Dragon’s Treasure

Chapter 3

“Speech”

‘Thoughts’

(Flashback)

“C’mon pops. Please?”

“How many times do I have to say it? Not until you’re ready.”

Naruto pouted, trying to put on his best puppy dog eyes for his father. Ryu raised an eyebrow at him. “You know that doesn’t work on me.” Naruto’s puppy dog eyes turned into a glare.

“Why won’t you teach me?”

Ryu sighed, “What will make you believe that you’re not ready yet? If I tried to teach you how to use a sword, you’d just wind up hurting someone, or yourself.”

“No I won’t, I promise! Please? If you teach me, then I promise that I’ll never ask you for anything again okay?”

Ryu’s eye twitched, “You know that’s not true. Besides, why do you want to use a sword so bad?”

“All the other kids in the academy have been getting kunai and shuriken and stuff from their parents, and I don’t have anything. It’s really lame.”

Ryu rubbed his chin in thought, “Well, ehh…” Then he snapped his fingers. “You’re teacher is going on a mission in a few days right?” Naruto nodded dumbly. “Okay, I think I have an idea.”

(Scene Break)

Ryu looked at the faces of the smiling students, as well as a few bewildered faces. Most bewildered of which was his son. He smiled warmly and began. “Good morning students. My name is Hayabusa Ryu. I’ll be your substitute teacher for the next week.”

“Good morning Hayabusa-sensei.” Came the rather enthusiastic reply.

“Before we begin our lesson plan, I would like to give you a pop-quiz.” Several groans came from the students. “Calm down, this will not be for a grade. This is only so that I can get to know your abilities.”

Ryu lead the class out to the training area in the back of the school. There were several pieces of training equipment for older students, as well as toys and play-sets for younger children. In the center of it all was a large sparring circle.

Once Ryu had gotten their attention again, he began speaking. “All right, the way the quiz is going to work is like this. I’ll call each of you into the ring one at a time, and then I want you to come at me with everything you’ve got. Just remember, the fights are over when I say they’re over. Understood.”

“Yes Hayabusa-sensei.” Came the chorus from the children.

‘Damn Iruka, you’ve really got these kids trained.’ Ryu thought.

“All right,” Ryu pulled a note card from his jacket pocket, “Aburame Shino?”

A boy wearing sunglasses and a somewhat too large coat stepped forward. He and Ryu walked towards opposite ends of the ring and bowed to each other. Ryu looked at his note card again, “Hyuuga Hinata?”

A pale girl stepped forward; she was playing with her fingers and looking down at the ground. “Y-yes?”

Ryu gave her a reassuring smile, “Would you start us off please?”

“All right.” She raised her hand in the air, and then chopped it downwards, “Hajime!”

Shino faked, as though he were going to rush, but stopped. He fell into a defensive position. Ryu chuckled, “I’m sorry for not clarifying, but you’ve got to attack me.”

“Mm.” Shino nodded, then leapt towards Ryu, fist first. Ryu sidestepped the attack, and Shino landed on the ground, but followed quickly with a leg sweep, which the older ninja hopped over. Shino tried a round house and a hook, but both were dodged. Finally he somersaulted forward, and tried to smash his heel into the substitute’s chin. Ryu leapt backwards and reached into a pouch on his belt, while smirking.

Naruto looked on puzzled, ‘What’s dad grabbing for?’

As soon as Ryu landed, his hand shot out, and the on looking students watched in disbelief as a yo-yo went buzzing towards Shino. Having only recovered from his last move, the toy smacked him right in the forehead, causing him to lurch back. The yo-yo snapped back into Ryu’s waiting hand, and he sent it out again, this time snaring the bug users ankle, and with a quick tug, knocked him off his feet.

Ryu pulled Shino along the dirt by the string until they were face to face. Ryu smiled at him and flicked something off his jacket. “Fight’s over. Nice move there with the bugs though.”

Naruto’s mouth had not yet closed after watching his father beat his classmate in a fight by using a yo-yo. In fact, there weren’t many children in the crowd who hadn’t dropped their jaws. One student had the sense to whisper to another, “What’s he talking about with the bugs?”

Ryu answered for them. “Shino was trying to put Kikai bugs on me rather than hit me.”

Several students realized what he was talking about, and began whispering the answer to their questioning friends. Shino stood up, and brushed himself off. Then shoved his hands in his pockets and rejoined the crowd.

“Next… Akimichi Chouji?”

(End Flashback)

Naruto snapped out of his reverie when Chouji was called to take his final. The large boy stood up from his seat next to him and walked towards Iruka’s office, still clutching the bag of chips. Naruto absentmindedly wished him luck and Shikamaru, who was laying face down on his desk one row in front of them, raised a hand as he walked by. To the boys, it was well known as the lazy boy’s way of offering encouragement.

Naruto started thinking again about how that day had gone. His dad had gone through pretty much the same process with all the students, and he always beat them with some kind of a toy. At one point he even used an action figure by controlling it with chakra strings. That was when Naruto had started using a yo-yo to fool around with. Usually he would just perform different tricks, and sometimes showed off to his classmates.

But what they usually didn’t see was the way he practiced it as a shinobi tool. They way he had figured it, if someone could use things like puppets, or an oar as a weapon, then why couldn’t he do it with a yo-yo?

A few minutes passed and Chouji emerged from Iruka’s office with a brand new forehead-protector. He sat down next to Naruto again, and then pulled another bag of potato chips from under his desk.

Naruto sighed as he laid his head down on his desk. He couldn’t stand it. The exams had only started and he was already getting restless. Not only that, but he was at the end of the list. The only person who came after him was Ino.

Iruka stepped out of his office again, and Naruto perked up. “Baju?”

Naruto’s face fell back onto the desk and he let out an even louder sigh. “This is taking for-ev-er!”

(Scene Break)

The door opened again, and Sasuke stepped out sporting a brand new hitai-ate. Naruto perked up, he knew that he was next after the Uchiha. Sure enough, Iruka followed him out, and read, “Uzumaki Naruto?”

Naruto immediately jumped out of his seat and leapt from desk to desk all the way down to the floor. Other students yelled at him but he paid them no mind, simply standing straight, grinning broadly in front of his teacher. Iruka sighed at his student’s antics, but motioned him into the office.

Inside was a large wooden desk, with the other teacher, Mizuki behind it. Iruka sat down next to the other teacher, with a stack of papers and the last two hitai-ates beside him. “Stand in front of the desk Naruto.” He did so, “Okay, first, we need to test your ability with shuriken.”

Naruto nodded and pulled five out of one of his pockets. Mizuki continued the explanation, “We’ve put genjutsu on five targets in this room, when we remove them, you’ll have 3 seconds to hit all of them.”

Naruto looked around the room, and saw that the wall behind him had many pockmarks in it. ‘That must be where the targets will appear.’

“GO!”

As he had guessed, the targets materialized on the back wall. “One!” Thunk “Two!” Thok “Three! Four!” Th-Thunk

Naruto’s mouth dropped. ‘Four! Only four?’ He looked around the room as quickly as possible, when he noticed another target on the ceiling. He threw his last shuriken at it quickly, but when his foot slid along the floor from his panic, he could hear that he stepped on a different material. He looked down towards his foot and saw one last target. He pulled a kunai from the holster on his leg, and stabbed downwards, right into the bull’s-eye.

“TIME!”

Naruto looked up towards the desk and saw both of his teachers with smiles on their faces. Iruka spoke first. “Very good Naruto-kun. You’re the second one to hit all six targets.”

Naruto stood straight with a broad grin. “Yeah! I’m the best around!” Then realization hit him. “Wait, who was the other one?”

Mizuki answered. “Sasuke was. Shino came close, but he missed the target on the ceiling.”

Naruto smirked, “Yeah, well I’m still better than Sasuke.”

Iruka chuckled, “All right Naruto, now for the last part of the test. We have to test you on your weakest skill, so this will be a genjutsu test.”

Naruto’s grin got really wide. “No problem! I can handle anything you can throw at me!” ‘Crap, I hope it’s nothing to advanced.’

Mizuki spoke up, “Nothing too advanced,” (‘SCORE!’) “Just two clones will let you pass.”

Naruto breathed out, “Okay, just two clones. Bunshin no Jutsu!”

With a poof, two clones appeared next to their creator. Mizuki and Iruka looked them over. Iruka spoke first. “Hmm… It seems like the nose is a bit big on this one.”

Mizuki had worked his way behind the clones. “Yes, but they look exactly the same from behind.”

Naruto remained as still as possible, hoping to god that his clones would pass the test. Iruka spoke again. “Still, they wouldn’t work all the time.”

“Well, I guess that’s just something he’ll have to work on later right?”

“Yeah, it’s passable I guess.” Naruto’s mouth dropped as Iruka tossed him a headband. “Congratulations Naruto. You’ve passed.”

Naruto just stood there for a moment, and then started laughing, “Ha-ha. Of course I passed, you wouldn’t expect a genius like me to fail would you?”

Iruka laughed as well, “Just get back to your seat for now okay?”

(Scene Break)

“Welcome home Naruto.” Ryu stood in front of the door to their apartment. He poked his son on the forehead. “I see that you got your hitai-ate.”

“Yeah-yeah!” Naruto nearly bouncing off the walls with energy. “There was this part of the test, where I had to hit five targets with shuriken right? So they keep the targets hidden with genjutsu, and then they take it off, and give me three seconds to hit five targets. So before the test starts, I notice that this one wall has a whole lot of holes in it from shuriken right? So when they release the illusion, I’m like, ‘FWAH-CHA!’ and I hit four targets at once. But they tried to trick me see, they put two more targets on the floor and ceiling. So then I’m like, “KI-YAH!’ and hit those two targets. I’m the only guy who could do it!”

At this point he received a good thwack on the head, Ryu’s eyes were closed in annoyance. “You know you shouldn’t tell lies Naruto.”

Naruto was on his knees, gripping the back of his head, “Ouch-ouch-ouch. Dammit, alright dad.” He stood straight again, “They said that only me and Sasuke were the ones who hit all six targets.”

Ryu beamed down at his son. “That’s my boy!”

Naruto’s eyes widened as he remembered something, “Oh yeah, why weren’t you there after school. Lots of other guys’ parents showed up.”

Ryu just smiled down at him. “I just had some business to take care of.”

“What kind of business?”

“Just some stuff. Oh, by the way, I have to spend tomorrow taking care of stuff, so I guess you have the day to yourself okay?”

Naruto looked down at the floor, clearly disappointed. “Yeah, okay then.”

The two ate their dinner (ramen of course) in relative silence. Ryu had finished before Naruto, only eating one bowl rather than five. So he waited patiently for his son to scarf down noodles until he was stuffed, just like he always did. Once he was finished, Ryu looked at him intently. “Naruto?”

The blonde stopped patting his belly and looked at his father, “Huh?”

“About what I said yesterday… I told you that I’d tell you the reason why the Fourth chose you to be the Kyuubi’s vessel.” Naruto’s face became very solemn. “It’s because, he was your real father.”

Naruto nearly fell out of his seat, “WHAT? What the hell are you talking about?”

“You know that I wasn’t born in this village, but the truth is that I came just after the Kyuubi attack. I was brought into the village the day after it was sealed inside you. That’s when I adopted you.”

Naruto started shaking in his chair, trying to rationalize what he was hearing. “But, you told me about my mom, you said that she was headstrong like me. Since she died in childbirth, how could you have known that stuff if you came the day after?”

Ryu shook his head, “I only repeated to you what the Fourth told me in his letters. You see, the Fourth was my best friend. He had been ever since we both participated in Chuunin Exams together. When I learned what happened to him, and you, I knew that I had to do something, make sure that you were kept safe, and raised the way he would have wanted you to be.”

Naruto started to get tears in his eyes. “Is that the only reason? You’ve only been taking care of me because of some sense of duty?”

Ryu looked shocked, “What? Naruto- No, that’s not it –“

That’s when Naruto took off, he didn’t know why, he just needed to get away. He could hear his fa- Ryu scrambling after him.

(Scene Break)

Naruto stood in front of the familiar door. He knocked twice, slowly.

The door opened, revealing his teacher, Iruka, wearing a t-shirt and some sweat pants. He rubbed his eyes sleepily, “Huh? Naruto?”

Iruka took him into the apartment, sat him down in a chair, and made him say everything. Once he was finished, Iruka was silent for a little while. “So he told you huh?” Iruka looked deep in thought for a moment, trying to think of a way to ease the boy’s confusion. “Naruto, do know about how Ryu and I first met?”

Naruto shook his head, but remained silent. Iruka continued on. “Well, it was just a few months after his probationary period before he was accepted as a ninja.” Iruka looked at Naruto and spotted a confused look, “If you immigrate into the village, there is a three month period before you can accept missions.” He seemed to get that explanation well enough. “Well, it was soon after that period. He had just gotten moved into his new apartment, and he’d hired a Genin team to watch over you while he was out. My team.

“The first few days went alright I guess; my teammates sort of made me do all the work though, it was pretty typical for Genin teams to get simple missions like this. On the fifth day, my teammates sent me out for some food, while they stayed and watched you. When I got back, I could hear you crying even before I opened the door. When I got inside they were… attacking you.”

Naruto was surprised, to say the least. “I was attacked? By your team?”

Iruka nodded sadly. “When I saw that, something inside me snapped. I attacked my teammates, but I was never the best on my team, so they were beating me pretty badly. That was when Kakashi showed up, and saved you and me. He took you to the Hokage, and I was sent to the hospital.”

Naruto thought for a moment. “So what does this have to do with my dad?”

Iruka smiled at his favorite student. “I think I should tell you about what happened at the hospital.”

(Flashback)

Iruka sat in the hospital bed, looking at his face in a mirror. He scowled at the bandages that wrapped over his nose. “Oh man. The doctor said it’s going to leave a scar.”

He turned when he heard the door open. He recognized his visitor immediately. “H-Hayabusa-sama! What are you doing here?”

Ryu was wearing his black ninja suit, sans mask. He looked very somber as he sat down, “Iruka, I understand that you saved my son.”

Iruka blushed at the statement, “Well, it was really Kakashi-sempai who saved me and Naruto from my team. I’m not really that good you see.”

Ryu remained silent, causing Iruka to become slightly nervous. “Can you tell me why you did it? I heard that both of your parents were killed by the Kyuubi.”

“Why?” Iruka had been thinking hard about that before Ryu even came in, “I don’t really have an answer for that. Seeing them harming Naruto, something inside me just snapped. I didn’t see him as the Kyuubi’s vessel, but just as a kid who needed my help.”

Ryu’s expression didn’t change, “I see.” The room was silent for a few minutes after that. “Iruka.” Ryu stood up from the chair, but then got down on his knees and bowed, that his head was almost touching the ground.

Iruka looked shocked at the display, “Hayabusa-sama…”

“Umino Iruka, I owe you my life.”

Iruka barely managed to sputter out a response, “Wh-What are you talking about Hayabusa-sama?”

Ryu lifted his head, but continued to kneel. “Ever since I came to this village, all that I’ve had to live for is raising my son. Without him, I would have nothing.”

“Hayabusa-sama…”

Ryu stood up this time. “If there’s anything I can do for you, just name it.”

Iruka was stunned silent. He thought for a minute, then realization hit him, “Help me pass the Chuunin exams.”

Ryu smiled for the first time since he entered the room. “All right then, I’ll train you until you pass the exams.”

(End Flashback)

Naruto looked to be in deep thought over the story. Iruka hoped that it would be enough to get him over the shock of finding out he was adopted. “Naruto-kun?”

Naruto stood up, “I think I should go home.”

Iruka smiled, “Say hi to your dad for me.”

(Scene Break)

AN: Well, minor crisis resolved.

About the yo-yo: It’s a placeholder, Naruto’s weapon until Ryu starts teaching him how to use others. If I were to describe how he would use it in a fight, I’d have to compare it to the way that Kratos from God of War fights with his swords. If you haven’t played or seen the game, Kratos uses two swords that are on the ends of long chains, the opposite ends of which are attached to his arms. He attacks by swinging them out, and retracting them, it’s really quite cool.

Ryu’s lesson with the yo-yo at the beginning had an “Underneath the underneath” kind of message to it, which is also the reason why he has encouraged Naruto’s use of a yo-yo in combat. Because it’s an unconventional weapon, fighting with it would require a lot of improvisation, important qualities to Naruto and any ninja.

Also, that was not the last time that Ryu substituted for Naruto’s class, so he knows the students pretty well. Ryu has a lot of time on his hands, and that will be explained in more detail later.

The shuriken test: Since the Chuunin Exams were essentially three separate tests, I figured that Genin Exams would be a similar three-test format. The first was the most basic, shuriken throwing as well as quick thinking. The second is the weakest skill test, and the last would be the Jounin instructor’s teamwork test.

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