[Naruto] "Never Ever" 10/15
Title: Never Ever (10/15)
Rating: PG (OOC, AU, Language)
Archived @ Master List
Summary: What if Naruto had sided with the Sand in the Konoha invasion?
Chapter 10: More Training
The next week was relatively uneventful. Naruto trained. Temari and Kankurou moped around in the hotel room. And Gaara was off doing... Well, no one knew what he was doing. They assumed that he had locked himself in his hotel room and left it at that.
It was quite a surprise one day when Baki rushed in their room and began berating them- Gaara wasn't in his room after all.
---
"Your opponent fights using Sand as a weapon." Kakashi was saying. "You've already seen his attack. But since you don't know how far the sand goes to protect him, you're going to have to be cautious."
Sasuke panted. Kakashi was trying to teach him a technique called the Chidori, trying being the keyword. It was amazingly hard. Mainly because his chakra control wasn't all that. It was probably the worst out of his teammates. Not that he would ever admit it though, no.
Kakashi sighed. Sasuke never did try very hard at the tree climbing exercises when they were in the Mist village. He had no reason to. Up until Haku joined the team, Sasuke was never motivated to do anything to perfection. He would try once and leave it at that. If only Sasuke had a rival of some sort, someone to provoke him and make him work harder...
"I've already heard all I need to know about Gaara." Sasuke snapped irritably as the flare in his hand fizzled and died. "Tell me more about my other opponents."
Kakashi raised his sole eyebrow. "Judging by your tone, you have someone in mind."
Sasuke glared at him, as if asking him 'Do you even need to ask?'
"Uzumaki Naruto? Why would you be curious about him? You saw his fight."
"It's not that." Sasuke took a deep breath and began focusing chakra in his hand again. "I've heard of that name somewhere. I don't know where but I heard it before. And you know a hell lot more than you're telling us. So spill it, damn it."
Kakashi sighed again. This is not the time or the place to be asking this question. And maybe Sasuke shouldn't be told at all. But oh well, to hell with it.
"Uzumaki Naruto used to be one of Konohagakure."
The electric sizzle that Sasuke had finally managed to hold disappeared as quickly as it came. "What?"
"Uzumaki Naruto used to live in Konoha." Kakashi repeated. "One day, eight years ago, he ran away from the village for reasons unknown. I would know. I'm one of the ANBU members assigned to retrieve him."
Sasuke stiffened. He remembered that day. It had been Itachi's first mission as an ANBU and it was a failure. His father had rebuked his brother about it. Something about shame toward the Uchiha name. It was the first time Sasuke saw Itachi's eyes darken.
But that wasn't it. There was something else about the blonde haired blue eyed boy from the Sand that he couldn't put his finger on. There had been another incident, one that he couldn't remember. What was it? What happened-
"You can come out now. Your killing intent gives you away."
Sasuke looked up, startled. It was his opponent, the other person from the Sand, Sabaku no Gaara.
Gaara gave Sasuke a brief look before abruptly turning his head and walking away.
'He doesn't seem very strong.' Gaara thought. 'I was hoping he'd be more of a challenge. Kazekage had had high expectations. Gaara smirked. Boy was he going to be disappointed.
"I don't know why you're here." The silver-haired man said to him. "But if you're trying to start something before the finals..."
Gaara stopped his walk away. He turned around and glared at the Uchiha boy. "I will kill you."
---
Naruto stared at the swirl of chakra in his hand. This time it had the distinct shape of... a blob. He sighed. No matter what he did, he couldn't shape it into a definite shape. Expelling chakra was no problem at all; molding it was the problem. His supposed 'spear' was nothing more than a line of chakra. That kind of expulsion was easy for anyone who has even a little speck of chakra control. But molding it into a shape WHILE expelling large amounts of it was another story altogether.
But this was his best technique. It didn't need any seals, just chakra. And since he always had trouble remembering the order of seals, this was his kind of jutsu. Now if only he could learn how to control it.
Suddenly, he heard a rustling sound above him. He snapped his head up. There was an old man crouching on the tree branch above him and he was staring at the swirl in his hand.
"Hey, boy," the man said, "Mold that into a ball and see what you get." With that, he bounced away. And I do mean bounce.
Naruto blinked. What a weird man. He wasn't even wearing an actual headband. Who wears one with the kanji 'Oil' on it?
---
He shrugged. Why not? He didn't know why he would just listen to a weird old man who evidently needed a comb. And a haircut. And a washcloth wouldn't hurt either...
But anyway, it wouldn't hurt to be able to mold it into a sphere. It would probably be beneficial. After all, a sphere would probably be harder to shape than anything else. So logically, if he could do that, then he could do anything.
'Alright, sphere it is...'
Three hours later, the door to the hotel room slid open and a puddle of flesh, bones, and blonde hair fell to the floor unceremoniously.
"Naruto?"
"What happened to you?"
'I was a stupid idiot. I used up too much chakra. It was an ass trying to get back here. I hate old men. My hair hurts. I'm not sure how dead head cells can hurt but they sure as hell do. I hurt.'
All that came out was "Ugh."
---
"Hands... burn... ouch..."
Baki resisted the childish urge to box Naruto's ears. "Enlighten me," he said, "Since when did you start taking advice from a strange old man who happens to be a stranger?"
"Uh. He gave pretty good advice." Naruto replied, realizing just how incredibly lame he sounded.
His teacher then had to resist another urge, this one to roll his eyes. And HE was the one who taught this brat.
"So what he say?"
"He told me to try and make it into a sphere."
"Oh? Why sphere?"
Naruto shrugged, then winced. "I just assumed that if I could turn it into a ball, it'd be easy doing anything else."
Baki nodded. A sphere's supposedly the hardest to mold because of its shape. Since it had no corners, in order to retain the shape, the chakra would have to have to spin at an almost uncontrollable rate. And there would have to be enough power to control too. Maybe that old man was smarter than they gave him credit for.
---
It took a grand total of three days for Naruto to give up. After another two nights restless sleep, he chucked the idea out the window. Screw it. He had more important things to do than just sit around trying to make a chakra-ball because some guy said to "try it".
That day, he took out one of the scrolls he had allegedly 'borrowed' from the Kazekage's library. Hey, Kazekage-sama's too busy being a Kazekage to notice that one scroll is missing out of the hundreds of scrolls he had in his library.
The first one listed said:
"- Asshou- A Taijutsu technique where the ninja drives their fist into their opponent while they are on the ground, crushing them and grinding them into the earth. With impressive strength, this technique could be quite devastating."
'That could be really useful.' Naruto thought gleefully, happy that he swiped this one instead of the other one with black wrapping. Taijutsu had always been his favorite type of fighting.
'Let's go.' He thought, cracking his knuckles. This would take a lot of trees. Hope the Fire Country won't blame him for making a small part of their forest disappear.
---
"HAH!"
The tree trunk burst open, bark flying in all direction. Naruto grinned, almost maniacally. He did it. A record time of five days, too. Actually, more like four days. But he spent another day unnecessarily 'perfecting' it.
He looked around him carefully. Since he's began, he's decimated about... 45 trees. Crap. 'Have to find a new training spot tomorrow.' He thought, running back towards the village. 'Hope they don't suspect me.'
As he headed back to the hotel, he drew out the scroll. 'There's got to be another technique in here that can occupy me for the next fifteen days.' He thought. 'Ninjutsu, ninjutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, ninjutu, fuuin... No more taijutsu?'
He sighed. The only taijutsu techniques remaining required Temari's fan. 'Maybe I can get Baki-sensei to teach me something.'
Suddenly, something caught his eye.
"- Houshou- A Taijutsu technique where the ninja palm strikes their enemy, hurling them away. With impressive strength, this technique could be quite devastating."
'What? That's not even a technique.' Naruto thought. Then he shrugged. 'Oh well, if it's listed, then it's good.'
---
Houshou actually took less time that Asshou. Which was expected because it wasn't much of a move. Naruto sighed. Personally, he hated anything with seals because he's always had trouble remembering the seals unless it was something important, like summoning.
He took out the other scroll, hoping there was something worth learning. He was lucky.
"- Kanashibari no Jutsu- A Ninjutsu technique where the ninja stares down their opponent, causing them to become completely frozen in their tracks. Perfect for escaping a dire situation, or for stalling a target in an assassination."
'ANBU technique.' Naruto grinned. 'This could be really useful.'
---
It was the night before the Finals, the night before the invasion. The four Sand Nins were lounging around in the hotel room. That night, Naruto had convinced Gaara to stay and chat in the same room as them before he went out moon gazing. And Gaara had agreed.
"You didn't master Kanashibari no Jutsu, Naruto?" Temari asked.
Naruto shook his head. "It's really hard. It usually helps if you have special eye bloodlines. And besides that, you need a target. And if you do it wrong, you can lose your eyesight. So I think I'll just stick with the other jutsus I already have." He turned around to address Gaara, "Hey, don' lose your head tomorrow."
Gaara gave him a look that would have effectively turned anyone into stone. "Nani ka."
"I know you." Naruto said. "You change into another person when you get into a really heated fight. And I know you've been 'monitoring' the Uchiha and I know you know he's gotten a lot stronger. So... don't lose it. That's all I'm asking."
Gaara wordlessly got up. He didn't bother asking just HOW Naruto knew these things. He walked toward the window and opened it. Just before he left, he heard Naruto call after him, "That means not transforming before the signal."
---
Neji tied a new layer of replacement bandages around his arms. Tomorrow, he would fight Uzumaki Naruto, the Nin from the Sand. From what he had seen, the Sand team had wiped the floor with their opponents in the preliminaries.
'Every person in this world is born with an inescapable destiny.' He thought, repeating the 'mantra' again in his head. 'If I am meant to win, then so be it.'
---
'Yes, yes, YES! I will win the first match tomorrow, and then I'll fight either Uzumaki-kun from the Sand or Neji. And with my trump card, I cannot lose to either of them. YOSHI! I will WIN!'
---
"How do you guys think you'll do in your matches tomorrow?" Naruto asked. "Kankurou, you'd probably have to forfeit if the signal's not given before your match, right?"
"Yea." Kankurou grumbled.
"So, Temari-san. How do you think you'll do?"
"I'm fighting a guy who's gone to the BBQ almost every single day for a month. I think I'll be fine."
"Whatever you say." Naruto chuckled. "I don't know though. From what I remember, Shikamaru was a lazy bum, but he's pretty smart."
"Smart?"
"Yea. Whenever we skip school, he always knows what place the teachers WON'T look when they're looking for us. I merit that as 'smart'."
Temari snorted. That didn't sound like a very good reason for calling someone smart.
"All I'm saying is be careful, alright?" Then Naruto rolled over and unfurled his sleeping bag. "I'm going to sleep. We got a big day tomorrow. And we better get some rest, aite?"
The two others nodded, and within minutes, the lights were out and the room was silent.
T . B . C
Rating: PG (OOC, AU, Language)
Archived @ Master List
Summary: What if Naruto had sided with the Sand in the Konoha invasion?
Chapter 10: More Training
The next week was relatively uneventful. Naruto trained. Temari and Kankurou moped around in the hotel room. And Gaara was off doing... Well, no one knew what he was doing. They assumed that he had locked himself in his hotel room and left it at that.
It was quite a surprise one day when Baki rushed in their room and began berating them- Gaara wasn't in his room after all.
---
"Your opponent fights using Sand as a weapon." Kakashi was saying. "You've already seen his attack. But since you don't know how far the sand goes to protect him, you're going to have to be cautious."
Sasuke panted. Kakashi was trying to teach him a technique called the Chidori, trying being the keyword. It was amazingly hard. Mainly because his chakra control wasn't all that. It was probably the worst out of his teammates. Not that he would ever admit it though, no.
Kakashi sighed. Sasuke never did try very hard at the tree climbing exercises when they were in the Mist village. He had no reason to. Up until Haku joined the team, Sasuke was never motivated to do anything to perfection. He would try once and leave it at that. If only Sasuke had a rival of some sort, someone to provoke him and make him work harder...
"I've already heard all I need to know about Gaara." Sasuke snapped irritably as the flare in his hand fizzled and died. "Tell me more about my other opponents."
Kakashi raised his sole eyebrow. "Judging by your tone, you have someone in mind."
Sasuke glared at him, as if asking him 'Do you even need to ask?'
"Uzumaki Naruto? Why would you be curious about him? You saw his fight."
"It's not that." Sasuke took a deep breath and began focusing chakra in his hand again. "I've heard of that name somewhere. I don't know where but I heard it before. And you know a hell lot more than you're telling us. So spill it, damn it."
Kakashi sighed again. This is not the time or the place to be asking this question. And maybe Sasuke shouldn't be told at all. But oh well, to hell with it.
"Uzumaki Naruto used to be one of Konohagakure."
The electric sizzle that Sasuke had finally managed to hold disappeared as quickly as it came. "What?"
"Uzumaki Naruto used to live in Konoha." Kakashi repeated. "One day, eight years ago, he ran away from the village for reasons unknown. I would know. I'm one of the ANBU members assigned to retrieve him."
Sasuke stiffened. He remembered that day. It had been Itachi's first mission as an ANBU and it was a failure. His father had rebuked his brother about it. Something about shame toward the Uchiha name. It was the first time Sasuke saw Itachi's eyes darken.
But that wasn't it. There was something else about the blonde haired blue eyed boy from the Sand that he couldn't put his finger on. There had been another incident, one that he couldn't remember. What was it? What happened-
"You can come out now. Your killing intent gives you away."
Sasuke looked up, startled. It was his opponent, the other person from the Sand, Sabaku no Gaara.
Gaara gave Sasuke a brief look before abruptly turning his head and walking away.
'He doesn't seem very strong.' Gaara thought. 'I was hoping he'd be more of a challenge. Kazekage had had high expectations. Gaara smirked. Boy was he going to be disappointed.
"I don't know why you're here." The silver-haired man said to him. "But if you're trying to start something before the finals..."
Gaara stopped his walk away. He turned around and glared at the Uchiha boy. "I will kill you."
---
Naruto stared at the swirl of chakra in his hand. This time it had the distinct shape of... a blob. He sighed. No matter what he did, he couldn't shape it into a definite shape. Expelling chakra was no problem at all; molding it was the problem. His supposed 'spear' was nothing more than a line of chakra. That kind of expulsion was easy for anyone who has even a little speck of chakra control. But molding it into a shape WHILE expelling large amounts of it was another story altogether.
But this was his best technique. It didn't need any seals, just chakra. And since he always had trouble remembering the order of seals, this was his kind of jutsu. Now if only he could learn how to control it.
Suddenly, he heard a rustling sound above him. He snapped his head up. There was an old man crouching on the tree branch above him and he was staring at the swirl in his hand.
"Hey, boy," the man said, "Mold that into a ball and see what you get." With that, he bounced away. And I do mean bounce.
Naruto blinked. What a weird man. He wasn't even wearing an actual headband. Who wears one with the kanji 'Oil' on it?
---
He shrugged. Why not? He didn't know why he would just listen to a weird old man who evidently needed a comb. And a haircut. And a washcloth wouldn't hurt either...
But anyway, it wouldn't hurt to be able to mold it into a sphere. It would probably be beneficial. After all, a sphere would probably be harder to shape than anything else. So logically, if he could do that, then he could do anything.
'Alright, sphere it is...'
Three hours later, the door to the hotel room slid open and a puddle of flesh, bones, and blonde hair fell to the floor unceremoniously.
"Naruto?"
"What happened to you?"
'I was a stupid idiot. I used up too much chakra. It was an ass trying to get back here. I hate old men. My hair hurts. I'm not sure how dead head cells can hurt but they sure as hell do. I hurt.'
All that came out was "Ugh."
---
"Hands... burn... ouch..."
Baki resisted the childish urge to box Naruto's ears. "Enlighten me," he said, "Since when did you start taking advice from a strange old man who happens to be a stranger?"
"Uh. He gave pretty good advice." Naruto replied, realizing just how incredibly lame he sounded.
His teacher then had to resist another urge, this one to roll his eyes. And HE was the one who taught this brat.
"So what he say?"
"He told me to try and make it into a sphere."
"Oh? Why sphere?"
Naruto shrugged, then winced. "I just assumed that if I could turn it into a ball, it'd be easy doing anything else."
Baki nodded. A sphere's supposedly the hardest to mold because of its shape. Since it had no corners, in order to retain the shape, the chakra would have to have to spin at an almost uncontrollable rate. And there would have to be enough power to control too. Maybe that old man was smarter than they gave him credit for.
---
It took a grand total of three days for Naruto to give up. After another two nights restless sleep, he chucked the idea out the window. Screw it. He had more important things to do than just sit around trying to make a chakra-ball because some guy said to "try it".
That day, he took out one of the scrolls he had allegedly 'borrowed' from the Kazekage's library. Hey, Kazekage-sama's too busy being a Kazekage to notice that one scroll is missing out of the hundreds of scrolls he had in his library.
The first one listed said:
"- Asshou- A Taijutsu technique where the ninja drives their fist into their opponent while they are on the ground, crushing them and grinding them into the earth. With impressive strength, this technique could be quite devastating."
'That could be really useful.' Naruto thought gleefully, happy that he swiped this one instead of the other one with black wrapping. Taijutsu had always been his favorite type of fighting.
'Let's go.' He thought, cracking his knuckles. This would take a lot of trees. Hope the Fire Country won't blame him for making a small part of their forest disappear.
---
"HAH!"
The tree trunk burst open, bark flying in all direction. Naruto grinned, almost maniacally. He did it. A record time of five days, too. Actually, more like four days. But he spent another day unnecessarily 'perfecting' it.
He looked around him carefully. Since he's began, he's decimated about... 45 trees. Crap. 'Have to find a new training spot tomorrow.' He thought, running back towards the village. 'Hope they don't suspect me.'
As he headed back to the hotel, he drew out the scroll. 'There's got to be another technique in here that can occupy me for the next fifteen days.' He thought. 'Ninjutsu, ninjutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, ninjutu, fuuin... No more taijutsu?'
He sighed. The only taijutsu techniques remaining required Temari's fan. 'Maybe I can get Baki-sensei to teach me something.'
Suddenly, something caught his eye.
"- Houshou- A Taijutsu technique where the ninja palm strikes their enemy, hurling them away. With impressive strength, this technique could be quite devastating."
'What? That's not even a technique.' Naruto thought. Then he shrugged. 'Oh well, if it's listed, then it's good.'
---
Houshou actually took less time that Asshou. Which was expected because it wasn't much of a move. Naruto sighed. Personally, he hated anything with seals because he's always had trouble remembering the seals unless it was something important, like summoning.
He took out the other scroll, hoping there was something worth learning. He was lucky.
"- Kanashibari no Jutsu- A Ninjutsu technique where the ninja stares down their opponent, causing them to become completely frozen in their tracks. Perfect for escaping a dire situation, or for stalling a target in an assassination."
'ANBU technique.' Naruto grinned. 'This could be really useful.'
---
It was the night before the Finals, the night before the invasion. The four Sand Nins were lounging around in the hotel room. That night, Naruto had convinced Gaara to stay and chat in the same room as them before he went out moon gazing. And Gaara had agreed.
"You didn't master Kanashibari no Jutsu, Naruto?" Temari asked.
Naruto shook his head. "It's really hard. It usually helps if you have special eye bloodlines. And besides that, you need a target. And if you do it wrong, you can lose your eyesight. So I think I'll just stick with the other jutsus I already have." He turned around to address Gaara, "Hey, don' lose your head tomorrow."
Gaara gave him a look that would have effectively turned anyone into stone. "Nani ka."
"I know you." Naruto said. "You change into another person when you get into a really heated fight. And I know you've been 'monitoring' the Uchiha and I know you know he's gotten a lot stronger. So... don't lose it. That's all I'm asking."
Gaara wordlessly got up. He didn't bother asking just HOW Naruto knew these things. He walked toward the window and opened it. Just before he left, he heard Naruto call after him, "That means not transforming before the signal."
---
Neji tied a new layer of replacement bandages around his arms. Tomorrow, he would fight Uzumaki Naruto, the Nin from the Sand. From what he had seen, the Sand team had wiped the floor with their opponents in the preliminaries.
'Every person in this world is born with an inescapable destiny.' He thought, repeating the 'mantra' again in his head. 'If I am meant to win, then so be it.'
---
'Yes, yes, YES! I will win the first match tomorrow, and then I'll fight either Uzumaki-kun from the Sand or Neji. And with my trump card, I cannot lose to either of them. YOSHI! I will WIN!'
---
"How do you guys think you'll do in your matches tomorrow?" Naruto asked. "Kankurou, you'd probably have to forfeit if the signal's not given before your match, right?"
"Yea." Kankurou grumbled.
"So, Temari-san. How do you think you'll do?"
"I'm fighting a guy who's gone to the BBQ almost every single day for a month. I think I'll be fine."
"Whatever you say." Naruto chuckled. "I don't know though. From what I remember, Shikamaru was a lazy bum, but he's pretty smart."
"Smart?"
"Yea. Whenever we skip school, he always knows what place the teachers WON'T look when they're looking for us. I merit that as 'smart'."
Temari snorted. That didn't sound like a very good reason for calling someone smart.
"All I'm saying is be careful, alright?" Then Naruto rolled over and unfurled his sleeping bag. "I'm going to sleep. We got a big day tomorrow. And we better get some rest, aite?"
The two others nodded, and within minutes, the lights were out and the room was silent.
T . B . C