To Nurture the Next Generation (AU Naruto Sensei Quest)

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You had managed to get into the encampment like you were asked by sensei, using all what you learned in the academy about staying hidden. You just had the bad luck of having a bad timing, since the moment you got up, a water clone of sensei wearing an ice mask to cover his face simply passed by you and managed to take notice. You knew that there was no way other than running and luring the clone away. So when the clone turned around to shout to another clone to raise the alarm, you turned around and jumped over the fence and ran into the forest behind you. When you did, the clone started chasing after you without waiting for backup.

You weren't sure whether or not the clones had agreed to act in such a way in order to give you and your teammates a more fair chance by letting the clone slip up more, just like the fact that he probably had them wear ice masks to either intimidate you or to make sure that you didn't recognized sensei's face in them so that you'd be less intimidated, but you knew that even if the clone would hold back, he would catch up to you and you'd have to fight it with everything you'd have.

You heard from behind you sounds that indicated to you that the clone was quickly catching up. You knew that if you had to continue the test, you had to defeat the clone somehow, even though your best skill was taijutsu, meaning that you had to get close. You could've only assumed by your sensei's desire to give you a fair chance of success that he would have his clones show more openings in a taijutsu fight, but you had to do your best to capitalize on them.

Jumping of the tree branches down to the ground, you landed and started running. You looked back several times to see if the clone was taking the bait, while also keeping your ears sharp in order to try to locate the clone.


You ran while looking around you as much as you could, as your ears listened carefully to the sounds that your surroundings made. Fortunately, you managed to hear the sound of leaves rustling violently over your head, which alerted you and caused you to look up and see that the clone had completely caught up and was now standing on a branch above you.

Not wanting to be caught easily, you turned around and started running in the opposite direction, back towards the encampment. This time the clone had possibly ran out of patience and you heard as he made a large jump, landing on the ground several meters in front of you.

Deciding that this was the ideal point to initiate combat, you jumped back and threw three smoke pellets at the clone's feet, which exploded and released a large, purple smokescreen.


You decided to start the fight by throwing shuriken into the smokescreen, but you knew that that way you had a very wide margin of missing altogether. However, you weren't sure whether or not the clone would simply run out of the smokescreen and then the shuriken were simply a distraction for you to get close and start a taijutsu battle with the clone.

Either way you were going all in on this fight because you knew that if you'd win then you could enact a plan to infiltrate the camp and sabotage the targets, while if you'd lose the fight then the test would be over for you.

You ran forward and threw three shuriken towards the smoke screen right as the clone himself ran out of it, causing him to stop and quickly catch all three stars between his fingers while you moved in as quickly as you could to get as close as possible int his guard, just so that you could use the size difference to hit him with hits that would be too difficult to block with longer limbs because you'd be too close to his center.

As you slid under his guard, you sent a straight punch heading right towards sensei's clone's gut, but he quickly reacted and raised a knee that managed to take the hit before it reached the stomach. But you didn't gave up right away, as it did leave one of his legs open for an attack, which you capitalized by hitting said leg with a low kick just above the ankle.

The clone didn't fall or lose balance like you had hoped, but it made the clone wince and gave you an opening, which you tried your best to capitalize on. You jumped and performed a roundhouse jump kick with your left leg, but the clone quickly put down the leg he used to block your first offense to stabilize himself and raised his right forearm really close to his body to successfully block your kick.

You didn't give up and sent with your right arm a straight punch that was headed towards his face, but he used his left hand to quickly catch your fist in his hand. He then threw you down against the ground, making you cry in pain as he let go of your hand. You didn't let the pain keep you down for long and you rolled to the side and got up, but was surprised that the clone still kept a defensive stance rather than attacking. Was your sensei making sure to get a full evaluation of your capabilities by having his clones constantly on the defensive? It would certainly make sense, but you had to try to capitalize on that notion rather than stopping and thinking about it.

You ran forward as the clone sent a knee strike towards your face, which you blocked by raising your forearm. However, the strength of the strike pushed you back as you jumped away in order to not get the full damage from it.

In another attempt to rush him, you ran forward while making several hand sighs without molding your chakra, making him think that you were going to use the clone jutsu to distract him, so when he tried to kick you with a straight kick, you crouched as you ran, moving under his leg and pushing it away with your right arm while you sent a feint in the for of a left hook towards his stomach.

Sensei's clone acted quickly by putting his leg down and trying to catch your fist again, but this time you surprised him by jumping forward with all of your might, slamming your skull against his stomach, staggering him while you fell down on your hands and knees so that you wouldn't be flattened on the ground.

You used this moment to get back up on your feet and started attacking with everything you had. You jumped and performed a spin kick to the water clone's gut, causing him to take a few steps back as it was still staggered. You then rushed in with your strongest right hook straight towards his left kidney. He tried to performed a move to block or stop you, but you raised your left forearm to stop that motion in the middle as you landed your right hook into the kidney, making the clone grunt in pain.

As you prepared to hit him once again, your noticed that the clone suddenly fell apart and dispersed into a puddle of water, which confused you. It took you a few seconds, but you finally remembered how you were taught in class about the clone jutsu and its more upgraded versions. From what that class taught you about water clones in particular was that after taking a sufficient amount of damage, the clone would fall apart into water.

So you managed to make the clone suffer enough damage to defeat it? It was obvious that it could have beaten you the moment you went for the leg by switching which leg was raised, which you knew could be done instantly. He also never really tried to attack, so that was a big reason why you were able to do it. All of those openings that you had must have been the openings that you assumed the clones would give you if sensei wanted you to have a chance.

Anyway, now that luck, your skills and the fact that your opponent went easy on you meant that you could start your plan of getting into the encampment once again and this time successfully.

You intended to use the transformation jutsu in order to impersonate a clone, but you didn't have the time to notice every little nuance in the mask that the clone was wearing, meaning that if you failed to do remake the mask correctly, then there was a good possibility that you would be noticed again by sensei's clones.

Well, you had to try.


You made the right hand seal for the transformation jutsu and imagined the image of sensei with his clothes and the ice mask on the clone's face with what you had seen of it during the quick fight that you've had with it. You didn't know if you had succeeded, but you were going to find out either way.

If it was a success, then you were going to have an easier time getting into the encampment and sabotage the targets to pass the test. The only problem that you had to deal with was a likely contingency from your sensei to make sure no students tried transforming into clones. Most likely a trick question with a secret answer or a request for the instructions that he gave them in his mind when he created them.

Now that you were heading there, it was time to try and think carefully on which counter strategy he was planning.

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You had hid yourself the moment you heard the alarm, which was simply a loud whistle that one of the clones of Susumu-san (no, sensei, sensei! You have to call him sensei here!) blew. You had entered one of the small tents before you were noticed and hid as close to the wall as possible as you saw that the clones were now moving around the perimeter in groups and were looking with a lot more dedication than before.

Leave it to Susume-san to do something so amazing to push you to your limits. And he wasn't being mean about his methods like father or uncle were when he didn't manage to reach their expectations with Ice Release. Unlike them, Susumu-san was trying to test him and still made sure to go easy on you, like having the clones wear ice masks so that you wouldn't be afraid and actually try.

Oooohh... calling Susumu-san "sensei" was so frustrating! You knew that his cousin wanted to keep things fair and not give any special privileges, but simply calling him by a different honorific on the field and at the compound was making it so complex in your mind.

Okay, okay, you need to calm down. Remember what father ingrained into your head. You need to calm down with the admiration and pedestal placement and act like a Yuki: calm, cold, calculated and emotionally detached. Susumu-sensei (Phew, you managed to do it) probably wanted you to act like this as well. You still needed to pass this test and you couldn't do that if you hid yourself.

What you had to do was to move quietly and not be noticed at all by the clones, because it was a known fact that you stood no chance against them because not only did they had all the skills and experience of Susumu-sensei, but they were also in groups, so they were going to overwhelm you either way. That was the only way that you could find your targets and sabotage them.

You had two options on how to evade the clones: one was simply try your best to not be seen by them by keeping track of the patrol routes and try to maneuver when their backs were turned, which was pretty risky.

The other option that you had to achieve your goal was to use the transformation jutsu in order to transform into a clone, which was going to be easy since you had watched for a while and noticed what you needed about the masks that Susumu-sensei made that you could easily copy it as well.

The problem with the second idea was the contingency plan that your cousin and sensei had just for that case, because impersonating someone as amazing as him was impossible for someone like you and if you were going to be questioned by some secret riddle or something, then you were going to be caught.

No, no, the best way was the first way. You just needed you be careful, that's all.

You let you head a bit into the light outside to see if any clones were close, noticing that there was another small tent nearby. Unfortunately you saw a group of three clones, which forced you to quickly crouch back into the shade and get as close to the ice wall as you could, which you were noticing was starting to melt, even if very, very slowly. You needed to get back out there, but you needed to move very cautiously, but not too slowly.


You peeked threw the tent to see if anymore clones were in the area and when you were sure that you didn't see anymore clones, you peeked your head out even further, making even more sure that you wouldn't going to be spotted when you'd go out, and fortunately for you, there were no clone group in sight.

You then ran out of the small tent as quickly and as quietly as you could, which was difficult with how you had to keep your breathing consistent in order for stress and the physical drain on your lungs to cause to to whiz and huff loudly, which was something that could get you caught.

It didn't take you too long until you reached the other small tent and went inside it, you crouched and pressed your back against the wall. Just then you heard a clone scream "We need to double or triple check for the third one, he must have made it into camp! Find him!" in a voice that was somewhat like your cousin's, but with enough vocal chance to make it unclear.

Woah, was Susumu-san even had the clones act like different characters for the sake of immersion? That was really awesome!

You looked around the tent and noticed that there was a little piece of paper that looked like a tag that was used in sealing classes in the academy and on the regular explosive tags that they saw in the armory of the village.

You waited as the shadows of the clones covered the light when they passed by before you decided to make your move. You quickly reached your hand and grabbed the paper, earning the team 1 point. Now you had to gain more points for the team in order to succeed in passing the test.

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Shit, shit, shit! This was really bad. You had the worst of luck being spotted by one of sensei's clones, which brought another one to face you. The only thing that you could've done was escape, but even then they were still chasing after you. You had to hide, wait them out and once they were gone, you were going to go back to the camp area without holding anything back and use your entire arsenal to take as many clones down.

But first you needed to hide well. You performed a few hand signs to use the Hydrification jutsu that your clan was famous for, which made your body into water. When you looked on ahead, you saw that to your left was a big bush with several smaller bushes around it, giving you the idea that you needed to hide.

You changed directions and quickly reached the bushes, only to then turn your body into a puddle of water and crawled underneath them, focusing all of the water to move underneath the smaller bushes, where it would be easier to hide and harder to find.

Just in the nick of time that you had finished, you heard that the clones had arrived in the area and stopped.


"Over there in the bushes, he has to be there." one of the clones said as you heard the noise getting closer and closer to the bushes, but they only seemed to check the big bush, as the smaller bushes would have been too small to hide the entire body of a boy your age. Fortunately they forgot or ignored the fact that you were a Hozuki, a clan of badasses who could turn into water and defeat their enemies in versatile and unique ways.

Yeah... way better than stupid Ruruka and her stupid mud. You'll teach her. Thinks she's so high and mighty just because she turned you into a puddle of mud that one time... and knocked you on your ass those three other times. Stupid mud girl...

"He's not there. Perhaps he simply didn't want to hide in such an obvious spot. Let's move on and catch up to him." the second clone said, which you figured out because he was talking with a different intonation to his voice, which was probably sensei showing off his acting chops or some shit.

You then heard as they jumped ahead in the straight direction you were going at before going to hide inside the smaller bushes. After what seemed like eternity, you finally formed back into one body and got up. You undid your Hydrification jutsu to save chakra as you started running in the direction of the encampment, jumping back high in order to reach the trees.

It was time to go there and raise all hell in the best way that you knew how: with your ninjutsu.

Switch perspective back to Susumu?
[ ] Yes.
[ ] No.

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Okay, sorry for the long wait and the fact that some is a little less than another in this chapter parts, but as you can see, this is quite long and it's hard trying to finish an update before the website deletes the entire draft and I'd have to start over again.

Anyway, I decided to add bonuses and reductions to checks by having some elements really assist the checks, such as having a body turned into a puddle of water really helping in stealth checks or a staggered/stunned opponent serves as a good bonus while holding back decreases the DC heavily.

The bonuses and reductions only go from 1 to 5, so do not worry too much about it, even if it does need improvement (which I would most likely discuss with my mechanics helper @Dark as Silver).

On a different note, I have decided that if there is anyone who would like to create a Naruto Quest/Fanfiction using my universe, please contact me and I would be happy to assist in any way I can.

So what did you think on how I flavored our students' personalities? Did you enjoy it? Do you think that the kids are endearing or annoying? But no matter what, stay safe, stay healthy and have a great day.👍