Dark Phoenix of Konoha by White Angel of Auralon

Part 3 - Skills Test

Skills Test

Naruto stood in his disguise at training ground sixty one and was looking around. He was early by fifteen minutes to have a look around. The training ground had been guarded by two chunin, which meant it was special. Only the ANBU and Hokage training grounds were guarded. Naruto hadn't cared about the guarded training grounds before. The only one he had been interested in besides the open ones that were farthest away from the village had been training ground forty-four, better known as the Forest of Death. After each chunin exam he had sneaked in there to see if he could find things that would help with his training like weapons that were still usable, scrolls and money. He reasoned the dead didn't need them anymore.

In the beginning he had felt slightly sick at doing it, but with the animosity he was shown by the villagers he needed some source of weapons and those would only rust if they were left there for too long. So he had started when he was nine to go into the Forest of Death when the second part of the chunin exams was over. He had found out that it took at least three days before the cleaning crews went through the forest to get the remaining corpses. He guessed they had too much to do with organizational things. So he normally spammed the forest with his clones to find those that had died or other left over weapons. Mostly they were perfectly workable still, some needed sharpening, but that was no problem. In five hours he normally was finished and had collected all the usable things. The only problem in the beginning had been the transport. He couldn't use sealing scrolls in the beginning. That had been the starting point in finding a way to easier transport weapons in the future.

He had found in one of the books at the academy that there were sealing scrolls but he knew he couldn't get one for him because the shop keepers would never sell him one. So he needed to learn how to make one himself. It took him three months to find the necessary books about sealing and then training that specific seal but he did it. One and a half years later, when the chunin exams were in Konoha again, he had the equipment and skill to seal weapons on site. His most prized find was a chakra conductive tanto. Those weapons that could channel chakra were really expensive and rare.

At ten the Hokage came in company of a medic nin and nodded at Naruto.

"Good morning, Dark Phoenix. Good to see you are on time. I have organized for one of my elite jonin to test your skills. He should be here in ten minutes. This is Arata, he will be on standby to heal you and your opponent if necessary." The Hokage explained.

"Good morning, Hokage Sama." Naruto answered with a bow, keeping up his disguise. "That will be great. Who will be testing me?" He asked.

"My son Asuma Sarutobi." The Hokage answered.

Naruto nodded. He knew Asuma from some of his visits to the Hokage. While the bearded jonin had been out of the village for some time to protect the Fire Daimyo as one of the twelve ninja guardians, he had returned some years ago and become a normal jonin for the village.

He waited with the Hokage and nine minutes later Asuma arrived.

"Good morning, Dad. Why did you call me here?" Asuma greeted.

"Good morning, Asuma. Thank you for coming. You are here to assess the skill level of Dark Phoenix here. I have an overall idea what he can do, but there is nothing better than a fight to see what he can do in a real situation. From our estimation he should be around high chunin to low jonin level." The Hokage informed his son.

"Dark Phoenix, never heard of him." He said, observing the boy. "He doesn't seem too old." He said.

"No, he isn't. He has trained in secret to not gain unwanted attention of different fractions in the village." The Hokage said meaningfully.