“Naruto, I have something important to tell you.” Jiraiya proclaimed to his young student. “I have some important intelligence gathering on the Akatsuki that I need to do for the village for a few months, unfortunately this means that I can’t have you along to train in the meantime, fortunately Lady Tsunade has agreed to a plan I put forward to her before we left the village. Think of this as an alternative to the Chunin Exam, the fifth and the other elders have already signed off on this which means that this is official.”
“Old man, I don’t know if I told you this before,” Naruto said looking down in shame, “But the whole reason that I became a Genin was because I tried to take a shortcut. After I had failed the final exam for the Academy for the third time in a row one of the teachers, Mikazuchi-sensei, came to me with an alternative. He told me that if I took the scroll of seals from the Hokage’s private library and learned one of the forbidden techniques on it I would be allowed to become a full genin.”
“What I didn’t know was that was a load of bull, Mikazuchi-sensei was using me to steal the scroll for him, he was going to keep the scroll for himself and kill me to cover it up. He planned to use my reputation as the host of the Kyubei to have me branded a traitor in death, if it wasn’t for Iruka-sensei and my learning Kage-bushin I would have died, afterwards Iruka proclaimed that I had earned the title of shinobi and gave me his headband.”
“Naruto,” Jiraiya sighed, “This is anything but a shortcut, in many ways the Hunter’s Exam is even harder than the Chunin Exam, and the tests are entirely up to the whims of the proctors administering them. You will be tested every step of the way, once you get to Dolle Island where the Exam takes place it will be up to you to make it every step of the way, the only friends that you will have during the exam will be the ones that you make once you get there. It will be up to you to choose your allies and make your own choices, but I will tell you this choose your allies carefully, there are all kinds of people who take the exam, including false friends like Kabuto, and monsters like Orochimaru so be on your guard and trust your instincts.
So here Naruto was sitting on a ship in caught in foul weather tossing and turning the boat, and trying not to scream out of sheer boredom all the while desperately maintaining a transformation jutsu to keep his cover just in case the Akatsuki had any spies on board, fortunately Naruto had this cover burned into his memory. That was bad enough if it was not for this obnoxious braggart named Hanzo who claimed to be a jonin from Kumogakure, and aside from the complete lack of a headband, made no effort to disguise himself as anything except a ninja.
"So kid, you're going to take the Hunter Exam right, where are you from," Hanzo came over to Naruto trying to strike up a conversation.
Careful to maintain his cover Naruto responded, "Hello, my name is Haku, you said you were from Kumogakure correct?"
"Yep, I'm Hanzo Mori," Hanzo expounded, "I'm out to become a Hunter in order to retrieve the Hermit's Scroll.
"Originally I'm from the Land of Water; however my family left for the Land of Waves during the civil war against the Fourth Mizukage." Naruto replied maintaining his cover as the deceased ally of the late missing-nin Zabusa Mamochi. "Who is this Hermit whose scroll that you seek?"
"Who's the Hermit? Who's the Hermit?" Hanzo shouted in excitement, "I'm talking about the priest who discovered the secrets of chakra, the founder of ninjutsu, the God of Shinobi, the Savior of the World, the legendary Sage of the Six Paths!"
Everyone else in the boat moaning in annoyance at the Shinobi's antics (or from sea sickness) as Naruto listened doing his best to contain his curiosity while maintaining his disguise, after all the man claimed to be a jonin from Kumogakure and Naruto was eager to see how long his ruse could hold up against an experienced ninja from another village.
“You might wish to be careful,” the disguised genin suggested, “A document such as that can have many dangerous individuals very interested in acquiring it for themselves.”
“Yeah, I’m a jonin who would I need to be scared of?” Hanzo proclaimed puffing his chest out to display his bravery.
“From what I’ve heard an S-Class Missing Nin originally from Konohagakure is obsessed with obtaining all the jutsu that the world has to offer,” ‘Haku’ replied, “He alone should be dangerous enough to warrant avoiding.”
“Oh,” Hanzo smirked, “And just who is this mysterious and dangerous renegade?”
“Orochimaru.” ‘Haku’ replied to Hanzo’s inquiry; suffice it to say the rest of the voyage was a quiet one. At least until they hit a rough storm; however after his attempt to prove himself to Gamabuta the tiny squall was nothing.
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(Posted Sat, 01 Dec 2012 18:19)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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