Chance for a Prophecy

Chapter 14 - Children

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Original upload date: 29, May 2013

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Chance for a Prophecy

Chapter 14. – Children

"Children are our legacy. Our responsibility. They are our destiny and we are theirs."

Dirk Benedict

A kunai flew toward the wooden post, and a brief second later penetrated the hard surface and buried itself deep into the ground behind the pole, followed by a second weapon only meters from it. A furious snort echoed inside the empty clearing and Naruto grabbed another kunai and a shuriken in both of his hands. He let out a long breath, then shot forward with his left hand, releasing the weapon and a millisecond later his right hand mimicked his movement. The shuriken reached the flying kunai in the air and a metallic clink indicated connection, which diffracted the kunai to aim directly into the bull's eye on the log. A wide and satisfied smile appeared on Naruto's face by his success and punched into the air. 'Take that! Special Uchiha technique my ass.'

Naruto let out a weary sigh and ran his hand through his blond locks. He had been training for three hours to finally make this move work, but the first joys of success left him as fast as it came. The feeling was replaced by his memories, his betrayer... The chuunin let out another sigh and shook his head to ease away the memories together with the ache in his heart, and he started to do what he always did when he didn't want to think: Train until he drops to the ground from exhaustion.

A shadow clone had appeared beside him and they almost immediately jumped backward and moved to stance, only to jump into action a second later for an enormous taijutsu battle. Fighting against a shadow clone had its advantages. You share the same experiences, the same knowledge, you fight against the same style; countering yourself was training for fighting against the sharingan. You have to push yourself over the limits and be as unpredictable as you can be to trick yourself, or you will be beaten. These thoughts ran through his mind in the blink of an eye while he made another attempt to kick his clone out of existence.

The clone grabbed a missed kunai from the ground next alongside a thick log and aimed for his head with the next attack. A small tug in Naruto's consciousness caused his head to snap to the side, dropping his defense for a brief second despite his years of experience on the field. The clone's attack was unstoppable, the kunai freely dashed toward his face without anything to stop it. In the last moment, Naruto finally broke out of his temporary stasis to stop it just in time. The blond clone froze, his identical eyes widened when his brain processed the scene; the kunai stabbed through the Boss's palm.

"Boss-" Naruto slowly shook his head, observing the wound with an annoyed grimace on his face. The chuunin grabbed the kunai, and with one fluid motion, pulled the weapon from his flesh and sent it flying toward the edge of the woods, where he had sensed the movement. A rabbit ran out from under a big bush, and disappeared at the other side of the training ground. Naruto frowned in his confusion, only for it to be replaced with the annoyed grimace once more. 'A damn rabbit?' He was just simply too preoccupied. A relieved sigh left his mouth, together with a painful hiss, as the adrenalin started to wear off, giving his body time to register the throbbing pain in his palm.

'Kurama. Could you help me out? If I go back with a hole in my hand Rin would skin me alive.'

His only answer was an irritated grumble, but the gaping hole in the middle of his palm immediately started to shrink as new tissue appeared on the edges of the wound, by the insensible amount of foreign chakra. Ten seconds later only the pinkness of his new skin betrayed what had happened seconds before. Naruto slowly examined his raised hand, clenching then releasing a fist. After a short nod to his clone, the intense spar simply continued like nothing had happened.