and Konoha's petty revenge?' at this the young demon container hidden not twenty yards away focused his attention on the conversation between the two chuunin, before him lay the forbidden scroll with several kage buushins copying out various jutsu that Naruto believed would prove to be useful in the future onto individual blank scrolls.
'Carry on with the copying, I'll deal with this' whispered Naruto quietly to his clones, shifting his position so he could watch as well as listen.
'Of course Iruka you naive fool, power is everything in the shinobi world and I refuse to continue in this weak willed village, and of course I want revenge on Naruto, he is the fox after all, you saw the look in his eyes before he took off with the scroll, the eyes of a beast, he'll use the scroll to get his revenge on the village for sealing him.
Naruto paid intimate attention to Iruka at this point, calmly drawing four kunai from his pouch strapped to his right leg.
'Whether or not you die today will respond on your next few words Iruka-sensei'
smiling inwardly Iruka replied in a calm voice 'you're right that's how beasts are' at this Naruto's eyes flickered red for a moment and Mizuki's smirk increased, that changed at Iruka's next words.
'That is how beasts are, but not Naruto, his a clumsy, knuckle head, determined young man who wants to be Hokage, his not the fox'
'Iruka…thank you…' thought Naruto making ten clones and sending them off in various directions around the two chuunin
'…But that Naruto is a fake, I'll appear for the first time in Konoha as myself…Mizuki I will kill you in this premature showing of me' thought Naruto rising to a standing position, charging up chakra in his legs he prepared to move.
After hearing Iruka's words, a look of wild anger crossed his face 'you Kyuubi loving bastard I was going to kill the kid first but now I take you out first!' announced Mizuki charging forward like a bullet of a gun, spinning the fuuma shuriken in his hand ready to kill the injured shinobi.
Slumping forward slightly, a small flickered across Iruka's face
'So this is the end huh?' but the attack never connected as Naruto launched out of the foliage dealing a powerful knee strike to Mizuki's stomach catching him completely off guard and following through with a sickening elbow strike to his face breaking the Chuunin's nose and sending him crashing into the ground. Not allowing a moments' pause thirty kunai shot towards Mizuki from multiple angles, the first three connected, gasping out in pain. 'Fucking brat!' he caught the fourth and used it to narrowly parry and deflect the other projectiles.
'Not bad Fox but it'll take more than that!' laughed Mizuki pulling out a scroll and summoning a ninja short sword, swinging it in a low arch he shouted out 'Come on demon fox I'll show you how a real ninja fights!' Vanishing he reappeared behind Naruto running him through only for Naruto to laugh as he vanished in a puff of smoke.
'A kage Buushin!? ' turning quickly he parried a lunge from another Naruto which was quickly dispelled by a slash of Mizuki's sword; the kunai in the clone's hand was wrapped in an explosive tag.
'Oh shit!' a small explosion followed, hurling the chuunin into a small nearby tree. Struggling to stand Mizuki heaved up at least a pint of blood of the grassy ground, coughing violently.
'Shit I lose at this rate, damn fox' looking at Iruka some twenty meters away still unable to move, an idea hatched inside the silver haired man's head.
'Time to die Iruka, Kyuubi!' roared Mizuki throwing his weapon with great force towards Iruka, cutting through the air it soon connected, not hitting Iruka, but passing through two of Naruto's clones and impaling the real Naruto through the chest who stood a few inches in front of Iruka.
'Excellent move teme…I didn't have much choice in the matter' muttered Naruto falling onto one knee, his black shirt and orange jacket quickly became a sickly red colour as blood seeped from his wound.
'Naruto!' shouted Iruka in fear of his young student. Mizuki took several steps forward and laughed 'How's that demon? I told you that you were no match for me…Now to end it slowly and painfully…you damn fo-!' suddenly stopping as he was pieced by six blades, courtesy of the remaining kage buushins, who dashed in surrounded him and had skewered him in a circle.
The remaining blood splashed across the ground, Mizuki's eyes rolled back and he collapsed in a puddle of blood, gurgling pitifully. The clones stood back and dispelled themselves as they couldn't be maintained for much longer. Naruto laughing quietly removed the blade with a small hiss of pain escaping his lips as the blade slid out of his chest. The large wound had already begun to heal, thanks to the Kyuubi's influence, one the mysteries about himself had been solved his fast healing that had healed after each and everyone of the violent attacks he had undergone under the hands of the villagers.
'Naruto…' began Iruka, but stopped when Naruto turned around, his eyes were blood red and slitted, like a cat's…no a foxes. 'Naruto is that you?' he asked a little afraid, upon seeing those eyes again. Naruto's hand covered his eyes for a moment.
'Yes sensei it's me' replied Naruto lowering his hand revealing his normal blue orbs as opposed to the demon's just a moment before.
'I'm sorry this happened to you Iruka-sensei' said Naruto quietly, crouching down now eye to eye with the scar faced chuunin 'I knew what he was planning, but I went along with it because I had a chance of learning some high rank techniques…I never wanted you to become involved' with full honesty, his words lacked the idiocy and his eyes showed genuine regret and intelligence.
Smiling slightly Iruka replied 'You've really been behind a mask all this time huh Naruto?'
'Hai sensei, its about time I drop it, be prepared Iruka for the changes' said Naruto slowly standing up and looking off to the left 'The ANBU are here, late as always' replied sardonically watching three animal masked shinobi appear in the clearing.
/
(Three days later)
Naruto was in his small, sparsely decorated apartment looking over the numerous articles of clothing, armor and large weaponry that lay out before him. Seated Indian style he held up the various articles and items and pondered his choices, these items were to be apart of his shinobi clothing and gear, Naruto had stolen and bought these various things over the last few years in preparation for his entry into the ninja world, along with his idiot persona, he would abandon his mask and his orange clothing which just screamed 'Kill me!' After numerous thought he decided upon the following clothing for today's wear and quickly clambered into them, which consisted of: A sleeved black collarless shirt which clung to his lean muscled frame, but did not limit his movement, jounin style trousers, though these were black as apposed to the typical navy blue; which ended just above his ankles. It had 6 different pouch style pockets sewn into it for easier access to weapons and other shinobi tools in battle.
He deciding not to wear typical shinobi sandals, instead he decided upon black leather boots with steel toe caps and a half inch blade protruding out of the heel, perfect for adding a little more fatality to reversed kicks and heel drops.
Next was a dark maroon armor which was shaped to cover the pectorals, shoulders and the back, it was smooth, rounded and fit him near perfectly. Over that he wore a black trench coat that ended a few inches above his ankles, the inside of the jacket was a polymer fabric which had been dyed a dark orange (think Ibiki's but orange on the inside). Next came two black arm guards, small, almost oval in shape which blended into his jacket's colour very effectively. Next came his new set of goggles which covered the top part of his face, they were green tinted and hid the colour of his eyes.
His Konoha Hiate he hung from his neck, keeping his jugular safe, the blue band hand been replaced by a longer black one, and the metal band with the Konoha leaf symbol on it had been painted over with a light grey paint to remove the shine that could in future reflect light and give away his position in a mission. Finally came a black face mask that covered everything below the eyes (same as Kakashi's). Spending several minutes looking in his bathroom's mirror he smirked in satisfaction at his new look, he was now longer the iconic orange knucklehead, he now looked like a serious shinobi in war time, perhaps a Jounin or the like, though admittedly he was too short to pass as a jounin.
'Less than 5ft is not an intimidating sight' Naruto chuckled to himself, walking away from the mirror, crouching down in front of the remaining articles of clothing, which were essentially very similar to what he was currently wearing, moving over to his weaponry, selecting a dozen weapon sealing scrolls, he carefully placed them into various pockets/pouches on his person and picked up and black katana style bokken and using a black waist cloth as a belt he used it to sheathe the bokken. Smiling again under his mask he turned and quietly left the apartment, pausing to lock the door,
'Well that's done ninja away!'
Naruto then shushined away to a nearby training facility, where he would get much more than he bargained for.
/
A/N - Well everyone what do you think of my story so far, this story's gonna have some major plot differences from the original anime, hopefully you'll like it, if not I don't mind constructive criticism but you'd still better carry on reading it
: )
Also the next chapter of journey to Lordship will be out in the next 2 – 3 days so be sure to look out for it
Next time: Shadow master VS Weapon master, impressions made – let the burning youth EXPLODE!!