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~ I'm planning to increase the number of advanced chapters to +18 this weekend!
~ I've edited some of the previous chapters to remove anything you might consider "cringe" or "unnecessary." I'll continue reviewing them from time to time!
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"I'm very proud of you Naruto." Iruka said from next to him. "You blew everyone's expectations out of the water with your exam results today; you got in the Top Ten!"
"Guess I shoulda put more effort into my studies a lot sooner." Naruto admitted sheepishly. Then he noticed something. "Hey, Teuchi-ossan, where's Ayame-nee? I haven't seen her tonight."
"She's off getting some ingredients for me." The owner of the ramen stand replied. "It's just a pick up from a nearby village, but I had a team of genin escort her as a high-D-Rank mission. Some stupid bandits have been lurking around the boundaries of Konoha's outer patrols for a while and I didn't want to risk Ayame's life."
"I'll have to see if we can get a clearance mission set up." Iruka sighed. "I swear, sometimes the arrogant stupidity of bandits is too much for words. Some are simply stupid enough to dismiss shinobi as nothing more than common soldiers, ignoring or refusing to admit that chakra even exists while others discard it as simply parlour tricks. If ever there was a case of 'too stupid to live.'" the man finished with a tired mutter.
"Too true." Teuchi snorted. "Useless wastes of space. Anyway, she'll be back tomorrow or the day after. Plenty of time for you to show off your hitai-ate to her."
Naruto just rolled his eyes. "Iruka-sensei, how common are bandits anyway?"
"Hmm…both more common than I'd like and less common than you'd think." The scarred chunin mused. "Bandits come from all walks of life; deserters from the armies of the Daimyo, villagers who had to turn to it to feed their families. Some of the more dangerous ones tend to be drop-outs from the various shinobi academies, outcasts from the wandering clans, and even some low-ranking Nuke-nin, those ranked D and C in the Bingo Book. You tend to see them more during the wars or for a couple years afterwards, but they crop up even during peacetime. Most tend to find isolated areas far from ninja and prey on lone travellers and villages, but some, like the idiots around Konoha, tend to poke the bear by targeting the more well-travelled trading routes or larger settlements. We get hired by the local representative of the Fire Daimyo to clean them out every so often, but they tend to pop up again like cockroaches after a while."
"Wow…" the newly-minted genin blinked.
"Yeah, bandit-clearing missions are a pretty standard C-Rank mission." Iruka said with a laugh. "The Daimyo's armies rarely move from the cities unless it's wartime, and we're more mobile to begin with, so we ninja get the job of cleaning up bandits more often than not. Well, that's enough on that. Looking forward to finding out who your Jonin-sensei is on Monday?"
"Yeah! I've been wanting to get into the genin portion of the library for a while, 'cause I need to get proper Kodachi and Tantō styles to learn." The boy grinned.
"I meant to get you one, but I got caught up in paperwork." Iruka apologised before glancing at the clock and scowling. "And I have to go and finish more paperwork right now. The end of a semester is always a pain in the butt with this kinda thing."
Leaving a handful of Ryo notes on the counter to pay for his and Naruto's ramen, the chunin ruffled a protesting Naruto's hair before leaving.
"Why does he always do that?" Naruto grumbled good-naturedly as he tried to get his spikey mop back into some semblance of order. Teuchi laughed at the put-upon expression he wore.
After chatting with the ramen chef for a while, Naruto headed back to his home to get started on his [Fūinjutsu] training. An added bonus was that he was selling his decent products to the Higurashi family for a big paycheck…or at least, for a reasonably large paycheck.
When he got into his house, he at once noticed something off. There was a scroll on his living room table that definitely hadn't been there when he'd left earlier. This rang alarm bells for the Jinchūriki, so he decided to be cautious.
"[Kage Bunshin no Jutsu]!" he said, making the Clone Handsign. A single Shadow Clone appeared in a pop of smoke and reluctantly headed towards the scroll and picked it up gingerly.
"Open it." The original ordered.
"Yeah, yeah…I got it Boss." The clone grumbled. The Shadow Clone Jutsu had been developed for the purpose of scouting dangerous areas, deliberately tripping traps and opening strange scrolls/boxes that appeared from nowhere, but that didn't mean that the clones liked it by any stretch of the imagination.
Deciding to get it over with quickly, the Clone opened the scroll and flinched away, expecting an explosion or something to blast it out of existence. When that didn't happen, it breathed a sigh of relief before reading the contents.
"Boss…Mizuki-teme is up to something." It said after a minute and showed its creator the scroll. It was a basic message informing Naruto of an exam exclusive to the top ten ranked genin from the basic exam in order to gain the rank of 'Rookie of the Year.' He had to infiltrate the Hokage Tower and steal a particular scroll in order to complete half of the exam. The other half was to abscond to a clearing in Training Ground Number 19, the Forest of Quiet Contemplation and learn one jutsu from the scroll. It was signed 'Toji Mizuki' at the bottom.
The two Narutos exchanged blank looks and said at the same time, "What kind of slobbering nimrod does he think I am?!"
Later
Hokage's Office, Hokage Tower
STAMP!
'Rejected.'
STAMP!
'Approved.'
STAMP, STAMP, STAMP!
'All Rejected. What manner of idiots make requests for 24/7 guard for the civilian council?' Sarutobi though irritably. He had finished discussing things with the Jonin-sensei a few hours ago, and he had been battling the accursed piles of paper that threatened to bury him under ever since.
The sound of feet landing lightly on the carpet in front of his desk made the aged Hokage look up in surprise. Standing in front of him wearing the full [Lesser Fūjin] set and his hitai-ate was Naruto, with a serious expression on his face.
"Naruto-kun? How did you get past the chunin patrollers? Not to mention the ANBU outside my office?" Sarutobi frowned.
"Eh, the chunin are easy to get past because they've kept to the same patrol pattern for the last six months." The boy shrugged. "The ANBU weren't as easy, but they don't watch their own little routes in and out of places, so it's easy as long as you memorize those."
The Hokage felt a vein pulse on his head in irritation. Someone was being lazy in the Chunin Patroller Division, as he had specifically ordered that the patrol patterns were to be alternated every month. He also cast a reproving glance to where he knew one of his ANBU operatives was stationed and felt the man's embarrassment at being snuck up on by an hours-fresh genin, even if it was the Prankster King of Konoha.
"I see…I will plug those holes in the morning." Hiruzen pinched his nose at the fresh paperwork that this little excursion of Naruto's was going to generate. "So, to what do I owe this late night visit? Is this your new genin outfit?"
"Light combat version, yep." Naruto nodded before shaking his head. "I have something you need to see, Hokage-sama. It's a very suspicious note that I found in my apartment…from Mizuki."
This made Hiruzen narrow his eyes at his favourite orphan. "Show me."
After examining the note in question, the Hokage nodded. "This is indeed suspicious. The scroll in question is the Forbidden Scroll of Seals, which is full of dangerous Kinjutsu. Telling you to steal it is the equivalent of ordering you to commit treason."
"So he wanted me to do his dirty work and then run, leaving me to carry the can for him." Naruto growled.
"Very likely, but while I recognise this as Mizuki's handwriting, a decent forger could have written this out to frame him." Hiruzen scowled before a smirk crossed his face. "Naruto-kun, how would you like to be responsible for bringing in a Nuke-nin on your first day as a ninja?"
The smirk on Naruto's face made Iruka, putting his feet up at his home after finishing his paperwork, shiver in trepidation such was the fell evil it contained.
"Tell me more, Hokage-jiji…"
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