Enya and Manemi traded blows. Enya struck with a fist but missed, his arm arching and grabbing Manemi by the nape. Manemi delivered a set of knees and then pushing back attempting to free himself, "Your late. Mind transfer jutsu." Enya said, smirking.Manemi's resistance waned; he suddenly supported Enya's body. 'Success, it took a while to learn it without hand seals, but it was worth it.' Enya thought, after making sure his body was hidden, he rushed ahead.
In the clearing, Ai stood with some scratches, but within her hand was a yellow arm band. Seeing Manemi approach, she got ready for another fight, but "Wait, it's me. I'm Enya." Manemi raised his hands, "I'm wilting so…" Ai said, "Burn me." Manemi finished. Ai took a relieved sigh and walked up, taking Manemi's arm band."Mission complete." She said, looking at Kudo, who was approaching with Date limping over his shoulder.
"Yeah, let's move. Take a third of their rations." Kudo said, Ai frowned, about to say something, but Enya in Manemi's body stopped her. A few minutes later, "Why not take all their rations? We are free to do so." Ai asked, following behind Kudo. "We could, but it's best not to burn bridges right now. Good favor goes a long way." Kudo said the team remained silent along the way while searching for a hideout. Enya and Ai were both tired and needed to recover their chakra, while Kudo fought the least; his sealess water bullet was so fast that Date just froze and submitted.
At the base of a cliff, a small fire illuminated the wall as 2 figures sat around the fire. It had been several hours after their fight, and they were well recovered."Hey, do you think this will work?" Enya asked in a hushed voice, "Shh, it will work." Kudo nodded as they remained alert. Ai had taken a higher vantage point on the cliff.
"Swoosh!!" 'Ambush, ' Kudo and Enya thought simultaneously. Multiple shuriken struck at Team Purple's silhouettes. A few meters away from the cliff,"Damn, it's a ruse," Sasuke said, rushing back. Sasuke dodged left and spun around, hiding behind a tree as chakra-enhanced senbon struck the tree, carving the bark.
"Naruto, Sakura, be careful!" Sasuke shouted, vigilantly searching for his attacker. "Damn, they found us," Naruto said, jumping away from his hiding spot. He was rushing towards Sasuke when a searing heat threatened to consume him. Naruto jumped onto the trees, jumping around, trying to rush out of the ring of fire. "Show yourself, you coward!" Naruto shouted, 'Ouch, so hot!' He patted his left leg, dusting off sparks of fire."Swish" Shuriken struck at Naruto, "Thwack" A wooden log was impaled as Naruto rushed forward, "Found you!" He lunged; "Boom." A back kick landed on his crossed arms, causing him to stagger backwards."You are not going anywhere, Naruto," Ai spoke, getting into a taijutsu stance.
"Wait, who are you? How do you know me? Are you a student as well?" Naruto rapidly fired questions while scratching his head.Ai clenched her fists, 'You will pay for this, Naruto.' She lunged forward, with a forceful stomp on her left leg, a high knee was aimed at Naruto. Naruto arched back, but Ai's shin came crashing on him. "Thwack!" Naruto's left hand got hit, and he closed in with a fist, slamming towards Ai. Ai redirected the fist downwards and pushed off jumping backwards. With a swipe, she took out a kunai, "Time to get serious." She murmured.'I can't lose; Sakura and Sasuke are relying on me.' Gulping, he also took out a kunai.
Up ahead; "Fire style: fireball jutsu!" A ball of fire rapidly streaked its way towards Kudo, making the snake hand seal, "Water style; water bullet." He puffed his mouth, letting out a stream of water. Water and fire clashed, producing hot steam, cauterizing the trees.'Ninjutsu will only waste time and chakra. I need to get closer.' Sasuke thought of taking out a kunai, although wooden, with the right force, it could impale. He rushed into the smoke, hair bellowing back as he felt the rush of the smoke.
"Look at that, we had the same idea," Kudo said, intercepting Sasuke. He lunged forward with a kunai in his hand.Kudo stabbed, "Thwack." Sasuke redirected the blow, with a push kick, he widened the distance, but Kudo advanced again with a rapid fury of diagonal slashes. Sasuke responded in kind. Kudo reverse gripped the Kunai, stabbing with his right hand and his left hand deflecting Sasuke's strikes.Kudo stabbed outward, right hand pushing Sasuke's hand left, his right hand suddenly retracted only to stab downward at Sasuke's nape. Sasuke dove inward mid-level with Kudo's abdomen spinning around with a leg sweep. "Thwack!" Sasuke's leg met Kudo's unyielding base, but he rapidly shot upward, his shoulder colliding with Kudo, throwing him off balance. Kudo dropped the kunai, grabbing Sasuke and yanking him as they tumbled together.
Kudo immediately struck with elbow strikes as they grappled, but Sasuke responded in kind, knees found their way, striking Kudo.Kudo rolled, separating from Sasuke. He got up and, at point-blank range, a dozen water bullets shot at Sasuke. 'Damn.' Sasuke jumped back, making a seal, "Katon: Great fireball jutsu!" A massive sphere of fire collided with the water bullets, sparking a heat of steam. Kudo already retreated, took out another kunai, except this time, chakra flowed through it. He understood the kunai would collapse faster, but he needed an edge. Sensing Sasuke's chakra he circled left around the steam.Rushing forward, "Give up, Sasuke." Kudo shouted, "Never." Sasuke arrived, wielding two kunai, thwack-thwack, they rapidly exchanged blows.
Deep into the night 2 figures were heaving arms in guards as they stared warningly at each other."Swishx2." Suddenly, two figures landed next to Kudo, making Sasuke retreat. Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he caught sight of the arm bands in Ai and Enya's hands. "Those dead weight." He spat."Hey! Take that back, she is strong, you know." Naruto rushed over, his orange jumpsuit in rags. Sakura arrived a while later. She was heaving, showing she had a tough battle as well."You took too long." Ai said, frowning, "You also wasted a lot of chakra unnecessarily."Kudo smirked, "It was a fun dance, Sasuke. Unfortunately, it ends here." Kudo and his team rushed away.
Silence reigned as the low light of the moon illuminated team red's faces. "I'm sorry, Sasuke," Sakura said, clenching her fists. She had given it her all, her only reprieve being that she hadn't fallen for the Yamanaka's mind transfer technique. "Let's go, there is still one day left. We will get arm bands from another team, then we will become a new team." Sasuke said, finally relaxing, he needed to recover and then use the rule of obtaining all 3 bands to switch their team designation to another colour.
The hours stretched on, and the second day quickly passed by, and the test soon came to an end. Team purple had obtained yellow, black, and brown arm bands. Sasuke's team became team grey and had obtained team white's arm bands. Team orange, Hinata's team, had obtained team green's arm bands. Team blue was without any conquered arm bands but had fought to retain theirs.
The weeks soon went by as they gradually approached the end of their 6th year at the academy.During the 41st week, it was the graduation exam, and surprisingly, all 30 students had passed despite the pass requirements being tough. The students were required to do the leaf test for at least 30 minutes, perform the basic 3 jutsus, with the clone jutsu having a minimum of 2 clones, though Naruto barely passed that one. Kudo had spent a long time drilling Naruto, so he got proficient in the 3 basic techniques.
In the shadows of the academy, while other kids were celebrating with their parents, a shadow approached the lonely Naruto, looking on and longing from afar, "You know, if you truly became Hokage, they would accept you, and you won't be alone anymore." Mizuki said to the depressed Naruto. Naruto's ears perked at Mizuki's words; he clutched his headband even harder. "I'm not strong enough." He murmured, his gaze falling away. Although Kudo and his mother had filled some of the void in his loneliness, it also reminded him of what he lacked and longed for.
"Fortunately for you, I know of a scroll with top-tier jutsus that will allow you to become Hokage," Mizuki said with a shadowy smirk. The nine tails inside Naruto slowly shook its head, 'Stupid brat.' It thought.
"What?!" Naruto exclaimed, his depressed self gone, "Do you have it? Can I see it? Let's just have a look, a tiny look." Naruto pleaded.Mizuki shook his head, and Naruto, at the sight, clenched his fists. "Naruto, it's not that I don't want to show it, it's just that I don't have it. It's an important scroll and only the Hokage has it; it's called the scroll of sealing. Naruto, the jutsus inside it are complicated, so if you happen to get it, I will teach them to you. I train at Training Group 74. You can come anytime."Mizuki walked away, his smirk hidden from Naruto but not from Hiruzen's stern prying eyes as he slowly shook his head. ' It will be good for him to learn the nature of humankind.' He thought as he reached for his smoking pipe.