Promises Kept

The excited cries of “I’M A NINJA…I’M A NINJA…I’M A NINJA…I’M A NINJA…” could be heard through out all of Konoha as a black and red blur bounced through out the shinobi village screaming its accomplishment so that everyone within the village walls knew, whether they wanted to or not.

As the, now, twelve years old Rookie Genin enters the front door of the home he shares with the man who has become his only real family he finds himself suddenly laying back as Shunta licks his face happily. Raven walks into the living room and smiles as he watches the boy play with the young summon wolf cub. “Shunta,” Raven says to the cub, “Look after Naruto until I get back.”

“Where are you going Niisan,” Naruto chuckles as Shunta continues to lick his face happily.

“Tousan wants to see me about something so I’ll be back soon,” he tells the Genin before vanishing him a puff of smoke.

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Raven is already sitting in the Hokage’s office as the old man enters the room. The man walks over to sit behind his desk taking a puff from his pipe. “I apologize for the delay,” the Hokage tells him as he hands Raven a folder. “That is all the available information on the Genin from this year’s graduating class. I would like you to look over it and give me your assessment of how their teams should be arranged.”


“Hai,” Raven answers as takes the folder and looks over each file carefully. The folder includes files on all Twenty-seven students in Naruto’s class that had pasted the Graduation Exam along with the names and specialties of the nine Jounin instructors. “Asuma’s an instructor this year,” he observes as he continues to study the folder.

After several minutes of study he closes the folder and hands it back to the Hokage. “I only see nine Genin that if placed on the right squad even have a chance of passing the Final Exam,” he tells the older man. “Also if trained properly those three squads have the potental of being of any discernable advantage to the village.”

“Please explain,” Sarutobi tells him as he takes another puff from his pipe. He wanted Raven’s input because he knew that his adopted son had an almost sixth sense when it came to figuring out the best way of putting together combat units and battle formations that had played a major role in winning the last war.

“Alright,” Raven replies as he closes his eyes and recalls the information he had read in his mind’s eye. “Let’s start with Kurenai Yuuhi,” he says. “She was promoted to the Rank of Jounin only a year or so ago and posses only average Ninjutsu, Taijutsu and Weapon skills with exceptional Genjutsu capabilities. While ordinarily this would make her an ideal candidate for training other Genjutsu users I think it would be better to put her on a team whose members are virtually immune to Genjutsu.

“As such her students should be Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuuga, and Shino Aburame. Kurenai’s skills would allow her to fine tune their clan’s natural immunity to Genjutsu while at the same time forcing her to improve her other skills in order to keep up with the rest of the team. As for the Team’s specialty their clan’s abilities make them natural trackers already and with a little work they could make a formidable tracking and retrieval unit.” Raven keeps his eyes closed as his mind moves on to the next team he selected.

“Asuma Sarutobi,” he says, “Above average Taijutsu and Weapons Skill with only average Ninjutsu and Genjutsu capabilities. Ideally this would make him a natural choice to lead a combat unit however his skills would be of better use training a capture and interrogation squad. There for his students should be Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi. As this formation has worked in the past there should be little need to adjustment only training to improve their skills.

“Finally Kakashi Hatake,” Raven says opening his eyes for the first time since he began his report. “Kakashi’s ANBU experience, nin-dogs and Sharingan make him an ideal candidate for leading a tracking and retrieval squad like he did in the ANBU. However his above average Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Weapons skills and exemplarily Ninjutsu make him perfect for a combat unit. It is this reason that I have selected Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha for his Genin. As Kakashi is the only person in the village with a Sharingan then he is the only one capable of training Sasuke once his becomes active, if it ever does. But also Sasuke’s Above average Taijutsu, Weapons skills and Ninjutsu capabilities make him an excellent candidate for mid to close range back up for Naruto’s Close Quarters style. While Sakura’s basic and practical skills are below average she is highly intelligent with near perfect chakra control and above average Genjutsu capabilities.”

Raven pulls out a cigarette and lights it before taking a puff while thinking about something. “I think we should test the girls on each squad to see if any of them are able to learn medical Ninjutsu as it is always handy to have a medic nearby. Those that can learn should be taught while those that can’t should at least be trained as civilian field medics.”

“Why just the girls?” the Hokage asks though he’s sure he already knows the answer.

“Aside from having the best chakra control on their teams they’re also the lease likely to risk getting themselves killed since their male teammates will feel compelled to try and protect them.”

“Same old story for every generation,” the old man chuckles. “I’ll make arrangements for the additional training once they’ve completed their exam.”

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

After Raven returned from helping to finalize what he knew to be failing teams even though he tried to give each the best chance for pulling off a miracle by possibly passing he gave Naruto his graduation gifts. He leaned back in the couch and watched as the boy tore into the wrapping paper like a child on Christmas morning. Naruto’s eyes lit up when he finally saw the outfit that Taro had made for him out of Akiko’s hair. The coat was blood red with the fiery image of a fox head between the shoulder blades. The rest of the outfit was also blood red as was the cloth of the Konoha Hitai-ate the old demon included free of charge.

Each piece of the outfit had two special seals, placed the inside so they couldn’t be seen, that allowed it to adapt as Naruto continued to grow. The first seal allowed the outfit to grow with the boy so that he couldn’t outgrow it while the second seal allowed Kyuubi to increase the weight of each piece until Naruto was able to this on his own.

Raven explained to Naruto that the Kitsune hair used to make the outfit was immune to all known forms of fire, both human and demonic, and in addition to being far more durable then steel, would also repair itself given enough time and chakra from the wearer. Needless to say Naruto loved the outfit as well as its properties especially since he tended to destroy just about any normal clothes he had ever tried training in.

The weapons Taro made were another huge hit with the boy as the blades were blood red in color with the katana possessing and intricate golden image of a flaming nine-tailed fox running up the length of both sides of the blade. Raven explained to Naruto weapons made from the fangs, claws and bones of demons were usually only made for other demons and would have their own special attacks that the owner could use in battle but since these were made for a non-demon he would not only have to create his own special attacks but would have to channel his chakra through the weapons to make the attacks work.

He did offer Naruto a bit of good news though when he explained that the weapons could store his chakra for when he needed it battle. This would allow him to charge up his weapons while he had some down time and could easily rest while his chakra reserves were replenishing and then when he was in a fight and his personal chakra was nearly spent his weapons would still have the stored chakra to power their attacks. However, the down side to this was that the weapons could only store a certain amount of chakra and once it was gone he had to replace it or use his own reserves until he could recharge theirs.

After Raven showed Naruto how to channel his chakra into the weapons Naruto immediately set about trying to fill the weapons chakra reserves. This proved difficult at first until Kyuubi released his chakra weights and once his chakra capacity was back to its maximum he found that the both of his fighting knives could store half if his chakra while the katana would require all of his current capacity to fill and forced him to use a soldier pill before the task was completed and he was left with only half of his chakra after filling all three weapons. Now all that was left was to create and master his special attacks using them.

While the new weapons and outfit would seem like enough for anyone Raven still had two more gifts for Naruto. The first was a weapons belt similar to the one that Raven wore but with the center pouch in the back replaced by a special sheath designed to hold his new fighting knives. The front left pouch was his first aid kit and held a five soldier pills, five blood pills, bandages, antiseptic and a few vials of an antidote for most common poisons. The front right pouch contained wire, explosive tags and smoke bombs while the other four pouches contained spare shurikens.

Raven’s second gift was a box of scrolls including one that he insisted Naruto keep in one of his coats inside pockets at all times. It was a special summoning scroll that would hold all of Naruto’s camping supplies for when he needed to travel light while on missions. Raven also told him that it contained three tents and three sleeping bags just incase his teammates didn’t have time to pack theirs or their supplies were lost. It also contained enough ramen for two weeks given how Naruto ate (much longer if his teammates could limit his eating) along with pots and pans for cooking over a campfire. The mention of all that ramen was enough to convince Naruto that the scroll was now one of his new best camping buddies.

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

A/N: What did you all think? I changed the color of Naruto’s outfit slightly since Akiko’s hair was bright red and it would screamed “Here I am kill me,” almost as much as Naruto’s original jumpsuit. Incase any of you got lost during the explanation of the weapons I’ll clarify: With his chakra weights released, the knives (together) hold half his current maximum chakra and the katana holds all of his maximum chakra. This means that as he stands now it takes half his chakra to fill the knives and all of his chakra to fill the katana, hence the reason for the soldier pill.

As for the camping scroll… it was an idea I had for another story I decided to use here. It’s based off of Ten-Ten’s weapon summoning scroll except I substitute camping supplies and ramen for weapons but the concept’s the same. As for the other scrolls Raven gave Naruto… you’ll just have to wait and see, but I promise you’re going to love them.