Naruto was just about bouncing in his seat at the Academy, the agonizing week of waiting finally past.
While other kids his age around him chatted about this or that, he daydreamed about all of the super cool Taijutsu moves he'd be learning, and all the awesome Kenjutsu stuff as well! Stealth didn't sound quite as cool, but he'd find a way to make it fun, or his name wasn't Uzumaki Naruto.
Excitement and determination both flowed through him like chakra, leaving him feeling giddy and light.
Or maybe that was his chakra. Pausing, Naruto glanced around and sure enough saw hair ruffling and papers rustling from his unconscious channeling of chakra. Closing his eyes quickly, he focused on pushing the feel of his chakra back into his body, relaxing only when the last little bit had been contained. He'd have to be careful about that, he realized.
Fortunately, any mood killing concerns with his strange chakra were quickly shoved into the farthest recess of his mind when the door opened below and a man wearing a chunin vest sporting a spiky hairdo walked in. Immediately the conversations in the room died down, the other kids turning their attention just as expectantly on the man as Naruto.
"Hello students!" He greeted cheerfully. Walking over to the solitary desk in the room he dropped a stack of papers he'd been carrying, and then reached down and grabbed an armful of textbooks from a box next to the desk.
He quickly set about climbing the stairs and handing each student a textbook. Naruto practically snatched his own copy out of the man's hand, earning himself an amused grin for his troubles. He immediately cracked open the book and started flipping through the pages.
Once all of the books had been handed out, the man returned to his desk and grabbed a sheet of paper from the pile. He began reading names off of the apparent attendance list with practised ease.
When it came to be Naruto's turn he found he was too absorbed in the book to do his awesome introduction he'd planned, instead simply waving his hand in the air. He wasn't actually reading it, per se, more looking through the pictures provided, but man were they some interesting pictures.
"Now then, my name is Umino Iruka, and I'm going to be your instructor for the next five years." The instructor introduced himself, receiving a chorus of hellos from the class. "First of all, those textbooks are all yours to keep, and will cost extra to replace. So take good care of them. You'll be getting a new one every year, but for now that's all you've got." He said firmly.
"We've got a lot of material to cover before your graduation, so today is going to be a brief overview on everything we'll be doing. I'll also be answering any questions you may have, and after lunch we'll take a trip outside to the training grounds you'll be using to practise your various shinobi arts."
Naruto perked up at that, but a quick glance at the clock assured him that lunch wasn't for a long time still, and as Iruka-sensei launched into the various different subjects they'd be covering Naruto found himself turning back to his book. His eyes traced over the various pictures of handseals and Taijutsu stances and the like, occasionally skimming the text below the pictures if they were particularly interesting.
Time passed like this, Iruka-sensei babbling on about something or the other and a few students here and there asking questions, when Naruto alighted on a picture that instantly had him raising his hand.
"Yes Naruto?" Iruka asked. Naruto held up his book and eagerly pointed to the picture that had caught his attention, a small illustration of two Anbu dressed in muted green and black with strange, demonic looking masks.
"Who are these guys?" Iruka raised an eyebrow.
"Can I get a page number?"
"Oh, yeah. Two sixty-six," Naruto supplied, feeling his cheeks heat up as a few snickers reached his ears.
Iruka walked back to his desk and picked up a textbook of his own, flipping through the pages. "You mean the Anbu?" He asked, surprised. Naruto nodded.
"Yeah, they look different than the regular kind." Iruka nodded in understanding.
"Ah, I see. These particular Anbu belong to a special division that exists solely to combat Bijuu and similar demonic threats called the Yokai Corps." He explained. "They're a very selective bunch. I don't even know what is required to become one." On the other side of the room a girl with pink hair quickly raised her hand.
"What's a Bijuu, Iruka-sensei?" She asked curiously. Several students nodded along with her question, the word demonic having easily sparked their interest. Iruka crossed his arms, humming thoughtfully.
"Well, I was planning on saving that particular subject until after lunch," he said slowly. "But I suppose I could do that now and go over the rest of the year's subjects later, if you'd all like." Unanimous agreement was his answer. "Alright then. Why don't you all turn to page two sixty-seven."
Naruto turned the page once, and was greeted by the sight of an enormous ugly creature hurling what looked like sand at a bunch of tiny ninja.
"Bijuu are going to be a very important topic throughout this year and every year following, so for now I'll just give you the basics. The Bijuu are nine beings that are so powerful many refer to them as natural disasters. Each is the size of a small village, and one by itself has been proven to be destructive enough to wipe out miles of land at a time with their attacks.
"Each Bijuu belongs to an element, of which they have complete and total control over. The Ichibi, as you can see, deals in sand. Part of the reason they're such big problems is that very control over their element. It makes a shinobi's job a lot more difficult when the very ground beneath their feet is working against them.
Bijuu also have the uncanny ability to flee into their element when threatened, so capturing them is impossible." Iruka's expression softened, seeing the rapidly growing horror on the children's faces. "You all don't have anything to worry about, though," he assured. "The Yokai Corps are very good at their job."
The pink haired girl raised her hand again, if a bit hesitantly. "Yes Sakura?" Iruka asked.
"How do the Yokai Corps combat the Bijuu, exactly?" There was a slight tremor in the girl's voice, but she tried valiantly to hide it. Iruka smiled reassuringly at her.
"A very good question." He complimented. "As I said before, the Yokai Corps are a very secretive bunch, but from what I understand they operate primarily through an extremely impressive level of teamwork.
Their main purpose is to keep Bijuu away from Konoha, and they do this very well by using group ninjutsu and mass containment techniques to scare the Bijuu away. Anymore questions?"
"My mom told me the Kyuubi attacked Konoha seven years ago and the Yondaime had to sacrifice himself to kill it," A boy in front of Naruto with messy brown hair and glasses said matter-of-factly. "Why didn't the Yokai Corps scare it away?" Iruka sighed sadly, leaning back on his desk.
"It was not because of a lack of effort," he said after a few moments. "Something that you all need to understand is that the power of the Bijuu varies greatly. A theory has been made that the number of tails they possess is an indicator of this, but there's little evidence to that fact other than the Kyuubi, which has the greatest amount of tails and the greatest amount of power.
"The Yokai Corps can only do so much, and in the end the Kyuubi was just too strong for them to contain or scare off. Their Ninjutsu, their traps, everything. It was all useless against what some call the Lord of the Bijuu." Iruka explained solemnly. "The Yondaime was forced to sacrifice himself because the Kyuubi would have wiped out Konoha in its entirety otherwise." He shook his head.
"We'll be going over that and other things related to Bijuu in due time, but I think for now that should suffice. How does an early lunch sound?" There were some scattered nods and muttered acceptances, but for the most part the children were all still trying to take in this new, scary information.
Naruto, meanwhile, quickly flipped through the pages in his textbook while the other kids gathered up their lunches and headed for the door, ignoring the various different Bijuu on display until he reached the ninth and final Bijuu.
An entire page had been taken up by the illustration. That of an enormous, snarling fox with hateful crimson eyes and nine lashing tails crouched in the middle of what looked like a hurricane.
Trees the size of toothpicks whipped around the raging beast, and the very clouds above it were being dragged down from the sky into what looked like a tornado. Naruto's eyes flickered down to the caption.
Kyuubi no Kitsune. Bijuu of Wind.
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AN :
This is my first serious attempt at creating something unique in a fanfic. Starting from the next chapter, the story will be in the first person point of view and will include multiple perspectives.
Now, for the technical details. The use of first-person POV makes so much sense in the Narutoverse that I'm surprised more authors haven't made that connection.
The shonen nature of canon Naruto means that many fanfics rely on third-person descriptions of fights and general badassery, often lacking strong character development—a flaw that can be traced back to the source material. My story, however, is plot-driven, engaging, and coherent. Moments of introspection are subtle but crucial, rounding out the character development and making it highly realistic.
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PS : don't forget to write a review for the story :)
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