A Thirst For Power (Naruto Neglect Story)

Chapter 11 - Missions and Tests

Sora was pretty agitated. She had just become a Genin, and she had wanted to start training, and start going on missions. Instead, she found out she wasn't actually a Genin, and had to pass some stupid test to be one, and only then, could she could start the training and missions. "Alright, you three, to become Genin, need to find a way to bind me. In other words, put me in a place where I can't counter attack without you all countering it." All three nodded, and when Yugao said to start, all three of them jumped back into the trees.

Naruto was trying to decipher the meaning of this test. There was no way that they were expected to overpower a Jonin. There had to be a hidden meaning. Obviously, the Jonin would be holding back, and underestimate them. Naruto thought of ways to take advantage of this. He might be able to win the fight himself if he spammed the Flying Raijin, like his father, though even with more practice with it, the jutsu still took a lot of chakra. He could manage about 12 back to back uses, which may have seemed like a lot, but to make good use of it in battle, one had to use the technique at extremely fast, repeatedly. He would use it for a good 5 seconds, and pass out from chakra exhaustion. He wasn't like his father, who had used it hundreds of thousands of times, so it barely used any chakra for him.

Sora was in the tree, also thinking of a plan. Though she hated to admit it, she would have lost the fight if she had rushed right in. Even though she was an Uchiha, she wasn't invincible. (Shocking!) She figured it was worth a shot. If it didn't work, then she could use her teammates as distractions, so she could land a critical blow, and stop her sensei from counterattacking. Sora decided to jump out of the tree, and engage Yugao. If worse came to worse, she could retreat back into the trees. Sora jumped out of the tree, and immediately performed the handseals for the Great Fireball Jutsu. A massive ball of flames rushed at Yugao. Yugao smiled and pulled out her sword. She slashed at the fireball, and it dissipated. "You're going to have to do better then that. I thought Uchiha were supposed to be very powerful! I guess I thought wrong." she taunted. Sora, scowled and pulled out her own swords and rushed in for a stab. Yugao parried it, and flipped her sword and hit her with the hilt of the sword.

Sora stumbled backwards and did some more handseals. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough"
an orb of wind appeared, engulfing Yugao. After the wind cleared up, Sora smirked, but the smirk was soon wiped off her face. Instead of an injured Yugao, there was a shredded up log in her place. Sora felt cold metal against her neck. "That was a good try! Unfortunately, you shouldn't throw an attack without immediately following it up with another." Sora spun around, and saw Yugao with a kunai held to her neck. She tried jumping back, but she felt her feet rooted to the ground. She looked down and saw the earth had risen and her feet were clamped to the ground. She growled and tried taking out her sword, but Yugao had already disarmed her. She tried punching Yugao, but Yugao caught it and thought, 'The Uchiha shows promise. She is pretty arrogant at the moment, and would probably refuse the help of her teammates, which is could lead to a major problem on a mission later on. I have to humble her so she gains a sense of humility.' Yugao was about to punch Sora to knock her out, but she noticed a shuriken was sent to her head.

Yugao looked to her left, and saw Rimara jump from the tree and start doing handseals. "Ninja Art: Summoning Jutsu" A small tiger-like creature appeared from the ground and rushed at Yugao. Yugao backed away from Sora, and the binds were dispersed. Sora immediately grabbed her sword from the ground, and ran at Yugao, while channeling fire chakra to her sword. Yugao punched the tiger in the side, and it fell over and dispersed, which left a panting Rimara. She then blocked Sora's fire sword with her own, and kicked Sora away. The Uchiha used the distance between the two, and used a jutsu that she had been working on. "Wind Style: Twisting Gale" A miniature tornado was sent towards Yugao, and Rimara had regained her bearings, and sent a fleet of shuriken at her at the same time. Yugao deflected all of the shuriken, and was about to dodge the tornado, when she noticed that her legs felt like they weighed a thousand pounds.

She heard a voice behind her. "Gravity seals are pretty useful, aren't they, Yugao-sensei?" She looked back to see Naruto, with a small smile on his face. All three Genin were in front of Yugao, as they pointed their kunai to her. Yugao smiled, and grabbed all three of them in a big hug. "I've only just met you, and I'm already so proud of your three!" The Genin were a little wary, but Yugao spoke up. "Naruto you can get rid of the seals." Naruto looked at her worriedly, and she ruffled his hair. "You three pass the test! You all are officially Genin now." The freshly made Genin celebrated in their own way. Sora hmphed, Naruto smiled, and Rimara cheered. They made their way back to a table to the side of the training grounds. "The test was based on teamwork. Konoha's military is the most powerful because we are trained in teamwork very early. A team's capability in battle is very much dependant on their ability to work together." "Unlike a certain Uchiha." She added teasingly. Sora bit her lip and continued to listen.

"There would have been no way you three could have taken me on, had you worked seperately. Since you worked together, you had a better chance, and could strategize better. Though, I would like to add, even though you three showed great teamwork and potential, you all already displayed power at the higher level of Genin. All three of them smiled. "So when are we starting the missions and training?" Rimara asked. Yugao smiled and waggled her finger at her. "Be patient, Rimara-chan. I have to report to the Hokage. In the meantime, you three can train, hang out, or go home or something. Just make sure to come back to training ground 14 after an hour."
The three nodded, thanked their sensei, and parted ways.

At the Hokage's office.

Yugao and the other Jonin sensei for the new Genin teams met up in the Hokage's office, Kakashi obviously being late as usual. "Ok, let me know if your team passed or failed your respective tests, and if they passed, how they did, starting with team 7." Kakashi spoke up lazily. "Team 7 passed." Everyone stared at Kakashi, shocked, as he had never passed a team before. "Well, the team did pretty badly. All three members were just too different. Hiruko and Sasuke refused to work together because they kept on arguing on whose clan was better. Sakura was too distracted by the young Uchiha. The team honestly couldn't have worse chemistry. Sasuke and Hiruko hate each other. Sakura is infatuated with Sasuke, who wants nothing to do with her. Hiruko seems to like Sakura, straining the relationship between the two." Everybody looked worried. A team that was built that bad may be dangerous. "Well Kakashi, how did they pass? You seem to only be talking about their shortcomings."

Kakashi sighed. "Well the two boys show a good amount of abilities. Especially the young Uchiha. He had mastered the Fireball Jutsu." Minato frowned. The Fireball Jutsu wasn't a difficult jutsu to master. It wasn't much of an accomplishment. "Sakura shows promise as a healer, though her infatuation with the young Uchiha seems like a setback to her. She only focuses on his well being. The reason they passed was because I told them, once the time had ended, that they could eat lunch before trying again. I tied up Sakura to a wooden post, as she had done the least. I told them that they would be failed if they gave Sakura some of their lunch. The boys figured that the best way to get the bells would be to have all of the team members on a full stomach. It was probably the young Uchiha's generosity and idea, though." Yugao cringed at Kakashi's blatant favoritism for his black-haired student. "Well, they gave her some food, so that showed that they were capable of working as a team, so I passed them." Yugao thought that that was a bullshit reason. Kakashi was obviously going to pass any team that had the Uchiha's heir in it.

(A/N: ill be skipping the whole stories for Asuma and Kurenai's teams.)

"...Team 8 pass." "...Team 10 pass" Minato nodded and looked at Rin. "Well, what about your team, Rin?" Rin smiled and spoke. "Well, the teamwork on my team was pretty good. Kinato and Natsumi make decent plans. They're both a little competitive with each other, but they can tell whose plan is better, and go with it, albeit begrudgingly. The Sai boy is a little strange. He can work well with them, and he goes along with their plans. He seems socially awkward, however, and he rarely talks, and when he does, it sounds like he's talking from a script." The Hokage shifted in his chair. "Well, onto the actual test. Natsumi made a decent plan, all three of them going at me at the same time, with feinting that one of the would go for the bell, while in reality, all three of them would. It was a pretty obvious feint, though I do give props to Natsumi for thinking ahead. Kinato went for the bells, while Natsumi went from behind and sent shuriken to try and dislodge the bells. Sai sent some of his beasts and they proved as a distraction enough for Kinato to grab the bells. I passed them afterwards."

Minato smiled "As expected from my children. Anyways, how about your team, Yugao?" Yugao smiled. "My team blew away my expectations. First the Uchiha attacked me head on. I overpowered her and bound her to the ground with an earth jutsu. Rimara threw shuriken at me to distract me to release Sora. Naruto had jumped down, and they somehow created a great plan in the midst of a battle. The girls backed my up to a wall, and what happened afterwards was very impressive. Hokage-sama, you should be very proud of your son." Minato bit his lip and nodded. "He applied a gravity seal to me, which kept me down. Not just a regular gravity seal, but a really strong one. Probably a level 7 seal, bordering level 8. They passed after that.

To say Minato was shocked would be an understatement. Naruto had learned fuinjutsu? Not only that, but he had already mastered high level seals. How much more didn't he know about his estranged son? Minato took a few moments to take it all in. He sighed. "Alright. You all can go back to your teams and you can get them on some D-ranks. The meeting is adjourned."

Back with Naruto.

Naruto made his way back to the training ground. He was wearing some new clothes that he had just bought. He figured that since he had officially became a shinobi, he should be wearing something more fitting of one. His mother had let him use her account for purchases, and he had gotten a starting bonus for his promotion to Genin. He wore a heavyweight black hoodie, a dark tan bomber jacket over it, baggy shinobi pants, and a tan beanie. He also wore a leather belt with pouches on the sides, with a leather strap holding it up, with closed toe shinobi boots and open finger gloves with metal plates on the back.

Naruto arrived at the training ground, and noticed his two other teammates had also decided to pick up a new look. Yugao arrived soon after and noticed the new looks. "The little kids are ninja now, huh?" The three rolled their eyes, and Naruto spoke, "Are we heading to the Hokage's office for out mission?" Yugao responded. "Yeah. Follow me!" She took, jumping building to building, with the three Genin following behind. When they arrived at the Hokage's tower, the secretary let them in, and Yugao started speaking with the Hokage. "Uh, well the only D-rank mission available at the moment is- ᶜᵃᵗᶜʰᶦⁿᵍ ᵀᵒʳᵃ ᵗʰᵉ ᶜᵃᵗ." Yugao grinned. "What was that, Hokage-sama?" "Well, the only mission thats available for fresh Genin is, um, catching Tora, the Fire Daimyo's wife's cat." Yugao's grin widened further. "We accept the mission, Hokage-sama!" "Uh, ok." He looked at the three Genin apologetically. He mouthed out "sorry" and Yugao grabbed her students and left towards the Fire Daimyo's wife. Sora broke the silence. "What is our mission, Yugao-sensei?" Yugao laughed, in an almost disturbing way. "Oh don't you worry. We're just helping an old lady find her cat." Sora shrugged and kept on walking."

"Oh, and said cat may or may not be hellspawn."

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