Going The Whitebeard Route In Naruto

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(Word Count: 3,301)

Today, I was dressed in my full shinobi attire. Though I knew I wasn't going to be fighting anyone today, I still wanted to go into my life as a genin with my best foot forward. I mainly took inspiration from the ANBU's outfit. I had the classic shinobi pants, wire-mesh undershirt, an armored vest, some shin guards, hands and wrists wrapped, bracers, the whole works. I had my ninja tools pouch strapped to the small of my back, and a ninjato strapped horizontally above that. I also had a kunai sheath on my right thigh, just in reach of my fingertips for easy access when I was relaxed. All of my clothes and accessories were in darker shades for stealth.

Lastly, to finish off my look, I wore a haori over all of it, just as I've always worn. The best thing about my haori's is that they were all reversible. I could invert them for a stealthier colored jacket, either black, dark blue, or dark green. The nice brighter colors were still visible on the inside of the jacket, but I felt it was good enough. If Naruto could get away with a bright orange jumpsuit, I could get away with the inside of my haoris being brighter. Speaking of Naruto, today's haori was a creamy shade of pastel orange on the inside, in honor of Naruto. Though I didn't have the stomach to order one in his same shade of orange.

Still, together with the thin scar on the left side of my face, I thought I was looking pretty cool.

Guy still wore his usual sleeveless green jumpsuit and sleeve covers hiding his weights on his legs. He had a red handkerchief in his father's style. He wore his forehead protector as a belt.

"Sarutobi Asuma, Uzumaki Ayame, and Hyuuga Renjirou! You will be in team 4, under the instruction of Akimichi Choza!" When Rengorou called his name, a large man dressed in full Akimichi body armor stepped into the room. All of the young genins ooed and awed the armored jonin.

Next to me, Ayame cheered at being placed in the same team as Asuma, and hugged him, while Asuma himself was blushing. He may want to act cool all the time, but he was timid when it came to love. It was obvious the two liked each other, but both of them were too young to progress further than blushing at each other. Or even know that anything was beyond that.

Hyuuga Renjirou stiffly stood up and went to report to his jonin instructor. "Hello, Instructor Akimichi, I am Hyuuga Renjirou. I'll be in your care."

Choza smacked a huge hand onto the boy's shoulder with a loud laugh. "Just call me Choza! You two!" There was a subtle look of pain in the Hyuuga's face as Choza turned towards Ayama and Asuma. Ayame was still jumping up and down, hanging onto Asuma. "Come on, now! Let's go eat!"

As they left, the teacher called out the next team. " Shiranui Genma, Might Guy, and Uchiha Hatsumi! You will be in team 6, under the instruction of Might Dai!"

The door was kicked open and Dai flew in, leg out. "DYNAMIC ENTRY! AHAHAHA!" He landed and posed, giving a sparkling smile and thumbs up to the class. Though with his green bodysuit and a yellow handkerchief he wore like a cowboy, it wasn't as cool as he was hoping for.

"What!" Both mine and Guy's eyes bugged out. To think Dai was able to keep it to himself. Since Dai had helped rescue me from the ROOT base, Dai was able to show his abilities in taijutsu, which caught the eye of Hiruzen and other higher ups. Until then, no one expected a pure taijutsu specialist to have such power. Since then, Dai was able to get promoted and take higher paying jobs. 

Now, it looked like he was getting his first team as a jonin instructor. I couldn't help but smile.

"SO COOL!" Guy shouted back. "Father, you're my jonin instructor!?"

Dai aimed his thumbs up towards Guy, and his smile sparkled again. "That's right, son!"

So Guy was getting teamed with an Uchiha. Hatsumi was one of the two Uchiha twins in the class, Hatsumi and Haruki, a girl and a boy. They were great at taijutsu, so Hatsumi was a good match for Dai's team.

"Come along, kids! Let's go!"

They left, and Rengorou announced the next team. "Norihide Sakai, Yuhi Kurenai, and Dan Shizune! You will be team 9, under the instruction of Lady Tsunade!" Tsunade strolled into the classroom confidently, and gave me a smug smirk.

Murmurs spread amongst the other classmates, in awe of Lady Tsunade. She was the role model of every kunoichi afterall. Both Shizune and Kurenai both squealed in joy at having her as our teacher.

"My team, follow me!" With that, Tsunade strode back out of the class.

I got up and followed after her.

We all made our way to the roof, in a little gazebo built for the view. It was the same place Kakashi did his introductions with Team 7.

Tsunade leaned against the railing, and took her time examining each of us. Kurenai and Shizune were both too nervous under her gaze and stood there awkwardly, but I was more used to her as my teacher, so I plopped down onto the bench.

"Go ahead and sit down, she won't take your head off," I said to the girls.

"Don't worry girls, the only head I'm likely to take is Sakai's. You've got nothing to worry about," Tsunade said.

They both meekly sat down on either side of me. "I-it's an honor to meet you, Lady Tsunade," Shizune stammered out.

She just smiled in return. "Right, let's get our introductions out of the way. My name is Senju Tsunade. I'm the head of the Konoha Hospital and all of the iryo-nin. I like a good cup of sake, and I hate reckless fools. My goals are to make it so that every team has an iryo-nin on it. Now it's your turn," Tsunade pointed to Shizune.

"Right! My name's Dan Shizune, I really like animals, especially little piglets. I don't like eating meat, especially pork. My goals, I, well," Shizune blushed and looked away before muttering softly, "I want to be like you, Lady Tsunade."

Tsunade just laughed. "Don't worry, Shizune, you're my student now! I'll teach you three everything I know!"

Shizune beamed at her with a bright smile.

It was my turn now. "I am Norihide Sakai, I really love my family and friends. I hate idiots that think they're better than everyone else. My goal is to create a big family, and be strong enough to protect them."

"My name's Yuhi Kurenai, I like genjutsus, cute things, and," Kurenai blushed and looked away from me. "And I hate bugs! My goal is…" there was a quick glance at me before she blushed even harder and it seemed like there was smoke coming out of her head.

Tsunade laughed again. "I think she broke! Still though, it looks like my little student is quite the lady killer," she teased.

I groaned internally. I didn't have any interest in romance right now, much less with a little kid, so I chose to ignore all of that. "Let's continue on, please."

"Hahaha! Is someone embarrassed?" Tsunade teased again. Kurenai looked like she was going to faint. Luckily, Tsunade moved on. "Right. Anyway, you may have noticed that this team's composition is a little different than normal. Usually there's two boys and one girl, but this team was made with a different goal in mind. While we will still take on normal missions as a team, our main goal is to develop strong iryo-nin. Sakai was chosen for my team because I've already been teaching him for years. Really, he could just go straight to the hospital, instead of becoming a genin like he did. He's even taking the official licensing exam later today, aren't you, Sakai?"

I nodded. "In about 2 hours."

"The two of you, girls, were chosen because of your exceptional chakra control. Kurenai, I know that you're more interested in genjutsu, but don't worry. Both genjutsu and iryojutsu require a great deal of control. Understanding the human body will also help you with genjutsu as well. We also won't focus solely on iryojutsu," Tsunade explained.

Kurenai just nodded. Even if Tsunade's focus was on iryojutsu, she was still an exceptionally powerful kunoichi, so being her student was still a blessing for anyone.

"Okay, that's all for today. Tomorrow, we'll be meeting at the training grounds at 8. You three will fight me so I can get a good grasp of your capabilities."

"What about taking D ranked missions," I asked.

Tsunade waved me off. "We can start taking those in a couple of days. Let's at least start Kurenai and Shizune learning some of the basics in iryojutsu first. You're all dismissed! Sakai, if you want, we can go and start your exam a little early."

"That sounds good. I only scheduled it so late because I didn't know how long this team introductions would take."

We all parted ways, Kurenai and Shizune going home, and Tsunade and I heading to the hospital. Tsunade bumped me as we walked. "Sooo? Want to tell me about Kurenai? She seems to really like you."

I scoffed. "I'm not really interested in romance right now. Besides, we're only 12. It's too soon for any of us."

"Just keep an open heart to the idea of it, you did say your goal was to have a large family. You can't do it on your own."

This time I did blush a bit. Afterall, Kurenai was beautiful in the anime. I could already begin to see how beautiful she would turn out in real life. Still, I pushed the thought away. "It feels a little too weird. You know I'm a lot older mentally. It feels wrong to be interested in someone my own age. It's like if you got together with someone my age. It doesn't sit right, does it?"

Tsunade scrunched her face at the thought. "You're not my age though, you're the same age as her. Give it time, I guess. It'll get better when you all get older."

"I hope," I said with a sigh.

~ WRIN ~

"Congratulations on passing, Sakai!" Tsunade hugged me as I came out of the testing room, smothering me in her chest. 

"I just barely left, they haven't even graded my test yet," I said. "It's a bit early to celebrate, isn't it?"

"Nonsense! I've been watching you answer the entire time. You got everything correct, and you know it! So, what do you want as a reward for becoming a licensed doctor?" Tsunade asked.

I gave it a bit of thought, "Is it too presumptuous to ask for the slug summoning contract with Lady Katsuyu?"

Tsunade laughed. "Of course not! You're my student, I was already going to give you the contract anyway, so ask for something else. Though I'm glad you're looking forward to it."

In that case, it was likely that she would be teaching me her yin seal, and her super strength. Was there something I was forgetting? "Then, do you know of the Body Revival Jutsu?"

Tsunade's cheer disappeared and she frowned. "That's a forbidden technique, how did you know about that?"

"Eh, some enemy managed to steal it and used it to try and destroy Konoha in the future," I said off-handedly.

"That doesn't sound like something to be so dismissive about."

"Well, remember that doctor that I got arrested for espionage?"

"That was him?" Tsunade asked, shocked.

"Yep. So it's really nothing to worry about." Though it did remind me about Dark Chakra. I really needed to figure out ways to create those different types of chakra. Didn't the monks have some sort of Light Chakra or something?

"Well, you are a careful person, so I don't think you would abuse the Body Revival jutsu. But since it's a forbidden jutsu, I'll need to talk to the Hokage to get permission for you. I'll see what I can do," Tsunade said.

"Thank you!" With both the Eight Inner Gates and the Body Revival techniques, I'll become an absolute beast.

"Okay, you run along now. I've got to go brag to Jiraiya about my team."

As I walked back home, I thought about my progress so far.

For Taijutsu, I've mastered the use of the Body Flicker, though not as much as Shisui did. I was lacking the advanced dynamic vision of a dojutsu to be able to move as quickly in combat as Shisui was able to with this technique. Many shinobi had this same problem, it's why we didn't see it used so often mid-combat, which gave Shisui his moniker, Shisui of the Body Flicker.

Now, I was about to learn the Eight Inner Gates.

For Iryojutsu, I've mastered the use of the Mystic Palm technique, Chakra Scalpel, Chakra Senbons, Chakra Strings, Nerve Paralysis technique, Poison Fog, and many others.

Now, I was about to learn the Body Revival Technique, and Tsunade's personal techniques.

For Ninjutsu, it was my weakest field. I've mastered the Substitution, Transformation, and Clone techniques. I've continued to learn Jiraiya's Invisibility jutsu, though even if I was standing completely still, one could see a slight warping outline of my figure. If one was observant, they would be able to spot me. Considering this was a ninja village, everyone was observant. It's probably why Jiraiya dropped it. I was able to minimize the warping with my great chakra control, but even so I had to be very careful how I used it.

Now, because of just how hard I've worked on my chakra, I was able to develop my chakra pool to somewhere around High-Chunin and Low-Jonin. I knew I didn't have any special bloodline to work with, so I made sure to work on my chakra pool, and trained my chakra veins to be as robust as I could. Now that I was entering puberty, I could expect this to increase naturally alongside my body. I planned on taking full advantage of this time to surpass my parents completely. With how much effort I put into my chakra system, I expected to at least reach Elite Jonin, if not low-Kage, level of chakra when I'd finished growing.

Because of this, I did manage to learn Shadow Clones! At max I could only create two clones at a time and they only lasted 30 minutes, an hour if I only created one. Still, one extra hour of studying a day was useful when I was trying to master two difficult fields of Iryojutsu and Fuinjutsu. I also managed to recreate the Rasengan, though I could only use it 3 times at most and I was drained of chakra. 

Minato had already created the Rasengan by now, and he had even shown it to me once. He didn't explain exactly how he did it, but it gave me an excuse for when I was inevitably caught using it, either in practice on the training grounds or in a fight.

The only thing I could think of to progress here was to learn some earth release jutsus, but I didn't know if the effort would be worthwhile. It wasn't exactly my focus.

For Fuinjutsu, I've learned enough to be considered a seal master. I just needed to pass the qualification exam to earn the title. I can make a variety of different seals, many different variations of the exploding tags, protection barriers, and storage seals.

I plan on experimenting with a passive accumulation seal, similar to Tsunade's Byakugou Seal, which passively stores up chakra to be used later. I plan to use that as a base to develop many other types of chakra storage seals.

I made my way back home, and found it empty. Knowing Dai and Guy, they were probably celebrating them being on the same team by doing laps around the village. I sped up and began Body Flickering across the rooftops to the gate of the village.

I didn't have to wait for long before Dai and Guy came into view. Dai was running on his hands, keeping pace with Guy. 

"OH! SAKAI! COME JOIN US! WE'RE DOING 500 LAPS TO CELEBRATE!" Guy shouted.

"COME ON, MY BOY!" Dai joined in.

I began running along with them, laughing a little at their enthusiasm. They really were built differently. "500? That's too few! I passed my medical exam, so let's do 1,000!"

Dai nearly stumbled, "O-oh! Such youthful energy. YOSH! I WON'T GIVE UP! LET'S DO 1,000!"

"LET'S GO!" Guy sped up.

~ WRIN ~

Hours later, it was now dark, and the three of us were slowly walking around the perimeter of one of the training grounds. My legs were quivering and I could taste blood in the back of my throat from pushing myself too hard. We were walking to cool our bodies down.

After a few rounds, we all collapsed in the grass.

"Hahaha, we did it, boys!" Dai gasped out. He wasn't nearly as wrecked as Guy or I was, but he did the whole thing on his hands, so even as a jonin he was struggling.

Neither Guy or I could respond.

"Now, I believe I promised you two to teach you about my secret technique! It's a bit too late for us to practice it now, but we can at least get the theory down!"

"I call my technique, the Eight Inner Gates! Now, just to impress upon you how dangerous this is, it is classified as a forbidden technique because of the strain it puts on your body. So, the two of you must promise me to only use this technique under my direct supervision or in emergencies."

We both promised.

"Inside the body, there are eight special tenketsu points that are gates acting as limiters that prevent your body from exerting too much force. I've learned to force these open temporarily, allowing me to multiply my strength, speed, reflexes, everything. However, as I've said, it takes a toll on your body. The more gates you open, the greater the multiplier, but the greater the backlash your body suffers when they close again. However! I must warn you to never open all eight gates, because you will die and there's no chance to recover."

Guy gulped.

"Alright, enough warnings and explanations. Let's talk about how you open these gates. First of all, you must open them in order, or it can cause catastrophic damage. The gates are located here, here, and here," He pointed out all of the locations of the gates, starting at two in the brain, for the left and right hemispheres, and down to the groin, and then back up to the heart, which was the 8th gate.

"To open these gates, it requires you to force as much chakra into the tenketsu points as you can and then contract the muscles around it. The final gate is here in the heart. Opening this gate requires you to stab your heart."

Considering the gates are a type of tenketsu point, I wonder if a Hyuuga can just force one of these open on someone for an instant-kill technique? Or, if they were fast enough, could they force one of these closed to counter someone using the Eight Inner Gates technique. It wasn't likely that they would be able to actually land such a precise hit on someone using this technique, but the theory was sound at least.

"Alright, boys, let's go get something to eat. We'll need our strength for tomorrow!"

We both cheered.