"Uzumaki Technique: Chain Anchor!"
Two of the three bullies flinched. The middle one found he couldn't do much at all as chains erupted from the ground and wrapped around him in a tight embrace.
"You gotta be kidding me!" yelped the bound kid.
"GET HIM!" yelled the other two simultaneously, attacking the obvious freak.
Naruto recovered from the beating, pulling himself back up to find he was alone at this point.
Same old, same old.
Still, he was pretty sure he could do it again. He just needed practice.
"Hokage-sama! That Boy is at it again!"
"What did he do this time?" The Third Hokage sighed. Really, was it too much to ask that various chunin outsmart or outperform an Academy student who was near the last place in his class?
"He made spider webs of little chains all over the Hokage Monument!"
The Third Hokage blinked, then turned to examine the mountain in question. "So that's what the glittering effect is. How about that. You're right, it doesn't seem at all correct that I should sparkle like that. Take the chains down and melt them for the metal."
"Uhm, but what about the punishment?" asked the chunin.
"Fine," said the Hokage. "I'm assigning you personally to do it. Make sure it's done by tomorrow morning."
"B-but..."
"If a proud chunin of Konohagakure can't accomplish so negligible a task in that amount of time, consider yourself bumped down to genin," said the Hokage, nodding once before returning his attention to his paperwork.
"I meant That Boy's punishment, Hokage-sama," said the chunin.
"You're still here?" asked the Hokage, seemingly sincere in his surprise.
"At once, Hokage-sama," said the chunin, not without some disappointment in his voice.
The Third Hokage stopped at Ichiraku's, knowing who would be found there. "Naruto."
"Hey, Jiji!" cheerfully said Naruto.
"Your mother was good at chains, but can you do anything else?" asked the Hokage, taking a seat and ordering a #3 from the menu with a gesture.
"Anything else? Wait, I had a mother?!" asked Naruto.
"Most people have a mother at one time or another," said the Hokage. "You have to keep a really close eye on the ones who didn't. In any case, yes - you had a mother. She died alongside your father when you were born. More than that, I can't really tell you at present."
"Why not?!" exclaimed Naruto.
"Policy and Procedures manual, page 372," lied the Hokage smoothly. "You have to be chunin level before you can access information like that without one of your parents signing off on the proper form."
"Damn paperwork," said Naruto.
"Exactly," said the Hokage.
"So, something other than chains?" asked Naruto. He spied the ladle Ayame was using and tried to form that.
Hiruzen Sarutobi knew that Kushina had used chains quite a few times in her ninja career. He'd never seen her do anything else, but that wasn't the point here. If Naruto was trying to do something complicated - he wasn't causing mischief.
And if he DID end up producing something other than chains, then Naruto would have an even more useful jutsu.
"How do you make something like that anyway?" asked Naruto after a few attempts had produced nothing.
The Hokage considered that for a moment and had a further idea. "I'll send a note to someone who works metal, maybe if you help them out it'll give you ideas."
Pompom had his reservations at first, but the boy seemed both eager and inclined to working hard.
Both were needed for this sort of thing.
Heating metal, working the bellows, beating the heated metal, shaping it - none of this could rightly be considered easy work. Endurance and strength were both required for the level of tasks the boy could be trusted with.
Unfortunately, attention to detail was something he'd have to work on. The kid didn't seem to have much there.
Sighing, he indicated that the kid should put the soup ladle into the melting pot again.
There was no way he was going to trust the kid to make weapons for a LONG time yet.
"Eat your lunch," said Pompom. "My little girl made that."
"...wanted ramen," grumbled Naruto.
"You eat enough ramen," argued Pompom. "You'll remain short and scrawny if you don't eat better."
That was suitably horrifying that Naruto began eating, though he made a face while doing so.
"Admittedly, my daughter isn't so good with cooking or other household things. Good thing she's becoming a ninja." Pompom shook his head at his failure to raise a sane daughter.
Naruto made a noise that might have been agreement.
"You'll be working the bellows and chopping wood today," said Pompom. "You'll need the energy."
"Hokage-sama! That Boy struck again!"
"Really?" asked the Hokage, not looking up. Form 347-C-5. Permission for a civilian family to open a bookstore that specialized in rare and historical documents. Denied - too easy for them to be spies or to cater to spies.
"Yes, he now is including shackles and weights when he creates chains."
"Oh. How terrible."
A rustle of chains and a grunt caused the Hokage to actually look up. Noting that the chunin was shackled to a large sphere of iron, he felt that worth a comment. "And an Academy student managed to nearly incapacitate you?"
"I know his grades are pretty bad, but he is surprisingly competent at some things," noted the chunin.
"Ah. That may be so," admitted the Hokage. "I'll talk to him."
"It's like Wood Release in some respects, unlike it in others," noted Jiraiya with Tenzo nodding in the background.
"Except that it's metal," noted the Hokage.
"It's Fire Release mixed with Earth Release," said Jiraiya. "If he makes something permanent, he doesn't have much control over it. If he's making something that will dissolve when he's done like that Metal Rampart technique - he has more control over it because he's leaving his chakra saturating through the thing. If he makes something temporary and then decides to make it permanent, that's possible but he can't do it at present. It ends up collapsing before very long."
"Metal Rampart is an Earth Wall technique, except that it is metal - iron usually. One of the chunin was demonstrating Earth Wall and then Uzumaki spent three days practicing it until he could manage something like that." Tenzo shrugged. He wanted to say it still wasn't big enough to be useful and that Naruto kept putting spikes and chains and other adornments on it. Naruto might grow out of it though.
"And his work with Pompom Higurashi?" asked the Hokage.
"Proceeding quite well," said Tenzo. "He is frequently too exhausted to prank anyone, and his changed diet and intensity of exercise has given his taijutsu scores a boost."
"I wouldn't be last place if the milk hadn't expired," grumped Naruto.
"Yes, too bad about that," lied Mizuki. "How could you know about a major pop quiz on a day you weren't there? But there is a way to go from 'dead last' to 'rookie of the year' you know. A secret test."
"A secret test?" asked Naruto, sounding skeptical. "I haven't heard of even a hint about that sort of thing. What kind of school has secret tests anyway?"
"A ninja academy," pointed out Mizuki.
"Okay, you got me there," admitted Naruto. "What do I got to do?"
"I acknowledge you as an excellent student, and a citizen of Konohagakure."
"How touching, but now I'll just kill you both!"
"Metal Release: Bear Trap Jutsu!"
SNAP!
"Stupid fox! I'll be out of this in a -"
"Metal Release: Anvilicious!"
KRUNCHHHH!
"Naruto. I want to thank you for NEVER doing that to me."
"No problem, Iruka-sensei!"
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(Posted Thu, 23 Jan 2014 16:10)
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