章節 89: Chapter 3
A nearly seven year old Naruto spent most of his mornings wandering around Konoha, just observing like the Old Man told him to do.
He wasn't allowed to go to the Academy, but watching others practice taijutsu was miles better than studying a dusty scroll. Some mornings he sat and watched people for hours.
Today he was trying to observe how people moved. He was still trying to make his first life sized puppet. He'd long since solved his problem with his leg…and its special interior contents. Now he wanted to learn how to do battle. If he couldn't be a ninja on the field himself, he could have a puppet or an army of puppets on the field.
The current problem was the knee of his puppet. He'd tried a dozen different things to make it work. That was why he was watching four different ninja practice sparring.
All this would be easier if Naruto had someone to talk with. But even the Old Man got bored when Naruto began to talk about chakra strings and troublesome knee joints. The Old Man knew several puppeteers from allied villages, but he didn't know how they did what they did.
So Naruto had to puzzle it out by himself.
Eventually the ninjas finished up their morning routines and Naruto got up and left. He took a winding path around and through town. He watched how people moved. He'd eventually need to replicate ordinary movement, along with battle moves, in his puppets. There was just so much to learn.
One of his favorite places to walk by was the Aburame compound. Sometimes he even caught sight of people training to work with tiny insects.
That idea intrigued him.
So many ninjas trained to make big attacks, powerful, colorful. But Naruto was impressed with the beauty and elegance of a thousand small attacks. No one could avoid that many attacks all at once, especially not if they were coordinated in the right way.
Naruto already planned to experiment with very small puppets after he got his life size puppet working.
The more he saw of the world, the more ideas Naruto had. He had dozens of ideas in his head of how to be a ninja, a nontraditional ninja.
He wandered through the streets until it was noon. It used to be he'd have ramen with the Old Man on Wednesday afternoons. Naruto still turned up, but the Old Man hadn't joined him in a few months.
Abandonment by the Old Man hurt even more than the angry stares he got from other people. He'd have to go see the Old Man today.
He slurped through a dozen small bowls of different ramen flavors before he felt temporarily full. He trotted back to his apartment and returned to his reading. His favorite scroll was about Konoha's legendary shinobi.
Of everything he read, he loved the story of the Yondaime Hokage the best. A man who moved in such a way that no one could see him, let alone attack him. That was power; that was what it meant to be a ninja.
Naruto wanted that. But he remembered one of the Old Man's cautions. 'He needed to crawl before he could walk or run.' First a normal puppet, if he could ever get the knee joints to work, then some smaller puppets and then some special tricks no one would ever expect.
Such an easy thing to think, such a hard thing to make work.
"Even though many shinobi have attempted to recreate the Flying Thunder God technique, no one has succeeded. Many of the specially engraved kunai exist and have been studied extensively. For some reason, all the sealing masters who've studied the kunai and attempted to reconstruct the technique have failed when engraving their kunai. There are obviously hidden steps involved in the creation of the tri-pronged kunai…," the scroll in his lap explained.
Yes, that was it. Perfect. An unstoppable technique that no one else could use. Secrets that should be obvious, but weren't. Using something ordinary like a kunai to make the most devastating technique in Fire Country, yes!
He began writing down more notes about what he wanted to do while he connected chakra strings to his fifth attempt at a man-sized puppet. It came out of his bedroom and looked very unstable. It wasn't just the knees. It was everything.
The tall man's bowl-cut hair looked like the end of a mop that it was. It was supposed to mimic one of the ninja Naruto saw training all the time, but it looked like a terrible scarecrow. Step one, make it work. Step two, make it pretty.
It had gotten so easy for Naruto to walk on his artificial leg. Why was it so hard to make the puppet work? He had years of practice with his leg, why didn't his knowledge apply to his puppet?
He practiced and wrote until it was well past dark. It was now a good time to go visit the Old Man.
It only took a few minutes for Naruto to jog through the streets. Even with a false leg, he was agile and limber. Stupid Academy rules. He could keep up with any of those ninja students, any one of them.
He ran up the stairs and knocked on the Hokage's office door. This time he waited to be invited in. A few seconds later, the invite came.
Naruto walked inside and the Hokage looked up.
"Oh, no, I missed our lunchtime appointment, didn't I?"
Naruto just shrugged. "Just came by to see how you're doing, Old Man."
"I'm good, Naruto. How are you doing?"
"I'm grumpy. My puppet isn't working right."
The Hokage nodded. "Oh, what kind?"
"A life-size puppet."
The Hokage smiled. "You've made good progress, then, my child. The last I remember you mentioning was two feet tall."
"That's right. I got it to work finally and then went bigger."
"I'm glad. You've come a long way without a lot of help. You're smart young man, Naruto. I'm glad you're applying yourself so well."
"Yeah. Now, when can I get into the Academy, Old Man?"
The Hokage clutched his forehead and tried not to sigh. "Naruto, we've discussed this before."
"But I can run with my leg. And I've learned how to jump again, Old Man. There's no reason why I can't be a ninja."
"I'm sorry. We aren't having this argument."
An angry Naruto decided to attack from another angle. "Well, then, if I can't go to the Ninja Academy, how about you sign me up for the civilian school?"
There. Civilian school was highly disrespected by ninja. The Old Man would have to cave.
"I'm sorry, Naruto, but I can't arrange that either."
"What? What are you talking about? I'm a young kid. I should be in school, Old Man. Let me into the Academy."
"No."
"Well, why can't I go learn with the civilian kids then?" Naruto had never wondered, until this evening, why he wasn't receiving any schooling at all. The thought had never occurred to him.
The Hokage pinked up a bit in his cheeks. This was quite an embarrassment for him. "It's a long story, but the civilian education authority has a rule stating that any children who have any ninja enhancements must attend a ninja academy."
"What 'enhancements'?"
The Hokage pointed to Naruto's left leg. "You use chakra to control that. It's considered a 'ninja enhancement.'"
"What? I can't go to the civilian school because I have this leg? And I can't go to the Ninja Academy for the same reason?"
The Hokage slowly nodded.
"Old Man, you've got to be crazy. How am I supposed to get some schooling then?"
"I'm sorry, Naruto, but you aren't."
The room fell silent for a moment before the blonde exploded. "What? Why? That's the stupidest rule I've ever heard of!"
"I promise I will explain it when you're older, Naruto."
Naruto was shouting at the top of his lungs now. The Hokage had to wave away the ANBU who came to check up on what was happening. "You're the strongest ninja in the village, Old Man. Are you sure I can't go to the Academy? Just for classes. I won't even try to run or anything! Please!" It was a desperately boring and lonely life Naruto led.
The Hokage lowered his head in shame. "I am the strongest ninja in the village, my child. But, on this, my hands are tied."
"What good are you then?"
The Hokage looked up in anger. But Naruto was already gone.
Also gone was any trust or faith Naruto had for the Old Man. It would be a long time before the Hokage saw Naruto again.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Eight months later, Naruto was ready to do a field test on his newest project.
He'd solved the problems involved in a functioning life-size puppet. The knees were tricky, but Naruto eventually found a design he could replicate with a few aluminum parts he salvaged from the village dump.
Now he was ready. He'd picked his target, the strongest ninja in Hidden Leaf. The Hokage didn't seem to care about Naruto any longer…so Naruto would repay the favor with a mocking smile.
If this technique could work against the strongest, smartest ninja in the village, then it could work against anyone.
Naruto knocked on the door to the Hokage's office and walked right in. He knew what manners were, but he only used them for people he respected. (At present, there were none.) The strongest person in the village was letting him go uneducated. The Old Man could wiggle his little finger and make someone teach Naruto. He chose not to, for some reason.
"Hey there, Old Man."
The Hokage turned around from another 'wall' that revealed scrolls behind it. "Naruto, I didn't expect you today."
"That's alright. I was just seeing if you wanted to get some ramen, Old Man."
The Hokage crooked his head and looked at the stack of paperwork on his desk. "I don't think I can. Not today, my child."
"Well, maybe later." He turned to walk out the door.
"Oh, Naruto, how is your puppeteering coming along?"
"I've made a lot of mistakes, but finally figured out the right way. Maybe I can bring my puppet in and show you."
The Hokage smiled and turned to continue examining his scrolls. He didn't hear Naruto leave. Indeed, he didn't hear anything until a chuunin came into his office to let him know that Ibiki wanted him to observe an interrogation.
When the Hokage turned around to acknowledge the chuunin, the young ninja couldn't keep the shock off his face.
"What's wrong, Kituma?"
"Your face and hands, Lord Hokage? Are you feeling well…?"
The Hokage turned and pulled a small mirror out of his desk. "Red spots? What could cause that?" It only took his sharp mind a few moments to piece everything together. "Naruto! Chuunin Kituma, please find and bring me Uzumaki Naruto. He apparently decided to play a prank on me…and I didn't notice a thing. I want to know how he accomplished this."
"Immediately, Lord Hokage."
A few hours later, after turning the village upside down, a smiling Naruto turned up by himself and knocked on the Hokage's door.
"Come in."
Naruto walked in. The Hokage was scrubbing vigorously at his hands with a wet pad. He still had the red spots everywhere.
Naruto broke out into laughter. "You're still scrubbing. Oh, that's awesome, Old Man. I got you good."
"That you did. I need you to do two things for me, Naruto…."
"Sure, what do you want, Old Man?"
The Hokage wavered between anger and amusement, but he tried to keep it all inside. "I want to know how to get rid of these spots?"
"Can't. They'll go away by themselves. It's from a big fern I found in the forest."
"Naruto, you can't poison people with plants you find in the forest." The Hokage was beginning to sweat about how bad this could have been. There were truly toxic plants in the forest around Konoha.
"It just causes a rash." Naruto was trying hard not to laugh.
"How long?"
"Last time I touched the stuff it took a week to go away…."
A week. A week! "Why did you do this to me?"
"You're the strongest ninja in the village. I was testing my new puppets. They did pretty good, huh?"
The Hokage scratched his head. Naruto caused havoc wherever he went.
"What kind of puppets?"
At this Naruto smiled. He reached into a pocket in his orange suit and pulled out a few small…the Hokage couldn't tell what they were. The Hokage swept them into his hand.
"I'm confused. What are they?"
"They're my fly puppets."
The Hokage looked at them closely. Yes, it seemed that the little thing had wings. Very ingenious. "Fly puppets…. What in the world can you do with them?"
Naruto flashed a huge smile. "Tag you with a mild poison. Pretty good, huh?"
Sarutobi needed to put some necessary fear into the boy. "Naruto, I could have the ANBU arrest you for attempting to kill me…."
Naruto smiled and then laughed. "I'm not a ninja, remember, Old Man? The ANBU can't do anything to a civilian…."
The Hokage knew that was true. That provision had been eked out during the First Hokage's tenure as a means of keeping the Hokage's personal power under control.
"Then I can call the Police."
"They can't investigate crimes committed inside ninja buildings, Old Man. I started reading a lot of scrolls since no one would teach me anything. There are lots of interesting loopholes if you go looking for them."
The boy was telling the truth. Civilians were almost never allowed into ninja buildings, which was the reason why the Police were kept out by statute.
This whole mess was just as glaring a hole as the rules keeping Naruto out of school. Clever boy.
The Hokage wondered how many hours Naruto must have spent researching to find this way of exacting revenge…through a harmless prank. It was a good thing that Naruto didn't have a malicious bone in his body, just an overpowered sense of justice and fairness.
An attack like what Naruto did could have been fatal since the Hokage hadn't been on his guard in Naruto's presence. After all, the powerful ninja reflected bitterly, what could a small boy without any ninja training do to a Kage?
Apparently Sarutobi was wrong to underestimate Naruto. The boy had reverse engineered the puppetry technique from a few dropped hints and basic training in how to make and control chakra strings.
This idea of tiny puppets was something that the Hokage had never heard of. It was like an Aburame being a puppeteer, but done in such a way that the 'insects' made no noise and gave off no detectable chakra signatures.
It was a brilliant idea. From the mouths of babes, then. Maybe he could try to work it into his style…or suggest someone else in his Ninja Corps try it out. Standard puppets were big and clunky, but these little insects were another thing entirely.
"You can leave, Naruto. I'll see if we can have lunch next week." The child was obviously angry and starved for attention. The Hokage needed to spend more time with him…or see if there was someone he could get to befriend the child.
"Sure, sure. I'll have more tests ready to do by then."
"I am not volunteering, Naruto. Head off now and I'll see you later."
Naruto wasn't expecting much, so he wasn't surprised when the Hokage never showed up to have lunch with Naruto.
Indeed, he was rather busy with his additional experiments. Naruto tested the different types of his new puppets and the several varieties of poisons he'd extracted…he tested against civilians, against shinobi, against ANBU. Everyone.
No one noticed his puppets. Everyone took a relaxed stance while staying in Hidden Leaf. It was eye opening, the lack of precaution people took in such a dangerous place. It was a ninja village for Kami's sake.
His strongest conclusion from all the testing was that he needed better poisons. None of the things he had caused anything worse than itching. He wrote it down on his list.
The Hokage's continued indifference festered inside Naruto. It drove him. His new nindo: if won't let me be a shinobi, then I'll just have to be better than them and show them that they're wrong.
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