|
This article, Naruto: A Shinobi Story/Prologue — Land of Waves, is currently under active construction by the author(s) of whom this article's property falls under. |
|
|
The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox attacks Konohagakure.
Prologue—Land of Waves (プロローグ~波の国, Purorōgu — Nami no Kuni) is the first arc in Part I of the series. This arc begins with Team 7’s formation and ends with the completion of their first mission to the Land of Waves. This arc is followed by the Ōizumi Village Crisis.
|
This article is a stub, and is awaiting expansion by its original author. |
Summary[]
Prologue[]
The Nine-Tails attacking Konohagakure.
Twelve years ago, there was once a monster known as the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. One night, the monster attacked the village of Konohagakure, killing so many innocent people. None of the ninjas of Konoha could stop the demonic fox because it was impervious to everything thrown at it. Suddenly, a legendary ninja known simply as the Zero-Tails managed to subdue the Nine-Tails long enough for the village’s leader, the Fourth Hokage, to seal the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox into a newborn baby at the cost of his life, making the infant the Nine-Tails’ jinchūriki, and saving the village from the dreaded tailed beast. The Fourth Hokage’s dying wish was for the village to acknowledge the baby as a hero for protecting the village by keeping the Nine-Tails at bay, but fate hate other plans.
Graduation[]
The Academy.
Twelve years after the Nine-Tails’ attack, at the Academy, Naruto Uzumaki’s reputation as a troublemaker had earned him infamy among the teachers and students. The only positive influences on him were Iruka Umino, Shindō Shunsoku, Teuchi and Ayame at Ramen Ichiraku, and the Third Hokage. Despite this, Naruto failed the graduation exam, which required students to demonstrate how much they had learned by performing the Clone Technique. While Naruto was decently skilled in most of the basic techniques taught in the Academy, for some reason he was never been able to perform the Clone Technique correctly, causing him to fail the final exam for graduation.
Naruto hiding from Mizuki.
Mizuki, another Academy examiner, used Naruto’s depression after his most recent failure to trick him into stealing the Scroll of Seals, a collection of kinjutsu housed within the Hokage’s study that could be dangerous in the wrong hands, claiming that Naruto would be automatically passed by simply learning a technique from the scroll and performing it successfully. Not one to pass up such an opportunity, Naruto immediately did so and escaped with the forbidden scroll. Once he fled to the neighboring woods, Naruto began his efforts to learn a technique from the scroll, the first of which happened to be the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, something he was not really happy about, given his former failures at the ordinary Clone Technique. As search parties were sent out to find Naruto and retrieve the scroll, Iruka got to him first and found him to have been training the entire time. Ignorant of what he had done, Naruto simply repeated to Iruka what Mizuki had told him earlier, causing Iruka to realize that Mizuki was trying to use Naruto to help him steal the scroll and later steal it for himself.
Naruto using the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique for the first time.
Just as Iruka realized this, Mizuki showed up to attack them both. After injuring Iruka, who pushed Naruto out of the way of an attack, Mizuki tried to get Naruto to give him the scroll while Iruka tried to convince Naruto to keep it. Their argument led Mizuki to tell Naruto the truth everyone had been keeping from him: that he was the container of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. Startled, Naruto ran off, leaving Iruka and Mizuki to fight each other. Naruto watched from a distance, eventually learning what Mizuki was after, as well as the true level of Iruka’s devotion to Naruto. Just before Mizuki could kill Iruka, Naruto attacked Mizuki, threatening to kill him should he ever touch his sensei again. He began manifesting some of the Nine-Tails’ chakra and physical features on his face and body before successfully using his newly learned Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, nearly killing Mizuki until dawn broke. Impressed that Naruto mastered an B-rank technique, Iruka let Naruto graduate, ironically fulfilling Mizuki’s original promise.
Formation of Team 7[]
To officially obtain the rank of genin, Academy students must be organized into groups of three to undergo a field evaluation administered by a jōnin, who would be their squad leader should they pass. On the day of organization, Naruto made sure he had a good breakfast and headed off to the Academy, where the groups were to be decided. Upon arriving there, he showed off his forehead protector to the other students who thought he had failed. To Naruto’s delight and later dismay, Sakura Haruno approached him, only for him to get pushed out of the way by Sakura so she could sit next to Sasuke Uchiha. It was thanks to Shindō Shunsoku that Naruto, jealous of Sakura’s affection for Sasuke, looked forward to his shinobi career and goal of becoming Hokage.
It was at that moment that Iruka arrived to announce the genin teams, and as he started listing each member from every team until he named members of Team 7, with Naruto pleased and Sakura saddened to learn that the two will be on the same team; however, when the third member was revealed, Sakura was pleased and Naruto was saddened to learn that Sasuke was the third and most powerful member. Sasuke, however, happened to dislike being teamed with both of them. Iruka continued to announce the remaining teams: Hinata Hyūga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame were revealed to compose Team 8, and Shikamaru Nara, Chōji Akimichi, and Ino Yamanaka were revealed to compose Team 10, much to her dismay. When Shindō was not assigned a team, he was brought before the Third Hokage and learned he attained the rare rank tokubetsu genin and was assigned as an apprentice to the tokubetsu jōnin named Ebisu.
Evaluation[]
After the break, everyone except for Shindō rejoined and each team were picked up by their jōnin instructor, besides Team 7 who were left waiting for three hours before meeting Kakashi Hatake. When he eventually arrived, he used their first meeting to get to know one another. Kakashi went first, only revealing his name, not feeling like telling anything about himself. Naruto was next and proclaimed that he wanted to become Hokage one day. He also loves ramen, training, pranking, and his adoptive older brother Shindō. When it was her turn, Sakura implied that her likes (and future) involve Sasuke and academics relating to chakra. Her dislikes, borderline hatred, were Ino, her former best friend, and Naruto who was now determined to change her mind. Lastly, Sasuke introduced his name and asserted that he hated too many things to count, except for one person which he did not want to reveal, implying that he would someday kill a certain man, and restore his clan.
The Bell Test.
The next day, Kakashi arrived four hours later than planned at their assigned training ground. He then explained how the evaluation would work: it would be a survival battle, in which the aim was for each prospective student to take one of the two bells from Kakashi. Anyone who did not get a bell before noon would receive no lunch, which, as the others realized, was why he asked them not to eat breakfast. Naruto, however, had disobeyed Kakashi and ate breakfast with Shindō, lest the former incur the latter’s wrath. Kakashi further explained that, because there were only two bells, at least one person would fail and return to the Academy. He informed them that they would fail if they did not attempt anything less than with the intent to kill him. Naruto laughed at this suggestion, saying that Kakashi had no talent. Kakashi rebutted this, stating that class clowns were often the weakest link and that they did not normally pose a threat, causing Naruto to attack Kakashi before the test officially began. Kakashi easily countered the attack and noted that he was starting to like the team, due to Naruto’s attack having the intent to kill. Suddenly, Naruto was revealed to be a shadow clone and Kakashi was forced to dodge Naruto’s sneak attack, shocking everyone else at his surprisingly clever strategy. Impressed with Naruto, Kakashi then sent off Team 7 to officially begin the test.
To begin, Kakashi pulled out a book from the Icha Icha series of smut novels, surprising an arrogant Naruto who created several shadow clones, surprising Kakashi and his two teammates once again since it was a B-rank kinjutsu and that a genin should not have the chakra, nor the finesse, to use such a technique. Naruto attempted to attack Kakashi who easily defended himself while reading his book before deciding to defeat him using One Thousand Years of Death, sending the blonde straight into a nearby pond. Recovering quickly, he made several attempts to capture the bells attached to Kakashi’s waist, coming very close before being defeated again repeatedly. Kakashi is impressed with Naruto’s attempts to coordinate with and use his shadow clones tactically but expresses disappointment in his more brawler style of fighting, attitude, and lack of finesse as he easily fell for a multilayered trap which ended with Naruto wrapped in wire strings, completely immobilized. Kakashi lectured the young blonde about not falling for backup traps when the obvious ones do not work before leaving Naruto to test Sakura and Sasuke. Elsewhere, Sakura went to find Sasuke when Kakashi found her and tricked her using the Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique. He was disappointed with her performance, or lack thereof, before deciding to test the Uchiha. He faced off against Sasuke in a taijutsu battle, getting under Kakashi’s guard in an attempt to take one of the bells and nearly succeeding like Naruto. After launching the Uchiha away, Sasuke retaliated with a Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique, apparently killing Kakashi; however, the more experienced jōnin entrapped Sasuke using Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique, expressing disappointment at the young Uchiha’s arrogance.
Meanwhile, Naruto managed to free himself from Kakashi’s trap and attacks the jōnin again using himself and shadow clones in a last ditch attempt to get the bells before noon is struck on the nearby clock. All three genin failed to get a bell, and Kakashi freed Sasuke before tying Sakura against a wooden post, and Naruto brooded over his failure.
The official team photo for Team 7.
After their failure, Kakashi berated all three for their lack of teamwork, explaining to them that the purpose of the exam was to work together and to not act independently as they all had done. He said that he would give them all a second chance after lunch and allowed Naruto and Sasuke to eat; however, he ordered that the hungry Sakura should be barred from eating at all because she failed to even try to get a bell and that anyone who gave her food would fail automatically. Once he left, Naruto and Sasuke realized that they needed Sakura to be in top shape if they were to retrieve the bells and decided to defy Kakashi by feeding her. Sakura began to rethink about how she felt about her teammates and her reasons for becoming a kunoichi. Kakashi, who had been watching, appeared before the genin, a furious look on his face. Much to their surprise, Kakashi changed his attitude and informed them that they all passed, reciting the exact message he was trying to get across as his reason: “In the ninja world, those who don’t follow the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum.” After freeing Sakura, the team went their separate ways.
Assignment[]
After a month of D-rank missions and teambuilding activities, Naruto insisted on something more exciting, with Sasuke agreeing with him for once. Iruka Umino explains the six classifications before the Third Hokage decides to give Team Kakashi a C-rank mission to escort Tazuna, a master bridgebuilder, back home to the Land of Waves.
The Demon Brothers.
During their mission, Team 7 encountered two chūnin, enemies at a level that was not supposed to be encountered on a C-rank mission. Naruto, surprised by the chūnins’ appearances, panicked and was struck by one of the chūnin’s poisonous metal gauntlets. Sasuke, in Naruto’s absence, dealt with the attackers quite efficiently and rubbed it in by one-upping Naruto by calling him a “scaredy-cat”.
The Demon of the Mist[]
  Kakashi revealing his Sharingan.   Kakashi vs. Zabuza. |
Training[]
  Kakashi training Team 7 in chakra training. |
Round Two[]
  Haku Yuki’s kekkei genkai.   Sasuke protects Naruto. |
The Tool’s Feelings[]
  Haku’s death.   Haku in death beside Zabuza. |
Chapters[]