A Senju Tale: Change Of Fate

The trio, now walking through the streets of Konoha, were on the hunt. Nawaki knew exactly where to go due to his knowledge of the world. Minato then asked, "So, if you"re familiar with Jiraiya sensei, what is he like?" Nawaki thought for a moment and then said, "I"ve met him a few times but most of what I know, I heard from Onee-chan. First, he is a prodigy. Apparently, he is experienced in the sage arts, is super strong, and is pretty intelligent. However, Tsunade told me that he is also really stupid and quite the pervert." Nawaki scoffed after finishing his statement and picked up the pace. Fugaku and Minato continued to follow. Fugaku then asked, "Seems like an interesting guy. As long as he is strong, I guess he will be okay. But where are we going? It sounds like you know exactly where he is." Nawaki chuckled and so did Kensho in his head. Kensho then said, "We are going where I think we are going right?" Nawaki thought in response, "Yup. The one place we can almost be guaranteed to find the pervy sage."

Suddenly, the trio rounded the corner to see a young ninja with spiky white hair. He was sticking to the wall using chakra and peaking through a window. Nawaki stopped and turned to his two teammates before saying, "Behold! The Pervy Sage." Right after saying this, he turned around. Quickly weaving some hand signs, Nawaki used his wood release to extend his arm. With the extension, he whacked Jiraiya off of the wall. "Ow, what was that for? I was just doing research." He said this as he stood up and looked for the one who hit him off of the wall. Jiraiya then said, "Huh? So you sneak attack me and then disappear?" He was trying to figure out who hit him but all he saw in front of him were three little kids. He turned to them and asked, "Did you guys see who hit me?" Fugaku and Minato laughed as Nawaki face palmed before saying, "It was me. I knocked you off the wall. You do realize that you were supposed to come get us 2 hours ago right?" After hearing this, Jiraiya widened his eyes as he realized he had forgotten. He then scrunched his face and said, "Hmmmm, now that I think about it, I guess I did have something to do this morning. Anyways, hi! My name is Jiraiya. You three can refer to me as Jiraiya sensei. Now, your turn!"

Minato and Fugaku looked at each other and shrugged as Nawaki spoke up, "Good to see you again Jiraiya sensei. As you already know, I am Nawaki." Minato then said, "Ohayo sensei, my name is Namikaze Minato." Then Fugaku said, "Ohayo, my name is Uchiha Fugaku." Jiraiya smiled and then said, "Okay. Now that we"ve all been introduced, follow me. We are going to head over to a training ground." Hearing this, Minato asked, "What are we going to do there?" Immediately Jiraiya turned with a grin on his face as he said, "It is time for the real graduation test."

[I know, the bell test is generic but it is what Jiraiya actually used in the, which Minato then used on Kakashi, who then used it on all of his teams]

Once they arrived at the training ground, Jiraiya turned to the three of them and revealed two bells before saying, "You three seem pretty smart. Two bells, three of you, one of me… you get the point right?" The trio turned to look at each other and then back to Jiraiya before nodding. He smiled and then said, "Then without any further delay… ready, set, GO!" The instant that Jiryaiya said go, Nawaki instantly grabbed his two teammates and they disappeared. Seeing this, Jiraiya raised his brow in curiosity. "Ohhh, this is gonna be interesting."

Once the trio reappeared in the forest nearby, Minato nodded as he made eye contact with Nawaki. Fugaku being confused asked, "What are you guys doing? There are only two bells and three of us. Clearly we should split up and work for ourselves." Minato and Nawaki made eye contact and laughed. Nawaki then turned to Fugaku and said, "Dude, this test isn"t about the bells. It"s about testing our teamwork. The bells are just a distraction meant to break us up. If it makes you feel better, we can destroy the bells once we get them. But for us to even have a chance at getting them, we need to work together. Got it?" Fugaku thought for a moment and then said, "I see. I guess I am wrong then. So Mr. Genius, what"s the plan?" Fugaku smirked as he said that and Minato laughed. With this they huddled together and devised a plan.

As they finished their discussion, Fugaku resolved himself and said "Let"s do this." Minato and Nawaki stared at Fugaku as his black eyes spun and turned red due to the activation of his sharingan. All three of them immediately erased their presence and got down to business. Nawaki sat down into the lotus position and began meditating. He took advantage of the forest around them and extended his sensory range to the max. He felt various chakra signatures but one felt bigger than the rest. Once he focused in on it, he realized it was their sensei. Thus, their plan would be set in motion.

In his hiding spot, Jiraiya noticed that he could not sense his three students. "d.a.m.n, they are pretty good. Let"s see what their plan of attack is." Suddenly, a voice called from above him, "I"m curious to see what they will do. This team is of great interest to me." Jiraiya looked up and noticed Hiruzen in the tree above him. "Yes sensei, this should be quite interesting." As he said this, Fugaku flickered out into the clearing. Immediately, he started running towards Jiraiya"s hiding spot. Hiruzen chuckled and said, "Ahhh, it appears you"ve been found out rather quickly." Jiraiya smiled and said, "It appears so." Fugaku suddenly stopped and weaved some hand signs before saying, "Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu". A huge fireball shot at the tree and Jiraiya jumped out into the clearing to confront Fugaku. Noticing his sharingan he said, "I see you have awakened your eyes. Let"s see what they can do!" He said this as he charged towards Fugaku. As he approached Fugaku, he felt something off. Jiraiya knew that his students were up to something but in the spirit of keeping it fair, he proceeded to engage Fugaku. With the sharingan, Fugaku was barely able to keep up with Jiraiya in a taijutsu battle. They exchanged several blows and took a few steps back from each other. Taking this chance, Fugaku took out a few kunai and threw them at Jiraiya who dodged them easily. Seemingly frustrated, Fugaku took out a few more kunai and threw them. One of the kunai was way off the mark and landed in a tree that was behind Jiraiya who dodged the other two easily. Jiraiya then said, "That throw was awful, you"re gonna have to do better than that if you want the bells!"

As Jiraiya said this, Fugaku just smirked. Suddenly, Jiraiya sensed someone appearing behind him. Before he could turn around, he heard, "Mokuton: Tree Binding jutsu." Suddenly wood charged towards him. He tried to move away but stopped just in time to dodge a kunai thrown at him from the woods. As the kunai flew past, someone suddenly appeared behind him and he felt a slight tug on his belt. When he looked to his belt, the bells were gone. When he looked up, all he could see was Minato smiling while tossing the bells into the air. "Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu." A huge fireball consumed the bells and burnt them to a crisp.

Jiraiya was speechless. In his loss for words he just plopped down on to the ground and laughed. Nawaki retracted his wood and turned to his sensei asking, "So, did we pa.s.s?" Sitting on the ground still in disbelief, Jiraiya looked up at the sky. He watched as the clouds slowly floated by before finally saying, "Yup. You guys did great. Congratulations! You are all now officially genin." The trio looked at each other and cheered. They decided that they would celebrate with some Yakiniku Q. They turned to Jiraiya and invited him. Suddenly, Nawaki turned to the forest that Fugaku lit up with a fireball and yelled, "Hokage sama, would you like to join us too?"

Hiruzen froze. No genin could have sensed that he was there. Shaking himself out of his shock, he flickered down to the group and said, "I guess Tobirama sensei was not exaggerating when he spoke of your sensor capabilities. On that note, I would love to join you guys for some food. Shall we head over to the VIP room?" Hearing that, the trio"s eyes lit up and the five of them headed over to eat.

Once the group sat down in the VIP room and ordered their food, Hiruzen turned to the three genin and said, "You three put on quite the show back there. Especially against Jiraiya. He is counted among the strongest ninja in Konoha." Nawaki scoffed at this and retorted, "But he wasn"t even trying. It isn"t that much of an accomplishment." Hiruzen raised his brow and asked, "What do you mean?" Nawaki smiled and said, "We wouldn"t have even stood a chance if he used sage mode. I can sense and manipulate natural energy so I know that he wasn"t using it. Upon hearing this, Jiraiya closed his eyes and began to sense the energy around him. He felt a large concentration of natural energy revolving around Nawaki and then he understood. He leaned over to Hiruzen and whispered something that made Hiruzen"s eyes open wide. He then said, "I see. You may do as you see fit." Jiraiya smiled before turning to Nawaki to say, "I have decided that I am doing to teach you how to activate sage mode. Or at least I am going to take you somewhere that you can learn. Minato, you could probably benefit from this too. What about you Fugaku, are you interested?" After thinking for a moment, Fugaku said, "I would rather train my body and possibly evolve my sharingan. I still need to get used to it. Besides, if I can evolve it enough, I could still keep up with these two." Hearing this, Nawaki became intrigued. He then asked, "Fugaku, how does the sharingan activate and evolve?" Fugaku sighed upon hearing this question. After a few minutes of silence he said, "It"s a bit complicated. The Uchiha clan has found that by experiencing extreme emotions through experience, our sharingan evolves and becomes more powerful." After hearing this, a light bulb lit up in Nawaki"s head. He then said, "Hmmm, I don"t know if it is possible but answer this. The extreme emotion is what affects the sharingan, correct?" In response to this, Fugaku nodded. Then Nawaki proceeded to say, "I believe it may be possible to recreate those emotions without having to experience a traumatic event. Methods including extreme genjutsu or direct stimulation of the brain using medical ninjutsu could yield the same results. I"ll look into it more and let you know what I find." Fugaku was lost. He had always been told that he had to lose something close to him in order to progress his eyes. Now he is finding out that loss isn"t necessary. He didn"t know how to react. Hiruzen nodded and said, "That is an interesting theory Nawaki, when did you learn so much about the human body?"

"s.h.i.t." Kensho started laughing and Nawaki thought to himself, "Quite the hole I dug myself into this time. Oh I know!" He then said, "Well Onee-chan is always studying medicine, I often would read her study materials and I picked up on quite a lot. Especially with me being able to feel how energy flows through my body, I was able to learn it quickly haha." He scratched the back of his head. Hiruzen nodded with approval and said, "As expected of Tsunade"s younger brother. Powerful like his grandfather and smart like his sister. I am sure that you will do a lot for this village." Hiruzen put on a smile before saying, "So Nawaki, aside from your sage training, would you like to learn some medical ninjutsu?" Hearing this, Nawaki"s face lit up. Having been an aspiring doctor in his past life made him feel like he could be really good at medical ninjutsu. In response, he said, "That would be great Hokage sama." Hiruzen smiled and said, "Then that settles it. I wish you much luck with your training and I look forward to seeing the results of your research on the sharingan." As he finished speaking, the food arrived. A huge spread of uncooked meat was laid on in front of them. "Itadakimasu!" They all dug in and enjoyed the delicious meal.

Following the meal and some more small talk, Hiruzen insisted that he pay for everyone. Following this, they said their goodbyes and went home. As Nawaki walked home, he said, "So, I finally get to learn more about sage mode tomorrow. I"m excited!" Kensho appeared and then said, "It should definitely be interesting. You do know where we are headed right?" Hearing this, Nawaki smiled before saying, "Yup. I can"t wait!"

The next morning, Minato and Nawaki met up in front of the Hokage mansion. This was the meeting spot set by Jiraiya. They both looked excited and couldn"t wait to set out. In a puff of smoke, Jiraiya appeared with a smile and asked, "You two ready?" Seeing both of them nod, he then said, "Alright, let"s go. We"re off to Mount Myoboku!"