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Pushing Through the Limit Chapter 1: Waking dream
🕑 Added 2024-02-25 17:41:10 +0000 UTCWaking up with a headache is a hell of a way to start the day, but it’s not necessarily a bad start. All I needed to do was not move my head too suddenly and go grab a couple of pain killers. It’s a pity though. I was having the most vivid dream where I was fighting Orochi-
Thwack!
Something wooden smashed into the top of my head immediately multiplying the pain in my head a hundred fold. I… someone was attacking me. My eyes snapped open and I was greeted with a too bright blurry world and two people standing over me. One of them preparing to hit me in the head again.
MOVE.
I rolled to the side and jumped to my feet.
“Oi, Naru-“
My fist made contact with the one man’s face, cutting him off immediately. The other one yelled, aiming to hit me with his stick. I grunted in pain as the stick broke on my arm and punched him as hard as I could in the face, dropping him to the floor.
‘I… Why am I in the woods? Who knows what those guys wanted with me. I need to get out of here,’ my thoughts raced through my head.
Turning to run, I made it all of three steps, before freezing on the spot. Struggling, to my horror, I found the only thing I could control was my breathing and my head. “What… what the fuck?!”
“Kage Mane no jutsu success,” came the nasally sound of the person behind me.
My eyes darted around wildly. What? No, that can’t be right. That’s Shikamaru’s jutsu from-
“NARUTO,” A girl yelled.
“I.. Who? WHAT’S GOING ON?” I yelled as I tried to force myself to move.
“Let him go,” Came a voice behind me.
“Are you crazy? Look what he did. My nose is broke and Choji’s unconscious!” The other voice argued.
This… this was impossible. That person mentioned Choji and he’s literally stopping me in my tracks. Trying to force myself to move, I hand suddenly grabbed my shoulder gently. My eyes finally cleared as a pink haired girl walked into my field of vision.
“The last thing he would remember was fighting the… person who knocked him out and you two decided to wake him up by hitting him in the head with a stick! How did you expect him to react?” The male voice said. “Now let him go. I won’t ask a third time.”
“Naruto, it’s ok! The fight’s over, you can stop,” The pink haired girl said, looking like she wanted to cry.
“Sakura?” I half asked. Several memories of the pink haired girl flashed through my mind.
“Shikamaru, just let him go. It sounds like you two idiots got what you deserved!” Came a second female voice.
“Tsk.”
I stumbled slightly as I was released. Steadying myself, I slowly looked around. There were three… no, four boys and two girls. The one boy had some weight to him and was currently unconscious along with a second green jumpsuit wearing boy, the other was being berated by the blonde haired girl, and the fourth one shared a short look with me, before seemingly becoming lost in his thoughts.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Aft- after that man knocked you out,” The pink – Sakura began, drawing my attention. “Sasuke fought him and that man bi-“
“Sakura,” The bo - Sasuke interrupted, glancing at Ino and Shikamaru. “Not here.”
“R-right,” Sakura stuttered.
This… was all kinds of impossible. I momentarily thought it might all just be a dream, but it didn’t feel like one. I’ve had lucid dreams before… I’ve even dreamt about being a Shinobi before, but this was different.
I have memories that aren’t my own. I remember going to the academy and learning how to throw shuriken, Kunai and how to use chakra. Likewise I also remember going to regular school. I… my mind doesn’t feel like it should. I… surely there should be some warring between my personality and Naruto’s…
HOLY SHIT!!! I’m in Naruto. Somehow that fact completely escaped me. This was very bad… or maybe very good. I mean, Naruto has the potential to be one of the strongest people in his world. ‘Hehe, I’m awesome…’ Huh, where’d that come from? The bad part is Naruto has to deal with so much shit, the akatsuki, Orochimaru, Sasuke losing his mind, getting Kurama to work with him, Madara, Kaguya, the end of the world.
I’m over thinking this. If I just take this one thing at a time, everything should work out. Now what are the things I need to immediately address?
The Sand and sound invasion? Yeah, that’s happening in a little over a month, but… I don’t think there’s much I can do to affect it. I’m pretty sure that Konoha already knew about the invasion before it happened and even if it didn’t, I wouldn’t tell them.
There’s too many people in this world that would either torture me for information on the future or even just straight up rip that information out of my head. Hell, they might even wipe my mind. Knowledge of the future involving the fate of the world, if I told anyone about it, best case scenario was that they didn’t believe me. Worst case would be someone like Danzo, Orochimaru, Obito or worse, Black Zetsu getting a hold of it.
Nope, I definitely can’t tell anyone about my future knowledge… Unless.
Maybe there was one person I could tell. Looking down at my stomach, I smiled. That’s right, someone that is already monstrously strong, someone that can never leave me, someone named Kurama.
Huh, nothing? I thought that me knowing his name would at least get a reaction. I mean, come on. No one kno… I’m such a idiot. Orochimaru did some weird seal bullshit in our fight and Jiraiya had to unseal it.
Fuck. Guess I’m not going to be able to rely on Kurama’s help in this forest. That kind of makes this forest look a little scarier. I guess I’ll just have to make another pla-
“NARUTO,” Sakura yelled.
“Huh, what?” I replied immediately. Wait, where is everyone? When did it start getting dark?
“Geez, I’ve been trying to get your attention for the last ten minutes,” Sakura sighed.
“Sorry… I was lost in thought,” I apologized.
“Huuuh, really? That’s odd for you.”
Was… was that an insult?
“It should be night in an hour. We’re going to have to get moving if we want to find a new campsite before then,” Sasuke announced.
I let out a sigh. I honestly would have liked to have a little more time to adjust to this, but I suppose I’ll just have to do that later. “Right. We should probably find somewhere near a river so we don’t have to worry about water.”
Sasuke and Sakura froze, staring at me oddly.
“W-what? Is there something on me,” I asked. Oh god, was there a spider on me. Quickly ruffling my hair and pulling off my jacket, I was relieved to find nothing.
“Idiot,” Sasuke muttered in a soft tone, almost fondly.
Were they just screwing with me? I shot Sasuke a short glare before shaking my head. No, that can’t be it. They’re probably just stressed about this situation… I know I am.
“Let’s just get going,” I said, pulling my jacket back on.
Tree hopping was fucking exhilarating. With just the strength of my legs, I was capable of Jumping to super human heights. Gravity had lost its hold on me and heights were a thing of the past.
I wanted to cheer as I leapt from tree to tree, but we had to keep quiet as to not draw attention, so I settled for grinning. The entire point of finding a new campsite was because our old one was discovered by so many different teams after all.
Coming to a stop, I let out a disappointed sigh as I saw the perfect spot. Damnit, I wanted to continue tree hopping. Signaling Sasuke and Sakura, I pointed to a small section of forest that encompassed a small section near a river.
Before I could jump down, Sasuke shook his head, crossed his fingers into the shadow clone hand seal, pointed to me and then our would be campsite.
He… wants me to send a shadow clone there to check for traps?
I nervously crossed my fingers. This… I can do this, right? Feeling the familiar and alien thrum of chakra course through my body, I closed my eyes. Pulling on the chakra, I frowned when it didn’t flow as it should have. Fucking Orochimaru, making this harder on me when it should have been easy. Forcing my chakra to flow, it flowed unevenly.
Poof!
Opening my eyes, I was greeted to a group of five shadow clones standing on the branch with me.
“Naruto, we only needed one,” Sakura hissed.
Well, seems like she’s back to her old self. I was actually trying to just make one, but Orochimaru’s seal is screwing with my chakra control, funnily enough, it seems like it might have helped this time. “Oi, you three,” I pointed to two of my clones. “Two of you transform into Sasuke and Sakura. Then the three of you go down there. The rest can wait here in case we need you.”
Sitting by the small campfire Sasuke made, I let out a sigh. The campsite proved to be safe, but we couldn’t let our guard down, we had to be careful as to not attract anyone to our campsite, thus we had a small fire.
“…And then you woke up,” Sakura finished recounting what happened while I was unconscious.
“I see,” I nodded slowly. She didn’t actually need to tell me what happened, I remembered well enough.
“You see?” Sasuke asked, looking at me suspiciously.
“Well, yeah. I understood everything that Sakura said,” I replied.
Sasuke exploded into motion, tackling me to the ground and held a kunai to my neck as Sakura let out a soft scream
“Sasuke, what the hell?” I half yelled.
“Where’s Naruto?” Sasuke asked, glaring down at me.
“What?” I asked, stunned.
“S-Sasuke, that is Naruto,” Sakura stuttered.
Sasuke shook his head. “No it isn’t. He may look like Naruto and he may use clones like him, but he’s not. His speech pattern and the way he’s reacting to new information is different,” He said, glaring down at me.
Sakura looked between us, clearly conflicted on who’s side to take.
Fuck, Sasuke could tell that I’m not fully Naruto just based off of how I’m talking. I could probably get Sakura on my side by saying that Sasuke’s doing this because of Orochimaru’s mark, but that will only solve things temporarily.
If Sasuke thinks I’m not Naruto, then pretty much any Jonin that knows Naruto… me, will also be able to tell. I need a way to explain why I’m different, without drawing too much suspicion.
Unless, I go the complete opposite way and draw as much attention as possible, it is what Naruto would do after all. I suppose I have Orochimaru to thank for this excuse.
“Sasuke, that mark on your neck, it’s messing with your emotions, isn’t it?” I asked.
“Is… Is that what’s happening?” Sakura asked, looking at the curse mark on Sasuke’s neck.
“He’s not wrong though, I am acting differently… I think,” I added. “It’s probably because that Orochimaru guy left a mark on me too.”
“What?” Sakura asked, eyes snapping to me.
Without removing the kunai from my neck, Sasuke harshly pulled my jacket to the side as he looked for a mark. “You’re lying.”
“Actually I’m not,” I replied. “The mark’s on my stomach, exactly where Orochimaru hit me to knock me out.”
Slowly pulling my shirt up, I began circulating a small amount of chakra by the seal, briefly making it visible.
Sakura gasped as she looked at my seal. “It’s so much bigger than Sasuke’s.”
I couldn’t help but snort at that. “Ah Sakura, you might want to work on your phrasing.”
“What?” Sakura asked, tilting her head in confusion.
Sasuke also seemed confused for a second, before he caught on and his face turned pink. “That still doesn’t prove that you’re Naruto.”
Right, that only proved that I had a mark on me. “Back when Kakashi sensei was fighting Zabuza and you and I were fighting Haku, you jumped in the way of an attack meant for me and said that you swore that you wouldn’t die until you killed your brother.”
At the mention of his brother, Sasuke became visibly angry. His sharingan swirled to life, before swiftly dying out as the curse mark on his neck pulsed angrily.
“You’re Naruto,” Sasuke said, grunting in pain, he got off me and slipped his Kunai back into its holster. Grabbing his neck lightly, he down by the fire.
“Sasuke, are you alright?” Sakura asked worriedly, before glancing at me. “And Naruto. That… that mark that Orochimaru gave you, is it… hurting you?”
Sakura’s… worried about me? From Naruto’s memories, I could see that Sakura’s never really been worried about him… us… me. Gah, this is still so confusing.
“Naruto?” Sakura asked cautiously.
“I’m fine,” I said. Seeing Sakura still watching me worriedly, I sighed. “I’m just a little worried. For some reason, I’m thinking clearly… differently. Like my mind was covered in a heavy mist and now it’s clear and I can focus,” I explained, hoping to calm her worries.
“Then what Orochimaru did is helping you?” Sasuke asked almost curiously, glancing at his shoulder.
Hell no, I can see what he’s thinking and it’s not good. Orochimaru was one of my favorite characters, but I can’t have Sasuke and Sakura think that he’s anything less than a vile monster, even if I have to reveal a few uncomfortable secrets to do it. “Indirectly, I suppose. Orochimaru didn’t do this to help me.”
Damnit, I can’t do it. I thought that maybe revealing my status as a Jinchuriki to them and show them that Orochimaru meddling with the seal that holds the Kyuubi back is extremely dangerous and hint that he probably wants to destroy Konoha would make them see that he’s a really bad guy.
I felt… oddly nervous. I shouldn’t feel that way, it’s not like being a Jinchuriki is necessarily a bad thing. I’m actually happy that I am one, even if it means that I’m going to have to deal with the Akatsuki one day. Being a Jinchuriki meant that I’m not alone in this.
They’re my friends. Sasuke and Sakura are my friends and… and I don’t want them to think that I’m some kind of freak or monster. Damnit. Naruto’s memories… his insecurities are effecting me. Had I just been me, I wouldn’t really care if Sasuke and Sakura hated me or thought of me as a monster, but I’m not just me.
“That mark is making you smarter. How is that anything but good?” Sasuke shot back.
“I can feel that it’s screwing with my chakra control, who knows what else it’s doing.” I replied. “Your mark’s doing the same, right? When you used your chakra, it hurt you and screwed with your control.”
“Yes,” Sasuke said uneasily. “But yours isn’t hurting you.”
“Who’s to say that it won’t,” I argued. “When you woke up, you had to deal with that sound team attacking Sakura and you went berserk. Who’s to say that won’t happen to me as well if I get put in a similar situation?”
“That doesn’t mean –“
“Please stop,” Sakura muttered quietly. Even though it was barely above a whisper, both Sasuke and I heard it clearly. “I… We’re all tired and this arguing isn’t helping anyone.”
“Sakura’s right. We… don’t have to figure this out right now. Let’s just rest for now,” I said tiredly, using my arms to cushion my head as I laid on my back, partially seeing the sky through the tree tops.
“Fine,” Sasuke grunted.
It was morning… It was morning and I was still here. This wasn’t a dream.
When I went to sleep last night, I was half expecting that I would wake up in my bed, that all this was a extremely detailed dream, but… reality was setting in. This isn’t a dream. I’m really here, in the body of Naruto.
I let out a yawn as I stretched. No more agonizing over this. I wasted most of yesterday doing that. No… What I needed now was to get ready for what’s to come, and the best way to do that right now was to familiarize myself with this body.
Forming a shadow clone I pointed to down the river. “Go that way and dispel in five minutes. Also, avoid other tea –“
“I already know that, I’m you remember,” The clone shot back.
Right… “Just go,” I sighed. Jeez, I’m not sure I’m going to get used to talking with myself. Seeing the odd look I was getting from Sakura, I smiled. “Good morning Sakura, Sasuke,” I greeted cheerfully.
“Morning,” Sasuke grunted.
“Oh. Good morning Naruto,” Sakura greeted back. “Why’d you create a clone?”
“Just testing something,” I replied. “So, do we have any food left?”
“We have enough rations for today. We’re going to need to fish tomorrow,” Sasuke answered.
“Wait, tomorrow? Aren’t we going to try and finish this exam today?”
“Um, Naruto, Sasuke and I were talking before you woke up and we decided that it might be best that we take another day to rest.” Sakura said awkwardly, as if she was expecting me to get angry.
“Ok,” I replied simply.
“Wh-what. You’re fine with waiting another day.”
“I mean… yeah. If we rush off before we’re recovered, we might get hurt or even killed. Sure the longer we stay in here, the less chance we have of successfully completing this exam, but it’s not worth our lives… there will always be future exams,” I reasoned.
“That’s pretty reasonable,” Sakura mumbled to herself.
Then again, Naruto meets Jiraiya during the chunin exams and becomes his apprentice. If I don’t do that, I might miss my chance to learn Sage mode, the Rasengan and the summoning jutsu. Without those, I probably won’t be strong enough to fight the heavy hitters of the Akatsuki.
“We’re not dropping out,” Sasuke ground out, almost glaring at me.
“Great,” I sighed in relief. “i don’t want to fail either.” More like, if I fail the consequences could be dire. Sure there are plenty of plot divergences that would lead to better outcomes, but this was not one of them.
“Huh? What about future there being future exams?” Sakura asked, confused.
“Why take future exams if we can pass this one right now?” I asked in turn. “Besides, don’t you wan–“ I froze. The river… it goes on for about one kilometer and then turns left. Leaving the river and going straight for another two kilometers leads to a team … Well, not really a team. More like a single red haired Kusa Kunoichi and half of her teammate.
My clone had found someone important and dispelled. The memory feedback works!
“I’ll be right back,” I said, jumping to my feet.
“Wha- Naruto, we weren’t finished talking,” Sakura blurted.
“We can talk when I get back,” I said, already hopping into the tree line.
Racing through the forest, the trees began to blur passed me as I pushed myself. The excitement of tree hopping was still there, but it was muted by my determination. This… this was something I could change for the better. Karin hasn’t been taken in by Orochimaru yet and there’s no way in hell I’m going to let that happen.
Before long I spotted her high in a tree. Sweat matted red hair, clothes coated in blood and mud, looking completely exhausted. Hearing a roar, I looked down as a huge bear grabbed the giant tree and began shaking it. A loud snap sounded through the forest as the tree finally broke, Karin tried jumping to a new one, but her clothes caught on the branches.
“Crap,” I muttered. Forming several shadow clones, I leapt into the tree, grabbing Karin and quickly jumped to the ground as one of my clones charged the bear.
“NO… no. I-I was… we shouldn’t,” Karin babbled almost deliriously. “We’ll die on the ground.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep you safe,” I said comfortingly… and immediate cringed, that was too cheesy… My clone popped. The bear roared loudly, it’s eyes locking onto the two of us.
“We’re going to die,” Karin whimpered, closing her eyes she tucked her head into my shoulder.
Just before the bear could charge at us, the rest of my clones jumped into action, leaping at the bear with kunai in hand, they buried the blade deeply into it’s the joints of its legs, crippling it before the final clone landed on the bears back, burying his blade into the back of its head.
“It worked boss,” The clone on the back of the bear said, giving me a thumbs up, before dispelling along with the rest of the clones.
It worked! That’s great news. Clones also got the memories of dispelled clones. I wasn’t sure what with Orochimaru’s five element seal messing with my chakra, but confirming this is great. The clones were able to use the knowledge gained from the first clone that attacked the bear to learn its blind spots and move with deadly precision. Honestly, the shadow clone jutsu is a really scary technique when used efficiently.
“We… We’re alive?” Karin breathed with an astonished look on her face.
“Yep,” I replied. Shifting Karin in my hold, I grabbed my water container before passing it to her. “Here, you look thirsty.”
“Thank you,” She sobbed, tears beginning to stream down her face as she swiftly drained the water.
Ah, this is awkward. From my initial clones memories, I distinctly remember her being with one of her teammates who seemed pretty dead, being cut in half and all, so I get why she’s so upset. “Um… There, there. Everything’s going to be alright now,” I tried comforting her, but it only seemed to make her cry harder, crap.
Comforting people… more specifically, crying girls, didn’t seem to be something I was good at. Instead, I just waited. Five minutes passed, then ten and finally Karin’s tears came to a stop.
“Feeling better,” I asked carefully, not wanting to set her off again.
Karin nodded her head, her eyes red and puffy. “Yes, thank you,” She said. Reaching into her pouch, she pulled out an earth scroll, she held it in front of me. “Here, please take this.”
Ah crap. That’s the same scroll we have. “Ah, thanks, but that’s actually not the scroll I need.”
“Sorry,” Karin mumbled, dropping the scroll, she looked down quietly.
“That’s alright. I came here because I thought that you needed help, not because of your scroll,” I said comfortingly. I’d actually forgotten about the whole scroll thing, really, I was just focused on keeping her safe from Orochimaru... and Kusa.
Karin looked up in shock, before a blush crossed her face. “Yanaki was the one with the heaven scroll, but he… the bears got him yesterday.”
Wait… Karin’s team had a heaven scroll. “Could you tell me where that was?” I asked, trying not to seem to eager.
“You can’t,” Karin cried, squirming in my hold. “This was just one bear. There were dozens of bears there and once they see you they’ll hunt you down, it took everything we had just to escape that area. You’ll die if you go there!”
“Relax, I’m not going to go there myself,” I explained. Going into a giant bear infested area in this forest sounded like a quick way to die and… well, I had no intention of dying anytime soon. “Look, I promise that I won’t go there. Not by myself and not with my team.”
Karin stared into my eyes for several seconds, before her face reddened and she pointed off into the woods. “That way.”
“Alright,” I nodded. Setting Karin on the ground, I quickly created large group of clones and sent them in the direction of the bears, before picking her back up and began walking back towards the river. Shadow clones really are overpowered in the hands of someone with a large amount of chakra that knows how to use them.
“Wha- Where are you taking me?”
“To my team,” I said simply. “This forest is dangerous and you look exhausted. It wouldn’t sit right with me leaving you alone out here… So, I’m keeping you.”
