The Cycle of Hatred: A Naruto Insert

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Rookie hunters were a thing across all stages of the Chunin Exams—especially when death reared its ugly head. See, the idea was to threaten rookies with it, or perhaps save them from it, and then demand something they'd never otherwise give in return. Of course, whatever rookie hunters demanded almost always left the rookies at a substantial disadvantage, but that was exactly why they did it.

Life had a very tangible price in this world. Assassination missions were above the pay grade of genin, but hardly uncommon. Whether it was nobles looking to remove rivals, hidden villages looking to weaken enemies or anything in between, life came with a price tag. Sometimes, however, you could pay to live. Was it a surprise, then, that we were targeted by rookie hunters from the get-go—and from the Waterfall Village, to boot?

No, not really.

"You know we have the same scroll, right?" I pointed that out with the same kind of tone I took with customers who wouldn't take the waiting time for a seat at Ichiraku's.

They gathered around me, two in the treetops, one on the ground, leering like they'd come across the perfect catch. The supposed leader brandished a single-edged sword, waving it at about.

"Blame your teammates for leaving you alone. Cough up your Earth Scroll and we'll let you run off to find them." The topknot swordsman nodded as if he was being particularly charitable about robbing me. "You've got five whole days in this dump, so don't throw your life away—or do… it makes no difference to us."

One of his two teammates in the trees added, "Yeah, don't be stupid, kid. You've got a bright future ahead of you to come this far."

That nearly made me laugh. He was just barely growing whiskers on that face of his, so where did he get off telling me about life like he was some old fart in his sixties?

I took out the scroll, tossing it into the air and then catching it. "That's not the fairest offer… let me think about it, yeah?"

Scanning the treetops, I looked up at the abyss covering the sun except for the faraway pockets of sunlight puncturing the darkness. Instead of considering their offer, I was actually weighing up the pros and cons of taking them out. Hinata, Choji, and I had decided not to kill as a rule, but it wasn't a hard and fast thing.

On the one hand, they threatened me with death, but on the other, they couldn't possibly carry that threat to completion. Besides, was it worth possibly ruining my good impression with Fuu?

I nodded, mind made up; at worst, I'd take their weapons, their scroll and supplies, and then tie them up somewhere for good measure, but death was always a good bargaining chip.

"Here," I said, throwing the Earth Scroll at the guy on the ground. "I'm choosing life today."

To catch the scroll, he shifted his sheathed sword to his offhand—the Earth Scroll barely kissed his fingers when it exploded, enveloping him in smoke. His startled yell was cut short before I heard the unmistakable slump of a prone body embracing the earth.

The other two jumped down, inching cautiously towards the smoke cloud, even as it began to fade. Hinata dropped from the skies like an anvil, crashing into one of them and pistol-whipping into unconsciousness with her kunai.

His teammate reacted, raising his kunai to throw but mine struck faster, sending both weapons spinning into the darkness with a sharp clang. Still obscured, Choji pounced through the smoke, closing the distance in the blink of an eye and knocking him out before he could raise his guard.

"Nicely done, you two," I said, fishing through each of the idiots' pockets. "Aha—I've found it. That's the second one added to our collection. Not bad for half an hour's work. I've got to say, Hinata, the Byakugan can be pretty convenient sometimes."

"Sometimes?" She asked that with such obvious disbelief, I very nearly apologised.

"Most of the time," I amended. "It's still a chakra drain."

Choji snorted. "Like you'd know what that feels like."

"Point acknowledged." I tossed the second Earth Scroll to him and he stowed it away. "Hinata, you know what to do."

Closing her eyes, she held the Confrontation Seal out and in front of her face, taking a steadying breath while the veins around her eyes bulged and throbbed. Over the years, I'd grown used to it, but it was disconcerting sometimes.

She looked pissed, perfectly calm, and on the verge of committing mass slaughter all at once.

"There are… two teams a kilometre ahead of us." She turned on her feet and I immediately realised she was focusing her vision in one direction to see further. "And then one team… five kilometres that way, but they're moving."

"Okay…" I digested the information with a long nod. "Those two teams closest to us, are they moving too?"

Hinata turned around again. "...They're fighting, I think, but the third team is moving."

"Well, let's put an end to it. Maybe this lot were right about demanding scrolls as compensation."

"Oh!" Choji nodded, mischief alight in his eyes. "I get it."

I looked at Hinata. "What say you, my lady? Too proper to engage in some skullduggery?"

"...Hold on now, I never said that. And skullduggery? According to our proctor, this is an everything-goes scroll battle," she replied, clearing the ground and racing ahead.

Choji snickered and followed her, leaving me to bring up the rear.

"...You've got me there," I muttered, sparing one last look at the fallen Waterfall ninja.

Three scrolls up, we stood around the mouth of a cave, ready to proceed to the central tower there and then. After interrupting the scuffle between those two teams and freeing them and the third one of their scrolls, we tied them up and moved on before looking for shelter.

"The smart thing is to wait a couple of hours for the day's fighting to die down and then strike when everyone's tired," I said, burrowing my kunai hilt deep just in front of the cave's entrance. "But we're going to do the opposite because we're strong enough to."

We had strengths and weaknesses, but if there was one thing Asuma drilled into us, it was playing to our strengths. Hinata always carried a ton of smoke bombs with her to make full use of her vision in close combat and Choji literally gave his enemies no room nor time to breathe so that he didn't overthink things.

Choji hummed. "...So we're going to go out and keep looking for teams?"

"Sort of."

"He means we're splitting up," said Hinata. "That kunai is to scare off intruders. Of course, anyone properly motivated to seek shelter won't care, but it's better than nothing."

"Barrier Ninjutsu would be useful. I'll put it on the list to learn," I said, more so thinking aloud than replying to her. "We're splitting up for a couple of hours. I'll keep all our scrolls on me for now, but the goal is to eliminate as many teams as possible."

"Can we?" Choji asked.

"I believe we're stronger than most people here, even on our own. There are some… exceptions to that rule that I'll make you aware of," I said. "The first is the two jinchuriki."

"The two what, now?"

"I only realised it because I talked to one of them. Gaara of the Sand is the more dangerous one."

"Why?" Hinata asked.

"Because he's out of control."

"Of course he is." Choji sighed. "And the other Jinchuriki?"

"Oh, she's nothing to worry about, at least, not like Gaara," I said, smiling.

"She?" Hinata asked, her voice dropping.

"Yeah. I met her before we handed in our consent forms. It's how I found out about Gaara of the Sand, though I'll still warn you not to engage if you bump into her, just in case. Anyone else, I'll think you'll be fine against—escape's always an option if you bump into one of 'em, so don't be stupid."

"Look who's talking," said Choji, nodding at Hinata with a smirk. "Remember the paper test?"

She snorted. "What happened to not involving ourselves in needless fights, huh?"

To avoid their teasing, I shook my head and exited the cave first. "We'll come back here at sunset, hopefully with a lot more scrolls. We'll even make a game out of it."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Hinata asked, tentatively following me out of the cave with Choji. She gestured to her eyes with an exaggerated wave of her hands. "I've got a pretty unfair advantage."

I looked at Choji with a smirk. "You'd think she'd learn not to be so honest after sleeping on the straw bed."

"Right?" he chortled. "I guess some things never change."

"Fine," she huffed, hands on hips. "Whoever returns with the least amount of scrolls has to prepare dinner."

Hinata took a running start with her eyebrows arched high and determination written across her face. Choji and I shared a long look before I decided to broach the thickening silence left by her absence.

"...She realises I've got containers of food sealed in scrolls, right?"

He shrugged. "It's the principle of it, you know?"

"I guess," I replied, bumping his shoulder with my fist. "What about you? Ready to lose?"

"In your dreams, Naruto."

We ran side by side, building up speed and chakra before breaking off in opposite directions. 

Hopefully, no one would be stupid enough to set up shop in our cave while we were gone, but you could never be too sure. There was nothing rookie hunters wouldn't do to get a leg up in these exams and honestly? With the sorts of animals in this forest, I wouldn't blame anyone for trying.

Sunset was a couple of hours off, but I couldn't wait for it to arrive. The random encounters were fun, but I'd steadily grown bored by running around at random. I reckoned most people were either searching for shelter, recovering from various skirmishes, or working towards it because I'd slowly been running into fewer teams.

Just like we intentionally abused the intensity of the opening few hours, there would be people eager and ready to abuse the cooldown period for their benefit. Thanks to Anko's briefing beforehand, I managed to get a general idea of what this exam's pattern would be and the river bisecting the forest would be the focal point.

People would likely set up their shelters close to it for the sake of having a nearby water source—and that meant all the fighting these past few hours was essentially pushing us all closer together. However, using the element of surprise to essentially rush the riverfront was a bad move for a few reasons.

The first was that I didn't know who was there. For all I knew, I'd run into the very people I'd been trying to avoid this entire time, like Gaara and Fuu. Not that taking advantage of the element of surprise while alone was a bad thing either. I hadn't learned to mask my chakra signature yet, so anyone who could sense chakra would probably see me coming.

It wasn't the same for those who couldn't, though, and that brought me to perhaps the most important reason of all: sunset was still a couple of hours off. People had moved closer to the river and were getting ready to settle down, but the fighting hadn't stopped yet.

My job was to simply figure out where people were so that we could strike tomorrow and clean up the rest of the competition… and hopefully return with a decent few more scrolls than my two friends. I tapped my chest in reassurance, specifically the mini-scroll in which I'd sealed all of the Heaven and Earth scrolls.

"...I'm not exactly enthusiastic about my chances," I muttered between leaps, carefully making as little noise as possible while the river flowed forty or so feet below me. "Goddamn dojutsu."

I didn't hear them. That was my first mistake.

The second was assuming I'd been alone. I should have known better than to trust the silence of the forest, especially when this close to the river. In the minutes I spent skimming the terrain and listening for movement, they were already closing in.

Something lashed through the air behind me—fast, too fast—and I twisted just in time to feel a sharp pain burn across my forearm. I lost my balance mid-leap but managed to land awkwardly on a thick branch ten feet below. The slice wasn't deep, but the stinging sensation throbbed more than it should have.

Poison?

A quick glance at the wound confirmed it wasn't just paranoia. I could feel the creeping heaviness settling into my muscles. I clenched my teeth feeling the burn as my body fought the poison and tried to pinpoint who—what—was hunting me.

That's when I heard it. A low, metallic hum, almost like a vibrating tuning fork. I whipped my head around, barely dodging another strike as something whistled past my ear. Whatever it was, it embedded itself into the bark of the tree beside me.

Two kunai knives and I didn't have to wait long for the follow-up.

A shadow darted from above, a moving blur between the branches. I managed to catch a glimpse of a headband—Sound. A second later, something sharp caught my leg, and I felt the shock ripple up through my feet seconds before the branch I stood on shattered. It forced me to keep my balance and spring into a retreat with the fall because right now, I needed cover to consider my options.

"So you're finally catching on," came a voice, muffled but steady. Dosu Kinuta. He was still hidden, but I could feel the pressure in my ears growing, the air vibrating with his chakra, and that meant they'd been tracking me for a while.

"We noticed you a while ago. Alone. No teammates. No backup. What are the odds of that happening again, huh?"

Of course they had. With what had happened between us and who I attracted with our little stand-off, he must've been wanting to blow off some steam.

"Figured you'd try to run for the river," he continued, and I spotted movement again—this time slower than the first. Whoever it was now, they moved with precision, getting into position without making a sound.

"Whatever you're planning, it's not gonna work!" I called out, keeping my voice steady, hoping they'd underestimate me while I built up some chakra.

If they thought I was panicking, they might get careless themselves, but then I heard the faint chime of bells and was forced to abandon that goal to disrupt the genjutsu. I launched myself from the branch with the chakra I had left.

Bells jingled faintly in the air again, but I broke the genjutsu to see thin, almost invisible, threads shimmering in the evening light.

They weren't just attacking—they were herding me.

I twisted in mid-air, reaching for a kunai, but before I could hurl it to break the trap, another wave of sound hit me from above, vibrating through the air like a physical force. My vision blurred for a moment, the world spinning as I felt the ground rushing up faster than I could react.

I hit the forest floor hard but broke the fall to not get hurt. Two bodies fell after me, landing a few feet ahead and on their feet. The flak-jacket-wearing girl smirked, showing off the bells clenched in her offhand in an attempt to hide the senbon in her right. Her spiky-haired comrade turned his palm skyward, releasing a sharp blast for the sake of it.

"Get up," Dosu's voice rang out, closer now. His form emerged from the treeline, still partially obscured in shadows. "Or don't. Either way, we're ending this here."

I did as he so politely asked, taking my sweet time while gathering chakra and assessing the state of my body post-ambush. Once I was good and ready, I faced him—and then them—with the proper amount of focus. The Sound Village meant Orochimaru, and two of this lot would be used by the monstrous bastard to summon the First and Second Hokage from the afterlife.

Killing the three of them likely wouldn't stop Orochimaru from resurrecting the Hokage, he'd probably grab the next lowest-ranked schmucks in his employ instead, but you never know. Maybe it would throw a wrench in his plans and lead to a different outcome in a month—or maybe it wouldn't.

Either way, this let me see where I stood and, at this point, Dosu Kinuta, the one-eyed fuck, had pissed me off by trying to corner me earlier and now the three of them wanted me dead?

Fuck that.

"I like that look in your eye," he chuckled.

The girl in the flak jacket smirked. "It's a shame we've got to kill you—you're not half bad-looking, you know."

"K-Kin!" Spiky Hair twisted his neck, the tips of his ears bright red.

"What? I didn't say I wanted to jump his bones now, did I?"

I blinked. Her remark had come out of nowhere to the point where even Dosu Kinuta was staring at her from his peripheral vision. Whatever their relationship was, Spiky Hair took offence to that, rushing at me with murderous intent and his hands raised high as he aimed.

He was fast, I'd give him that. The sharp blasts of air he shot from his palms had the force to shatter bone, and I could feel the wind shift violently as he closed the gap between us. But I wasn't waiting for him to connect. I sidestepped the first burst, letting it slam into the tree behind me, splintering it on impact.

His follow-up was predictable—a wide sweep meant to trap me in close quarters. I dropped low, feeling the rush of wind graze the top of my hair as I drove my heel into the ground, kicking up a gust of my own with a violent step in. With a twist of chakra in my lungs, I exhaled sharply, amplifying the wind around me.

It wasn't just a deflection—I let my chakra ride the air current, sharpening it. Spiky Hair didn't see it coming. The blast caught him mid-swing, lifting him off his feet and slamming him into a nearby tree. Those tubes in his arms, the shortcuts Orochimaru installed in him, they simply didn't measure up to the real thing and all the hours I'd spent honing my control over wind chakra.

But he also wasn't the one I was worried about in their trio. 

He hit the bark hard, coughing, but didn't get up for another go. The others didn't even flinch, as if they were testing me, waiting for me to drop my guard.

"Annoying," I muttered, eyes flicking to Dosu, who stood back with his fucked up posture, fingers drumming against his metal gauntlet.

The ringing returned, louder now, and I felt the pressure building in my head. I didn't need to hear the hum to know he was prepping for a sonic strike. My bones buzzed from the vibrations, but I knew how his technique worked.

Sound could cripple, confuse, and disorient, but only if you let it reach you.

A sharp inhale. I gathered chakra into my feet and burst forward, ignoring the growing discomfort in my ears. Dosu reacted, swinging his arm to release the strike, but I was already mid-jump. I vaulted into the air, letting his sonic wave ripple beneath me. That was the thing about sonic weapons: they had to be at least somewhat focused, otherwise, they were as much of a danger to the user and their allies as their enemies.

Dosu whipped around, wide-eyed, just as I drove a knee into his ribs. The force of it sent him flying sideways into Flak-Jacket Girl, who barely dodged out of the way. I heard the satisfying crunch of their bodies colliding, turning my attention onto Spiky Hair.

Blood trickled from his nose with fury written all over his face as he forced himself back to his feet. The guy didn't know when to quit. He spat on the ground and charged again, palms raised, firing a barrage of wind blasts in quick succession. I had to weave through the trees, zigzagging to avoid being pinned down. Each blast sent chunks of bark and debris flying around me.

The power behind his strikes was wild, uncontrolled, but relentless.

"What's the matter?" His voice echoed through the clearing. "Out of tricks? Come on, don't tell me you're just gonna run!"

I ignored him, gathering chakra as I used the trees to mask my position. I'd need to close the distance without him noticing, but that meant dealing with Dosu Kinuta first. My ears were already ringing—a sign that he was up and about again—and his vibrations were messing with the air pressure around me. The gradually increased throbbing in my head told me he was charging another sonic strike.

I could feel it coming.

The air rippled.

In that second, I expelled chakra from my feet and leapt, pushing off the ground just as Dosu's sound wave tore through the spot I'd been standing. The force of it shattered the tree trunk behind me, the sound ringing in my bones, but I kept my focus. As I sailed through the air, I spotted Dosu, still recovering from the exertion of his attack.

This was my chance.

I descended, forming a hand sign, and transformed the chakra pouring out of my soles into the wind chakra, compressing it into a thin blade. Like a coiled wire, I whipped my legs out and the air around me whistled sharply as I swung my foot over. Dosu barely had time to look up before the cutting wind struck true, slicing deep.

A hand went to his throat.

He stumbled, gurgling, pure rage in his beady brown eye. Before I could press the advantage, I heard the faint chiming of bells again. My body tensed instinctively, but this time, I was ready. She weaved between the remaining trees, doubling each time I saw her. I watched her closely, and when I disrupted the genjutsu, I noticed her movements were desperate—hurried.

She threw another set of senbon, this time aiming for my legs. I deflected most of them with kunai, but one grazed my thigh, a shallow cut—but enough to slow me down. Her bells echoed in my ears, and I felt the genjutsu clawing at the edges of my mind.

"Okay," I grunted.

Dodging another salvo of blasts from Spiky Hair, I barrelled forward faster than she could react, lunging with chakra-enhanced speed. She barely got her senbon up in time to block my strike, but my target was the senbon in the first place. Flak-Jacket Girl reeled, knees braced to retreat, but I pressed on with a swift kick to her ribs, watching her legs give out beneath her.

She looked up. We made eye contact. I brought my kunai down, wind chakra cutting through bone and leading the steel of the kunai straight into her heart.

Seeing his teammates fall one by one, Spiky Hair let out a furious roar and charged again, his palms glowing with chakra. I dodged his first strike, but the second caught me on the back foot, knocking the wind out of me.

I staggered back, pain flaring through my ribs as I struggled to catch my breath.

He advanced with red-rimmed eyes and tears streaming down his face. "Y-You bastard!"

"I'm the bastard here?" I glared at him, but then a thought sprouted in my mind and it turned my irritation into a slow smirk. My gaze flicked over to the corpses of his two friends. "...You know what? Don't be too sad, you'll meet those two soon enough."

It worked.

He threw himself at me in a mindless rage, an equally bloodthirsty smirk tearing across his face, but it faded the moment he saw the chakra swirling in my hand. The Rasengan, for all its power, didn't need any hand seals—just raw focus and control. The air around it seemed to bend, the spinning chakra drawing everything into its vortex.

His eyes widened as I rushed forward. He tried to bring his palms up, but he was too slow.

The Rasengan dug into Spiky Hair's chest like a drill boring into soft clay, the spiralling chakra tearing flesh and muscle apart from bone with eerie ease. His scream barely escaped his lips before the grinding force turned it into a gurgle. His chest looked like it had been shoved through a meatgrinder, and even the bones were cracking and splitting under relentless pressure.

Then came the explosion. It wasn't some clean burst that would propel him back in a marvellous light show—no, it was much, much worse.

He flew away, but not before his chest ripped open as the blast tore through him. Blood, muscle, and bone splattered across the clearing. I felt it hit me—warm and wet. It sprayed across my face, coating my arms, and my clothes.

He collided with a tree with a sickening crunch, his mangled form crumpling like a discarded doll. What was left of him slumped forward, unrecognisable, his body limp, skin flayed, his chest blown apart where the Rasengan had struck. A large, spiralling burn mark still sizzled against what little remained of his torso.

I didn't move. Didn't flinch. The blood on my hands, the gore dripping from my chin—it didn't matter. My breathing slowed, steady, as if my body had instinctively shut off the need to react.

I turned away from the wreckage. The forest had gone still, save for the soft rustling of leaves in the breeze, but I wasn't alone. After the fight, my battle sense was on high alert. I could feel a presence approaching—no, watching.

And then I saw him—the Hidden Grass genin's familiar face, except I knew it was Orochimaru, once again drawn to me by my hand. His flesh mask stretched just slightly too tight over the bones, the eyes—they were Orochimaru's yellow eyes—gleamed with amusement.

The false smile spread wider, unnerving in its unnaturalness. "Well done. I didn't expect that kind of display from you… but then again, our similarities are numerous, Naruto Uzumaki."

Blood dripped from my fingertip and my gaze locked onto his.