Naruto- Konoha's Swordsman

Chapter One

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any affiliated characters or ideas. The purpose of this story is for recreational fun, and to further my writing ability.

"With Kakashi always showing up at least two hours late, why do we still bring ourselves here at the time he tells us?" Naruto looked around at both Sasuke and Sakura as he said that, searching for an answer from them.

It was Sakura who answered first, trying to defend Kakashi, "Because it is what our sensei tells us to do, and we should always obey his orders, right Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke just managed to look annoyed, "It is a waste of my time to sit here waiting for a sensei we know will not show up until later."

Sakura seemed discouraged by that, "I guess we could try training in something right Sasuke? We would not be wasting our time if we actually did something right?"

Naruto however, was beyond being bribed by training, "Well I am sick of waiting around here, when this is not going to make me stronger; I won't become Hokage by sitting around and waiting for a lazy, good for nothing sensei! He has not even taught us anything in the first place! I mean, come on! Think of one thing he has taught us so far, except trying to make us have better team work."

Seeming to think for a second, Sakura opened her mouth several times to try and say something, but every time, she seemed to rethink about it, and close her mouth. After nearly a minute, Sakura finally gave up, and just kept her mouth shut.

"But it doesn't matter that he hasn't taught us anything yet, because he is our sensei, and we should trust that he knows what he is doing right?" Sakura again tried to defend their sensei, even if her argument was obviously futile.

"Whatever, I am fed up with waiting around here doing nothing every day, I am going to go find someone else to train me!" Naruto stormed off, leaving Sasuke and Sakura still standing there at training ground 7, waiting.

"So Sasuke-kun, do you think we could go on a date after we are finished here?" Sakura looked over at Sasuke, hope filling her eyes as she practically begged him to go on a date with her.

"No." Sasuke's answer didn't surprise her, but she hung her head anyway, because she really hoped that sometime, he would say yes to her if she asked him over and over.

With a huff, Sasuke followed Naruto's example, as he too left the training ground. As Sasuke walked away, Sakura called out to Sasuke, "Wait Sasuke-kun, we have to stay here and wait for Kakashi-sensei! He is probably trying to teach us patience!"

Sasuke did not bother to turn around when he said, "Patience will not make me stronger."

Frowning, Sakura stayed there, it seemed it was going to be a lonely two hours for her.

As Naruto ran along the rooftops, he was making his way to the Hokage Tower. 'If Kakashi won't teach me anything, I will have to go talk to someone else, I am sure someone will train me.'

Within a few minutes he arrived at the Tower, dropping down from a rooftop as he walked inside. In a few seconds, Naruto stood before the Hokage's office doors, pushing them open slowly.

Looking up from his paper work, Hiruzen looked surprised to see Naruto, "Oh why hello Naruto, what brings you here?"

Now looking a bit sheepish, Naruto looked down at the ground, "I want a new sensei, Kakashi never teaches any of us anything, it has been over a month already and we haven't learned anything new, all we ever do it D ranked missions, and team building exercises. I was fine with the exercises for almost two weeks, but for the last two weeks I have begged to do something else, but he says we can't learn anything until we are a good team, but we will never be a good team! Sasuke is too self-absorbed to listen anything me or Sakura say, and Sakura is so obsessed with Sasuke that she thinks he will protect her from any harm, and is too focused on him to even listen to anything I say! Our team is a huge disaster."

Naruto let out a breath as he ran a hand through his hair nervously. "I know we are supposed to set aside our differences for the team, but it will never work for us, especially since me and Sasuke both want to learn new things and get stronger, yet we haven't learned a thing, and we probably never will."

Throughout Naruto's whole outburst, Hiruzen sat back with a thoughtful expression on his face. "I cannot pull your team apart Naruto, all of the genin teams are set up so that each team member balances the other out, and that balance is key when your team sees combat. If you are really questioning Kakashi's teaching, if it really is a big problem I could assign you a different sensei."

"Yes!" Naruto beamed a smile at that, "All Kakashi-sensei does is read his perverted book, show up three hours late, make us do the hardest possible D-rank mission, then make us do some ridiculous exercise for an hour, then he dismisses us."

"Well Naruto, I will have to discuss this with your two team mates, and if they both say you need a new sensei, then I will assign you a different sensei, though I bet Kakashi will be very hurt by it, he is really lonely these days, he has almost no one he is close to, I think your team's rejection would hit him hard."

At that, Naruto started to look guilty as the guilt hit him that he would just kick Kakashi off of the team, maybe they could give him another chance? "Well maybe we could give Kakashi-sensei another chance, if he promises to teach us all something for once, and quit all of the team building exercises that are wasting our time."

Hiruzen smiled, sometimes people are just too easy to guilt trip, "That's great Naruto, you should give Kakashi a second chance, you should tell him you are ready to move beyond the team building, and actually learn something okay?"

"Thanks Jiji!" Naruto smiled as he ran out of the Hokage's office, already at a dead sprint before he left the building, jumping up to the rooftops as he headed back to the training ground, before he realized something, 'Wait, now I am back right where I started before I went to see Ji-Ji, and I still have to wait for Kakashi-sensei to show up!'

Now frowning, Naruto stopped as he realized he still had more than an hour to kill before Kakashi would even be there, so he jumped down from the rooftops, now just walking the streets aimlessly.

After nearly half an hour of just walking around, Naruto stopped as he was a sign above a store entitled, 'The Land of Fire's Sword Smith', a store Naruto had never been in before. With a shrug of his shoulders, Naruto pushed the door open and walked inside.

Naruto couldn't help but let out an "Ahhh" in amazement at the hundreds of swords he could see, on racks, on shelves, held by mannequins, held up by plaques on the wall, or on the counter that a man stood behind, whipping a sword off with a cloth.

The man looked up as he heard Naruto enter the shop, calling out, "Why hello, what can I do for you sir?" the man set the sword down on the counter, stepping around the counter, offering his hand out to Naruto.

Naruto shook his hand lightly, still looking around the shop in awe. "This place is so cool all of these swords look amazing! I didn't even come in here with the intention of buying a sword, but I think I have to now."

The man smiled, "Yes I have been around swords my whole life, my father was a blacksmith, and I have always appreciated swords in particular so this was my dream, I make most of the swords myself, while some come from other places because I can't make those huge zanbatos."

Smiling still, the man added, "So feel free to look around, see any you really like, you let me know, and we will see what we can do about selling you a sword now if we can okay?"

Nodding, Naruto walked around the shop for a few minutes, looking at each and every sword with interest. No doubt his wallet would take a hit if he bought a sword, and he would have to get someone to train him how to use it, but the idea seemed good to Naruto.

After nearly ten minutes had passed, the store owner gave Naruto some advice, "Since you are clearly new to swords, you should get a basic tanto, tachi, or katana. Those are three of the basic sword types, so you should start off with nothing fancy, just something like," At that the man walked over to a shelf, "this."

Naruto watched as the man pulled a sword off the shelf, the sword already in a sheath. With a smooth hiss, the blade came out of the sheath, revealing a relatively plain katana. "The katana is probably the heaviest sword a beginner could use, so you may want this, or something lighter, like a tanto."

The man held the hilt of the sword out to Naruto, which Naruto took, holding the sword out with one hand, as he looked down the length of the blade. It was very heavy, probably too much so.

"If you would like, you could into one of the back rooms, where I have a training dummy set up, and you could take a few swings and test the sword out." With that, the man gestured towards a door off to the back corner of the store, which Naruto soon went through, which led to a plain room, with a padded floor, and a wooden figure, with thick sticks representing arms, and legs, held up by a metal pole.

Holding the sword in both hands now, Naruto pulled the sword in a slash, noticing that swinging the sword took much longer than stabbing with a kunai. Maybe a sword was a bad idea, unless this one was just too heavy for him now. Whichever the case, Naruto knew the katana wasn't going to work, so he exited the room, back into the main shop, shaking his head at the store owner.

As he handed the sword back to the owner, Naruto asked, "Maybe a tanto would work better, it is nearly half the length of a katana, and it would be much faster right?"

The man nodded, "Yes I probably should have given you a tanto to start with." Quickly replacing the katana, he had a tanto held in his hand within a few seconds. In just a few more seconds, Naruto stood before the practice dummy again, this time holding the much lighter tanto in his hands, and with a quick swing, Naruto knew the tanto fit him. Even if it was a bit slower than a kunai, the tanto definitely had more reach than a kunai, so that could balance it out.

After asking the owner what the sword would cost him. When he got his answer, Naruto blanched. Looking through his froggy purse, he counted out his money, it would go through half of the money he had left, so he would have to try and get him to lower his price a bit.

Trying to haggle the price, the shop owner realized he must be pretty strapped for cash, so he cut him a break and dropped the price down nearly a hundred ryo, so Naruto walked out of "The Land of Fire's Sword Smith" with a brand new tanto strapped to his back. Considering his new sword, Naruto thought with a laugh, 'Maybe it is time for a new outfit as well. This old jumpsuit is getting rather raggedy now.'

In ten more minutes, Naruto walked into a clothes store determined to buy the most badass outfit he could. After spending less than five minutes in the store, Naruto walked out holding several bags of clothes, which were four sets of the same outfit. 'I bet Sakura-chan is definitely going to like my new badass look!'

After a short trip to his apartment to drop his clothes off and change into a set of his new clothes, Naruto set off to training ground seven, sprinting along the rooftops as fast as he could when he realized he was over half an hour late to when Kakashi would have shown up. 'Aw damnit! Now I am pulling a Kakashi ON Kakashi!'

A few minutes later found Naruto at training ground seven, to find Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi all there waiting for him, all just standing around doing nothing.

"Hey guys!" Naruto called out, "Sorry I'm late, I got caught on the road of life!" Naruto snickered mentally, pulling a Kakashi by being late, AND then stealing one of his lame ass excuses! Today was great.

Instead of Sasuke and Sakura getting his joke, they both just seemed to be annoyed. Sakura spoke first, "You IDIOT! You get here late for some joke, and now we are late to go get a mission!"

Even if neither Kakashi nor Sasuke said anything, they both noticed Naruto's new sudden outfit change, as well as the addition of a sword strapped to his back. Sakura however, was a little more vocal.

"And what is with the get out with the sword Naruto? It is not like you know how to use that thing!"

"Well, I do not know how to use it yet, but soon I will! Besides, you know you think this sword looks pretty bad ass!" Naruto pulled his tanto out with a flourish, trying to show off his new sword.

Kakashi spoke up, "Alright Naruto put your sword away, we do have a client to go meet, and he is a client for a C rank mission, because I think you guys are going to be up for the challenge. He is a bridge builder named Tazuna, heading the construction of a bridge to connect the Wave Country island to The Land of Fire's coast. There is a risk of bandits attacking him to stop that, so he has requested a ninja team to escort him back. An easy enough first tough mission. But we really should get there now, we are about two hours late."

Sheathing the sword, Naruto could not help but exclaim to the entire world, "Alright! Finally we get a real mission!"

As team seven began to head towards the Hokage's Tower, Naruto was practically skipping on the way there, Sakura smiled wide some what sharing Naruto's enthusiasm, and even Sasuke managed to allow a smirk onto his face, his first C rank mission was a step in the right direction, another way to get stronger.

In a few minutes, they were before the Sandaime, and Iruka, ready to get their mission.