Dusk and Dawn

by TC9078

Summary:

Orphaned as long as he can remember, Naruto finds comfort only in his ANBU protectors and his friend Sakura. However upon learning his heritage as a member of the Uzumaki Clan, he decides to honor the heritage he never knew he had. All the while, shadows surround those he wishes to protect; both from within, and without.

Chapter 1: Cover Page

Thanks to tis unfortunate for drawing this cover for me!

Chapter 2: Prologue: Friends?

The sun shone down on the playground as the day came to an end in Konohagakure no Sato. Near the middle of the park, a small girl was curled up, crying, as she heard voices around her.

"Aww, she's crying," one voice rang out.

"Eurgh, the snot running down her face only makes her uglier," a second voice said. The small crying girl buried her face further into her knees and wrapped her small arms around her head; if they couldn't see her, they wouldn't laugh, right? A third voice chose to intercede, then.

"I didn't think it was possible for her to look even worse than usual, but here she is, shattering that one."

"She's trying to hide from us," the first one said, "not like it'll work, her forehead is so big, they could probably see it in Iwa."

"Maybe she should rent it out for her dad, might get more people to shop at his store! Hahaha!" the second one said, before chortling at her oh-so-clever jab. The laughter began to trail off after a few seconds, however, as rapid footsteps approached.

"Hey!" another voice, a boy's this time, called. The small girl's arms started to tremble. The bullies were awful, but she'd seen what boys did to each other in these situations, and it wasn't anything she wanted to be near.

"Back off her! She didn't do nothin' to you!" the boy's voice cried out. The small girl's heart skipped a beat. What? She opened her eyes and brushed her bubblegum-coloured bangs out of her face.

Standing between her and the bullies was a boy barely bigger than her, wearing a white shirt several sizes too big, and shorts a size too small. In addition, he had the brightest red hair she'd ever seen; even her father's hair wasn't that bright!

"What does it matter to you, Grape Tomato?" the first one snickered, "You her friend? Figures, the stupidest hair colours would stick together."

The boy straightened, "I ain't never seen her before. But you're making her sad! And you're insulting her forehead! Why're you insultin' her forehead?!"

"What do you know?!" the first one screamed, clenching her fists at her side and her face blushing in embarrassment, but the boy didn't move a muscle. She crossed her arms.

"Fine! It's not worth it anyway. Come on, Kasumi, Fuki, we've got better things to do than entertain the Forehead Girl and the Grape Tomato."

The girls turned and strutted off in what they thought was a dignified manner, but just made them look dumb. Fuki tripped over the sidewalk on her way out. The boy turned around to look at her. His eyes were a bright cerulean blue, and he had three birthmarks on each cheek, looking like whiskers, almost.

He muttered something under his breath, all she picked up was "tomatoes."

"W-what?" she stuttered. The boy focused on her.

"Said I hate tomatoes!" the boy yelled. She fell back in fright. The boy blinked and frowned.

"Sorry," he muttered, "didn't mean to scare ya." He let out a wide grin, and walked up to her, holding out his hand. She looked at it, confused.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo!" he said, quite loudly again, "What's your name?"

The rosette blinked, this little boy had just asked for her name. Wait, Uzumaki, didn't my parents mention that name once or twice? "I… my name?" she stopped and looked down at her feet.

"'Ts okay," the b-Naruto said, "you don't hafta be nervous, I dun bite." She took a deep breath and let her legs extend a bit.

"I'm Haruno Sakura!" she squeaked out, before curling back up into a ball. The boy's smile, however, didn't waver.

"Nice ta meet you, Haruno-san!" the boy cheered. He knelt down and looked at her face. "Hmm, that won't do," he reached forward and lightly grabbed a handful of her bangs, pushing them off to the side, "better! Now I can see your eyes, 'ttebayo!"

Sakura reached up and covered her face. "But Uzumaki-san, my forehead-"

"Ya, you got one. So do I, see?" Naruto pointed to his own forehead, the silly grin never leaving his face, "no need to be scared." The grin dropped from his face, and he looked confused, "I dunno what your feeling is called, it's like you're scared, but you're not scared."

"It's just," she stopped herself, not wanting to draw his attention to it, "nothing."

She giggled to herself, then let herself smile warmly. She nodded to him.

"Thank you, for helping me," she said.

The boy smiled and offered his hand to her again. This time, she took it, and he pulled her to her feet.

"You two okay?!" a voice called out. Sakura turned around and saw one of her classmates, a blonde girl, the Yamanaka, running up to them.

"Sorry, I tried to run here when I heard something was up, but sensei held me back after class. I failed that last test pretty hard; Choji-kun's parents party way too hard for a weekday!" she complained, "I wanted to come and help, but it looked like Uzumaki-shi took care of the problem. Are you hurt?"

Sakura looked away from the blonde. "No, I'm fine Yamanaka-san."

The blonde sighed and shook her head, before blinking, and turning to the redhead, holding out her hand.

"Yamanaka Ino, nice to meet you officially," the blonde said. Naruto took the hand reluctantly.

"Uzumaki Naruto," he said quietly, akin to a mumble.

"Well, have a nice day Uzumaki-san, Haruno-san," the blonde said, straightening her hair and running off down the road.

"She doesn't like me," Naruto muttered. Sakura raised an eyebrow, wondering how exactly he could tell that, as the blonde never really showed that much emotion except to the Nara and Akimichi boys.

"Ah well, not like it affects me, gotta practice my kunai throws!"

"Sakura!" a voice called loudly. Sakura turned around and saw her mother running up to her. The woman crouched down and hugged her tight.

"You didn't come down to the shop, and I got worried, are you hurt?"

"No," Sakura stuttered, losing control of her tongue for a second, "I was just helped by," she turned and saw that Naruto was gone, and she couldn't see him anywhere, "...he's gone." Her mother ruffled her hair affectionately.

"He's probably just nervous if he ran off when I arrived, I'll see your mysterious saviour eventually. Come on now, let's go home." Nodding lightly, Sakura took her mother's hand and left the schoolyard. Glancing back, she tried to catch a glimpse of the redhead. Unfortunately, she didn't catch any sign of him.

-D&D-

It was nearly a week before she saw Uzumaki Naruto again. She had a kunai-throwing test, along with the rest of her year group. There were rows of dummies set up; each was painted red to mark the five vital points they were aiming for. Sakura's first four kunai hit perfectly, one after the other. Her last throw, though, went wide, instead hitting the dummy in the groin. There was an audible groan from the boys watching.

After receiving her marks, she stepped back to watch how the others did. Following some time observing, a familiar redhead stepped up. He hit only two vital points; the rest embedded in non-vital points. Funnily enough, he also hit the dummy in the groin, much to the annoyance of the teachers.

Upon seeing that, Umino-sensei walked back and shouted, "Okay, since Uzumaki-kun and Haruno-kun have done so already, hitting the groin is not considered a vital area for the purpose of this test! Those two get credit for it, but no one else will if they do so!"

As the other children who had finished walked to the back, Naruto bounced over to Sakura's location, "Hi, Haruno-san!"

Sakura shook her head, "Hi Uzumaki-san, nice throw." The boy beamed at the praise.

"Really?! Thanks! I've been working really hard on it, 'ttebayo!" he cheered, jumping up and down.

Sakura was happy for him, but also a little sad inside. He reacted so happily to just a simple compliment; it was as if he'd never been complimented in his life.

"Hey, Haruno-san, wanna be friends?" the boy asked. Sakura stopped for a second and looked at him. She had only met the boy twice, but he already wanted to be her friend? He picked up on her nervousness it seemed, and frowned.

"It's just, none of the other kids at the orphanage wanna be friends with me," Sakura frowned when she heard the word orphanage, "and the matron ushered the ones away that did wanna talk to me. The ones that still did got adopted soon after."

She felt so bad for the poor kid, but wasn't sure she was ready to commit to being his friend just yet.

"How about we come here after school? They'll hand out shuriken tonight to practice with, we can practice together," she offered.

The boy hastily agreed with yet another 'dattebayo' dropping from his mouth as he ran away happily.

-D&D-

An hour or so after school ended, Sakura walked into the training yard. Naruto was sitting on the bench with his legs swinging, his red hair blowing in the wind behind him. Instantly, his head shifted to her, and he grinned, running over to her.

"Hi, Haruno-san!"

She shook her head, not dropping her smile, "Hi Uzumaki-san."

Naruto supplied her with some shuriken as the two walked over to the throwing lanes. Where he got them, she didn't really want to know. The day went on, with more of their shuriken steadily hitting the target. By the time her mother called out for her, she had gotten all the shuriken from the set she was throwing into the target.

"Wanna come back again tomorrow?" Naruto asked her as she scurried away. She turned back and nodded in the affirmative. Even as she ran the other way, she could hear his excited cheering.

-D&D-

Day after day, she returned to see Naruto. Each time, their shurikenjutsu got better and better. After two weeks, every shuriken could hit a bullseye, with little effort from either of them. However, soon, a very special day approached.

"Wait, it's your birthday tomorrow, Haruno-san?" Naruto asked her. She nodded with a smile.

"Yep! I'm gonna turn 9!" she cheered. The boy frowned.

"Are you gonna have a birthday party or anything like that?"

"Um, no. I never have them or invite people in general, I usually just go out with my mom and dad, he always makes sure to be home," she trailed off and looked back at him, "Sorry, I forgot that you don't-."

"It's fine," he said, his smile coming back a bit, "Come on! Let's finish getting these stupid things into the target! We ain't done until they all hit a vital point, 'ttebayo!"

Sakura shook her head and walked back to the field with the shuriken.

-D&D-

Her birthday dinner was actually quite pleasant, her father gave her several trinkets from his travels. In addition, her mother gave her several new pieces of clothing, as well as a set of kunai and shuriken to practice with in her spare time; and they were real ones! That last one was easily Sakura's favourite, as she no longer had to borrow the ones that Naruto brought, they could spend less time grabbing weapons and more time throwing them!

The next day, when she went into school, it was quiet. Even those who had done nothing but bother her all day throughout the previous one didn't so much as spare her a glance, which bothered her, especially after the previous day of everyone trying to hand her presents to show how 'nice' they were.

When school got out, she waited like usual for the redhead to show up. It took much longer this time, but he eventually stumbled out of the building holding a small box.

"Sorry I couldn't give it to you yesterday, I couldn't find you!" he said, holding it out to her, "so, um, happy late birthday, Haruno-san!"

Sakura took it gingerly, smiling at the boy all the while. She hadn't expected a present from him. She opened the small box and stared. Laid across the bottom of the box was a bright orange ribbon.

"I bought it for you, to hold your bangs up! You always hafta shake your head to get it out of your eyes, this'll make it easier for you!"

"U-Uzumaki-san, I..." she almost cried. Taking the ribbon lightly, she pressed her bangs back, and tied it into a neat little bow on top of her head. Naruto pumped his hand up and cheered.

"Alright! You look awesome, Haruno-san, 'ttebayo!" Sakura shook her head lightly. The two would practice their shurikenjutsu, like usual, but when it came to an end, she stopped Naruto from leaving.

"Uzumaki-san," she said, nervous, "could you... try using my personal name when you talk to me, and when we're not near other people?" The redhead blinked, before smiling the brightest smile she'd seen yet.

"Of course, if that's what you want, I will, Ha- I mean, Sakura-chan! As long as you'll call me by mine, too!"

Sakura blushed lightly at him using '-chan' for her name instead of '-san.'

"Of course I will, Uzu- Naruto-kun," she said. The boy kept smiling, before he turned to run off to the orphanage, while Sakura went the other way, towards her meeting place with her mom. While the previous day had been awesome, this had been her best birthday present ever- a beautiful ribbon and a real friend.

Notes:

Yes, yes I did. I'm a madman for trying to get involved in this fandom, but I think I'll enjoy it. I'll also try not to use random Japanese throughout the fic, except for jutsu and the like. Speaking of Japanese:

-shi - extremely formal honorific for someone you are familiar (through reading or some such) with but do not know.

Chapter 3: Prologue 2: Pranks and More Friends! (Also Trolling)

Notes:

Holy moly! This story has gotten a far bigger response than I ever expected. Here's another chapter for you guys! Schedule might be a bit wonky with updates for a bit, though. Lot of info this chapter, to start showing out the AU more.

Sunlight crept through the windows into the rafters of the building where Sakura sat, crouched. This is it. After all their hard work and planning, their first mission together would be a success. Time spent analyzing the target's schedule and habits, creating the most effective course of action. Now, their whole mission's success hinges on me.

Sakura took a deep breath, and waited. The target came into sight.

Just a little bit closer...come on...come on... The target walked below her. It just as he'd done the previous days. Sakura clutched her hand around her weapon. This was it, he was about to walk in the right spot. Perfect! Sakura smiled brightly, and pulled hard. A quiet clicking sound, then a swoosh. A liquid pours down, and finally, a storekeeper's scream. Rapid footsteps and the sound of fans activating spread through the room, in addition to more furious shouts by the man below her. Sakura smiled. It was time for the last step.

She grabbed the bags next to her and dumped them out onto the storekeeper as she ran along the rafters toward her exit window. Even more angry screaming sounded as she climbed out the window, shimmied along the ledge, and slid down the makeshift ladder Naruto had made beforehand. Hitting the ground, she ran around to the front door right as Naruto burst out of it in a blur of red and orange.

"That's for overcharging me on my ramen, dattebayo!" he yelled. Sakura ran alongside him as a neon orange figure covered in feathers burst out of the shop and started chasing them up the road, screaming obscenities that would have made a sailor blush.

"You just had to open your mouth, didn't you, Naruto-kun? He would have taken way longer to see it was us if you didn't, and we could've gotten away easier!" she yelled.

"Not like we can change that now, keep running, dattebayo!" he laughed, clearly embarrassed.

Zigzagging through alleyways and hidden alcoves to avoid their pursuer, they eventually arrived at a small park, where most of the children were shuffled away at their parents' sight of the redhead. Naruto frowned and looked down, clearly upset, and Sakura placed her hand on his shoulder in response. "Don't worry, Naruto-kun, I won't leave you. Don't focus on them, focus on me." He nodded and looked at her, a bit more focused, his frown eventually dissipating.

"I can't feel happiness, or anything like that… I can only feel worry, or hate, or sadness, or other bad feelings," he explained. Sakura nodded, he'd explained his ability to sense emotions, but hadn't gone into much detail. Worrying that he might get really sad again, she decided to try and get his mind off of it.

"Come on then, Naruto-kun. There's no one here now, let's practice those kata Umino-sensei gave us yesterday!" she said.

The boy immediately perked up and smiled. They went to opposite sides of the park and ran at each other, practicing the kata in the same way as the spars that had seen Inuzuka Kiba getting his butt handed to him by the younger son of the Uchiha clan head, whatever his name was— Naruto probably knew, those two were in the same class.

While they had started with the kata, the two of them soon began deviating from them, until it devolved into a wrestling/tickling match with both of them tussling in the dirt. After some time of this, both of them sat up and Naruto was about to speak, when a silver-haired ANBU in a dog mask suddenly appeared with flicker and tapped his shoulder.

"Time to go already, Inu-nii-chan?" Naruto whined.

The ANBU simply nodded before again disappearing in a gust of wind and leaves. The redhead simply sat up and brushed off his shorts, before breaking into a run, while also waving to her.

"Bye, Sakura-chan! See you tomorrow!" he called.

She waved to him in return with a smile.

Once he was out of sight, Sakura climbed to her feet and took off up the street, back towards her home. It was late, and her parents would probably be a bit annoyed at her being later than usual, but they wouldn't mind too much as long as she was home before dinner. After some time, she arrived at the arch that marked the entrance to the Special District.

Her grandparents on her mother's side had been shinobi from another village, and her mother was born there; and like most of the surviving population, they had fled to Konoha when it fell during the opening salvos of the Second Shinobi World War. Those survivors banded together and founded an entirely new section of the village, where much of the dead village's culture still remained alive.

Her father, on the other hand, was born in Tetsu no Kuni, where most of their family still resided. His mother, though, was apparently a foreign princess, having eloped with her grandfather and been disowned for it. Though, in an odd turn of events, her father had been practically ostracized by the rest of the Haruno family for marrying her mother and staying in Konoha.

As she contemplated her family's legacy, she found her thoughts wandering to where Naruto-kun came from. He had said his name was 'Uzumaki,' but could he really be from the same family that had once led that old village? He certainly had the right hair color and attitude. As she began to wonder, a thick hand grabbed her shoulder.

Sakura looked up, and saw a civilian gate guard standing there.

"Sorry, girly. No entrance to this part of the city at this hour without a residency or business pass, you know that," he explained.

Right, and they still had issues with others, even those from Konoha— you typically needed to be escorted into the district by a resident. They had special permission from the Hokage to use that system for a time. But her mother always escorted her in, and she didn't have a pass yet.

"I'm Haruno Sakura, I've lived here all my life, but I haven't gotten a resident's pass yet— I'm only an academy student," she attempted, but the guard just shook his head.

"Likely story, bubblegum," he said, making Sakura blush in annoyance, "look, I get it, you probably have some friends at the academy that live here and want to go see them— but you need an escort for that. Now, it's getting late, why don't you scurry on home."

"But my home is in there!" she exclaimed in exasperation, pointing into the gate.

The guard continued shaking his head. This went on back and forth for what felt like hours. The sun certainly had gone down, and the streetlamps had turned on, before an old lady that Sakura recognized as her neighbour walked down and stopped at the gate, before looking down.

"Haruno-chan? What are you doing out here at this time?" she asked.

"I've been trying to get in, but this guy won't let me in!" Sakura yelled. The old lady shook her head, and looked at the guard.

"Her parents will be furious if you don't let her in— her parents are Haruno Mebuki and Kizashi," the guard turned deathly pale at the second name, "and I hope you don't object to me walking the girl home."

The guard quickly stammered an apology and stepped aside, as the lady walked Sakura through the gate. The two walked the darkened streets in silence as they strolled to the area where Sakura's house was located. When they reached the door, the old lady pat her on the head.

"Thanks for walking me home, obā-sama," Sakura said.

The old lady smiled and saved as she walked back to her own home. Sakura looked at her front door and took a deep breath. Time to face the music… she opened her door and walked in, carefully taking off her shoes and placing them with the others. Her slippers were upstairs, so she crept along in her socks, hoping her parents were upstairs.

As it turns out, they weren't— they were in the family room talking. When she walked in, her parents— her father was home this week— looked up at her, both worry and annoyance on their faces.

"Sakura," her mother began, "where were you?"

Sakura's eye twitched. "I was helping a friend," she said, "some man was being cruel to him, so we got revenge."

Her parents shook their heads, "Sakura… just… be careful about the time, next time," her father said, "now go upstairs, wash up and change, and we'll have dinner."

She nodded and did as her father said; washing all the dirt off of herself, and changing into a nice dress, with her matching slippers.

After a rather quiet dinner with her family, her mother grabbed the dishes to wash, and her father pulled out a book.

"So, Sakura, who exactly is your friend? Last we talked, you didn't have any friends," he asked.

Sakura blushed and looked down at her lap. She really wished that she could have just brought Naruto here, his negative emotions sensing would have helped quite a bit here. She muttered something under her breath as a response.

"What was that?" her father asked, "I can't hear you."

Sakura clenched her fist and shook her head to clear it. It was better to just tell them, than risk them finding out by accident.

"Uzumaki Naruto, he's-" she began, but stopped as her mother dropped a plate and it shattered.

Sakura's heart sank, were her parents just like all those other adults that ushered their children away the moment they saw him? Her father looked extremely worried, but not mad. Her mother was just pale, and run up to her, clutching her hands.

"Sakura… what did he look like?" her mother asked, her eyes wide.

Sakura blinked, extremely confused. She thought everyone knew what he looked like.

"Round face, three birthmarks that look like whiskers on each cheek, rather short, bright blue eyes, and the brightest red hair that you'll ever see," she answered, as diligently as she could.

Her mother's face had color return to it… before turning red in what seemed like anger.

"He lied to us..." her mother growled out. She stood up. "Kizashi-kun, finish the dishes, I have to go speak to someone, now."

Her mother marched up to her room, before rushing back down in travelling clothes, "I'll be back later!"

Her father immediately stood up and began cleaning the other dishes from dinner.

"Sakura, go and finish your homework— your mother is on the warpath, and woe to anyone who gets in her way."

-D&D-

"And finally, the last of the bandits has been executed— we got all the info we could out of him," the woman in the cat mask reported.

After taking a deep inhale from his pipe to calm his nerves, Sarutobi Hiruzen let out a sigh. That interrogation had garnered far less information than he'd wanted— he still had no answers as to Kirigakure's current situation. The most detailed he'd gotten was from Inu's team, and they'd had to leave quickly after dispatching three pursuing Kiri ANBU.

He knew there was unrest there, but that was all he knew. Maybe it was time for him to ask Danzō to send some Root infiltrators over— distasteful as his methods were, they certainly could get the job done if there was no one else that could. And in this case, it really seemed like there was no one that could. Sarutobi shook his head. No, don't ask Danzō just yet, there's still a few more options before we need to use that one.

"Thank you, Neko-kun. Dismissed," he said.

The ANBU saluted before disappearing in a shunshin. After Neko had left, Sarutobi felt his shoulders relax. Danzo's right, I'm too old for this. I was too old for this when Minato took over, and I'm far too old now. An ANBU in a bear mask chose to shunshin in next to him while he was lost in his thoughts.

"Hokage-sama," he said, "you have one final meeting request for the day."

"Indeed? Who is it?"

"One of our inactive kunoichi, Haruno Mebuki."

"Very well, send her in, this is my last meeting today. Dismissed, Kuma-kun."

The ANBU nodded and faded into the corner. The door opened and blonde woman walked into the room with a slight bow.

"Hokage-sama. It's been some time," she said.

"Indeed, Hasu-kun," the Hokage replied with a smile.

He knew that she'd changed her name since her marriage, but he still remembered her as Hasu Mebuki, the resident kunoichi of her team, always energetic and ready to help.

"Why have you come here this evening? I thought that you didn't wish to reenter active service until your daughter graduated the academy."

"No, no, that is still the plan. I came here to discuss a different matter, one very important," she said,

"Remembrance Day is in two days-"

"I already spoke with the representative, all the active shinobi not on missions from the district will be allowed off to attend the celebrations," Sarutobi explained.

"It's not that. It's about a person," she said.

"And who would that be?" he asked.

He desperately hoped it wasn't who he thought it may be.

"Uzumaki Naruto," she confirmed, her face changing to one of anger.

Nope, it was exactly who he thought. Sarutobi shook his head.

"I see," he sighed, "Naruto-kun has a very strict curfew, though. I doubt the orphanage would let him out after sundown."

Mebuki smiled, that terrifying grin that she once had when she helped Uchiha Mikoto put itching powder in all of the Military Police uniforms after one errant officer said the wrong thing to the kunoichi,

"Oh trust me," she said, "they'll let us have him."

-D&D-

The day after was completely normal on the surface. However, things had been done in secret. Discreetly, word was spread around the network that Uzumaki Naruto was a student at the Shinobi Academy. Aside from a few dissenting voices that were quickly quashed, many of those she had spoken to were angry, and were willing to act. It had to be kept under for now, though. There would be time tomorrow.

Mebuki started the day early, walking her daughter to the academy, then went to the small restaurant many of the district bigwigs attended, where the entire network made plans, including her.

"So, he's at the orphanage near the academy then?" one man asked.

"Hai. And apparently his curfew is at sundown, so he's always back by then," another answered.

"So, how many should head up to… collect the goods?" the first man asked.

Mebuki answered this time, "All of them." The entire table turned to look at her.

"Um… are you sure about that, Haruno-san? If things go wrong-" the second man said.

"Things won't. No one will stop us with those numbers, and even if someone would, we'll be back in the district before anyone can think to," she replied.

"Since we're bringing everyone, you plan on bringing little Sakura-chan, too? She's never been with us for Remembrance Day," the older lady that had walked her home the previous day said.

"Of course. She's in the academy now, she needs to see how things are handled now that she's older," Mebuki replied with a smile, "we also should thank her for bringing this matter to our attention, it's thanks to her that things can be set right."

"Well," another young woman said, "here's to making things right!"

"Here, here!" the group called out as a whole.

-D&D-

Mebuki arrived a few minutes early to get her daughter from the academy. When she arrived, she saw her daughter sparring with a small red headed boy, both laughing all the while, clearly having fun.

So that's Uzumaki Naruto? The name certainly fits.

Instead of calling out to her like she usually did, she simply walked up to them carefully.

When her daughter next turned around, Mebuki was standing there, waiting for her. She smiled at her daughter, telling her to say goodbye to her friend, they needed to do something. Nervous, Sakura said goodbye to Naruto, and walked on behind her.

She's familiar enough to call him '-kun?' This may be harder than we thought for her if she can't keep quiet.

The two walked in silence to the Uzu District Administrative Building, where Sakura simply had to sign her name on something, and looked very confused. Well, she'll get a present for good behavior if she does well tonight. Mebuki was handed a package containing two envelopes. She nodded to the receptionist, they'd planned this out the previous day.

The last step was picking up her daughter's outfit for that night. A colored haori with the old village's crest, and a black cloak to wear over it during before the final event of the night. When the sun went down, it was finally time to begin. Tightly holding her daughter's hand, the family stepped out of the house, walking carefully as more and more people poured out of their houses in identical outfits.

The group poured out in a large crowd through the gates, walking up the centre of the village in the near darkness, as unlit torches were passed out amongst all members of the group. Little Sakura looked so confused, but also a bit scared; she was clutching her father's hand tightly as they walked with the crowd. After a long time of walking, the procession arrived outside of the orphanage that the boy apparently lived at.

With a nod, one of the men in the front went to knock on the door, while one in the back used a Katon jutsu to light his torch, each person touching the torches to the next person's, until all the torches were lit. Once all were lit, the man at the front rapped on the door, hard.

Within moments, one of the matrons opened the door. Then she smiled. A wicked smile, but a smile nonetheless. "I thought it was too good to be true," the matron said, "you said you'd get rid of him, we gathered his few personal items," she threw a bag out onto the front steps, "burn them, trash them, smash them, not my problem anymore.

"Oi, Suzuki-kun! Bring Akuma-gaki down here!" the matron called.

The crowd stood stone faced, as they waited. A few minutes later, a woman in her late-twenties to early thirties walked to the door with her hand wrapped around the back of the neck of a short red-haired boy. The boy's eyes widened at the site of the torch-wielding crowd, and he tried to rush back inside, only to be grabbed harshly by the matron.

"Oh no you don't!" she growled at the boy, "we're finally gonna be rid of you, you are not ruining this for us!"

"Please, please don't give me to them! I'll be good, I swear, please!" the boy cried, sobbing loudly.

Mebuki looked over to her husband, who had gripped Sakura's shoulder tightly; she'd gone as white as a sheet, and was trembling. The boy continued crying until he received a smack in the face from the matron, before promptly shoving him out the door while he was in shock, into the man waiting outside the door.

Before he could run anywhere, the man standing in front of him grabbed the boy's shoulder and pushed him along to the rest of the crowd. The boy looked terrified, and the tears continued to fall, while the crowd still remained stone-faced. Despite his struggling, he was unable to escape as the crowd moved back along the path they came.

After passing through the arch that marked the entrance to the Uzu District, the crowd turned off the main road. Soon, they came to a run-down looking building with large doors and windows all over. The group filed in methodically, spreading out in a large central room. Up on a dias in the back was a man in the same outfit as the group, seeming to be setting up what looked like a small slab. The boy struggled harder but still couldn't get free.

The one escorting him walked him up to the altar and the slab atop it, as the others walking spread out around the room in a semicircle around the dias. The boy's escort stopped in front of the slab, waiting for the man who had been there already. He nodded and from his pocket produced a box cutter. The redheaded boy's eyes went wide, before tears started to fall again. The man with the box cutter frowned, before reaching down under the altar, and pulling out a box. Then the man cut the box open, withdrawing the contents: a simple leather book.

The man with the book looked out at the crowd, "Where the hell is the lectern?! It was supposed to be here!" he called. A rush of activity to the side, and a minute later, a stone lectern was carried up to the dias.

-D&D-

So much hate was around him. That was one emotion Naruto could feel without any confusion; hate was the most powerful thing he had ever felt, that didn't come from himself, anyway. After the big scary man— who Naruto thought was gonna sacrifice him on the altar, like in one of those scary stories— called for some kind of podium, Naruto was sure he was dreaming.

Then it got even weirder. The man grabbed his hand and pulled him over to the podium, placing the big book on it, open. The man then stood next to him.

"Uzumaki-sama," he asked kindly, "can you read?"

Naruto gulped, also blushing at the '-sama,' but chose to answer.

"I can read my hiragana and katakana, but sensei tells me I'm behind with kanji. I can't read many of them," he said. The man frowned, but nodded.

"If you wouldn't mind, I could stand next to you and translate it," the man offered.

Naruto stood, unanswering. He didn't want to have this man he didn't know standing next to him and whispering in his ear. As he moved to shake his head, a commotion in the crowd caught his attention. Several people were shoved out of the way, as a familiar bubblegum head rushed to him.

Naruto felt himself crushed into a tight hug. "Naruto-kun! Are you okay? I'm so sorry! You looked so scared, all I wanted to do was come and help, but I couldn't," Sakura said, chattering on.

"Ne, Sakura-chan," he said, returning the hug, "I'm okay, I promise."

The girl pulled back and looked at him, still teary. After looking at him, she let go, wiping away the tears. The man with the book looked down at the rosette.

"Can you read, girl?" he asked.

Sakura nodded, "I can read the same amount of kanji as most final year academy students." The man with the book shrugged.

"That works," he turned back to Naruto, "would you be okay with her reading it to you?" Naruto nodded, without hesitation. Sakura-chan was his friend, he could trust her.

"Very well then," the man said, placing the book on the lectern. He then stepped back, and walked behind the altar. Naruto looked down at the book, and sighed. He couldn't much of it at all. Motioning for Sakura to come over, he stepped back a bit to let her see. Sakura looked down at the page, scanning rapidly. She then began to whisper it into his ear. Naruto recited her words as best he could.

"Thirty-one years ago, tonight, the shinobi village of Uzushiogakure no Sato was destroyed, as the opening shot of the Second Shinobi World War. The enemy attacked without warning, and the city had few defenses. While the enemy attacked, many of the shinobi that had remained at home abandoned their positions to evacuate as many civilians as they could.

"Those that survived made their way here to Konohagakure no Sato, our ancient ally and most treasured friend. We rallied here behind the last surviving member of our leaders— Uzumaki Kushina. Tonight, we remember those that did not survive the passage, those whose souls still rest on the island, waiting for us to put them at peace." As Naruto finished the last sentence on that page, a hand touched his shoulder. Then, one by one, each person in the hall blew out their torch.

Once the last torch blew out, the lamps on the walls of the room lit up. All present in the room dropped their black cloaks at once. Underneath, they wore white haori with a blue spiral displayed prominently. Before Naruto could question it, another was tossed over his own shoulders. Looking down, his also had a spiral. However, his was red, with a white outline.

"The symbol of the Uzumaki Clan," book-man explained, "you represent the Clan for us now." Another man stepped forward respectfully. Naruto recognized him as the man who escorted him here from the orphanage.

"On behalf of us all, Uzumaki-sama," Naruto blushed once again at the '-sama,' "I must apologize for being so rough bringing you here. I feared we would not have been able to get you away from the orphanage otherwise. You needn't worry about that kind of thing here." Naruto nodded rapidly while tying the haori.

Much of the rest of the night was spent singing traditional songs of the old village. Some tried to teach Naruto the songs, but he only picked up a few of them. Throughout the night, Sakura never left his side. By the time it was over, Naruto was sure he had memorized at least thirty names; perhaps even more. One of the women there promised to teach him the names of the members of the clan; more names to memorize.

Eventually, the night came to an end, and people began to leave. Slowly filing out and chatting, people went every which way. Naruto simply followed behind Sakura— her parents had offered to let him stay at their home for a few days until they could get a place for him to live.

As they approached the house, a short ANBU in a raccoon-dog mask just happened to shunshin in front of the small group.

Naruto smiled as he knew this one, and he knew Sakura did, too. "Tanuki-san!" he called, waving, "I thought you were gonna be with your otōto tonight, since Inu-nii-san walked me home!"

"Naruto-kun," Sakura said with a small glare, "quiet voice. It's nearly 2:00 AM." Tanuki simply shook his head.

"As Sakura-chan kindly stated, it's almost 2:00 AM. I did spend all night off with my otōto, but got called in to make sure you were okay," Tanuki said, "after all, you broke your curfew unexpectedly."

Naruto took a deep breath. "I'm not gonna go back to the orphanage. They threw me out to people they thought were gonna hurt me!" he said. Tanuki stood there, his body not shifting.

"I thought as much. Tonakai-kun was supposed to be watching you at nights, but he wasn't to be trusted, apparently," Tanuki explained, "Kuma-shushō will probably watch you at night from now on."

"Kuma-sama is awesome!" Sakura cheered, "the flowers dance when he watches Naruto-kun." Her parents and Tanuki shook their heads.,

"I'll disappear now. Keep safe, Naruto-kun," Tanuki said, before disappearing in a shunshin. Naruto smiled and looked at Sakura.

"He's so much nicer than his otōto," Naruto said. Sakura turned to him. Naruto chuckled, knowing she would,

"You know his brother?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah. He's in my class," Naruto said, "but I'd get in trouble if I told you who." While Sakura tried to pry more info from him, she was unsuccessful. He wasn't gonna tell them what Tanuki's real name was, that would be mean. And Jiji wouldn't buy him ramen if he was mean. When they got into the house, Sakura's mother gave him a futon to sleep on. She also gave him a blanket and pillow. He did still have to go to the academy in the morning, after all.

-D&D-

Peaking out at the small child asleep on the bed, Mebuki smiled as she left to get some sleep herself. While it had taken some work, the boy was finally in the District. He could be safe here. Sensei couldn't be here to take care of him, but at least she could do right by her dead teammate. I'm sorry for taking so long to get him, Minato-kun. At least now I can make sure your son is happy.

Notes:

Consider this chapter my jab at one of my most hated Naruto tropes: the angry mob attacking Naruto. Not much Japanese needed here, thankfully. *Note, using -kun for Mebuki was not a mistake, she's his subordinate, and -kun is the suffix to use.*

Obā-sama - mean 'grandma' or 'old woman', but in highly formal and respectful way.

Inu - dog

Neko - cat

Kuma - bear

Tanuki - racoon dog. Anyone that played Mario as a kid should know this one.

Tonakai - reindeer/caribou

Thanks to GarnetMonstrosity for beta reading this! Subscribe, leave kudos, and of course, Comment. See you all next time!

Chapter 4: Prologue 3: Academy Years and maybe a new friend?

Notes:

Thanks for waiting, everyone!

It was the start of his second year at the academy, and all Naruto could hear was the chattering of his soon-to-be classmates. At the very least, Sakura was here with him, so he could focus his emotions sensing on her, rather than letting it wander.

Each of the kids filed in and sat down at a seat. Some children he recognized from the previous year; Hyūga Hinata, Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, and Uchiha Sasuke. Of course, Sasuke was nothing like he had been when Naruto had last seen the boy at the academy.

The last day of the first year, the boy had gone home excitedly, to tell his big brother of his passing the first year at the top of the class. The boy had instead gone home to find his entire family dead at the hands of said brother. That was as much as he could glean from the different rumors flying around the village. Naruto tried to contemplate it, but every time he did, he found himself lost— he just didn't understand why Tanuki-san would do that.

The boy that stood before the class, calmly stating that he didn't wish to speak to any of them, was the only thing left of the once powerful clan. Focusing his sensing on him, Naruto felt immense sadness, anger, hatred, and loneliness. But it felt strange, like they were buried deep inside him; not where everyone else's were. Maybe it was his mask of uncaring. The others had nothing interesting about them— the only one whose emotions he liked was Sakura's, and that only because he was used to them. As he was about to turn his emotions sensing solely to Sakura, Sasuke's emotions spiked. Focusing on it, Naruto felt one overshadow the others— annoyance. Oh, right, his fan club had gotten even bigger. They'd driven him crazy last year, but with his current emotional state… that wasn't good.

Naruto poked Sakura in the side. The girl looked up from her book at him. "What's up, Naruto-kun?"

"Move down one seat," Naruto whispered, "Broody up there needs a spot away from his fan club." Sakura looked up at Sasuke, then back down at him.

"And what'll that do? That'll just cause them to all crowd me!" she whispered back. Naruto stopped and considered that for a moment. As soon as that moment was over, he had found a solution.

"Then I'll move to the other side of you and you can sit between us," he explained, "no one would wanna sit in the other seats on the row if it meant that they were sitting next to me, even if only technically."

Sakura shook her head, but also motioned with her hand for him to just do it. Naruto stood up and raised two fingers, before gesturing to the seat he was just in. The boy up front showed no indication of having seen it, until he shoved his hands in his pockets and walked over to them. Naruto stepped out of his way and sat on the other side of Sakura, who had placed her head on the desk in annoyance. After several cries of indignation from the fan girls, Umino-sensei finally made them all shut up.

"That's enough of that," Umino-sensei said, "now, to all of you who had me for the first year, welcome back. For those that didn't, welcome. I am Umino Iruka, and I will be your sensei.

"The reason the class roster changed was because Yamashiro-san was promoted to Tokujō, and we don't have enough Chūnin to replace him," Umino-sensei shook his head, "children, if you make it to Chūnin, please spend some time helping here at the academy; we need all the extra hands we can get."

With that, the day's lessons began, and Naruto tuned him out like usual. Sakura would take notes and he would study them later. She always did know how to make things easy to understand for him.

-D&D-

It was nearly 3 months into the academy term that he finally found a lesson to pay attention to, as Umino-sensei drew a kanji on the board, then drew several lines around it. Some were like a circle, others branched out into other specific parts around it. After finishing the drawing, mostly, he stopped and turned to the class.

"Does anyone recognize this?" he asked. Only Sasuke and Sakura raised their hands. Umino-sensei shook his head in exasperation. "Haruno-kun, go ahead."

Sakura stood up promptly. "Right, Umino-sensei," she said, "the formula you drew on the board is the standard Konoha formula for an explosive tag, without the activation matrix to avoid any unwanted explosions." Naruto poked her in the side after Umino-sensei thanked her for the answer.

"How did you know that one?" Naruto asked.

"It's in the textbook— albeit purposefully broken slightly to ensure no one blows themselves up while studying," Sakura said, pointing to the spot in the textbook. Naruto flipped his own textbook open to the page, finding himself lost in the explanation. He absorbed the information like a towel did water; he was more interested than he'd been in anything in a long time. However, as he was reaching the end of the chapter, he found his concentration disrupted by an eraser impacting his forehead.

"Naruto!" Umino-sensei called, "since you obviously aren't paying attention, mind explaining the function of such seals?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Seals channel chakra through specified paths; that allow it to interact with the world in a specified way. Seals are most commonly used as explosives, barriers, and storage devices," he looked up at the board, where a new seal was drawn, for storage this time, "though, that storage seal is extremely inefficient, the several twists through the other kanji from the activation matrix mean that it would take at least 4 seconds to activate. If you diverted the pathway straight to the main seal while keeping the other ones as smaller pathways you could easily chop nearly 3.5 seconds off the release of whatever is in the scroll."

Umino-sensei stared at him, gobsmacked. Naruto blinked, and realized the entire class was staring at him with much the same expression. "Exactly right," Umino-sensei stuttered, "okay, class dismissed for lunch, we'll resume this brief look at fūinjutsu when you come back."

-D&D-

A few days later, Sakura bought Naruto a book on fūinjutsu, since the lesson had only been for a day— they didn't have anyone to teach it at the academy. Seeing him carry the book around, more than a few shinobi muttered something about him being 'certainly a real Uzumaki.''

After hearing that, Naruto had made his way to the Memorial Stone, where he'd been told his mother's name was inscribed near the name of the Yondaime Hokage. Examining the stone, he easily found the Yondaime's name, Namikaze Minato, inscribed in the tablet for all to see. A flick of his eye later, and he focused in on another name, Uzumaki Kushina. Naruto reached out one hand carefully and traced each kanji of her name with his finger. As he contemplated what to say, he felt a familiar well of guilt and sadness walking into the clearing behind him.

"Inu-nii-san, it's not my curfew time yet," Naruto called behind him. The footsteps immediately stopped. Naruto turned around to see a silver-haired shinobi in a flak jacket and his hitai-ate over his left eye. Said shinobi was shaking his head.

"Naruto, how you recognize us, I will never understand," the unmasked Inu said, "Also, I'm not ANBU anymore. Kuma-kun will stay watching you at night, and Neko-kun will take my job of watching you during the day."

"So, what do I call you?" Naruto asked, "also, why are you here?" Inu closed his single visible eye in contemplation for a few moments. He opened it with sadness visible to the naked eye. Naruto didn't even need his sensing to know that.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi. I'm here because every single person on my genin team is on that tablet, including my sensei," he said, "except for me of course."

Naruto frowned. "I'm sorry, nii-san," he said, making Kakashi's eye twitch, "I'm here visiting my mother."

"Ah," Kakashi said, "I knew Kushina-san. She was a… good friend of my sensei," he looked straight on at Naruto, "you look a lot like her. Your personality reminds me a lot of her as well." Kakashi spent much of the rest of the day telling what stories he remembered of his mother's exploits.

The one that stuck in Naruto's head the most was when she had ripped out a Kumo nin's pancreas, and tried to force him to eat it. She later claimed that she had been aiming for his liver, but didn't know exactly where to aim since she'd failed anatomy class. Kakashi only witnessed it since he was a student of the Yondaime. They had been sent to assist her squad— only to find the entire enemy squad slaughtered to a man.

-D&D-

Naruto eventually fell into a routine. Each day, he would wake up, eat breakfast, head to the academy. After the academy, he and Sakura would do their own thing until 4pm— Sakura often going to the library, and Naruto to the memorial stone. After 4, the two did whatever they chose that day until Neko came to enforce Naruto's curfew.

While they most often trained together, other times it was pranks. Naruto's pranks were often highly planned in advance, and the materials used were almost always deliberate. Ever since he got the fūinjutsu book, however, he started incorporating storage seals into his pranks.

It had all started with him pranking Umino-sensei, 3 days after he'd been told that there would be no more fūinjutsu lessons at the academy. With Sakura's help, he'd recycled the orange chocolate and feathers prank, pouring it from seals on the ceiling before having Sakura release the seals containing the fans and the feathers. The look on Umino-sensei's face had been explosive; he'd made them stand in the hall holding buckets of water until his father brought him a new pair of clothes.

But ever since, Naruto had used different seals in one way or another. Whether it was storage seals that released exploding paintballs, or explosive tags that only smoked, they were used; which is why the two of them were, as Naruto contemplated this, running away from an angry Chūnin who had the bad luck to get caught in one of Naruto's pranks. He hadn't even been aiming for the guy, he just got in the way! But the Chūnin was angry, and chasing after them at full speed. And to make matters worse, it was raining. At least it was summer, so the mud didn't suck at their sandals too badly.

Their escape route had been planned ahead of time. Thankfully; they were ducking through alleys and slipping through buildings to avoid their pursuer. Once they (mostly) lost him, they quickly climbed the tall tree that grew next to Sakura's father's department store, and ran along the branches, jumping to the roof. Unfortunately, one small factor put a hitch in their plan.

When running from the chūnin, Sakura had fallen and skinned her knee. No issues, they'd both done it before, so they kept running. Then, climbing up the tree, she had opened the wound even further, but she had climbed through it, knowing there were bandages in the store that they could use. It was only when they ran to make the jump she realized it was her good leg. She still jumped pretty far, landing on the parapet…on her good, now skinned, leg.

The pain caused the rosette to lose her balance, and due to the rain, she slipped back off the parapet, and off the building. Naruto's heart seemed to stop as his senses were assaulted with the overwhelming fear for his friend. He was at the edge of the parapet in an instant, leaning over to grab her hand. Their fingers grazed each other before she resumed falling and screaming.

Everything in the world seemingly came to a halt. I have to do something! Naruto thought, if I don't, Sakura-chan might die! He felt pain run through him as light assaulted his vision. Closing his eyes to the light, all around Naruto the sound of stones and wood smashing was apparent in his ears. After a few moments, Sakura's fear subsided. Naruto chose this moment to open his eyes.

What he found shocked him. His shirt was completely shredded while golden chains stuck out of his back, going down the side of the building. At their end, just outside the first story window, the chains were wrapped snugly around Sakura's midsection.

"Wha— What is— What happened?!" Naruto screamed. Next to him, Neko appeared in a shunshin. Turning quickly, Naruto began to panic. "Neko-san!" he stuttered, "I don't know what happened! One moment she fell, and then I saw this light and-"

"Calm down, Naruto-kun. You might drop her if you panic," Neko said. Naruto stopped and took a deep breath. Neko held onto the parapet, placing her feet on the wall and walking down the wall to where Sakura was hanging. Placing her hands on Sakura's underarms, she signalled to Naruto that she had her.

Releasing the tensions, the chains came flying back to Naruto, sinking into his skin as if they were never there. The boy suddenly felt exhausted, more than he had felt in a long time. He slipped and fell forward, into Neko's arms, closing his eyes and letting sleep take him.

Naruto awoke a few hours later, in his apartment. The sun was in the same spot it was usually in the mid-morning, rather than the late afternoon it was when he had been pranking with Sakura. Naruto sat up rapidly, but saw his friend sleeping on the futon he'd set up in his apartment living room for when she stayed over, which tended to be fairly often, especially on weekends. She was a godsend when a test was coming up.

Shortly after he woke up, Neko appeared and told him that he needed to get dressed, immediately. The Hokage wanted to see him the moment he work up. Unfortunately, his only good shirt got shredded by whatever those chains were, so he had to go to Jiji wearing a hoodie and nothing underneath it.

When Neko marched him into the Hokage's office, he worried that he was in trouble for what he'd done. But, to his surprise, the Hokage simply smiled at him when he arrived. Also in the room was the Konoha Council, all 5 of them. In addition, there was a white-haired man with a hitai-ate bearing the kanji for 'oil' standing off to the side, frowning a bit at him. Knowing not to press his luck in this instance, he bowed respectfully to the man. "Hokage-sama," he forced out, much as he didn't want to.

"Naruto-kun," the old man said. He took a long puff from his pipe, before letting out the smoke in a deep sigh. "I wanted to wait until you graduated from the Academy before having this conversation with you… but that's no longer an option."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, "is this about those chains?"

"Indeed," Sarutobi said, "Naruto, you must notice how the people of the Uzu District respect you."

"Yep! They don't cross the road to avoid me, and some of them even enjoy my pranks!" Naruto said, smiling, "I agreed to never prank someone in the District, though. I don't mind, none of them deserve it. I figured it was because of my name they liked me."

"More than that though," Sarutobi confirmed, "your mother was something of an inspiration for them. Most of the people there looked up to her, and wanted her to become Hokage eventually— though she lost that fight to the Yondaime. I know you go visit the memorial stone every day," Naruto blushed at that comment, "if you want to leave flowers, I can tell you where her grave is so that you may leave some there."

"You would?!" Naruto jumped up with a smile, "thanks Jiji! I totally would love to do that, 'ttebayo!"

"Now, about the chains, Naruto," the Hokage continued, "those are a kekkei genkai possessed solely by certain members of the Uzumaki Clan. The Clan's Hijutsu were based on using them, from what I remember."

"From what you remember?" Naruto repeated. Sarutobi nodded.

"Yes. I'm not allowed to know Clan Hijutsu," he explained, "and it wouldn't matter even if I could— the Uzumaki aren't from Konoha. They had their own village— Uzushiogakure no Sato." Naruto visibly deflated at that news, he had memorized the story of what happened to Uzushio, after all. "However, they did own some property in the village— a large plot of land in the centre of the Uzushio district, as well as the Mask Temple. They were also quite rich from different branches of their family being Daimyō and Head Ninja of Uzushio, respectively."

"Wait, I'm related to a Daimyō?" Naruto asked. The Hokage shook his head.

"Not anymore. The Daimyō's family was practically wiped out during the Second Shinobi World War— the family was never very large in the first place, the only lines of descent were three daughters, one disowned, one sickly, one just vanished. The sickly one's husband became the new Daimyō, but kept the job even when she died of illness a few years later," the Hokage said, "he married again a few years later, and changed the name of his country to attempt to hide from the nation's past from Uzu no Kuni to Nami no Kuni. His grandson rules it today."

"What about the other daughters?" Naruto asked, ears perked.

"I honestly have no idea where they went. One ran away and was disowned. Her family declined to keep records of her after that. The one that vanished has no trace to her," Sarutobi answered, "now, enough about the family, you can ask questions about that later. How did you activate the chains?"

Naruto looked down, embarrassed. "I was jumping from a tree to a rooftop with Sakura-chan, and she slipped and fell. I was so scared that she was gonna die, and then the chains burst out of me and grabbed her," he explained, "I don't know how I did it, I was just so scared, 'ttebayo!"

"Calm down, Naruto. You're not in trouble, far from it," the Hokage smiled, "we just wanted to know the circumstances behind that incident and the awakening of your kekkei genkai."

"Indeed. Kushina-chan first awoke hers similarly, to rescue a friend back in Uzushio, from what Mito-sama told us," the old lady to the Hokage's right said.

"Your abilities with the chains, if properly cultivated, would be of immense value to Konoha," the old man with the covered eye said. Turning to the Hokage, he continued, "which makes me fearful for him; his mother was kidnapped by Kumogakure for this same ability when she had just made genin, if he stays in the Academy program, I fear he will just be a target."

"And what exactly would you suggest as a solution, Danzō?" the white-haired man rumbled. He pushed himself off the wall and walked across the room. "Put him into Root, train him as an emotionless weapon?"

The man, now identified as Danzō, shook his head, "As usual, you're only half correct, Jiraiya-kun," he said, eye closed, "as much as I believe Root would be good for him, that is not the path he's been set upon. I simply believe it would be beneficial for him to be trained outside of the Academy. Besides, some of us have been more...attentive to our obligations than others."

The Hokage glared at Danzō, "Now is not the time to rehash petty conflicts!"

Danzō simply opened his eye, "You're right. Apologies, Hiruzen. As I was stating, I believe the boy should be trained in the use of his chains before he graduates the Academy. I believe in that, at least, Jiraiya-kun can agree with me."

The white haired man, Jiraiya, glared back at Danzō. "I hate to agree with him, but sadly I do. He needs to be trained with them. It's not without precedent, clan children are often trained in their clan's Hijutsu or kekkei genkai before or during their time at the Academy."

"As fine as that would be, there is no one who can train him in the clan's techniques. There are no Uzumaki left from before the fall that can teach him anything with them. At best, he could throw them around as blunt instruments. He'd never be able to use them like Kushina-dono could," a man, who looked strangely like the Nara boy in Naruto's class, said.

"Yet Uzumaki-kanshu needs something to assist him," the other old man said. Glaring, the Hokage reached over and smacked him on the back of the head. The old man muttered an apology, before returning to his normal position.

"I could always take him out to one of the training grounds have him practice. Give him some stuff to work on and monitor his progress whenever I'm back," Jiraiya offered.

"So long as you have him at least practice some basic jutsu besides the Academy Three, I will have no objection. He's likely to have at least a minor affinity for Wind, anyway," Danzō said, "I should have some scrolls for Fūton that I wrote down— Yondaime-sama may have left some, as well. There aren't many users of Fūton in Konoha, sadly."

"Fine, fine, but right now we should really walk the boy out there. Which training grounds are open today?" Jiraiya asked.

"Most of them— I would say that Training Ground 43 would be the best for this particular exercise," the Hokage said. Turning to Naruto, he smiled. "This is Jiraiya. He's a powerful Jōnin and former student of mine. You can trust him."

"Alright, I'll take him there," Jiraiya walked up to Naruto and held out his hand. "Take my hand and hold on tight." Feeling no hostile intent, only guilt, Naruto reached out and took Jiraiya's hand. Immediately after taking his hand, the world around Naruto seemed to lurch, whizzing by him in the blink of an eye, until it stopped as suddenly as it started, and they were in a small training ground.

Naruto felt his stomach wobble as he fell to his knees and tried not to puke; he hadn't had breakfast. "Sorry, gaki, I know it sucks the first time, but you need to focus. The sooner we accomplish this, the sooner you'll be allowed to go home and eat breakfast, or maybe brunch," Jiraiya said, "Now, do you remember the feeling you had when you summoned the chains for the first time?" Naruto nodded his head. He remembered Sakura falling, the energy welling up inside him, and the chains bursting from him.

"Good," Jiraiya continued, "then see if you can summon them at that log. Focus on what you felt when that girl fell. That will be your best bet." Naruto looked to where the man was pointing, and saw a log pounded into the ground. He gritted his teeth and tried to summon the feeling, but felt nothing. Thinking for a moment, he tossed off his hoodie and stood shirtless, trying to focus. But despite his best efforts, he could get nothing. Not even a trace of the energy he'd felt. At some point, Jiraiya had wandered off, leaving Naruto alone.

As Naruto fell to the ground, sweaty from attempting to pull chakra out, he felt the ground beginning to shake. Then, from the treeline, a blue-green frog at least the size of the Academy hopped out. The huge thing glared down at him, and reached for the dual katanas on its back. Naruto, thinking it might be best to run, did just that. However, he hadn't yet made it ten meters when another large frog jumped from the other treeline. This one was a deep magenta, and held a sasumata in one… hand? It also held a shield in the other. Both frogs were hopping towards him at high speed, weapons drawn. Oh no, nononononono!

There was nowhere he could run as the two giants converged on him. He closed his eyes and tried to think of something, or maybe make it less painful when it came. However, deep inside him, he felt that energy again. Grabbing hold of it, he attempted to force it out all around him. Keeping his eyes open this time, Naruto watched as golden chains burst out of his torso in all directions. The chains wrapped around the frogs' weapons, holding them in place and preventing them from striking him.

The frogs struggled for a moment. Then they smiled, and disappeared in a puff of smoke, their weapons with them. Jiraiya walked out of the smoke, clapping.

"Well done, kid!" he called, "now try that again! This time, aim them for the log!" Snapping back to reality, Naruto did as was told. He could feel the chains this time, and tried to focus them at the log. Two of them flew out from his chest and wrapped around the log, while the others withdrew into him.

"Alright, now withdraw your chains and fire them again!" Jiraiya called. Naruto obeyed, withdrawing his chains back into his body, focusing on his feeling in that situation, then firing two out again. The two trained all morning— by the time lunch arrived, Naruto was able to pull out his chains freely. As a reward, Jiraiya took him to Ichiraku Ramen for lunch. Naruto didn't know why Jiraiya knew he liked the place; he wasn't about to complain, though.

-D&D-

Each day of summer vacation progressed like that. Wake up early, eat breakfast, then get instructions from the ANBU on what training ground to head to. Once he arrived, Jiraiya would have him run laps to warm up; from there, he would try to hit targets with his chains. Target practice stopped at lunch, the two would then eat, before moving onto tree walking.

After the first week, tree walking was just a warm up, before they moved onto having him attempt to cut a leaf in half with just his chakra. Jiraiya told him that this was the first step to understanding how to use Fūton jutsu. However, he never got more than a small cut on the very end before summer vacation came to an end.

After having lunch at Ichiraku Ramen, Jiraiya gave him a several scrolls filled with more steps to train his Fūton. He also gave him storage scrolls with targets for him to practice his chains on. Yet, as they ate, there was one thing Naruto still had to ask Jiraiya.

"Ne, Jiraiya-sensei, why do you always feel guilty around me?" Naruto asked. The old man spit out his broth at that.

"Kid," he stuttered, "you..." he stopped and narrowed his eyes. "You have the negative emotions sensing. Damn it." He shook his head, and sighed, looking down.

"Look, you're," he gripped his pant legs, "I was very close with your parents; I was supposed to be the one to take care of you if your parents died.

"I was out of the village on a mission when the Kyūbi attack happened. When I heard the news that your father had been killed and your mother sacrificed herself to buy Yondaime-sama more time, I wanted to rush back to the village and take care of you," Jiraiya said.

Naruto had taken off his goggles and let his hair fall over his eyes. Yet he remained silent. Jiraiya looked away from him. "Then why didn't you," he finally growled out.

Jiraiya took a deep breath before answering. "A Conclave of the Council, all the Clans, Jōnin, and some Civilian Representatives, was called after Yondaime-sama's death. I got sent a message by your godmother, Uchiha Mikoto, that I should continue my mission; I trusted her word that she'd take care of you.

"When I got back to the village next, four years later, I found out that she'd been denied custody of you by that Conclave, and that sensei had placed you in an orphanage with nothing to your name— no property, no money, nothing. Sensei hadn't let her contact me, either— wanted me to focus on my mission. Which was a failure anyway, Kumo moved to abduct the Hyūga heiress before I could figure out what they were up to; then I'd had to silence some of my more talkative informants before they could reveal what questions I'd been asking."

"Why'd the Conclave deny my godmother custody of me?" Naruto asked, after a moment.

"Would or could?"

"Both."

"They could because Kushina-chan was effectively a clan leader, despite the status not actually being formalized— they feared giving you to her would upset the fragile balance of power. Yondaime-sama had meant to formalize clan status for her as a favor once you were born, but..."

"But he was dead, and they didn't trust my godmother with my custody? So they tossed me in an orphanage." Naruto guessed.

"Right on. And this is the first chance I've really gotten to see you— you're already living in an apartment in the Uzu district, from what I've been told," Jiraiya said.

"Yeah! They all love me there! They don't turn me away from their stores or usher their children away," Naruto said. Jiraiya smiled.

"I've tried to help you as much as I could. I make sure to send you money every month to cover expenses—"

"The matrons at the orphanage would always take that away and use it to buy toys for the other kids— that I couldn't play with," Naruto said, crossing his arms with a frown. Jiraiya had a look of anger on his face, before crossing his middle and index fingers together.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," he snarled, before an exact copy of him appeared next to him. "Head to sensei and ask where the matrons at Naruto's old orphanage are. Dispel yourself once you get the answer." The clone nodded and disappeared in a shunshin.

"What jutsu was that?" Naruto asked, eyes shining in awe. Jiraiya looked at him, trying not to let his fury show.

"That's Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, a scouting technique. You make a solid copy of yourself with chakra and send it off to do something. When it dispels, you get all its memories, hence its main usage as a scouting tool," Jiraiya explained.

Naruto looked up, deep in thought. "Couldn't you just use it to create an army on demand or something?"

"Nope, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu only makes a few clones. If you wanna make more, you need Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, which is a kinjutsu. You'd die if you used that. Well, you probably wouldn't, you have way too much chakra for your own good. But any normal person would die almost instantly from using up all their chakra," Jiraiya suddenly blinked, "well, now I have some matrons to… have some words with." He ruffled Naruto's hair and walked away after paying for both his and Naruto's lunches.

When he went back to the Academy the next day, he pretended to not be thrilled when he heard of the people in charge of the orphanage were put into the hospital after someone attacked them in the street. He also pretended to not notice the vast amount of money now in his account, transferred direct from the personal accounts of said matrons.

-D&D-

When Naruto's ninth birthday arrived, he actually got presents from people, and not just two from the Hokage. Or, rather, one from the Hokage, and one from Jiraiya by proxy, as he now knew. While many of them were inconsequential, at best, Sakura had bought him a collection of books on fūinjutsu, since he'd finished most of the books he'd read on the subject already.

Surprisingly for Naruto, the next few years were mostly a blur. He fell into a repeating cycle- train with Sakura on academy days, train in the training yards on weekends. During vacations, Jiraiya or one of his Kage Bunshin would be in the village to check up on his progress. By the time he was ten, Jiraiya was finally willing to show him some more advanced seals.

He learned his first Fūton technique over winter break of his 3rd year at the Academy— Fūton: Reppūshō. When they returned in January, he immediately wanted to test it out in a spar. Thankfully, they had sparring that day. Naruto was paired up against Chōji. After making the seal of confrontation, the two briefly fought in taijutsu before Naruto decided try out his new technique.

After Chōji tried a running attack against him and fell, Naruto got behind him and quickly formed his hands into the Mi seal. He cycled through them rapidly, clapping his hands together at the end. "Fūton: Reppūshō!" Naruto called out, thrusting his hands out. All the eyes in the yard turned to him as a gust of wind erupted from his hand, sending Chōji flying out of the little makeshift arena.

"Naruto!" Umino-sensei yelled, running up to him, "no ninjutsu is allowed in sparing unless we say so!" Naruto got detention that day. Again. So he pranked Umino-sensei again the next day, and got detention again. But he agreed to not use ninjutsu in spars unless cleared first. Of course, he was banned from using ninjutsu in spars period about a week later. After a clash between his Fūton: Reppūshō and Sasuke's Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu set about 15 of the surrounding trees on fire, it was pretty much forced by everyone.

Once the final year of the Academy began, Naruto finally got it into his head to teach Sakura how to do the chakra training techniques that he'd learned from Jiraiya. She got tree-walking down within an hour, and water-walking within a week. So, her training mostly involved her increasing her chakra pool and them running laps around whatever training ground they attended. Or, more accurately, her running laps and Naruto practicing his fūinjutsu. He did his running other days.

After all, he needed to study these things right now. Jiji had promised to let him take the tests to be certified as a Seal Master once he made Genin, but that wouldn't matter unless he actually could pass the test.

And then, the school year ended. While Sakura was tied for 2nd of the girls and 6th in the class, Naruto was competing with a civilian boy for 9th place. Naruto beat the boy, whose name he couldn't be bothered to remember, by 2 points on the scorecard. After the one-month break between March and April, the final part of their education as shinobi began.

-D&D-

From April to July, they were trained relentlessly. Every day had sparring, and they were trained in the Academy Three- Kawarimi no Jutsu, Henge no Jutsu, and Bunshin no Jutsu- as much as possible. A few days before graduation, the day's spars put him up against Sasuke again, probably the last time the two would spar, as far as Naruto was concerned. If they met to fight again, it would probably would be at the Chūnin Exams or something.

The two stood apart, each in a separate taijutsu pose. Hana-sensei stood back, and after a glance in Naruto's direction, asked if they had any additional rules.

"I have one, though whether Sasuke-san wants to use it is his choice," Naruto said. Hana-sensei flipped his silver hair away from his face.

"Alright then, what is your suggestion, Uzumaki-kun?" Hana asked. Naruto grinned widely.

"No kekkei genkai," Naruto said, "that would make it less fun. If he uses his kekkei genkai, I'll use mine."

"Fine. Uchiha-kun?" Hana asked, glancing at Sasuke.

"I don't care," Sasuke said, deadpanning. He wasn't going to bring up that he hadn't activated the sharingan yet. That would just be embarrassing.

"Fine. No kekkei genkai during this spar, also, I need to remind you two, no ninjutsu. Any more forests get burned down, and you'll be paying for it," Hana-sensei said.

"Like it matters," Sasuke muttered, sliding into his starting pose, "I have enough money to buy out every building in the village, and that wouldn't even take a tenth of a percent of my money to do."

"Yes, but Uchiha-san, Naruto-kun isn't nearly that rich, and he'd have to pay for half of it!" Sakura called out from the side, her spar with Shikamaru having ended with him just walking off the field. Sasuke rolled his eyes at the girl's comment as Naruto moved into his own stance.

Hana-sensei threw his arm down, "Hajime!"

The two boys ran at each other, crushing their arms against each other's. Smirking at each other, both jumped back from the centre. Naruto crouched down and rushed in with another punch, which was also blocked. Quickly jumping back again, Naruto tossed a smoke bomb at the ground, while also throwing multiple shuriken at him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw Hana-sensei raise his hand to stop the match. However, Umino-sensei grabbed his arm before he could. "Now, now, let's watch the match, Mizuki-san." Hana-sensei nodded, and put his hand back down. Dashing into the smoke, Naruto kicked Sasuke's feet out from under him and tackled him to the ground.

The only thing him and Sasuke could see was each other, but it was enough to see a place to punch. After getting several hits point-blank, however, Sasuke dodged one punch, which hit the ground, allowing Sasuke to grab and flip him. It was only once he was on his back that Naruto saw the eyes.

"Oi!" Naruto yelled, as three golden chains shot from his chest and wrapped around Sasuke, pinning him, "I said no kekkei genkai!" The smoke cleared a few moments later, allowing everyone else to see them. Hana-sensei blinked rapidly to clear his vision. His jaw dropped when he saw the sight before him. Sasuke struggled for a few moments, then stopped, realizing the futility of it. Umino-sensei threw his hand down to call the match.

"Uzumaki-kun wins. The 'no kekkei genkai' rule stands, even had he knocked out Uzumaki-kun, Uchiha-kun would have lost by breaking it," Umino-sensei said, to alleviate his gobsmacked friend. Sasuke glared up at the teacher, before looking back at Naruto. "Although," Umino-sensei continued, "I would like to congratulate them both for a spirited fight, and Uchiha-kun for awakening his eyes."

Sasuke's eyes widened, before he looked down again, trying to see some kind of reflection. Naruto shook his head and walked up to the boy, his chains retracting to set Sasuke free. "Left eye has one tomoe, right eye has two," Naruto said. Sasuke nodded at him, before closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, his eyes were their normal onyx black.

He walked up to Naruto to perform the seal of reconciliation, which Naruto returned. However, with his other hand, he grabbed Naruto's wrist and pulled him close. "Sorry," he whispered, "didn't mean to turn on my sharingan. Good fight." Naruto nodded, before stepping back. Sasuke simply shoved his hands in his pockets and walked off, as if he'd never said anything. Naruto rubbed his shoulder. He knew Sasuke. He'd apologize if he had to, but would never admit to doing so.

-D&D-

Three days later, it was finally time to take the genin test. After easily passing the taijutsu and obstacle course sections, and doing well enough on the written exam, they got the name of which of the Academy Three Jutsu they needed to do to graduate: Bunshin no Jutsu. Naruto had wailed in despair at hearing it; he still couldn't do a normal Bunshin. To make it even worse, no variants were allowed, apparently, some kid had used Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu on a rainy day during a previous exam, and had been allowed to pass because there was no rule against it at the time. Of course they would change that. The Bunshin was the only variant he had issues with! And it had only been decided the previous day! Ero-sennin had even showed him how to make a Kaminari Bunshin to help him with that and then they'd changed it. It had to be about him, it had to be. There was no other reason as to why they'd do this.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, what're the hand seals you use for Bunshin no Jutsu?" Naruto whispered.

"Hitsuji ⇒ Mi ⇒ Tora," Sakura replied, without looking up from her book, "though, I use Tora ⇒ I ⇒ Ushi ⇒ Inu; it doesn't really change anything, but my mother taught me that way. I think it was the variant used in Uzushio."

"Haruno Sakura!" Umino-sensei called. She nodded to Naruto and walked into the testing room. She came out a few minutes later, smiling with a hitai-ate in her hands. Looking straight at him, she signed 'Good luck!' to him. Naruto rolled his eyes, mentally regretting his decision to teach her ANBU hand signs; she wasn't even being discreet about it.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" Umino-sensei called out, after a moment. Steeling himself, Naruto walked carefully into the room. Umino-sensei and Hana-sensei sat at the desk, waiting for him. "Alright, Uzumaki-kun, start with the Henge no Jutsu."

Naruto grinned. Performing the necessary hand seals, he called out, "Henge no Jutsu!" A puff of smoke went up around Naruto— when the smoke cleared, it was no longer Naruto standing there, but a violet-eyed, red haired girl in a yellow dress, a mesh undershirt, brown sandals, and a green sash. The face and hair had barely changed, though.

Umino-sensei put his hand on his face. "Naruto, I wanted you to turn into someone, not just turn yourself into a girl," he said into his hand. Said 'girl' clenched 'her' fist.

"Where do you get off?! I'm Uzumaki Kushina, dattebane!" 'she' yelled, before dissolving the henge. Naruto, in his normal form, continued. "Also, for your information, that was my mother," he said, looking down. Umino-sensei frowned, before marking something down on his clipboard.

"Fine," Umino finally said, "next up, Kawarimi no Jutsu." Naruto rolled his eyes, flashed the hand seals, called out the move, and switched with a stool on the other side of the room. Umino marked that one his clipboard as well. It was time for the moment of truth. "Right. Now: Bunshin no Jutsu. No elements, and no other variants."

Naruto closed his eyes, and flashed through the hand seals Sakura had told him, "Bunshin no Jutsu!" he called, and tried to focus his chakra as much as he could. He opened his eyes and saw a single clone staring back at him. Naruto felt his heart soar… and promptly plummet as the clone collapsed to the ground, looking more like a wax figurine then a person.

Umino-sensei shook his head. "Uzumaki Naruto- failed." Naruto clenched his fists before flashing through three more hand seals - Tora ⇒ Mi ⇒ Tatsu - before calling his move.

"Kaminari Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto called. A jolt of lightning shot from Naruto's hands before reforming into two more Narutos. These Narutos didn't fall over, but simply crossed their arms in annoyance.

"Uzumaki-kun, you aren't allowed to use elemental clones. You know that, it's still a fail," Umino-sensei said, barely looking up from his clipboard.

"Ne, Iruka-san," Hana-sensei said, "that rule only came down yesterday, and it's extremely suspicious that they'd only change it now. It's been fairly common practice in the past for students with high chakra capacity to use elemental clones. Hell, the boy's own mother used a Mizu Bunshin on her test of the Academy Three, and Yondaime-sama used a Kage Bunshin. The boy is clearly ready to exit the Academy as a shinobi of Konoha... but then they change it like this? Right before his graduation? A bit suspicious, don't you think?"

"It doesn't matter. Rules are rules, and if it means a student doesn't pass, then so be it. He'll have another year to work on his chakra control if he chooses to stay. And if you make any more comments on that kind of suspicion, I'll be forced to report you, no matter our friendship, Mizuki-san," Umino-sensei said. "Uzumaki-kun, out. Now. And dispel those Kaminari Bunshin, please." Naruto, with tears welling up in his eyes and his fist clenched, charged out of the room, with his clones right behind him, all sobbing loudly.

Naruto didn't even stop when he got into the classroom filled with incredulous and confused students, he wanted to run and hide as soon as he could. He ran down several of the hallways and found a small closet that he'd used to hide in when he got scared. He and his clones opened the door, and he closed himself in it, dispelling the two clones as he got inside.

He crouched into the fetal position and let his tears continue to fall. He could feel the sheer hate coming off of Umino-sensei, hate he'd never felt before as he'd been too focused on Sakura's emotions. Now, he was the only one in their class to not pass the final exam. Even Nara Shikamaru had passed, and he was the dead last!

And he didn't pass because the teacher hated him, and not just him, if Hana-sensei was right, but someone in the higher ranks of the village changed the rules just to make sure he didn't pass. Just to keep him down. Him, the godson of one of the Legendary Sannin, and a distant cousin of another. He'd could perform eight D-rank, five C-ranked and three B-ranked Fūton ninjutsu, he'd learnt two D-ranked Raiton ninjutsu as well. He could water-walk effortlessly, hold leaves to his body for hours, and create a barrier seal that kept Ero-sennin stuck in one place for five hours before he figured out how to deconstruct it. And he didn't pass because he couldn't do a single, practically useless, E-ranked ninjutsu.

He placed his head against his knees as the tears continued to fall. He'd show them, he'd show all of them. He couldn't be kept down, no matter how hard they tried, he'd bounce back and show them exactly what he could do. Then, the door slid open, and Hana-sensei was there, a look of pity on his face. He extended a hand to Naruto. Barely hesitating, Naruto took it, not noticing the smile on the man's face.

-D&D-

When three Narutos had come running through the classroom sobbing, Sakura knew he hadn't passed. But the fact that there were three of them confused her. If he'd created two clones, why couldn't he pass?! She turned to her only deskmate remaining, and he answered her question before she could ask it.

"Yesterday, they changed the Academy rules so that you couldn't use any elemental variants of Bunshin no Jutsu," Sasuke said, shrugging. Sakura's hand went to her mouth.

"Then… he never had a chance! He can't do the standard Bunshin, he's used Kaminari Bunshin all year!" Sakura said.

"Makes sense, those were Kaminari Bunshin that just ran by with Naruto."

"I'm going to go-" Sakura began, but was interrupted as Umino-sensei stormed into the room, slamming his clipboard down on the lectern.

"No one is to leave this room," he growled, "anyone does, and they can expect to have their commission as Probationary Genin revoked for refusing to follow orders." Hana-sensei walked through the room behind him, then out into the hall, slamming the door behind him.

"Oi! I got a question for ya!" a loud and annoying voice called from the back.

"Inuzuka-kun. What is it, lessons are over, you passed," Umino-sensei said.

"Yeah, but Uzumaki-san didn't! He ran through here with two clones and I've seen him do both Kawarimi and Henge perfectly before. What the hell is going on here?!" the boy demanded. Umino-sensei shook his head.

"Those weren't Bunshin; those were Kaminari Bunshin. You need to do a normal Bunshin to pass," he explained.

"Bullshit! I used a normal Bunshin, yeah, but my sister passed only three years ago using Jūjin Bunshin!" he yelled.

"Indeed," a monotone boy in sunglasses said, "my cousin also passed at that time, he used Mushi Bunshin no Jutsu. He still isn't very good at the normal Bunshin, to this day."

Two pieces of chalk flew to the back of the room, though only the one thrown at the Inuzuka boy hit its mark. To Sakura's surprise, the one thrown at the other boy simply passed right through him as he transformed into a swarm of bugs, before reforming into the boy.

"Even if I'd wanted to pass him, the orders came from on high, so it wasn't an option," Umino-sensei said.

Sakura felt her grip on her shorts tighten. The teacher had just admitted to them that he didn't want Naruto to pass. He was damned lucky she couldn't make an Iwa Bunshin or Mizu Bunshin yet, or she would be on her way to tell the Hokage about this. She'd met him enough times before when she and Naruto got dragged in for pranks, he'd likely have seen her this one time, especially if it was about Naruto.

Then, the door to the classroom opened. Hana-sensei walked in with his hand on Naruto's shoulder. The boy's eyes were bloodshot, and his face was red from crying. "I'll be taking Uzumaki-kun down to the headmaster's office for the day," Hana-sensei said, "when the Academy gets out, he'll head home. He'll be back after summer vacation for another term here." The tears return to the boy's eyes as he was escorted out of the room, and the door shut again.

Clenching her shorts even tighter, Sakura shot Umino-sensei her worst 'I will ruin you and your entire family' glare. Umino-sensei shook his head, and directed a burst of killing intent her way. Sakura flinched and stopped glaring, though her anger wasn't repressed, it only grew stronger.

Notes:

Wow, first time doing a Jutsu list! English translations:

Fūton: Reppūshō - Wind Release: Gale Palm

Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu - Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique

Henge no Jutsu - Tranformation Technique

Kawarimi no Jutsu - Substitution Technique

Bunshin no Jutsu - Clone Technique

Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu - Water Clone Technique

Iwa Bunshin no Jutsu - Rock Clone Technique

Kaminari Bunshin no Jutsu* - Lightning Clone Technique

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu - Shadow Clone Technique

Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu - Multiple Shadow Clone Technique

*Original Technique created by me.

Other Japanese:

kanshu - essentially "warden," like a prison warden. It's obvious what the reference was, which is why he got smacked.

 

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks to my beta, GarnetMonstrosity, for editing! Subscribe, Leave Kudos, and Comment. I'll see you all next time!

Chapter 5: Ambushed and Betrayed

As soon as the sun fell, Naruto sprang into action. Hana-sensei had told him what had happened. Someone on the headmaster's staff had snuck the rules change onto the man's desk while he was recovering from a hangover, leaving him stuck and unable to graduate via the final exam. However, they forgot about a secret second test that he could pass regardless of whether he could use Bunshin no Jutsu or not. He just needed to steal a specific scroll from the Hokage's office and learn a technique from it. Hana-sensei told him to bring the scroll along to show him the technique he learned.

It didn't take him long to simply walk straight into the Hokage's office. Jiji always had time for him. The ANBU stood off to the side as the old man smiled sadly at him. "Naruto-kun, I was so sorry to hear that you failed the exam," he said.

"Yeah… I'm sorry, Hokage-jiji," Naruto said. Before Sarutobi could respond, Naruto flashed his hands into the Hitsuji seal. "Oiroke no Jutsu!" Naruto called, feeling the shift. The Hokage's face paled, before blood spurted out of his nose, sending him flying back in his chair and into unconsciousness. Naruto shifted back— only to find all the ANBU were also knocked out. "Come on! All these guys are perverts?!" Naruto complained. He shook his head as he threw open the small door that held the scroll he needed. He threw the strap over his shoulder and ran out to meet Hana-sensei.

Since the ANBU were likely still knocked out, he didn't have any pursuers as he arrived in the woods nearly an hour before he needed to. Curious, he slid open the scroll on the ground and read through each of them. Hmm… Shiki Fūjin— 'developed by the Uzumaki Clan, can seal away just about anything inside the Shinigami… at the cost of the user's life.' Yikes. 'Souls trapped inside can only be freed with another Uzumaki technique.' Aw, that's vague. Oh well, might be decent to memorize the hand seals at least. Never know if I might need that. Hakke no Fūin Shiki— another Uzumaki technique, 'two Shishō Fūin that either fully or mostly overlap to strengthen each other, created primarily for Jinchūriki…' I wonder what those are? Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu- oh hey, I know about this one! Let's see how this works…

After around ten minutes of trying and failing, one more call of "Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" caused 6 Narutos to appear around the original one. "Sweet!" the boy cried, "it works!" He quickly returned to the scroll, reading more of the non-sealing techniques. Fūton: Kamikaze no Ken— 'creates a multitude of blades inside a gust of wind; similar to Fūton: Kazekiri no Jutsu, but is much more powerful— requires an external gust of wind'. Damn. I know Fūton: Daitoppa, but I would need to use a Kage Bunshin or something for that— actually, I can try that, it might work.

However, before he had a chance to try it, Hana-sensei landed on a branch above him. "Ne, Hana-sensei!" Naruto called, standing up and waving, "I got two techniques from the scroll, is that enough to pass?!"

"Yes, indeed! Now, bring the scroll here, I'll return it to the Hokage's Office," his sensei called down to him. Naruto nodded, rolling up the scroll and returning it to its casing. Wrapping the strap around his shoulders, Naruto scaled walked up the tree to Hana-sensei's branch.

Hana-sensei smiled at him. "Good work, Naruto-kun!" he said, placing one hand on his shoulder. Naruto smiled back at him. Then, something hit Naruto in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He was kept on the branch, though, by Hana-sensei's hand. A hot, burning pain coursed through his body from the impact site. Naruto quickly felt where he'd been hit: it was hot and sticky. He pulled his hand away to look at it— it was blood. Naruto's eyes widened as he saw his bloody hand. He looked down, to see a kunai hand sticking out of his stomach… held by Hana-sensei's other hand.

Then the pain truly set it, an unbearable pain that made Naruto see stars. He could still see, but barely. Hana-sensei's grip on his shoulder tightened like a vice. He then withdrew the kunai, making the pain even worse.

"Naruto," he said, in a sickly sweet voice, "you," Hana-sensei stabbed him again, and Naruto heard loud screaming, "stupid," he withdrew the blade, then stabbed again, "useless," again, "gullible," again, "idiot!" One last stab, before withdrawing the blade one last time. Instead of stabbing him, Hana drew back his fist, before driving it into Naruto's face, letting the boy fall. The screaming continued, louder and louder. It was only when Naruto was about to hit the ground that he realized— the screams were his own.

He landed on the ground with a sickening CRUNCH, and a flare of pain in his right shoulder. Naruto didn't understand why he hadn't fallen unconscious yet, but his mind refused to fall out of it. But the stupid pain was distracting him from using his chains to get out of this mess! "I suppose," the voice of Hana called down to him, "I should thank you. You did the hard work for me. All the ANBU will be out looking for you— and by the time they figure out I'm gone, I'll be out of Hi no Kuni!"

Gritting his teeth, Naruto forced himself to look at the teacher who'd been kindest to him over his Academy years. The look on his face… was one of pure and utter hatred, which radiated off of him. The hatred, Naruto realized, was solely for him. Why… tears of both pain and sadness fell from his eyes, why does he hate me so much?

"Why!" he called with the strength he had left, "why would you do this, sensei?!"

"Don't call me that!" Hana roared, jumping to a new branch. "I'm not your sensei— I could never be a sensei to a monster like you!"

"M-Monster?" Naruto whimpered.

"Yes, an S-class secret of the village hid it from you. The truth is, Naruto," he grinned, "you are the Kyūbi no Yōko!" Naruto's eyes widened, and he felt his heart almost stop. Hana laughed out loud. "Ever wonder why everyone hated you? Why all the parents would be taking the kids away from the playgrounds, only when you showed up? Many of them lost friends or loved ones to your rampage eleven years ago!"

"No… no, no, no." Naruto muttered feebly. His vision was fading in and out now from the pain.

"Yes! Your whole life is a lie— no one would ever want to be near you! I only used you to get the scroll! The Hokage had ANBU watch you in case you regained your memories or your true form! The people of the Uzu District help you out of nostalgia for their lost princess! You took a form resembling her when you lost your power from Yondaime-sama's seal!"

Hana grinned even wider. "Maybe if I'm lucky, the stab wounds I gave you will unleash your true self, and give me even more cover for my escape." Hana reached down and grabbed the scroll. Suddenly, it shifted into a log. Hana looked at it, outraged. He picked up the nearly unconscious boy by his collar. "Where the hell is the real scroll?!"

Naruto drew on what little strength he had to smile through all the pain. "With me— I'm on my way back to the village. It hurts… but I'll make it." The pain finally claimed him, dispelling him, and letting his memories return to the real one.

The real Naruto fell over, the rush of the memories coming to him. He trembled, forcing himself to his knees. Was he really the Kyūbi no Yōko? Did no one care for him for anything more than nostalgia or for their own selfish reasons? Even the ANBU… they were just to make sure he didn't explode!

"Naruto!" a voice roared behind him. Naruto turned and jumped back. He slipped and fell on his butt, sending more waves of pain through him. He could taste his blood, and felt it running down his chin. Hana landed on the branch across the way from him. "You're faster than I was expecting, what with how much damage I did to you. You have to be falling into shock by now— when you die, Yondaime-sama's death will be avenged. But it matters not for me, I want that scroll now!" He withdrew a scroll from his chūnin vest. After the unsealed the scroll with a puff of smoke, a folded up Fūma shuriken emerged.

Naruto pushed himself up and pushed his legs against the ground as much as he could. He couldn't feel the air on his face anymore, and he felt the blood from his stomach wounds sticking to his feet. The edges of his vision had a reddish glow to them, but he couldn't focus on that— he had to keep running. His right arm was practically dragging behind him.

He tripped, but it wasn't on a root— he found himself entangled is metal wire that bit into his skin. He looked and saw Hana smiling, with the Fūma shuriken unfolded. "Caught like a rat in a trap. Now die, demon!" he said, pulling his arm back, before throwing the shuriken straight at Naruto. Naruto closed his eyes tightly and held his breath, waiting for the end. Sorry, I won't be able to keep my promise, Sakura-chan.

A resounding clang sounded in Naruto's ears. After a moment, he opened his eyes carefully, to see a dark figure holding the Fūma shuriken inches from Naruto's face— but it was folded up again.

"Jeesh," a familiar voice came from the figure, "I know Naruto has a habit of pissing people off, but this is far beyond any justifiable retribution." A pair of red eyes containing tomoe faced back at him. Naruto grinned lightly, before finally giving in and losing consciousness.

-D&D-

Moving quickly to catch Naruto as he fell from the freshly cut wire, Sasuke grabbed the redhead carefully and lowered him to the forest floor. He looked up to see Hana-sensei glaring at him. Some 'sensei' he was. All he is now is a traitor.

"Uchiha-kun. What are you doing in the forest this time of night?" Hana asked.

"Naruto wasn't at home, nor was he with bubblegum. I traced his footsteps from the Academy out to that clearing— I just followed the blood from there," Sasuke said, deadpan, "I had hoped to find him for something of my personal interest, but it seems that'll have to wait." He crouched down with the shuriken behind him, prepared to open it.

"So, what, you'll side with the Kyūbi no Yōko over a Chūnin of Konoha? It seems that the Uchiha clan just breeds traitors, doesn't it?" Hana said. For a moment, the world stopped. Before his eyes, the images of his dead family flashed by, in perfect detail. There was no way his Sharingan hadn't been active, then, if he could remember it this well.

He wasn't strong enough to save them, and he still wasn't strong enough to put their souls to rest. He needed to have a chance to get there… and this man, this traitor, dared to compare him to the one who killed all of them?!

"Still too weak..." his voice echoed in Sasuke's head. Without a word, he unfolded the Fūma Shuriken, and threw it as hard as he could.

A loud screech rang out through the forest. Sasuke watched Hana clutch at the deep, bloody gash that ran up his left arm. "H-How did you-"

"How did I hit you? Simple," Sasuke explained, "I could see which direction you were going to move. Based on the movement in your legs, I threw it too far to the left. You jumped in that direction, so there was no hope in you avoiding it," he scoffed, "but I'm still not very good with it— anyone with enough experience would have hit you dead on."

"You're… you're..." Hana stuttered, before withdrawing another scroll. In a puff of smoke, a sword appeared in his hand, "you're dead, Uchiha!" Hana roared, jumping off the branch and diving straight for him. He must have gone into shock from that— his attack here is suicide. Oh well. He made his choice. Sasuke started to move his fingers into the Mi seal, but then stopped. He knew this guy likely had information, and it would be best to capture him, this once. Switching in the moment, he instead started with the Ne seal, rapidly flipping through them as Hana got closer.

Clasping his fingers into the Tora seal, Sasuke called out, "Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu!" Taking a deep breath, he blew several fireballs out into the air around them— several of them hitting his attacker directly, with a loud scream each time. Simply stepping out of the way, Hana Mizuki fell to the ground, unconscious and with severe burns all over his body.

Feeling a slight gust of wind, Sasuke turned around to see an ANBU standing there, weapons ready. Seeing the severely burned Hana and severely injured Naruto, several more ANBU flickered into view. One of them, wearing a bear mask, quickly grabbed Naruto and flickered away with him. Another, wearing a rat mask, walked up to him.

"Uchiha Sasuke?" the ANBU asked. He nodded. "Thanks… for protecting Naruto-kun. Few would have."

Sasuke rubbed his arms, looking away. "Don't thank me for it. It was… nothing." He glanced down at the finely roasted former teacher. "How did that guy ever pass the Chūnin Exams?"

"I don't remember— and honestly, I'm really not inclined to care," the ANBU replied.

-D&D-

Naruto woke up to the sound of beeping monitors. His eyes opened to a hospital room. Right… Sasuke came and found me. Naruto stared up at the ceiling, his stomach aching. He tried to sit up— and succeeded in setting off one of the monitors.

A nurse came running in, but her face fell when she saw that he was fine. Naruto could feel disappointment coming off her, as well as hate. Naruto just looked down at his lap. After the nurse looked him over, while also being far too harsh with his still-healing shoulder, clearly on purpose, she left the room without saying anything further.

An hour later, the Hokage walked into the room. "Naruto-kun. My apologies. I'd have been here 15 minutes sooner, but I had a rather rude nurse to deal with. You'll be cleared to leave the hospital this afternoon— your arm will heal by the end of the day, more than likely," he explained. Naruto nodded, barely looking up.

The Hokage took off his hat and sat down on the chair. "I understand that Hana Mizuki said some things to you when you saw him?" Naruto nodded, tears pooling at the corners of his eyes. "I'm so sorry, Naruto-kun. To find out in that way… I'd intended to tell you when you'd made Genin, break it to you carefully."

"So, it's true?" Naruto asked, the tears starting to fall, "I'm really the Kyūbi no Yōko?" The Hokage sprung forward and grabbed Naruto's hands.

"Listen to me, Naruto," he said, firmly, "you are not the Kyūbi. Anyone who understands a thing about history or sealing would know that. You are the Kyūbi Jinchūriki. A jailor, if you will." Sarutobi shook his head. "It is a burden that you inherited from your mother. She kept it imprisoned, and prevented it from harming the outside world."

"So, I have it because my mother died?" Naruto asked, sniffling.

"Yes. If your mother had survived the night, we could have sealed the Kyūbi back into her, or at least most of it. You may have still gotten part of it, I don't know; Minato-kun wasn't very forthcoming about it before his death. I can't exactly ask him about it now," Hiruzen said, chuckling lightly.

"What exactly happened, the night of the attack? And please don't lie to me," Naruto said. Hiruzen nodded.

"Before we start, I need to tell you about your father. I didn't intend to tell you until you made Chūnin, but I owe it to you. Your father was my successor, Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage," Sarutobi said. Naruto's eyes went as wide as saucers. "I'm surprised so few people figured it out. You have a good amount of his face, and his eyes. Maybe it's the whiskers."

"My… my father is… Yondaime-sama?" Naruto whispered to himself. His fists clenched and unclenched, "who else knew?"

"The ANBU, the Clan Heads, my counselors, a few civilians, and several assorted Jōnin. That includes Jiraiya-kun, who was your father's sensei, as well as the rest of Team Jiraiya," the Hokage explained, "now, listen, I don't know many details of what happened that night. I remember that they snuck Kushina-dono out of the village to have you. So that when her seal weakened during childbirth, nothing would happen."

"But something did happen," Naruto guessed.

"Yes. Someone attacked them, killed the midwives, my wife among them," Sarutobi shook his head to clear the grief, "from there, they unleashed the Kyūbi from your mother, and set it loose on Konoha."

"I'm sorry jiji," Naruto said.

"It's not your fault Naruto," Hiruzen said, "when the Kyūbi attacked, Minato-kun said that he had a plan. He didn't explain what it was, but he took you and Kushina-dono on his toad, and chased the Kyūbi down, before teleporting it outside the village. Your mother used her chains to form a barrier around them to avoid further attack. We tried to get through it, but your mother was one of the best in the world at barrier seals.

"All we know at that point is he used the Shiki Fūjin to seal part of the Kyūbi inside of himself. From what I could tell, it was the Yin aspect of it. The Yang part of it was sealed within you using the Hakke no Fūin Shiki. This is what gives you your ability to sense people's negative emotions— the Kyūbi's chakra mixing with your natural sensory abilities. Uzumaki Mito, your great-grandaunt, also had that power. She was the first jinchūriki. Your mother was second. You are the third to hold it."

"So, Yondaime-sama sealed the Kyūbi into me because he had no choice?" Naruto asked. Hiruzen nodded.

"Yes. I have no doubt in my mind that if Minato-kun could have, he would have dragged the entire Kyūbi into the Shinigami with him," the Sandaime stood up and put his hat back on, "when you are discharged, come to my office. We have many things to discuss. And do not mention either of the things I have told you to anyone. Those are S-class secrets, and speaking them is punishable by death."

Naruto nodded at that, he had so much to think about. His father was the freaking Yondaime! The most powerful shinobi ever! Even just during the Third War, he was likely rich from all the bounties and missions he did as a Jōnin! He had to have done a ton of stuff to get a big enough name to become Hokage. All the stuff that he'd been told about his mother being friends with the Yondaime fell away to something that made far more sense. If the two were married, of course he would go out of his way to do things for her. Of course she would know his Genin team, she likely showed up to see him every day!

-D&D-

A few hours later, he was discharged from the hospital, to the relief of many of the nurses and doctors there. As Hokage-jiji had asked, he'd made his way to the Hokage Tower and up to the top of it. Once he entered, the Hokage turned activated the silencing seals in the room and had his ANBU guard the door.

"Alright," Sarutobi said, "Uzumaki Naruto. Yesterday, you entered this office under false pretences and stole the Scroll of Seals, written by the Shodai Hokage." Naruto looked down at his feet. "However," the Hokage continued, "it has come to our attention that you were manipulated by Hana Mizuki, former shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato, into doing that. Under interrogation, he admitted to sabotaging the final exam against you. And when you realized deception, you attempted to get the scroll back to Konoha.

"Therefore, Uzumaki Naruto, for your service to the village, it is my honour to promote you to a Genin of Konohagakure no Sato. Congratulations," Sarutobi said, with a smile. Naruto froze solid, carefully looking up at the Hokage. The old man had a large smile on his face. Out of the desk, he pulled out a hitai-ate and held it out to him. Holding his breath, Naruto stepped forward, one step at a time. After a few moments, he reached the Hokage's desk. He reached forward and took the hitai-ate from the Hokage. "Come back here tomorrow to get your registration photo and shinobi profile filled out," Sarutobi said, "dismissed, Genin Uzumaki."

Naruto trembled, and with tears falling from his eyes, he nodded. "Yes, Hokage-sama!" As he turned to leave, a small scroll with the two kanji 嘱託 was handed to him by an ANBU. Commission? Is this for sealing? I thought it would be a little bit before I got my first one. Oh well.

-D&D-

It was long past sunset when Naruto finally got back to his apartment. He knew he had a visitor as soon as he walked in— but was surprised to see that it wasn't Sakura, but Jiraiya sitting on his couch.

"Took ya long enough, kid. I was worried I'd have to let sensei know I was in the village," he said.

"What're you doing here, ero-sensei?" Naruto asked.

"Oh, don't call me that, I'm not your teacher— I'm never taking on another team. I'm here to give you this," Jiraiya said, unfurling a large scroll from his back, "consider it a graduation present." On the scroll was a long list of names, each signed in blood. A hand print also accompanied each name.

"What exactly is this?" Naruto asked, mesmerized by the scroll.

"It's the summoning contract for the Toads of Mt. Myōboku. Sign on the line, and you'll be able to summon all the same toads as I can, once you can control the chakra."

"Sign in my blood, right?" Naruto asked. With a nod of affirmation, Naruto pulled out a kunai and lightly sliced his left hand, using his right to draw the Kanji that made up his name— 渦巻鳴門. He then pressed a bloody handprint to the page, solidifying the contract.

"Congrats, kid. You're now a Toad summoner. To summon, get some blood on your hand right, perform the hand seals I ⇒ Inu ⇒ Tori ⇒ Saru ⇒ Hitsuji, then press your hand to the ground," Jiraiya explained, "like this," he bit his hand, flipped through the hand seals, then pressed his hand to the ground, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" A small yellow toad appeared on the ground, before dispelling.

"Cool!" Naruto cheered, pumping a fist in the air. Jiraiya smiled at him.

"Here," he said, handing Naruto a scroll, "while you work on your summoning, practice that." Naruto opened the scroll, opening the first seal to find… a water balloon.

"How will this help me?" Naruto asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Simple. Swirl your chakra around in it until it pops," Jiraiya explained, "find which direction is easiest, and spin it that way. Once you get good at spinning it, you're gonna want to make it spin in many directions. It's a difficult exercise, but so was everything your dad invented, so you can do it." He ruffled Naruto's hair. "I'll be back in Konoha for the December Chūnin Exams; I'll check up on your progress then. If you need any help, ask that silver-haired Jōnin, Hatake Kakashi, your father's old student. Minato showed his entire team how to use it, so that boy'll know it, too."

"Cool!" Naruto cheered, "and before you go, take this." Naruto fished a scroll out of his jacket pocket and unsealed it, revealing a large collection of manuscript.

"Is that-" Jiraiya asked.

"It is. I made it, and did research on it, just like you asked. Oiroke no Jutsu is good for things other than shaming perverts, after all," Naruto said, a wide grin on his face.

The white haired man smiled, resealing the manuscripts in a scroll, before waving at Naruto, and disappearing in a puff of smoke.

-D&D-

The next day, Naruto went back to the Hokage's Office after getting a picture taken of him for his ID Card. Thankfully, the picture was only from the chest up— since he didn't wear his jacket the previous night, it hit the bloody hole around his stomach flawlessly. He'd carefully filled in the different aspects of his shinobi profile as good as he could, without Sakura's help, even!

The Hokage looked over his Shinobi Registration Form carefully, smiling at it. "I'm impressed that you took it so seriously, Naruto," he said, looking at the boy, "though, I must ask, why are you not wearing your hitai-ate? Unlike the other graduates of the Academy, you are a full Genin of the village, and it is rather rude to not wear it."

"I don't wanna scratch it, Hokage-jiji," Naruto whined, "I'll start wearing it on the day of team selections. I already know you're gonna put me with someone in the loop about my parents and my damned tenant."

"I'm not supposed to mention the teams that I planned until the day of selections, you know that. But rest assured, I planned each team carefully," the Hokage explained, "but this year's Team 5 is made up of Ami, Kasumi, and Fuki, all from your class— they'll be under Mitarashi Anko. You would know her as Neko-kun."

Naruto fell back in laughter, "she'll kill them! That, or scare them right out of the Shinobi forces!" he managed to force out between laughs.

"I doubt Mitarashi-kun will actually kill them, but they'll all fail her test and be sent back to the Academy, more than likely. Whether or not they wind up in the Genin Corps.— well, that's up to them," Hiruzen said. As Naruto was about to reply, the door of the room flew open, and a small boy stormed into it.

"Jiji!" the boy declared, "prepare yourself! I'm gonna be the Godaime Hokage, and you won-" before he could finish, the boy tripped over his scarf and fell on his face. After spending a moment groaning on the floor, he flung himself to his feet and stormed up to Naruto.

"Oi! You tripped me, didn't ya?" the boy yelled.

"You did that yourself, don't try to pawn it off on me!" Naruto replied, raising his voice slightly. He'd felt the boy's chakra before it even came up the hallway. Naruto's eyebrows twitched lightly as this boy who claimed he wanted to be Hokage. His Henge to hide the bloody hole in his shirt was so detectable it hurt— yet the boy ignored it. If this kid was a shinobi legacy, then he was failing hard at it.

"There's no way I tripped by myself! You had to have done it!" the boy continued yelling. Naruto rolled his eyes, standing up and grabbing the boy's shirt. The boy yelped as Naruto pulled him close.

"If I wanted to cause you problems, I would do a lot more than just trip you," Naruto said, glaring at the boy. Naruto cocked his fist pack, ready to teach this kid a lesson.

"Hey!" another voice called, this one from a sunglasses-clad man standing at the door of the room, pointing at Naruto. "Let go of him! That's Sandaime-sama's grandson!"

Naruto stilled his fist and looked down at the kid in his grasp. He did look a lot like Hokage-jiji, so he could see it. Had to be the nephew that Asumaalways talked about when he saw him. Said boy grinned at him. "What? You scared to hit me just because I'm the Hokage's grandson, kore?"

"I couldn't care if you were Daimyō-sama himself, dattebayo!" Naruto punched the boy's head down. The boy's face smacked the ground, and he laid there, unmoving.

"W-What?!" the sunglasses glad man yelled, his hands on his head. Naruto just put his hands in his pants pockets and left.

"See ya, Hokage-jiji," he called, walking up the hall. Now I just need to buy some new clothes, since the fight with Hana-jukeisha ruined my only good outfit. Naruto hadn't gotten four blocks away when he felt himself being followed. He obviously forgot that Naruto was a kanchi-nin. Or maybe the kid just didn't know.

"Oi, kid! Stop following me! Your camouflage is even worse than my attempts when I was eight!" Naruto yelled. The disguise blanket fell away to reveal the boy from earlier standing there.

"As expected from a skilled shinobi such as yourself, kore!" the boy cheered. He ran up to Naruto and pointed directly at him. "From now on, I'll be your apprentice!"

"You've got to be kidding me," Naruto said, crossing his arms, "and precisely why would I do that?"

"Come on, help me out here, Senpai!" the boy yelled. Naruto blinked and turned carefully to face him, blushing lightly.

"S-senpai?" Naruto stuttered. The scarf-clad boy nodded again.

"Yes! Asuma-ji-chan told me that you could knock down a tree with your abilities! Please, Senpai, teach me!" he begged.

"Well… I guess I can teach you a few things," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head. The blush still hadn't faded. Damn kid, why did he have to know my weakness there? Asuma, you suck!

-D&D-

Before they continued on, Naruto quickly created a Kage Bunshin to go and do his clothes shopping for him. He wished they had the durability of his Kaminari Bunshin, but at least these things had a mind of their own and could go anywhere. He wanted to practice his fūinjutsu, and he had some ideas, but Sandaime-sama had firmly put his foot down. He was not allowing Naruto to put seals on his body, despite his arguments as to why it'd be helpful.

"Alright, the first thing you need to know about ninjutsu, my little kōhai, is how your chakra works," Naruto explained.

"I know how chakra works, Naruto-senpai," the boy said, shaking his head. Naruto stopped short.

"Oh— well, then, which of the Academy Three can you do?" Naruto asked. The boy quickly put up the Hitsuji hand seal.

"Henge no Jutsu!" the boy called, before turning into a fat, deformed Naruto. Naruto sighed and shook his head at the sight, before waving for him to change back.

"Okay, you have work to do. You can't use proper ninjutsu until you work out the tricks with those. Try it again, really focus this time," Naruto said. The boy grunted and tried again, this time making Naruto not quite so fat. The third time, he got the right body proportions, but not the face. "Focus on my face, and work on copying every feature from it!" Naruto said. The boy nodded and continued to transform again and again until he turned into a perfect Naruto. Once he achieved it, the boy let out a loud cheer in celebration. Naruto bought them both sodas and took him into a small forest park to relax.

"Say, kōhai, you never told me your name— and it feels weird to just call you that," Naruto said. The boy frowned.

"No one cares about my name. But, since you asked, my name is Sarutobi Konohamaru. I was named after the village by Ojii-sama, so everyone should remember it," the boy explained, "but no one call me by my name. It's always 'Omago-sama,' because that's all they see me as— the grandson of the Sandaime Hokage. That's why I wanna beat him. I wanna be seen as me, not as part of Ojii-sama!"

He's kinda like me, Naruto thought, looking up at the treeline, almost everyone only sees me as an extension of my damned tenant, not as Uzumaki Naruto. "It's not just that, either," Konohamaru continued, "I want to prove myself to the rest of the Sarutobi Clan. Ojii-sama has been head of the Sarutobi for as long as my father has been alive— I'm supposed to be the heir, but most of the elders want Asuma-ji-chan or Otō-sama to take over after Ojii-sama retires.

"I want the elders to acknowledge me as the heir— it'll let me talk to the other clan heirs easier, since I was born three years too late to be in school with them," Konohamaru continued, "with the heirs behind me, I can become Hokage easier."

"What do the clan heirs have to do with anything? Most of them are boring— or annoying, in the case of Inuzuka-san and Yamanaka-san," Naruto said.

"They'll be clan heads one day," Konohamaru said, clasping his fingers, "and that means they'll be a bloc of the Conclave that will decide who the Hokage will be, one day. And they'll have direct control over the village's kekkei genkai and many of the most experienced shinobi. And the most powerful hijutsu in the village, of course."

That made sense to Naruto, at least. Gaining the approval of the different clans seemed pretty important, and a necessary step to becoming Hokage. Why does it have to be so hard to achieve, I wonder? How could Sakura be interested in all that?

"Well," Naruto said, standing up, "get up then, Konohamaru-kōhai." Naruto gave the boy a wide smile. "We still have work to do. If you think you can do it, anyway."

Konohamaru hopped to his feet and nodded. "What should I do now, Senpai?" Naruto placed him hand on his chin, thinking about what needed to be done now.

"Use Kawarimi no Jutsu to switch with that log over there," Naruto said, pointing into the distance. Konohamaru nodded, flipping through the hand seals, and vanishing in a puff of smoke. He didn't make it all the way to the log, but made it a fair distance. "Not bad, Kōhai! You certainly have a decent foundation, if not the experience necessary to build on it," Naruto said, "now, I believe next we should-"

"Next, you should leave Omago-sama alone and go back to your den," a voice called. Naruto turned his head up and saw the bandana and sunglasses clad man from earlier standing on a branch above them, glaring down at him. Naruto could feel the hate radiating off of him. This guy, too?! I thought most shinobi couldn't care less about my tenant!

"Ha. Ha. Ha. You're very funny, Kuromegane-chan!" Naruto called. "Problem is, you're interrupting training time with my little kōhai. So why don't you just head on home? Konohamaru-kun will be just fine here."

"Omago-sama!" the man called, completely ignoring Naruto, "we should go now. Stop hanging around with this bad influence."

"I'm not going anywhere!" Konohamaru called, "Naruto-senpai said he'd teach me how to defeat Hokage-ojii-sama, and I wanna learn from him, kore!"

"Yet, a Hokage must be many things— a Hokage must have grace, discipline, skill, and tact," the man said, "they must also be a master of at least three elements, know many jutsu, and previously be a Jōnin of the village. And to master that quickly, you need guidance, Omago-sama. I can provide that guidance."

"Leave me alone! Naruto-senpai has taught me plenty more than you, Ebisu-sensei, and I only met him today, kore!" Konohamaru yelled, putting his hands in the Hitsuji seal. "Henge no Jutsu!" a puff of smoke later, and Konohamaru was replaced by an attractive girl in a bikini. Naruto simply put his head in his hands. I knew teaching him the Henge no Jutsu first was a terrible idea. Should have gone with Kawarimi, that can't be abused like that.

"What kind of disgraceful jutsu is that?!" Ebisu yelled, "I am a gentleman, there is no way that kind of thing would work on me!" he stormed up to the now returned to normal Konohamaru. He grabbed the boy by his scarf and tried to drag him out of the clearing; Konohamaru, meanwhile, tried to run in the other direction.

Naruto shook his head and flipped through a few hand seals. "Kaminari Bunshin no Jutsu," he muttered, causing four more of himself to appear around him. Ebisu let go of Konohamaru and walked forward, towards Naruto.

"You think you stand a chance against me?" Ebisu said, "you got beaten by the pathetic Hana Mizuki— what makes you think you defeat a Tokujō like me?" Naruto shook his head, and simply took off his shirt, dispelling the Henge he put on it, revealing the jagged scarring on his stomach. "Why would you take off your shirt— ahhh!" Ebisu began, but then began screaming as he was neatly gift wrapped in golden chains, complete with a small chain bow on top of his head.

His Kage Bunshin that he'd sent clothes shopping earlier just happened to walk onto the field then; and in his infinite wisdom, he walked up behind Ebisu. Said Bunshin then proceeded to give the man the most brutal wedgie Naruto had ever seen. After a loud scream by Ebisu, the other Naruto then walked up to the real one and handed him a storage scroll. He then dispelled himself with a smile.

"Um. Well, that happened," Naruto said, blushing the antics of his Kage Bunshin. He released the chains to let the unconscious Ebisu collapse to the ground. Konohamaru, meanwhile, was rolling on the ground laughing. Naruto simply shook his head. Creating three more Kage Bunshin, he had two of them take Ebisu to the clinic, and one of them to run and grab one of the ANBU to explain the situation.

-D&D-

"Alright! Great job, Konohamaru-kun! You've gotten to pretty much on track with the year above you, dattebayo!" Naruto cheered. Konohamaru was kneeling on the ground, panting. Naruto had drilled him relentlessly on the Academy Three, and promised to teach him more advanced skills next time they met up.

"Remember, kōhai! You need hard work and determination to get anything done. Just getting lucky won't always help you," Naruto explained, "I have my chains, but I needed to train hard to use them. I still rip up my clothes when I use them, sometimes. You need to try. If you work towards it, you can do anything you set out to do!"

"Hai! I won't let you down, Naruto-senpai!" Konohamaru yelled, before turning around and running into the distance, with noticeable spring in his step. Naruto took a careful walk back to his own home. He would spend the next week training his own jutsu, he'd need it. There was no telling if his Jōnin-sensei would be a cruel ass who'd try to get him killed out of spite, after all.

After placing his storage scroll in the right place on his dresser, he changed into his pyjamas, folded up the futon since he was alone tonight, and went to sleep. It would be a long last week before team selection day. Naruto just hoped it wouldn't turn out as bad as he thought it might.

Notes:

Jutsu and Seal list time!

Oiroke no Jutsu - Sexy Technique

Shiki Fūjin - Dead Demon Consuming Seal

Shishō Fūin - Four Symbols Seal

Hakke no Fūin Shiki - Eight Trigrams Sealing Style

Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu - Multiple Shadow Clone Technique

Fūton: Kazekiri no Jutsu - Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique

Fūton: Kamikaze no Ken* - Wind Release: Blades of Divine Wind

Fūton: Daitoppa - Wind Release: Great Breakthrough

Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu - Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique

Henge no Jutsu - Transformation Technique

Kawarimi no Jutsu - Substitution Technique

Kaminari Bunshin no Jutsu* - Lightning Clone Technique

*Original Jutsu created by me

Other Japanese:

kanchi-nin - Sensor Ninja; Shinobi with chakra sensory abilities.

Thank you all for reading this chapter! Remember to Subscribe, Leave Kudos, and please Comment!

Chapter 6: Training and Missions

The alarm clock rang out across the small bedroom loudly, disrupting the peaceful sleep of eleven-year-old Uzumaki Naruto. Smacking the off button lightly, the boy sat up and stretched. This was it! The day that he would finally be assigned to a Genin team! Smiling, Naruto threw off his sleeping cap and dashed over to his washroom to get ready for the day.

Once he was finally all ready, ignoring the soreness from the previous day's training, he finally unsealed the storage scroll with his new clothes. His sandals would be unchanged, but the rest of his outfit would get a small makeover. He was a shinobi now, not an academy student. Cream-colored pants, a dark blue shirt, and an orange zip-up hoodie with the Uzumaki Clan crest on the back and the left shoulder. Those fools wanted me to give up my orange. Screw that. If Sakura-chan can be a shinobi with her bubblegum pink hair, then I can be a shinobi with an orange jacket! Naruto carefully put on his hitai-ate in the style of a headband, to keep his hair from falling in his face.

Once he was satisfied with his appearance, he sprinted to the door and down the stairs of his building, before running out into the road and heading off on his normal route to the Academy. As he skipped passed the gate out of the Uzu District, a familiar voice called out to him.

"Oi! Naruto-kun! Wait up!" Sakura called, as she ran up next to him. Naruto smiled lightly.

"Sorry, forgot to wait for you, Sakura-chan. I'm just too excited to get assigned to teams, today!" Naruto said. He turned to Sakura, who was giving him a curious expression. "What?"

"And? Who'd ya think is gonna be on which teams?!" Sakura said, eyes glistening in excitement.

"Well, I'm really not supposed to say anything, but Ami, Kasumi, and Fuki are all getting put on a team under Neko-chan, since she just took a leave of absence from ANBU," Naruto whispered, barely stifling a giggle.

"Oh man, she'll destroy them, or scare them out of the shinobi program entirely!" Sakura laughed, "and not a single one is gonna be with Uchiha-san. So they're probably gonna throw either me or Hinata-chan on his team. Eat your heart out, Ino-buta!" Naruto shook his head.

"You know, considering we've sat next to him for three years, I have to wonder why you still refuse to just call him 'Sasuke-san'," Naruto said.

"I'll call him by his given name when he stops calling me 'bubblegum'! It's almost as annoying as being called 'Forehead Girl!'" Sakura said, waving her arms in the air in frustration. "And why do you care? You never really cared about Uchiha-san before."

Naruto shook his head. "Some shinobi about to go nuke-nin decided to try and take me out before he left. If Sasuke-san hadn't found me… I wouldn't be here right now." Sakura stopped in her tracks, noticeably paler than before.

"So, that's why you disappeared for the past week? In the hospital or something?" Sakura asked.

"Kind of. I did some solo training yesterday— I also learned a new jutsu!" Naruto said, crossing his fingers and making two Kage Bunshin. The two Kage Bunshin proceeded to fist bump before dispelling. Sakura just stared at it in awe.

"You got Kage Bunshin?! That's A-rank ninjutsu!" Sakura said, with a huge smile.

"Well, actually, that's Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, it's a kinjutsu that Hokage-jiji gave me express permission to use in combat," Naruto explained.

"It's still the same technique, but the kinjutsu version I've heard that even Sandaime-sama can't do without jeopardizing his life! How much chakra do you have?!" Sakura was still talking really loudly, but Naruto didn't feel like correcting her. He didn't want to get thrown through a wall again— okay, that only happened once but she still scared him. The two continued chatting amicably until they finally got to their classroom. The two filed in and took their usual seats next to Sasuke, whose face had a noticeable look of relief as the fangirls started to pile in after them.

"Oi! Uzumaki-kun, I know you want to be with your friend, but this room is only for those that have graduated," one of the teaching assistants called. Naruto clenched his fists and jabbed a thumb at his hitai-ate.

"Sorry, but Hokage-sama gave me a field promotion for stopping a nuke-nin from stealing the Scroll of Seals," Naruto said, "I was told to report here for team selections as if I was a Probationary Genin like the rest of my class; can't blame y'all for not knowing that. Since you weren't there, dattebayo!" Naruto pointed to his left. "Well, except for Sasuke-san, of course, he kept the battlefield lit up for me." The fangirls all squeed at the thought of Sasuke fighting off some badass nuke-nin.

"More like I roasted him for ANBU after you got wrapped up in wire strings but tell yourself whatever you want to feel better about that. Congrats on the promotion, though, Naruto, now maybe I'll have someone competent to spar with," Sasuke said, breaking his silence earlier than usual.

"Just remember our deal, Sasuke-san," Naruto said.

"Yes, yes, I'll make sure to bring you with me so you can get your answers, Naruto. Hokage-sama should allow that much at least," Sasuke said, rolling his eyes. Umino-sensei chose that opportunity to walk into the classroom.

"Alright, alright, that's enough of that. Everyone, sit down!" Umino yelled. "As of today, you're no longer students of the Academy. You are all now Probationary Genin of Konohagakure no Sato. There are much higher expectations placed on you.

"I would also like to apologize for what happened on Graduation Day. My failing to look into something that made someone who should have graduated easily unable to graduate with everyone else.

Hearing a creak, Naruto spun around to see Hinata stand up in the back of the room, "Thank you for apologizing Umino-sensei. But if you make Sakura-chan or Naruto-kun cry again, the Naka river will run red with your blood. Be good, now!"

Umino shuddered. He likely was about to open his mouth, but then remembered exactly who Hinata was exactly. He simply coughed, but kept glancing back at Hinata with worry. "I will now read off the roster of each team. Team 1-"

"Hey, who do you think I'll end up with as a Jōnin-sensei?" Naruto asked Sakura, enthusiasm dripping off his voice like a waterfall.

"Well, it has to be an ex-ANBU, more than likely. No one else would be willing to take up the responsibility of training the village pariah," Sakura said, pretending to inspect her nails.

"Team 5: Ami, Kasumi, and Fuki. You'll be under Mitarashi Anko," Umino said. Naruto shook his head and laughed at how doomed those girls were.

"Shut up, Grape Tomato!" Ami yelled at Naruto, face beat red. Naruto simply ignored her.

"Team 7: Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke. You'll be under… Hatake Kakashi," Umino continued, his face falling as he read the name. Naruto's face fell straight into the desk. They made Nii-san my sensei? Really? Well, at least he can train Sasuke-san with his sharingan.

"Team 8: Hyūga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino. You'll be under Yūhi Kurenai. Team 9 is still in rotation from last year. Team 10: Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Chōji. You'll be under Sarutobi Asuma."

"Oh come on! Why do Forehead Girl and Uzumaki get to be on Sasuke-kun's team while I'm stuck with Lazy and Chubby!" Ino cried.

"Because of a personalized request from Uchiha-kun to the Council of Clans," Umino stated, "who, in turn, passed it onto Sandaime-sama. The only kunoichi from his class that Uchiha-kun was willing to accept were Haruno-kun and Hyūga-kun."

"What?! That's such bull-" Ino began, but was interrupted by a rather loud cry.

"Shannarō!" Sakura yelled, slamming her fist hard into Ino's face; the blonde never had a chance of dodging. Ino flew off the ground and into the far wall, near the door to the classroom. Naruto's glance briefly passed back to Sasuke, who was clearly trying hard not to smile. "And that's how you take out the trash, class," Sakura said with a smirk, wiping her hands with a clap.

"Quite," Umino said, a look of minor amusement on his face. "Now all of you, sit down and wait for your sensei; I will allow no further fighting."

-D&D-

One by one, each team's sensei arrived to pick them up. After half an hour, everyone, save Team Seven, was gone. Another half an hour later, Umino-sensei left. Another hour, and still nothing. Sasuke simply sat twiddling his thumbs. Naruto pulled out his fūinjutsu scrolls and began tinkering with something on one of them. Sakura tried to read a book, but just couldn't focus on it. Then Sakura stood up and punched the desk.

"Who the hell does our sensei think he is?! Naruto-kun! Prank!" she yelled.

"Type, level," Naruto said, not even looking up from his scroll.

"Extreme Annoyance, level three," Sakura replied. Naruto immediately hopped off the bench, sliding another scroll out of his jacket. He ran over to the blackboard and grabbed an eraser. Turning around, he walked behind Umino-sensei's desk while muttering something about lateness. Finally, he ran up, grabbed a stool, then stuck the eraser in the door.

"Done. You're paying at Ichiraku tonight, Sakura-chan," Naruto said. Sakura just gave him a thumbs up in response as he walked back to his seat— likely to continue fiddling with whatever he was drawing.

"You're kidding me, right?" Sasuke said. "There's no way that a Jōnin would fall for such a stupid-"

His words betrayed him as the door slid open and a mop of grey hair walked into the room. The eraser simply fell onto his head, bouncing off in an explosion of dust. Said person looked down at the eraser, then directly at Naruto, who stuck out his tongue in response.

"First impressions— why did I agree to this?" he said, shaking his head. He then pointed to the ceiling, "Roof. Five minutes." Then he flickered away. Naruto was the first to pack up his stuff. He sealed his ink and brushes into a scroll, put his scrolls into his hoodie pockets, then hopped off his bench and walked out the door. Sakura stood up and followed, and from the sound of the footsteps, Sasuke was right behind her.

Two minutes later, the three sat on the roof— Sasuke in the middle, Naruto on the right, Sakura on the left. Their prospective sensei knelt on the parapet, focusing in on them. "Right," he said, closing his single eye, "introduce yourselves. Aka-bō, you first."

Naruto rolled his eyes at the nickname, "Why don't you go first, and give us an example, Nii-san?" The grey-haired man flinched at the name.

"Fine, fine. My name is Hatake Kakashi. My likes and dislikes— I don't feel like telling you. My dreams for the future? I've never really thought about it. As for hobbies, I have lots of them, none of them appropriate for your age," he said.

"Translation," Naruto interrupted, "'I like Icha-Icha and talking to my team's graves. I dislike those that betray their teammates and those that threaten my books. My dream is to eventually try out all the stuff in at least one of the Icha-Icha books. My hobbies include reading Icha-Icha and talking about my life to my friends' graves.'"

Kakashi simply glared at the boy. "You done yet?"

"Yes," Naruto said, crossing his arms, as a satisfied smirk crossed his face.

"Good, then you can go next."

Naruto shrugged, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen, fūinjutsu, training, and Sakura-chan. I dislike the people who think a bowl that has ramen in it, is ramen," Naruto drew the kanji for 'fox' in the air at that, "my dream is to be acknowledged by the people of the village. My hobbies include training, pranking, practicing my fūinjutsu, and talking to okā-sama's grave."

Kakashi scratched his head. "Alright. Broody, you're next."

Sasuke cross his arms. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I don't like many things. I dislike a lot of things, especially my fan club," he spat on the ground in front of him. "My only real 'hobby' is training. I don't have a dream— it's an ambition. I'll revive my clan, and introduce a certain man's heart to the pointed end of a sword—"

"Remember, Sasuke—" Naruto said.

"-but not until Naruto gets some information out of him," Sasuke finished. "It won't affect my mission performance, sensei."

"Right," Kakashi said, scratching his head harder than before. Sakura sighed internally. Naruto had probably put itching powder in that eraser. "Bubblegum!" Kakashi called, "you're next."

Sakura clenched her fisted against her shorts tightly. "I'm Haruno Sakura. I like Naruto-kun, reading, fūinjutsu, and studying genjutsu. I dislike being called 'bubblegum' and people who mistreat Naruto-kun. My dream is to meet Senju Tsunade one day, and become Hokage. My hobbies are training, reading, and planning pranks with Naruto-kun."

Kakashi continued scratching his head. "Good, so we all know enough about each other. Well, then I should let you know that tomorrow we're doing survival training."

"What kind?" Sakura asked, "we already did tons of it at the Academy."

"No, no, you misunderstand. You'll be surviving against me," Kakashi said, pointing to himself. "An ex-ANBU captain and A-rank Jōnin with a flee on sight order in 2 of the Elemental Nations."

"You're S-rank in Iwagakure now, actually," Sasuke said, twiddling his thumbs. Kakashi glanced at him.

"Oh, really? Well, then I guess I'll need to take some missions up there and get a flee on sight order for Tsuchi no Kuni, too," Kakashi muttered, "and just to let you know, you're not super likely to become finalized. You're all only Probationary Genin. Of the twenty-seven graduates each year, only nine become full Genin, on average."

"Well, on their first try, anyway," Naruto said, "the rest all end up in the Genin Corps. Good luck ever getting out of that. Or they drop out, but you get in a lot of trouble for that, and you get fined. Also, I'm already a full Genin, since I got a field promotion."

"Yeah, just go and ruin the fun, Naruto-kun," Kakashi muttered, "be at Training Ground Three at Seven o'clock sharp tomorrow morning. Also, don't eat breakfast— you'll likely puke it all up again." He then decided to shunshin away, leaving the three on the roof.

"Naruto," Sasuke said, "with you yelling out how you got field promoted constantly, you know you're likely to be in the bingo books by the end of the week, right?"

"I would've gotten in there sooner or later, anyway— I'm an Uzumaki and… well, you'll find out when we pass," Naruto said, before running and jumping off the building, running down the side of it and into the road. Sakura shook her head— Naruto-kun would never learn to act normal.

"Since he's gone now," Sasuke said, "would you mind telling me what exactly he's been working on? All I can see on his scroll is a manji with a bunch of lines around it."

"I would mind, actually," Sakura said, walking over to the stairs, "see you tomorrow, Uchiha-san!"

-D&D-

Naruto completely ignored the suggestion to not eat breakfast, and even brought dumplings for the others if they decided to not ignore it. He'd spent the previous night combing over Training Ground 3 for any extra areas he may have missed in his usual trips there— and setting up sealed traps. There was no way he was not eating breakfast.

Upon arriving at the training ground, Naruto walked out into the middle of the field and bit his thumb to draw some blood. Flipping through the hand seals, he slammed it down to the ground, "Ninpō: Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" A puff of smoke went up from the ground, and a small orange toad appeared from it.

"Yo, Naruto-san!" the toad called, "What's up?"

"Hey, Gamakichi," Naruto replied, "I was just practicing my summoning. I figured that once I learned a basic Raiton jutsu, I could have one of you guys shoot some water at an opponent. Could make it a bit more… shocking." Gamakichi palmed his face at the bad pun.

"I really hope you have a minor Suiton affinity at least, it's really helpful," Gamakichi said, "though, my time is about up. Good luck, Naruto. And have candy next time!" the small orange toad then disappeared once again in a puff of smoke. Sighing, Naruto laid down on his stomach, under the shade of one of the trees, and pulled out the scroll with first ever seal commission.

As a registered Seal Master, he was allowed to take these requests as if they were missions, but receiving one so quickly after becoming a Genin— Sandaime-jiji had to have given it directly, there was no other way it could have happened so soon. And what it was… it was unreal. Naruto had no clue what it was, only that it was a powerful juinjutsu resembling an old Uzumaki seal that he'd seen.

Juinjutsu was Naruto's weakest area. He still understood it quite well, but it had many more delicate parts than standard seals that he'd messed with in the past. The seal was so intricate that even after a week, he hadn't been able to decode any of it. Which was, of course, a problem. He needed to find out which parts of the seal represented what— it was even worse that it was a compressed seal, and not the full thing.

Unfortunately, the commission had very little information on the workings of the juinjutsu. Hence, why he sat here, scanning over the scroll with the full seal inscribed on it. On the surface, it wasn't complicated— a counterclockwise manji with two lines on either side of it. But hidden within the manji were many small components, and the lines also seemed to hide their own foci. After studying it for nearly an hour, during which time he heard his prospective teammates arrive, he found a small receptacle component hidden in the trailing arm of the 'heaven' piece of the manji. It was obvious that it was supposed to react to something, but he couldn't tell precisely what.

It was exactly what he'd been looking for! This piece followed thin connectors up the arm of the manji into a small point at the junction of the 'heaven' and 'light' arms. Cleverly hidden there, was a small focus. He'd need his other tools if he wanted to take a closer look at that one in specific, as it was too small to focus on right now; but it was progress!

"So, that's what you're working on," Sasuke said, looking down at the scroll. "I wouldn't bother, personally. No one's ever been able to decode that. Unless you plan on breaking into the Hyūga Clan vaults to find the full version— good luck with that."

"I don't even know what it's used for," Naruto replied, glancing up at him.

"It would be more helpful," Sakura said, crouching down next to him, "if we knew where it went on a person's body— that way, you could figure out what each function does once you do find something,"

"It goes on the face— the centre of the manji is lined up the middle of the forehead," Sasuke said, "if that helps." Naruto smiled at that bit of info. But, as he finished scratching down his notes on his other scroll, Kakashi walked onto the field.

"Sensei!" Sakura yelled, pointing at him, "you're three hours late!"

"Sorry," Kakashi said, scratching his head, "a black cat crossed my path, so I had to take the long way around."

"Translation: 'I've been sitting in the trees for the past four hours to see if you'd notice me. None of you did'," Naruto said, while resealing his brushes and ink.

"Well, Naruto, that's not entirely true. About half an hour ago I left a Kage Bunshin here while I went and got some stuff," Kakashi said, pulling out two bento boxes. "The rules here are simple," he continued, taking out a pair of bells and tying them to his side, "you take a bell from me, you pass. If you don't have a bell by noon, you fail. Whoever fails gets tied to the stump, and gets to watch the others eat lunch."

"And don't attack bystanders," Naruto said with a shake of his head, "that won't end well for you." Both his teammates looked at him with confusion. They certainly hadn't heard about this story.

Kakashi cleared up that confusion, "last year, Naruto was here at this training ground, and I happened to be testing a Genin team at that time as well..."

-D&D-

*One year earlier*

"-and then, I released the seal and poured orange chocolate on his head. Then I released the next one and it blew feathers into him, while also drying the chocolate, making it that much harder to get off!" Naruto said to the monument, "I really wish I could show you these pranks in person, okā-sama. I hope you can see them from the Pure Land."

Naruto stood up and walked a little way into the field. "Get out of my way, brat!" a loud voice called. Naruto turned but too late, as another kid came barrelling into him. The kid was back on his feet before Naruto had properly gotten his bearings. Picking Naruto up by the collar, he slammed the young boy into the nearest tree.

"And what the hell is the Grape Tomato doing at a training ground?! Academy students aren't allowed in here without a Jōnin or Chūnin escort," the other boy said, a smirk adorning his face. Naruto gulped loudly. His ANBU weren't here right now, Nii-san was supposed to be all he needed right now— he didn't like them watching his conversations with the memorial stone. Two more boys came out of the woods and settled in behind him.

"Who's this?" the one on the left said.

"Intruder on the test. He's not allowed to be here, so I'm gonna teach him a lesson in following rules," the main one said. His smirk got wider as he withdrew a kunai from his inrō.

"Satoshi-san, I think that's a bad idea," the one on the right said, "we should find Hatake-sensei and ask for a time-out for him to deal with this. We're only Genin, I doubt that-"

"Oh shut up," the main one, Satoshi, said, "you've always been weak-willed, Haru. Kaede knows when it's time to shush at least." He placed the kunai against Naruto's jacket. Then a loud crash rang out and dust went up all around them.

When the dust cleared, Kakashi was standing there, his single eye ablaze with fury. "Naruto-kun, are you okay?" he asked slowly. Naruto nodded rapidly. His eye lightened for a second, before returning in full force as he looked at the three trying to stand up. "All three of you fail," Kakashi said, "and I want you all to stand here and listen to me for a minute.

"Punishing rule breakers is a job of the ANBU, or failing that, a Jōnin or Chūnin. Haru-kun recognized that, but didn't do enough to assert that. Kaede-kun said nothing in the process. And Satoshi… you disappoint me. You had great marks in your class, close to beating out Hyūga Neji for rookie of the year— but to do something like this, it's horrible.

"Haru-kun, Kaede-kun, you two will be returning to the Academy," Kakashi said firmly, leaving no room for argument. "Satoshi… turn over your hitai-ate. You're not going back to the Academy— you're not worthy of the title of 'shinobi.' Congratulations on being the first Probationary Genin dishonourably discharged from the Shinobi Armed Forces since Nidaime-sama was still alive. Now get out of my sight, all of you."

-D&D-

*Present Day*

"And then, they left. Kaede-kun and Haru-kun conscious— Satoshi unconscious," Kakashi said. Naruto stood up and stretched. "Alright, story time is over— you won't succeed unless you come at me like you intend to kill me."

"Wait," Sakura said, "if you only have two bells, then—"

"Indeed," Kakashi replied, "one of you will be returning to the Academy."

"That- That's..." Sakura stuttered.

"Well, clock's ticking. You may begin," Kakashi said. Sakura and Sasuke ran in opposite directions into the woods, leaving Naruto in the middle— albeit, for different reasons. Sasuke likely ran to buy time to plan. Sakura, on the other hand, saw one of Naruto's storage scrolls and decided it might be best for her to not be in the clearing.

Naruto stood with his hands in his pockets. "Oi, Nii-san, do we really have to do this whole song and dance? I already know how this works!"

"Sorry— I still need you to pass if you want to be on a team with me," Kakashi said, "now, will you engage me or not?"

Naruto nodded and placed his hands in the Hitsuji seal. "Kai!" he yelled. Immediately, four trees lit up with storage seals. Two of them fired kunai, one fired shuriken, and one shot wire string. Kakashi's visible eye widened as he jumped in the air to dodge it. Exactly as planned. Naruto looked dead at Kakashi and grinned wildly, before golden chains shot from his jacket and straight at Kakashi.

Kakashi looked panicked for a second, before vanishing in a puff of smoke. Naruto's chains wrapped around a log. Damn. Forgot about Kawarimi. Of course he knows it. Sensing the man coming up behind him, Naruto directed more chains to shoot out of his back— and the man dispelled. Crap, Kage Bunshin. He's not going as easy on me as he is the others. Once again, he sensed Kakashi— this time from below him. The boy jumped into the air, retracting all his chains. As he went into the air, a pair of hands shot from the ground, just missing his feet.

Flipping through his hand seals, he saw a chance. "Fūton: Daitoppa!" he called, taking a deep breath and blowing, sending out gale force winds straight into the ground. Out of the woods, Sasuke shot forward, his hands flying through his own hand signs.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" the boy called, sending a large stream of fire into the harsh wind, expanding the fire rapidly. With the ripping apart of the earth by the wind, and the fire expanding rapidly, Naruto was sure they did at least something against Kakashi.

After the fire finally died down, Naruto and Sasuke walked to the crater, with Sakura following moments later. Sasuke was the one the leaned forward to look into the crater, trying to see if he'd cooked another Konoha shinobi. A rush of footsteps proved to be his downfall.

"Pay attention, Uchiha-kun!" Kakashi yelled, running up with his hands in the tiger seal. "Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Ōgi!" he called. Kakashi was on the Sharingan-activated boy before he could dodge, before lodging his fingers firmly in the unsuspecting boy's anus. "Sennen Goroshi!" the man called, sending Sasuke flying with a small burst of chakra. Both Naruto and Sakura blushed at that move, before Naruto made a half Hitsuji seal with his left hand.

"Thanks for standing still, Nii-chan! Kai!" he called, before an array activated at Kakashi's feet.

"Crap..." Kakashi said, before Naruto wrapped more chains around him. Kakashi looked at the boy, panicked, as a wave of electricity shot up into the Jōnin. After a solid 10 seconds of shock, Sakura walked up to him and stuck a chakra-suppressing seal onto his forehead. She then swiped the bells from his belt.

"We win. And we're not letting Sasuke lose, either— he agreed to take one for the team on that one," Sakura said. Kakashi, scorched as he was, looked up at them.

"When did you make the plan?" he coughed.

Naruto grinned, "I may have had a Kage Bunshin stay over at Sakura-chan's place, then come with her to the training ground and hide in the woods. They all made the plan together."

Kakashi closed his eye, but they thought they could see a grin under his mask. "Good, good, you all pass— you used teamwork successfully to defeat an opponent beyond any of you," he said. "Although," he dispelled the illusion, and suddenly was standing there with only a slightly scorched jacket, "always make sure to check the body."

"Of course, why wouldn't we?" Sasuke, who had just made it back, said.

"Just making sure," Kakashi said, walking over to the monument. "I know Naruto knows, but do you two know what this is?"

"Isn't that the Konoha Memorial Monument? Remembering those that have died in service to the village," Sakura asked.

"Indeed, Sakura-kun. My job is to make sure you little Genin don't end up on it," Kakashi said, staring at the stone. "My father is on there, both my teammates are on there, my sensei is on there, and Naruto's parents are both on there— all having died for the village in one way or another," he looked at them, "you acted here as a team— remember, those who break rules are trash, but those who betray their comrades are worse than trash.

"You worked as a team, so I let you get the bells and pass. You didn't need the final portion— being tied to a log is supposed to be the last resort. Though I've only had one team make it that far— they failed that part," Kakashi said, looking up at the sky. "You won't always like being a shinobi— hell, you'll likely hate it sometimes. It's my job to make sure that you survive to do so. And starting tomorrow, we will train for it. Be here at five am sharp tomorrow— and I'll know if you show up late."

Naruto laughed at the antics that Nii-san had gotten up to. While Sasuke clenched his hands. "I hope he is useful in teaching us," Sasuke said, "my goddamn sharingan was on when he used that so called 'Taijutsu' on me. So I will remember that. In perfect detail. For the rest of my life."

-D&D-

Kakashi stood in the Hokage office with all nine of the sensei that were selected this year, from one to eleven, skipping four and nine. His Jōnin colleagues each stepped forward, one by one, to give the status of their teams.

"Team One, fail. They're not awful, but they aren't exactly future Chūnin or Jōnin material."

"Team Two, fail. They got into a throwdown over something really petty, almost hurt the girl. She'll be headed back to the Academy, those two I recommend being dropped."

"Team Three, fail. No innovation whatsoever— completely Academy by-the-book stuff."

"Team Five," Anko said, making everyone look in anticipation, "Epic. Fail. All three of them suck. They're all fangirls of Uchiha-kun, and seemed to think being kunoichi would be glamorous, romantic, and wonderful. They refused to do my task, and I recommend dropping them."

"Team 6, fail. Nothing terrible about them, but they really could use the remedial training."

Kakashi finally looked up from his copy of Icha-Icha Violence. "Team 7, pass." He then flipped to the next page, ignoring the looks of disbelief from all the other Jōnin in the room. Several of them even crossed their fingers in an attempt to dispel a genjutsu, pinching themselves when that failed.

"Okay, Kakashi-san passed a team. That's… different. Anyway, Team 8 passes with flying colours. They did exactly what they needed to do."

"Team 10, pass. They need some work, but that's what I'm here for."

"Team 11, fail. They just went home when they got bored. I recommend they be dropped."

"Nine graduates," Sarutobi said, "again. People are gonna start thinking the system is rigged."

"Maybe we should restructure the Academy?" Anko asked.

"I'll think about it," the Hokage said. No he won't. We're still using the stuff from the Third War, and while we changed the Jōnin standards for passing, we didn't fix the Academy in the process. Probably too much paperwork to do it. No wonder the Jōnin exams are so empty.

-D&D-

"Welcome, Team Seven!" Kakashi called to them. His Genin all glared at him.

"You're late!" they chorused. Ah, good times. Kakashi crossed his fingers into a Bunshin sign and made two Kage Bunshin.

"Since we're all a team now, we'll be using our given names. Or, at least I will be," Kakashi said, "Sakura-kun, follow the Kage Bunshin on my right. Sasuke-kun, follow the Kage Bunshin on my left. They'll assess your skills. I'm going to assess Naruto-kun's skills, personally." The two others followed his instructions, while Naruto stood there.

"So, Naruto-kun," Kakashi said, "please show off all of the ninjutsu that you can do." Naruto nodded and started with Kaminari Bunshin no Jutsu, before doing Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, Henge no Jutsu, Oiroke no Jutsu, Kawarimi no Jutsu, Fūton: Reppūshō, Fūton: Daitoppa, Fūton: Kazekiri no Jutsu, and Ninpō: Kuchiyose no Jutsu. He used some others as well, but those were the ones he focused on hardest.

"Alright. You have a solid basis of jutsu— especially with your summoning contract. Now, I have an assumption as to your chakra nature— but just in case," Kakashi pulled out a piece of paper, "we'll be testing that. You channel chakra to your hand. If you have Lightning, it'll crinkle. Wind, it'll slice in half. Fire, it'll burn. Water, it'll get soggy. Earth, it'll crumble to dust."

Naruto took a piece of paper with a smile, focusing the chakra into it. After a moment, the paper crinkled, then cut in half.

"Well, now," Kakashi said, eye wide, "that's something. Two primary affinities without an elemental kekkei genkai. That hasn't happened in a long time."

"So, both Wind and Lightning are my primary affinities?"

"Yep. Now, focus both those away from it— if there is anything else, channel that." Naruto did so, and the paper became wet and soggy.

"Oh my. It seems all of you have that similarity," Kakashi said, as the other two came running back over.

"Nii-san, what do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto, you have a primary affinity for both Wind and Lightning. Sasuke, you have Lightning and Fire. Sakura, you have Earth and Water," Kakashi said, "Only Naruto has a secondary affinity, that being Water," he shook his head, "this is huge. While none of you were born with kekkei genkai, you could all potentially make your own."

"Make our own kekkei genkai?" Sasuke said, look down at the ground in contemplation. The potential of that was enormous. All the clans with elemental kekkei genkai were created by one individual lucky enough to have two affinities and merge them into one, before passing that onto their children.

"Something I want to test… Sakura-kun," the girl looked up at Kakashi. "Focus Water in one hand, Earth in the other, place them in the Mi seal, and pulse some physical energy through it, if you can," Kakashi said. Sakura did as he said, visibly straining, as sweat poured down her face. Eventually, she fell back with the seal released, and Naruto ran to catch her. He grabbed her and lowered her to the ground, a look of exhaustion on her face as he did so.

Kakashi simply placed a hand on her shoulder, "We'll work on your Suiton primarily, Sakura-kun. Sasuke-kun, we'll work on your Raiton for the most part. Naruto-kun, your Fūton is progressing well, but we'll also make sure your Raiton is developed, and not neglect your secondary affinity. You'll probably need to work harder than the other two with that."

"Hai, Nii-san!" Naruto said, in a textbook perfect salute.

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei!" the others followed right after.

All morning, it was either practicing their elements, or taijutsu sparring. After lunch, Team 7 went to the Hokage for their first D-rank mission. It was simple— paint a house. They finished it within twenty minutes from Naruto testing how far he could take Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. He created nearly 500 clones, all of which had Naruto's paint brushes and paint. And apparently, he still didn't take it as far as he could have.

So, Team 7 returned to the mission desk, successful in the mission, and were immediately given another one— babysitting this time, so they couldn't get out of it by letting Naruto spam clones. For the rest of the day, they would do minor D-ranks for a few hours each.

-D&D-

Whoever said that it would be hard to infiltrate the vaults of the vaunted Hyūga Clan was severely underestimating the tenacity of the guards. Getting into the Clan Compound was hard enough. Then, one had to sneak past over one hundred guards that could see in all directions— and through walls. Of course, getting into the vault, a person would have to go face to face with them.

Of course, once they were lying at the ground in front of the black cloaked figure, it didn't matter. That seal will be of far more use in my hands than in the hands of the Hyūga Elders. The figure walked through the doors, and down the stairs, careful to avoid bumping anything— it was damn hard to see with both the cloak and obscuring mask.

The vaults themselves were a large collection of rooms that went down many floors, collections of everything the Hyūga Clan had collected over their centuries of existence. Of course, the figure was after only one thing and one thing alone. After descending down four stories, a small and well-maintained room was the lone one of note. The figure entered, forcing open the stone container.

Inside was a large scroll and small stone. Here's what I was looking for. Quickly retrieving a decoy scroll from their cloak, they slipped both the stone and the scroll into a storage scroll, before turning and walking out. No one paid them any mind in the darkness, as the guards were busy taking care of a disturbance on the other side of the compound. After leaving a suitable distraction in the vaults to make it seem like something else had been the target, the figure simply walked right out the front door.

-D&D-

Of course it was raining. Naruto wanted nothing more than to use his off day from Shinobi stuff to go and get some food from Ichiraku, but he wasn't in the mood to go out in this weather. So, instead, he was sat at his table with the juinjutsu scroll sat in the middle, as he and two clones scanned over it to find exactly what it did. Thankfully, Sakura had come over to help out a bit— he'd probably get too distracted and forget to eat.

"So, Naruto," she said, "what exactly have you found?"

"It's fairly mundane right now," Naruto said, "from the receptacle, chakra seems to flow down to a point here," he pointed, "at the point where the arm representing 'heaven' and the arm representing 'light' connect. Looking closely, it appears to stimulate nerves -like how a child proofing seal does a small shock- only far more extreme.

"It seems to send electrical signals straight into part of the brain, but I can't tell where it could be aiming with the compressed seal. I really think it might be worth it to try sneaking into the Hyūga Compound to take a look at the full thing."

"Naruto," Sakura said, "that has got to be the worst idea you've ever had. And I'm not saying that lightly."

"It's a bad idea, yes, but I have no clue what to do from here! Even all my reference material needs the full seal— unless you think we could bribe someone from the Hyūga to let us look at their seal, and risk activating it if the slightest thing went wrong, and being unable to control the activation," Naruto said.

"That'll risk exposing us— and we could get in serious trouble from the Hyūga Clan. They could easily accuse us of stealing Clan secrets, and get permission to interrogate us away from the prying eyes of ANBU, or else ruin the standing of Sandaime-sama with the clans," Sakura replied.

"Well, then I don't see what we could-" Naruto began, only to be interrupted with a loud knocking on the door. He turned to look at his door. No one came by except Sakura… ever. If Kakashi came by, he would open the window and shunshin in. Sasuke didn't come by this way. No one else he knew would come into the Uzu District. Sighing, he stood up and walked to the door. Upon opening it, he was greeted with a black cloaked figure with a white mask under their hood. Said white mask was only marked by a small sun on the top right.

"Um," a ghastly voice sounded from the mask, "I think this would help you," the figure withdrew a storage scroll from their cloak, before unsealing an even larger scroll from it. Naruto opened it slightly… it seemed to partially match up with the juinjutsu he was studying. But, there was no way that this could be it, right? That was buried in the vaults of the Hyūga Clan.

"How did you get this?" Naruto asked. "Who are you?"

The figure stood, unmoving. "I... kinda just walked in and took it. As for who I am… I hired you."

Naruto just stared at the cloaked figure. "What the f-"

 

Notes:

Jutsu list!

Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Ōgi: Sennen Goroshi - Konohagakure Secret Taijutsu Technique: One Thousand Years of Death

Kaminari Bunshin no Jutsu* - Lightning Clone Technique

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu - Shadow Clone Technique

Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu - Multiple Shadow Clone Technique

Henge no Jutsu - Transformation Technique

Oiroke no Jutsu - Sexy Technique

Kawarimi no Jutsu - Substitution Technique

Fūton: Reppūshō - Wind Release: Gale Palm

Fūton: Daitoppa - Wind Release: Great Breakthrough

Fūton: Kazekiri no Jutsu - Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique

Ninpō: Kuchiyose no Jutsu - Ninja Art: Summoning Technique

*Original Technique invented by me.

Thanks for reading everyone, and thanks to my beta-reader Garnet Monstrosity for editing! Subscribe, leave kudos, and please, please comment!

Chapter 7: D-rank Days

After a brief exchange, the cloaked figure had hung up their cloak and placed their mask on the table. Sakura had laughed at the revelation of who they were, shaking her head.

 

"White mask, really? Come on, you couldn't have just said, 'Hey, I know I haven't talked to you guys in a while, but I could really use your help looking at a seal that bothers me,' if you wanted us to?"

 

"Well… if they were to find out, they... wouldn't be very happy with me," their guest said.

 

"Oh come on, you know we'd help you," Naruto said, "you can always come to us, Hinata-san!"

 

Said girl blushed lightly under Naruto's smile. "Thanks. I just want that seal to be gone. It's a cursed relic. It does nothing but hurt our family now."

 

"No problems, Hinata-san! With the sealing formula here, we can decode it!" Sakura said, "Speaking of which, what's the deal with it, Naruto-kun?"

 

Naruto looked up from where he was studying the seal carefully. "I was right, Sakura-chan. It is indeed a function that stimulates nerves, but directly on the brain. It aims for the part right before the part that does vision and stimulates it with the chakra."

 

"That's the part that processes pain," Sakura said, sadness evident in her voice, "it seems that it's some kind of torture piece, or maybe a way of enforcing obedience in slaves?"

 

"It was originally a remote execution seal for Hyūga warriors," Hinata said, "they would have them on the battlefield, and if they were captured, they could be executed from a distance, preventing information or the Byakugan from falling into enemy hands. But now all it does is enforce a corrupt hierarchy. I don't want it to continue. If you can fix it, I-I can f-finally shed part of my Clan's shame.

 

"By making a certain hand seal, it activates the juinjutsu and causes immense pain, and eventually death in any person that wears it. Upon death, the juinjutsu seals away the Byakugan, preventing it from being stolen. No one deserves to wear such a seal. I want it modified, the only part that should be kept is the part that seals away the Byakugan upon death."

 

"Well, this part interacts with the dōjutsu," Naruto said, point to a specific point, before launching into a long rant on how sloppy certain parts of the seal were, with only Sakura attempting to follow it and she got lost rather quickly in all the technobabble.

 

"Say, Hinata-san," Sakura asked, "if you're interested in this, why didn't you learn fūinjutsu?"

 

"Hyūga outside of the Elder Council and heads of the Main Family are forbidden to learn it on pain of death," Hinata said, "I'm not the official heiress, and I won't take that position unless that seal is changed. I won't subject my sister to that thing."

 

For the next several hours, Naruto poured over all the scrolls and documents he had, both from the Uzumaki and different notes he'd collected on his own, until, as his clock said 4:50, he finished decoding the entire seal. He had several in-depth notes on it, and each part of the seal was known to him.

 

Unsealing a large new scroll that Hinata had brought for him, Naruto unfurled it to full, and withdrew his chakra ink and brushes. After a quick dinner of cup ramen, Naruto went to work, his mind carefully going over every brush stroke and kanji as they melded together.

 

This seal was far more optimized than the previous one, and had the torture function removed. Of course, he wouldn't be able to make the complete version he wanted to, where it wouldn't appear at all until death, it needed to still be visible for Hinata to test it.

 

After meticulously going every last brush stroke of the seal, Naruto leaned back. It was done. The revised juinjutsu no longer contained a torture/execution function. It simply sealed away the Byakugan upon death of the person. It had the same appearance while compressed; but with the exception of not containing the nearly invisible chakra receptacle. It was a simple matter to reconfigure the branding tool to use his modified seal that Hinata would surely return to the vault.

 

Of course, he also expected to get paid for this, since fūinjutsu commissions did count as missions. It was funny, really. If he had only been focused in fūinjutsu, Sandaime-sama could have simply promoted him to Tokubetsu Jōnin and put him in charge of a fūin team. But since he wanted to be an all around shinobi, especially with regards to his ninjutsu, he needed to climb the ranks.

 

Naruto looked at his clock… 6:30. It only took him two hours, it seemed it had felt like longer than that. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked up to see Sakura standing there in her training clothes.

 

"Let's go," she said, "we need to be there in thirty minutes."

 

"But, we don't train until tomorrow," Naruto protested.

 

"Naruto-kun," she said, exhausted, "it is tomorrow. It's 6:30 in the morning. You were working all night." Naruto slammed his head into the table.

 

"Shit!"

 

-D&D-

 

After bidding goodbye to the young kunoichi from Team 8 and giving her the modified scroll, with the old one being burned in a trash heap, Naruto and Sakura made their way to the small bridge where Kakashi had told them to meet up. Naruto only needed to wait for the payment on his commision now. Once he was paid, he could talk to the Sandaime about it going on his mission record. He wasn't sure what decoding that juinjutsu would count as, but it would certainly be nice, probably.

 

Since he wasn't working on a seal anymore, he instead was holding a water balloon in his left hand as he swirled his chakra around. The goal was to pop the balloon, but he was making very little progress with it. Of course, he handed it to Sakura and she made it explode almost instantly, monster of chakra control that she was. But no matter how much he tried to spin it, it never could get fast enough.

 

"Hello, my cute little Genin. Did you enjoy your day off?" Kakashi asked, after their normal yelling at him. "Nevermind, don't answer that. It's training day today! You'll each spar with me, one on one; taijutsu only." All three of them sighed. This was gonna suck.

 

-D&D-

 

Two hours later, all three of them were lying on the ground, panting, with three Kakashi Kage Bunshin looking down at them. "Good efforts, but each of you have issues.

 

"Sasuke-kun, you were relying far too much on your Sharingan. I realize that it's the basis of your fighting style, but you need to be careful about its usage. If you grow to rely on it too much, you won't be able to fight as well when you aren't able to use it. For example, if you're low on chakra. You need some other taijutsu techniques that don't rely so much on your kekkei genkai.

 

"Sakura-kun, your kata form is perfect, and you are great at finding opportunities to attack, but you lack improvisation. Against someone like me who has memorized all of the standard Academy kata and moves, it's a losing battle from the start.

 

"Naruto-kun… where do I even begin? For starters, you can certainly attack quickly and do improv well but you have no form to it. You just attack randomly, and are never really able to chain your attacks together. It's also incredibly predictable for anyone with any skills at analysis."

 

"Well," Naruto said, scratching his head, "I don't really care about my taijutsu right now. I'm actually trying hard to not develop a style."

 

"Wait, why?!" Kakashi asked, his eye widening.

 

"Because, I'll be given access to the Uzumaki Clan scrolls that are left soon, and I'll start developing a style based on what I learn in them, and whatever the ex-Uzushiogakure shinobi can teach me," Naruto explained. Kakashi placed his right hand over his eye and shook his head. "Besides," he continued, "it's much easier to simply learn a style when you haven't before, than to untrain then retrain again."

 

Kakashi shook his head again, "Look, your logic is fine, but you need something to work with until you can get those scrolls."

 

"I do. Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he called, with the field suddenly becoming a field of Naruto. "Get him!" one of them called, and the clones ran in. After a few moments of chaos, Naruto dispelled all the clones. A moment later, Kakashi popped out of the ground.

 

"Naruto, you can't just throw Kage Bunshin at every situation and expect it to turn out in your favor," Kakashi said.

 

"I totally can! Watch me," Naruto said, sticking his tongue out.

 

"What happens when your opponent goes underground? Or starts using techniques that can obscure them from sight? Or has a decent grasp of Kawarimi no Jutsu? That method becomes useless," Kakashi said, "Kage Bunshin are made for scouting, not combat. You are probably the only person that knows the technique, who also has enough chakra to use them for combat.

 

"Look, I'll go talk to Sandaime-sama, see if I can't get you some of the basic scrolls. He should make an exception in your case. Or rather, a Kage Bunshin of me will. Now, it's chakra control exercises!

 

"Naruto-kun, keep trying to pop that balloon. Sakura-kun, see if you can't try skating on water rather than just walking on it. Sasuke-kun, let me show you how tree-walking works. Normally, this wouldn't be taught to Genin for a while, but you can certainly handle it."

 

-D&D-

 

Their schedule for the first month was a steady rotation. One day would be dedicated to taijutsu training, two to ninjutsu, with a day of missions between the two. After the second ninjutsu day, they had half a day of training in whatever they needed to focus on, before taking missions after lunch. Finally, they had one day off, before circling back to taijutsu.

 

Once the second month rolled around though, it shifted. Every single day that they met with Kakashi was training in the mornings, missions in the afternoons. Often times, it was many missions. The amount of missions Naruto could get done with his Kage Bunshin doing most of the work was astounding. In fact, they did so many D-ranks that the missions desk told them to not ask for any more missions because they didn't have any. They were literally out of missions, and both Naruto and Sakura had significantly more money because of it. Sasuke had just shrugged at the amount he gained, it wasn't even a thousandth of his fortune.

 

"Okay," Kakashi said, clapping his hands, "you guys get the rest of the day off. Good work." All three walked out of the Hokage's office with varying degrees of boredom. They agreed to split head off, then meet at Ichiraku for dinner. And so, Naruto found himself simply strolling up the road with a water balloon in one hand and the other in his pocket.

 

"Oi, Uzumaki-san!" a loud female voice called from behind him. Crap. Just ignore it. It'll go away eventually. "I'm talking to you!" Naruto started walking faster. Unfortunately, he didn't run when he had the chance. When he heard her getting close, Naruto just turned around. Team 10 was standing right there.

 

"Uzumaki-san, you suck!" Ino yelled, running up with a punch. Rolling his eyes, Naruto grabbed her wrist and tripped her, causing her to somersault and land hard on her back. The blonde groaned from her place in the dirt as her two teammates ran to help her up.

 

"Ino-san! We're supposed to be going to Yakiniku Q for dinner!" Choji whined, "not getting into fights with Uzumaki-san!"

 

"Simmer down a bit, Ino," Shikamaru added. "It would be far too troublesome to get into a fight with Naruto of all people."

 

"Who says you'd just be fighting Naruto?" Naruto looked up and saw Sasuke standing on the wall above him. The boy was glaring down at Team 10, with his Sharingan activated. Oh great, did he copy my sweet Pig Toss? I'm gonna have to remember to avoid that next time we spar.

 

Of course, when Ino looked up, a bright blush adorned her face as hearts replaced her eyes. "S-Sasuke-kun!" she squealed. A scowl adorned itself on Sasuke's face as he walked down the wall and hopped off, landing next to Naruto. Ino tried to run up to hug him, but he switched with a box at the last second, sending the blonde head over heels again.

 

"Like I would have any affection for someone who attacks my teammate in the street," Sasuke said to her, sharingan glaring, "it makes me sick. Come on, Naruto, we have things to do." Naruto nodded and followed after him, leaving the blonde on the ground, groaning in pain.

 

"Sasuke-san, you didn't need to be so rude, Ino-san has always been like that," Naruto muttered.

 

"Well, then she should learn now before it gets her and her entire team killed in the field," Sasuke spat, "you don't attack your comrades outside of sanctioned sparring. If she does that again, I'll break her arm. Even her father won't complain if I explain the situation." His eyes softened as the sharingan gave way to his natural eye colour. "Come on, Bubblegum is waiting for us."

 

The two began walking up the road to get to the main part of the village where Ichiraku lay. Stopping at once corner, however, Sasuke pointed behind him discreetly. Slipping a glance, Naruto saw a box scooting along the ground behind them, partially made to look like a rock. Though, that was broken by the fact that there were eye holes in it.

 

Shaking his head at Sasuke, he quietly flipped through a few hand seals and pressed his palms together. As they reached an alley, Naruto suddenly spun and thrust his hand forward. "Fūton: Reppūshō!" he called, sending a large gust of wind straight at the box, upturning it and leaving its sole occupant sitting on the ground, rubbing his rear. He looked much the same as the last time Naruto has seen him, only instead of a helmet, he was wearing Naruto's old goggles.

 

"Dang it, Senpai!" Konohamaru yelled, standing up and walking up to Naruto. "Tone it down with the Fūton ninjutsu! I already got beat up in class today by Shiro-chan, I don't need it from you, too!"

 

"What, taijutsu sparring? How did this 'Shiro-chan' beat you?" Naruto asked.

 

"She went for my legs. After bruising them up a bit, she knocked me to the ground and got my arms and body, before Umino-sensei called the match," Konohamaru muttered, "she's really fast, Senpai, she got my legs before I could move, and then she told me she could have done worse!"

 

"Well, then it looks like speed training is on the docket. How're you with the leaf exercise?" Naruto asked.

 

"I can get it to spin in a half circle, Naruto-senpai!" the boy cheered. Sasuke rolled his eyes as he leaned against the wall, waiting for Naruto to finish up.

 

"Keep going at it! Get it spinning, and once you can spin it, spin it until you get tired! Do that every day. In regards to speed… okay, do you know where Training Ground 27 is?"

 

"No, sorry Senpai," the boy said, looking down. Naruto placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, crouching down to look eye level with him.

 

"Don't apologize, Konohamaru-kun," Naruto said, "come on, I'll treat you to some ramen, and then I'll show you that training ground. Increasing your speed should be key."

 

-D&D-

 

After a pleasant dinner with his teammates and his little kōhai, Naruto walked to Training Ground 27 with Konohamaru in tow. Once they finally reached it, the younger one was surprised to see a bunch raised stakes that swayed back and forth in the wind.

 

"Training taijutsu, your ji-chan or jii-chan should be able to help," Naruto said, smiling, "training speed, this here can help. It'll also help with your footwork." Konohamaru climbed up onto the stake at the end, before carefully making his way onto one in the middle.

 

"Ne, Senpai! How is this gonna help my speed, kore?!" the boy called.

 

"Oh, that's simple, kōhai!" Naruto said, a grin spreading across his face. "Dodge!"

 

"Wait, what-" the boy asked, only for a golden chakra chain to come flying past him, which he jumped out of the way of, onto another stake. "SENPAI! WHAT THE HE-" another chain came flying at him, which he again dodged. He dodged seven of them before finally losing his footing and falling ten feet to the ground.

 

"Come on, Konohamaru-kun! Get back up there! Improving your reaction speed is the first step to increased agility!" Naruto called to him. The boy groaned, before pushing himself into a sitting position. His arms were scraped, but he dutifully climbed back onto the end post and made his way back to the middle.

 

"Alright, Senpai!" the boy called. Naruto nodded, and began shooting chains at him again. He managed to dodge ten before he fell the second time. The third time, Naruto added a second chain for him to dodge. He didn't last as long, but he was dodging in different ways, especially ducking. One should never underestimate the value of just ducking.

 

After the sixth attempt, however, the boy could barely stand. Naruto carried the boy back to the Sarutobi compound, gingerly handing him over, asleep, to his uncle Asuma. Asuma had nodded at Naruto with a smile, taking the small boy back to the house to sleep, while Naruto walked back to the training ground, practicing his footwork until he got tired.

 

-D&D-

 

Walking into the bar, Kakashi didn't know exactly what he was thinking. It was ninjutsu training the next day, and getting smashed would be a horrible idea. But, he at least needed something to calm his nerves, and get his mind off the idea of Naruto using Bunshin Daibakuha as a mass attack. While it could help in some instances, it was far more likely to just get him and the rest of Team Seven killed.

 

So, when he sat down at the bar, he was surprised to see Kurenai, Asuma, and Anko all there getting sloshed, too. Gai was also there, but drinking something that was very much not alcoholic. All of them turned to Kakashi as he sat down and ordered a hot sake.

 

"Oh dear, what did your brats do this time, Kakashi-san?" Anko asked, snorting.

 

"Nothing much, Anko-chan," Kakashi replied, "but Naruto-kun is giving me the worst headache. He's deliberately avoiding developing a taijutsu style so that he can learn from the Uzumaki Clan scrolls. Once he gets access to them, anyway. Sakura-kun just needs work on her improv, but she can probably be pretty much anything she wants, she's pretty good all around. Sasuke-kun is… well, a bit rough around the edges. If I can get him to focus on something other than vengeance against Itachi, then he's somewhat pleasant to be around."

 

"You act like your Genin are the only ones with issues, Kakashi-san!" Kurenai called, slamming down her own glass of sake. "All ours have issues, too!"

 

"Really?" Kakashi asked, clearly sarcastic. "I'd never have guessed. Well, then I guess we can all share. Kurenai, you go first."

 

"Gladly," she said, "Kiba-kun is easily the worst of the bunch. He's loud, obnoxious, and has an ego larger than the Hokage monument. He also doesn't pay attention during any of my lessons, since he uses his Clan jutsu, anyway. Hinata-chan is… she has horrible problems with her self-esteem. I'm trying to coax her out of her shell, but it's taking a while. But when I can draw her out briefly, her skill with the Jūken is quite refined. Shino-kun is quiet, but studious and diligent. He was second in grades, after all, he only lost to Uchiha-san for Rookie of the Year because he screwed up the ninjutsu portion. I don't have many issues with him, besides getting him to speak up and talk to his teammates a bit more."

 

"Since you're all going on, I might as well chime in about my youthful students!" Gai said, or rather, yelled. "Lee has been making great strides in his study of taijutsu! I believe that he will one day become just as strong as me, if not more so! Tenten-kun is very skilled with her weapons, and if she can just get her speed up a bit, she can easily get even better! Neji-kun has attitude problems, but his skill in taijutsu is bar none. While I believe he could do well in branching out from just the Jūken, his flames of youth still burn brightly as he fights!"

 

All in the room shook their heads, glad that no one had decided to let Gai have any drinks this time. Last time Gai had gotten drunk, he'd started a fight, then opened the first gate. They'd needed a new table. And a new bar. Gai was still paying them back for it, actually.

 

"Well, since you all have gone," Asuma said, downing the last of his drink, "I have the new Ino-Shika-Chō team. Unfortunately, as much stuff as I'd like to do with them, I can't. They still need to be strong enough in the evening to practice their Clan techniques with their families. Most training time is honestly spent on keeping Shikamaru-kun focused on something. Shōgi can keep him distracted, but he's a very difficult opponent. Ino-kun constantly rants on and on about her precious 'Sasuke-kun,' and how much she wants his babies. Chōji-kun just sits there and eats, sometimes chatting with Shikamaru-kun, but other times he's quiet."

 

"You all are just luck to have passed your teams," Anko said, downing another glass, "the team I got assigned were cowards. They all refused to even do my test, and had the same problem as Ino-chan. Only, they were civilians and couldn't go home and learn stuff from their families. I swear, if I ever have to hear one more female voice cooing 'Sasuke-kun!,' it'll be too soon. Why Sandaime-sama didn't drop them from the program, I'll never know. They'll never be capable shinobi at the rate they were going."

 

"To be fair, Anko-chan," Kakashi said, downing another glass through his genjutsu-mask, "I doubt my kunoichi could have managed your test, either, and she's most certainly going to be a capable shinobi. It's rather brutal, after all."

 

"It teaches a valuable lesson, just like your damned bells," Anko replied, not even looking at him.

 

"For ANBU, yes. For Genin? I'm not sure," Kakashi said, "it worked during the Second Shinobi World War, but it's peace time."

 

"And yet," Anko said, "we still educate the children like it's the Third War. Actually, worse, since I read one of the Academy textbooks recently when we got to the Second War. No mention of Uzu. At all. Like, it just leaves it blank. Says that Konoha declared war on Kiri, Iwa, Kumo, and Umi, while their alliance broke down and started fighting each other, no mention of why that alliance existed. I had to improv that entire lecture."

 

"WHAT?!" Gai suddenly shouted, smashing his hand down on the bar, leaving a great crack in the wood. "My grandfather died in the attack on Uzu, and they ignore his sacrifice like that?! Most unyouthful of them!"

 

"I'll add that one to your tab, too!" the bartender yelled, barely paying Gai an eye. Everyone else simply sighed at the man's antics.

 

-D&D-

 

"That's the last of them, Hokage-sama!" the Chūnin said with a bow. With a puff from his pipe, Sarutobi nodded at her.

 

"Thank you, Haruko-kun," he said.

 

"It's no issue, Hokage-sama! Also, Utatane-sama has requested you meet with her and the rest of the council downstairs," she said, her tone not dropping a bit.

 

"Of course, I'll head right down," Hiruzen said, trying to hide the tiredness from his voice. With his paperwork finally done, he had been hoping to just go home and spend the night with his grandson. But if the council needed to see him, it must have been serious. With a sigh, Hiruzen put on his hat and walked out of his office, the ANBU trailing him.

 

After walking down a few hallways, he finally arrived at the meeting room. Sitting around the small meeting table were the 5 members of the Konoha Council, his former teammates Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura, his former best friend and rival from childhood, Shimura Danzō, as well as his Jōnin Commander, Nara Shikaku, and his ANBU Commander, whose name even he didn't recall. All he remembered of the man was his code name, Kōmori. Sarutobi walked to his seat at the head of the table and sat down.

 

"Thanks for coming on such short notice, Hokage-sama. There is much to discuss. Of course, we are hosting the Chūnin Exams in December, so there is much work to be done for that," Homura said.

 

"Easily done. We can set up some D-ranks for cleaning up the stadium and making sure that it'll be ready come winter," Sarutobi replied. He desperately hoped that they had assembled for something important, and not as trivial as discussing the Chūnin Exams. Especially six months ahead of schedule. They didn't even know what villages would be sending teams yet.

 

Well, he knew one village who wouldn't, anyway. After the spectacular episode at the Chūnin Exams in Kumogakure no Sato the previous month, Ōnoki had informed him, point blank, that Iwagakure would be sending no Genin to compete this time around. It really wasn't either of their faults this time, thankfully. Kumogakure was on the fence, and Kirigakure was a bit too busy fighting a civil war to care.

 

"Of course, we have our four active Genin teams right now, mostly Clan heirs or potential Clan heirs," Koharu said, "all of them of future power and influence. I don't think their team leader choices were as objective as you'd have us believe, Hiruzen-san."

 

"My, Koharu-chan, whatever could you mean?" Sarutobi asked. He hoped that his sarcasm would be picked up.

 

"Are the silencing seals on?" she asked, with a raised eyebrow.

 

"Yes, and I'll waive the laws on discussing those topics for the purpose of this meeting," Sarutobi replied.

 

"Good. In the case of Team Eight, it looks simple enough as a tracking team but then you factor in Yūhi Kurenai's close ties with your son, Asuma-kun, and her position looks much less like an accident. Speaking of Asuma-kun, his assignment as the leader of Team 10, a team with three Clan heirs on it, isn't exactly subtle. It's fairly obvious you intend to forge closer ties between the Sarutobi Clan and the Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi Clans.

 

"Then we have Team Seven. Placing Uchiha-kun under Hatake Kakashi was the only real move that could be done, as the only officially loyal Sharingan user left in the village. But then you placed Uzumaki-kun on his time as well. It's obvious the reasoning, as the last member of Team Minato, you wanted him to watch over Minato's son. And the girl has followed Uzumaki-kun around since they were eight, I'm assuming she got tossed on for that. Not only that, but Hatake-kun is very loyal to you, personally, and to his sensei's memory."

 

"I imagine that we are also loyal to Tobirama-sensei's memory, Koharu-chan," Hiruzen said with a smile.

 

"Yes, quite. But I wasn't quite done yet," Koharu said, "Hatake-kun was chosen for personal and political reasoning, but not really smart reasoning. It would have been better to assign the boy to some Jōnin as an apprentice, and have Kuma-kun watch over him in case something happens. With Hatake-kun, he cannot do anything should the Kyūbi break lose somehow. I trust Yondaime-sama's seal, but I also trusted Kushina-chan's seal, and that failed us when we needed it most."

 

"Actually," Danzō said, speaking up for the first time during the meeting, "I believe that Hatake-kun is better suited than you think. His sharingan could allow him to keep the Kyūbi under control for a short period of time until we could reseal it, should it break loose somehow."

 

"How? You remember what Shisui-kun and Itachi-kun said; only those with that final form of the sharingan can control the tailed beasts. As far we know, only Itachi-kun has that now, with Shisui-kun's death," Homura said.

 

"You'd be wrong there," Danzō said, "Hatake-kun does indeed possess that form of the sharingan. I found this out during the short period of time when he served under my command in ANBU. It may take him some time to activate, but I believe that he could use it to keep the Kyūbi under control."

 

"Kakashi-kun is quite efficient with his sharingan," Kōmori said, "I'm sure if he's told about the sharingan's abilities to control the Kyūbi, he'll quickly figure out how they work. If he can, then perhaps he can pass it onto Uchiha-kun."

 

"I also trust Hatake-kun," Shikaku said. "If anyone can keep both the Kyūbi no Yōko and Uzumaki-kun under control, it's him. That man could herd cats in his sleep. If only it weren't so troublesome to get him to turn up on time. If he had a bit more experience leading teams, I'd think even higher of him."

 

"I think that's more the fault of our horrendous education quality at the Academy," Danzō said. "Speaking of which, Hiruzen, I believe-"

 

"Discussions of education reform will not be tabled right now. We have other priorities," Hiruzen said, quite tired of people bringing this up. "We can look at it another time. Now, what was next on the agenda?"

 

"Well, other than the fact that we still can't find where Jiraiya disappeared to after his last report in April," Koharu said, "our spies from Kusagakure report that-" This is gonna be a long meeting, Sarutobi thought to himself, as he found himself wondering why he didn't just send a Kage Bunshin, and gone home himself. He'd've gotten all the memories, anyway, so what would it have mattered. Oh well, it was far too late to worry about that, now.

 

Notes:

 

Fūton: Reppūshō - Wind Release: Gale Palm

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu - Shadow Clone Technique

Kawarimi no Jutsu - Substitution Technique

Bunshin Daibakuha - Clone Great Explosion

Congrats to those who successfully guessed who the masked figure was!

If Naruto's seal-crafting seemed a bit fast, it was. Modifying an existing seal and optimizing it is far easier than creating one from scratch. It's similar to Computer Programming, it's far easier to optimize and update an existing program than it is to make one completely from scratch.

Chapter 8: A Journey to Nami no Kuni

Standing pressed up against a tree, Naruto poked his head around trunk carefully. "Target spotted, approximately five meters out." A small movement amongst the bushes confirmed his assumption, even if he couldn't see well. Stupid tree shadows.

"Sakura, here, target is four meters behind me. Naruto-kun, no chains. Those hurt, and we don't wanna hurt this thing."

"Sasuke, here. It's standing still right now, but it'll bounce off in the relative direction of Naruto the moment it gets spooked."

"Careful, Sasuke-kun," Kakashi said, "don't rely too much on your sharingan, it can be misleading when the target isn't human. In any case, be ready to jump."

"Now!" Naruto rushed the target, followed by his teammates. Within ten seconds, the small brown cat, Tora, was safely snuggled in Sakura's arms. Since she was the only one of them that had experience with cats, she snuggled it and scratched the little menace's head affectionately.

"Well, that works. 'Mission: Capture Tora the Cat', success!" Kakashi said. The team chatted on their way back to the mission's desk. This was their fourth mission today, and the Sandaime had forbidden Naruto from using Kage Bunshin during this mission to allow the other teams a chance to pick up a few missions of their own this time.

When they got back to the mission's desk, Tora was immediately smothered by her owner, the wife of the Daimyō. Of course, the Hokage gave his normal congratulations, and began to read through the missions scroll… mostly babysitting missions and others that Naruto couldn't blow through with his Kage Bunshin.

"Oi, jiji!" Naruto called, "I'm sick of these boring missions! Can't we have something more exciting?"

Umino-sensei, sitting next the Hokage, scoffed. "Uzumaki-kun, it's always boring. But these jobs are extremely necessary for the function of the village, in that they make up a large portion of the village's income. You've only been Genin for two months. I was doing D-ranks for almost two–."

"Fine," the Hokage interjected, "if you truly insist, I'll give you a C-rank. We don't have any Chūnin teams on hand at this very moment to take it, so you can have it. But be warned, Naruto. If one of your teammates comes back in a bag, it will not reflect well on your record, or that of your team."

"Whatever, it'll be fine; I'm awesome enough to keep them all safe! So can we have it or what?!" Naruto asked.

"Fine, fine," Sarutobi said. He leaned over to one of the Chūnin standing next to the door. "Head out into the waiting room, bring in the bridge builder. You know the one." The Chūnin bowed and left the room. A few moments later, he returned with an old man holding a bottle of sake.

"Eh?" the old man slurred, after taking a swig. "These brats are the ones who are supposed to protect me? They look pathetic, especially the redhead with the dumb face. He doesn't even look like a shinobi!"

All feeling of his surroundings vanished, with the exception of feeling worry well up in Sakura. That old man had just insulted him personally. He clenched his fists and focused his chakra to tie up that stupid old man, when he felt a hand stroke his cheek. Damn it! Why?! After a few moments, the annoyance started to subside, being replaced by a buzzing happy sensation. Unconsciously, his throat began to emit a sound a lot like a cat's purr; had Naruto been consciously aware of it, he might have been embarrassed.

When he finally regained control of his senses, he realized that Sakura had a hand on his cheek and her thumb was at the end of one of his whisker marks. He blushed deeply before muttering a 'thank you' under his breath.

"So that's how you always managed to calm Naruto down," Sasuke said, "a lot more reasonable than what Ino said."

"Wait, what did Ino-buta say?!" Sakura asked loudly. Sasuke walked up and whispered it into Sakura's ear. He couldn't hear what Sasuke said to her, but judging by how her anger flared up afterwards, he could assume.

"THAT'S DISGUSTING! I'M TWELVE, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! NARUTO-KUN IS ONLY ELEVEN!" Sakura screamed. "When I see her next time I'm going to turn the blonde gossip into a blonde pincushion!"

"Hey, Sakura-kun~! How about we don't discuss killing our fellow Konoha-nin right now and focus on our new mission?" Kakashi said.

"Fine," Sakura said after a moment. "Now, for what purpose have you hired Team Seven?"

"Glad you asked! I'm a veteran bridge builder and carpenter from Nami no Kuni! You'll protect me to the maximum as I make my way back home and finish my bridge. Name's Tazuna," the man said. It followed by a loud belch that reeked of alcohol.

"Well, then, Tazuna-san. We'd be happy to escort you back to Nami no Kuni. Team Seven! Head home and pack your things. We leave at 9AM tomorrow morning!" Kakashi said.

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei!" the three of them said.

-D&D-

The team, sans Kakashi, went to Ichiraku to celebrate getting their first C-rank mission.

"Teuchi-ji-san! Miso Ramen with spinach and extra pork, 'ttebayo!" Naruto called. The old man smiled at him and nodded as he went and sat on the side counter with his team. Not a minute later, Konohamaru came running into the ramen stand with tons of other kids chasing him.

He ran up to Naruto with an excited face, and before the kids could follow him in, Ayame marched up with a ladle and pointed out the 'VIP Customers Only' sign for that area. The other kids' faces went from shock to annoyance almost immediately.

"Hey! No fair! Why do both Omago-sama and Uzumaki-shi get to go into that area but someone like me can't!" a young girl wearing the crest of the Shimura Clan yelled at Ayame.

"Sorry! But Konohamaru-kun is only allowed in because Naruto-kun got him on the list! Only special customers are allowed on the list for here!" Ayame said.

"Thanks, Ayame-chan!" Konohamaru called. "Teuchi-san! Shoyū Ramen with extra pork belly, kore!"

-D&D-

After a happy dinner with Naruto, Sasuke, and Konohamaru, Sakura walked home. Strangely, she was walking home alone, something which almost never happened. But Naruto was going off with Konohamaru for one last training session before their mission, and Sasuke never came to the Uzu District.

Of course, her parents were off in Tetsu no Kuni; they had finally been invited to come and meet with her grandfather; to become part of the family again, effectively. So she was left at home with… her aunt, Haruno Sōka. Sakura tried not to groan as she opened her door. If she gives me any grief, I'm just gonna stay at Naruto's.

Sōka was her father's sister, the only member of his family that hadn't ostracized him for years. She'd been the one to bring her father to Konoha in the first place, after all. After wandering for business, he'd met her mother while on a business pass into the Uzu District, eventually moving there and marrying her.

Sōka, on the other hand, had stayed in the main part of the village, and mostly managed her father's department store these days. She was really technically only there on orders from her grandfather, to keep her father from disgracing the family name. However, the past few years, her and Sakura hadn't been on good terms… mainly because, in direct opposition to Sakura, she hated Naruto.

Sakura had found that out by accident after Sōka had chased Naruto out of the house with a knife during a study session, and hadn't had any relationship with the woman since. Not helped was the fact that Sōka had refused to apologize for that instant, and her complaints to that end had ended up with an angry mob started, only to end up starting a brawl between the residents of the Uzu District and other citizens of Konoha, that ended with more than one person dead, several injured, and others entertaining T&I for weeks.

Somehow, Sōka had managed to get off scot-free, probably by brown-nosing everyone and feigning apology and remorse. Yet, no one but Sakura remembered the knife incident. But if she went to her father about it, no way would he believe her— he trusted his sister, and she'd lied to him about her before. No way would he would trust her now. Sakura shook her head and tried to put it out of her head as she walking to her room and prepared to pack.

Of course, she needed to make sure to pack everything she needed in scrolls. Food, kunai, shuriken, extra clothes. And of course, her med kit— Kakashi had appointed her as team medic, as she was the only one really suited to it. While she wasn't sure she wanted to be an iryō-nin, at least she could keep Team Seven alive until they made it to a hospital. Thankfully, using a med kit didn't require much training, just following the instructions. Just in case, she also sealed an empty backpack into a scroll, just in case she found something she couldn't seal.

Placing her kunai and shuriken into her inrō, she tossed her scrolls backpack in the corner and sat down on her bed and attempted to do some meditation. Staying perfectly still, she focused on feeling her chakra. She could feel the Suiton and Doton swimming around in her from her practice earlier. Suiton seemed to have more use, especially with her teammates both using Raiton, but Doton could block a bunch of random things, not just jutsu. At least she learned how to use them rather quickly— even if the only jutsu she'd learned so far were Suiton: Suiben and Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu.

Then, of course, Sōka stormed in, yelling at her. "I said, dinner is ready, but you obviously don't care! You're just sitting here and nt doing anything!"

"You're right, I don't. I'm trying to focus on some things that are important right now, far more important than you," Sakura said. "And for your information, I had dinner already— with my team and Naruto-kun's kōhai. It was fun."

Sōka scoffed. "'Fun' would be not being around Akuma-gaki so much. He's dangerous, and being around him so much makes you more vulnerable to that danger," Sakura opened her eyes from her meditation and focused straight on in a blank glare, "and I told you that I was making dinner to catch up tonight. Since you obviously didn't care, you're grounded until further notice. You need to work on your attitude and your filial obligation. No leaving the house without me escorting you."

"You do realize I'm a Genin now, right?" Sakura asked, eyebrow raised, "I just got assigned a C-rank— we leave in the morning."

"Well, that must suck," Sōka said, completely uncaring, "but you've got to live with the consequences of your actions. I'm tired of you spending more time with the one who caused Sora-kun's death than your own family!" When she remained nonplussed, Sōka had stormed out of her room, slamming the door behind her. After some more time of meditation, Sakura went to sleep, hoping that what she expected would occur. She could have just jumped out the window and went to Naruto's house, but this would be so much more enjoyable. She had already packed properly, after all.

The next morning, Sakura woke up at her normal time and did some stretching to prepare for a long walk, as well as some walking on her walls to warm up her chakra coils for the day and wake her up. After that, she changed into her travel clothes, placed her backpack in an easy to access location, and sat down on her bed to meditate and focus on the chakra around her. While she wasn't a kanchi-nin like Naruto, she could feel when someone got close to her. But that was pretty much it.

When she felt three chakra signatures outside her house, she smiled and got her stuff, ready to move.

-D&D-

Kakashi sighed as he walked up to the door, his team right behind him. Thankfully, Naruto had gotten them into the Uzu District with little fuss, and showed them where Sakura's house was. Apparently, Sakura's aunt was in charge of watching over her while her parents were away, and the rosette gotten herself into something.

Walking up to the door, Kakashi considered just kicking it down and collecting his student. Unfortunately, that would require far too much paperwork afterwards. There was a reason he wasn't going to be nominating himself as Hokage anytime soon, after all. Sighing, he settled for a firm triple knock on the door. When he got no answer, he knocked hard again. As he reached to knock a third time, the door was thrown open, and a young woman with dark auburn hair and almost golden brown eyes opened the door.

"Hello, and who might you be, Shinobi-san?" the woman asked. Kakashi decided to simply play the role of the messenger, discreetly shooting an ANBU sign behind him for Naruto that he should stay hidden right now.

"Hello, I'm here looking for Haruno Sakura? Her sensei is waiting for her so that they can start their mission," Kakashi said, in the most innocent voice he could muster. The woman's face fell.

"Well, you can run back and tell her sensei that she's grounded and not allowed out of the house— I'm sure her team will function just fine without her for a bit," she said, starting to close the door.

Before she could, though, Kakashi's hand shot forward and grabbed the door. The charade was up, so he might as well play hardball. "No, you misunderstand. I'm here to collect my student, who is a member of the Shinobi Armed Forces, and who you are effectively holding hostage here," he growled, signing behind him for Sasuke to come forward. "Sasuke-kun, go and get your teammate so we can get going."

"You can't, the charter for our district puts us under Clan protection!" the woman yelled, desperately trying to close the door. Kakashi and Sasuke stopped.

"You're right," Kakashi said, "how silly of me." The woman smiled lightly and she continued pushing on the door, but that smile immediately fell. "Aka-bō! Go and grab Sakura-kun!" Naruto immediately walked from around the corner and walked up to the door, where the woman glared daggers at him.

"Get away from my house," the woman growled at Naruto.

"It's not your house, it's your brother's," Naruto crossed his arms. "Nii-san! Do whatever you want here! I'm gonna go get Sakura-chan!" Kakashi smiled.

"Certainly," he said with a fake smile, as a small Raiton jutsu came to life in his hand and started carving clean through the front door. Sōka stumbled back as Naruto ran up the stairs. After a loud crack and slam that Kakashi recognized as a door being ripped off its hinges and smashed into a wall – which shook the entire house – Naruto ran back down the stairs, holding Sakura's wrist as she ran behind him. As the two reached him, he took their hands and flickered over to the gate. While Sasuke wasn't used to it, he'd flickered with Sakura and Naruto before.

"Sorry, Sakura-chan," Naruto said, looking down, "if I'd known your bitchy aunt was causing you problems, I'd've gone and grabbed a bigger crowd."

"No worries, Naruto-kun. I'm just glad to be away from her. Come on then, we have an old drunk to walk home," she said.

"Oi!" their client called, still surprised from seeing them just pop into existence, "I'm not just an old drunk!"

"The keyword there being 'just!'" Sakura called, taking point.

-D&D-

They'd been out of the village for four days, and Naruto could barely contain his excitement the entire time. However, this time, when they were walking, he spotted a random puddle. They'd just crossed a wide stream, but it hadn't rained in weeks. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw Kakashi watching it carefully. Signing to him 'acknowledged,' followed by Sakura's confirmation, he carefully moved his hands down to his inrō and grabbed a single kunai.

When Kakashi stopped moving for a moment, Naruto felt the chakra level swell behind him. He quickly spun around, pinning the chain between the two shinobi to the ground with a thrown kunai. After his teammates recovered from shock, Sasuke was the next to move, running to the immobile shinobi and smashing their heads together. Even though they were likely concussed, they managed to release their chains before Sasuke could finish them off, and rushed the position of where Tazuna and Sakura were standing. Only for Kakashi to simply move behind them and knock the two of them out with simple swipes to the neck.

"Good instincts, team. Naruto-kun, nice throw with the kunai. Sasuke-kun, good job taking the initiative and attacking while distracted. Sakura-kun, good thinking of the mission first and moving to defend the client while your teammates engaged the enemy," Kakashi said.

"Well, who are these idiots?" Naruto asked. "I don't recognize their appearance from okā-sama's shinobi book."

"That's called a bingo book. And they wouldn't be in it, that thing is twelve years old. These are Gōzu and Meizu, the Demon Brothers of Kirigakure. Or, at least, they were. They're B-ranked nuke-nin now, with pretty high bounties on them," Kakashi said.

"Alright then, let's slit their throats and put them in a storage scroll. When the mission is over, we'll take their bounty as a bonus!" Naruto said. When his teammates looked at him rather shocked, he shrugged. "What? It's quick and they're unconscious. They won't feel it."

"Naruto-kun..." Kakashi said, before sighing loudly and shaking his head. "Well, we did get the info we needed out of them. Fine, I'll make it quick in a moment," Kakashi said, pulling out a scroll from his vest and to seal both future bodies into it. Naruto nodded in understanding. Kakashi then crossed his arms and looked at their client. "What I would like to know is… why were shinobi targeting a simple bridge builder?" Tazuna gulped audibly.

-D&D-

As Team 7 sat around the fire, Sasuke heard their sensei sigh dramatically. "So, let me get this straight, some old businessman took over your country by buying it out, essentially, and is now targeting you because you're about to break the stranglehold with your bridge?"

"Pretty much, yes," Tazuna replied, "he only sent low level shinobi when he was angry about something. I thought that we'd manage to get the bridge done only encountering the bandits and thugs that he usually sends."

"Exactly who is this businessman?" Sasuke asked.

"That would be the ultra-rich Gatō," Tazuna said, before taking a swig of his sake.

"Nuh weh!" Sakura said with a mouthful of venison.

"Swallow first, Sakura-chan," Naruto called. The girl promptly did so before repeating.

"You're kidding me? That guy? Of all the stupid-" Sakura muttered.

"What? You've heard of him, Sakura-kun?" Kakashi asked.

"Sensei, my family are a bunch of rich merchants. How could I not have heard of him?" she asked, "besides, he's… close, to put it simply, with some of my older relatives, from what tō-chan tells me. My family has a lot of shares in the Gatō Company."

"So, what can you tell us about him?" Naruto asked.

"Not much— he plays himself up as a legitimate businessman, and he does some real business involving shipping, but has a heavy involvement in the black market," Sakura explained. "He once built a dam and blocked a river, just to force a town to let him set up mining facilities on their land. He never demolished the dam, either, even after he got the mining rights."

"What a dick," Naruto said.

"Language, Aka-bō. You're right, though. However, this is beyond our pay grade, honestly," Kakashi said. "We can escort him home, but beyond that we really ought to leave and let some more experienced people take over. If you were chūnin I'd say 'Go for it,' but you're not."

-D&D-

The next day, Team Seven crossed the channel to Nami no Kuni in silence. Kakashi kept looking in all directions, terrified of something going wrong.

It doesn't really matter what I said, those Chūnin couldn't have been working alone. Their employer likely knows that they failed… more than likely, they'll send Jōnin after us next. Kakashi could handle Jōnin, mostly, but he needed to keep his team safe. If only they'd had time to call for backup; he certainly could've used it.

Suddenly, Naruto stopped. Behind his back, he was holding up the ANBU hand sign for 'enemy.' I really need to teach that kid standard shinobi hand signs, he's not supposed to know ANBU ones— that, and Sasuke cannot read them. Carefully watching around him, he heard movement, and Naruto did as well, tossing kunai hard into a bush.

The only thing that popped out of said bush was a rabbit. That hadn't shed its winter coat even though it was nearly autumn. Oh shit. "EVERYONE! GET DOWN!" Kakashi yelled, grabbing Tazuna and hitting the dirt. His Genin followed him down, and none too soon, as a giant sword impaled itself above them in a tree.

Kakashi glared up as a muscular man with bandages around his mouth landed on the flat of the sword. Fuck. Just what we needed. Kakashi thought, looking up at who landed on the sword. Not just a random Jōnin, but an ex-ANBU S-ranked nuke-nin. Fantastic.

"Eh?!" Naruto yelled. "One of the Seven Swordsmen of Kirigakure?! I thought you said this was B-rank, Nii-san! These guys are S-rank!" the boy exclaimed, waving his arms wildly, and turning to look at Kakashi. Just at the right angle for the nuke-nin to see the symbol on Naruto's jacket.

"I did say that," Kakashi replied, "but that was before I realized who our opponent was. This makes this mission A-ranked. All we need now is a jinchūriki and it'll become S-ranked." Kakashi waited, but nothing happened. "Good, I was worried there for a moment.

"So, Momochi Zabuza, S-ranked nuke-nin of Kirigakure no Sato. Ex-ANBU."

"Heh," the man said, looking down at them. "Sharingan no Kakashi. Ex-ANBU of Konohagakure no Sato. A-ranked shinobi with flee on sight orders in Kaminari no Kuni and Mizu no Kuni. In Tsuchi no Kuni, S-ranked shinobi with an observe notice. And the one who killed my ANBU Captain— The Great Dragon of Kirigakure."

Kakashi glared up at the man. That much was true. He had killed the Great Dragon of Kiri, but that was on a mission. It wasn't like he'd explicitly targeted the man, even if he had gotten a rather nice bonus for his head.

"Not only that," Zabuza continued, "but we got an Uzumaki, from what I can tell, too. Don't see many of those around anymore. It might be fun to see if Kubikiribōchō still remembers the blood of Uzushio flowing down it. Now, I'd rather us get this over with. I have an old man to kill, and a paycheck to collect."

Kakashi put out his hand behind him. "Don't interfere," he said, moving his other hand to his hitai-ate. "This enemy is far beyond any of you. You'll only get in my way." He could almost see his Genin sputtering in annoyance. "You'll get there one day. But not now. Not now." He pulled up his hitai-ate and opened his left eye. "I accept your challenge, Momochi Zabuza!"

Kakashi's sharingan flared to life and began taking in the surroundings. In response, Zabuza grabbed the handle of his blade, backflipping off the tree and landing on the surface of the water. Glaring at Kakashi, chakra began to swirl around him. "Suiton: Kirigakure no Jutsu!" A thick mist settled over the battlefield, completely blocking his vision.

Damn it. You know, Obito, sometimes I wish you were a Hyūga. The Byakugan could see through this stuff. And you can turn implanted Byakugan off, at least. Kakashi thought. I could always… no. I can't use my Mangekyō. If I screwed it up, everyone would be in danger. Then, Kakashi heard the sound of clanging weapons, repeatedly. Then, a loud cry of "Fūton: Reppūshō!"

-D&D-

When the mist had come up, Naruto had joined Sasuke and Sakura in the manji formation around Tazuna. Of course, that had come with a startled realization— he could feel where Zabuza was. He supposed that came from him being a kanchi-nin. Feeling the nuke-nin come up from his left, Naruto chucked a kunai at him, only for the man to deflect it with his sword. Unfettered, he threw another one, and three shuriken for good measure. It simply bounced off again and again.

Okay, I need Sasuke and Sakura to be able to see… "Fūton: Reppūshō!" he called, clapping his hands together. A gust of wind flared up around him and blew most of the mist away. Perfect.

"An Uzumaki using Fūton, huh? Well, isn't that just a treat," Zabuza said, suddenly behind them. All three of them jumped out of the way of the man's sword swipe. At the last moment, Naruto threw a chain from his right arm, grabbing Tazuna and dragging him away from the nuke-nin. Zabuza glared up at him as he landed away from him. "That settles it. Hard to believe that after all this time, there are still Uzumaki here. Your Clan is a stubborn bunch."

"Of course we are, dattebayo!" Naruto yelled, pulling out another few shuriken and throwing them. As Zabuza raised his sword to block, he quickly flashed his hand seals, "Kaminari Bunshin no Jutsu!" he called, the lightning shooting from his hands and scattering all about. Almost as quickly, he substituted with one of his clones a bit further away. When Zabuza leapt into the air, sword in hand, he slashed right through the Kaminari Bunshin— returning it to lightning. It was rather shocking for him.

Of course, the shock also travelled back to Naruto in a way— the Zabuza that he'd been fighting was a Mizu Bunshin. The real one used the distraction to sneak up on Kakashi and kick him into the air and into the water. The swordsman had quickly run up behind Kakashi, flipping through hand seals. "Suirō no Jutsu," the man called, forming a sphere of water around Kakashi. "You let yourself get distracted. I thought your fabled dōjutsu could see which ones are clones?"

No, Naruto thought, I think that's the other great dōjutsu.

"It really doesn't matter though. Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu!" the nuke-nin yelled. Another Zabuza appeared on the shore with his sword in hand. Angry, Naruto attempted to just charge straight in. He got a knee to his stomach for his troubles, causing him to spit up blood before getting punched back to the others. As he stood up, he signed two words to Sakura behind him— 'shuriken' and 'skate.'

Alright, let's see if I can pull this off. Naruto flipped through the hand seals for Kaminari Bunshin, before crossing them in the Bunshin seal. "Raiton: Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Nearly twenty more of him flickered into existence— and were filled with Raiton chakra, to boot! All of them rushed the Zabuza Mizu Bunshin, while behind him, he felt Sasuke's chakra shift lightly, indicating the activation of his sharingan.

After they'd pinned Zabuza, Naruto dispelled all of the Kage Bunshin, electrocuting the Mizu Bunshin out of existence. Above the light, Sasuke appeared and threw two Fūma shuriken, one hidden by the other. Zabuza caught one, and dodged the other. The one he dodged, however, poofed into smoke, revealing a smirking Sakura. Said girl reached into her inrō and threw several shuriken and a kunai.

The nuke-nin dodged out of the way with a yell of annoyance, releasing the water prison, only for the kunai to be replaced by one of Naruto's Raiton Kage Bunshin, who flew forward and smashed his fist into Zabuza's face, before dispelling and zapping the man. Sakura slid on the water's surface as she touched it and skated along the surface back to shore.

Meanwhile, Kakashi, with his armoured glove, smacked the Fūma Shuriken in Zabuza's hand off into the distance, as they jumped apart.

-D&D-

Sharingan active, Sasuke watched as the two Jonin landed on the surface of the water, and Zabuza started flashing through hand seals, with Kakashi doing so at almost the exact same time. Ushi → Saru → U → Ne → I → Tori → Ushi → Uma → Tori → Ne → Tora → Inu → Tora → Mi → Ushi → Hitsuji → Mi → I → Hitsuji → Ne → Jin → Saru → Tori → Tatsu → Tori → Ushi → Uma → Hitsuji → Tora → Mi → Ne → Saru → U → I → Tatsu → Hitsuji → Ne → Ushi → Saru → Tori → Jin → Ne → I → Tori. While Sasuke also used his sharingan to copy it, he didn't use the jutsu— he wasn't going to touch Suiton, he had no affinity for it. "Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu!" both of them called. Two giant dragons made of water burst simultaneously from the river and destroyed each other with a giant wave created in the aftershock.

Surging forward, Kakashi moved to overwhelm the man, flipping through hand seals that Sasuke also copied. "Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!" Kakashi called, a great swelling of water swallowing the nuke-nin as several kunai were thrown into it. When the water subsided, Zabuza was crashed against a tree with several kunai imbedded in his torso. Kakashi landed in a tree branch above him.

"You forget, Zabuza. This eye lets me see the future," Kakashi said. "And it sees your death."

Zabuza started to slide up the tree, only for a burst of blood to shoot out of his neck as two senbon embedded themselves there. Looking in the direction they came from, he saw a white ANBU mask with the Kirigakure crest on it. Oh right, oi-nin. Sensei has complained about them stealing his kills more than once.

"Thank you for that. I was waiting for an opportunity to kill him, and now I have," the oi-nin said.

"You stole my kill," Kakashi said simply.

"I highly doubt Momochi was your target on this mission— but unfortunately, he is mine. Now, I must dispose of his body," the hunter said, grabbing the bodies arm. Naruto quickly ran up with a kunai and raised it above the head of the nuke-nin. "What are you doing, Konoha-nin?" the hunter asked. Naruto turned.

"I'm taking his head. We did most of the work, and I want his bounty for my trouble. I'll let you check it for secrets, but he—" Naruto promptly found himself flung off the nuke-nin with a brutal punch to his face that sent him tumbling across the ground.

"Oi!" Kakashi called, jumping to the ground, his hand clenched around his other wrist, "don't touch my students, or I'll end you just like I have many Kiri ANBU in the past!"

"Apologies. But, I need to do my work in private. So, why don't you make like you Konoha-nin do and, well, Leaf," the hunter said. Seeing the blank reactions from the others, the hunter-nin simply flickered away with the body. Kakashi moved his hitai-ate back over his sharingan.

"Crap, I should have stopped him," Kakashi said, "that oi-nin was fake. He would have continued with his threats to leave if he was genuine. They dispose of the bodies ASAP. They never move them. Therefore, I think he's an accomplice."

"Damn it!" Naruto yelled, "and we almost had him, too!"

"That means that we may need to fight him again. The best case would be to finish the bri-" Kakashi began, but slipped halfway through and fell on his face, completely unconscious.

"Oh shit! Nii-san!" Naruto yelled, running over to Kakashi. Sasuke joined him immediately, checking for a pulse.

"Calm down, Naruto, he just has chakra exhaustion. Help me carry him," Sasuke said. "Tazuna! Show us where your home is. He'll be resting there, if you expect us to continue guarding you!"

"R-Right!" Tazuna said, nodding, before turning and walking along the forest path, Team Seven right behind. After a tense walk, the group reached a small village, and walked into a house behind him, laying Kakashi down on a futon to rest. All of them looked at each other worriedly. They were stuck in a foreign land, with no way to call for help, with an S-ranked nuke-nin after them and their client. If there was a worse "first time out of the village during peacetime" mission, then none of them had ever heard of it.

 

Notes:

Jutsu List:

Suiton: Suiben - Water Release: Water Whip

Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu - Water Clone Technique

Suiton: Kirigakure no Jutsu - Water Release: Hiding in Mist Technique

Fūton: Reppūshō - Wind Release: Gale Palm

Kaminari Bunshin no Jutsu* - Lightning Clone Technique

Raiton: Kage Bunshin no Jutsu - Lightning Release: Shadow Clone Technique

Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu - Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique

Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu - Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique

*original technique invented by me.

Japanese terms:

Aka-bō: "Red", but in a way you'd address a small boy.

kanchi-nin: Sensor/Perception Ninja

Oi-nin: Hunter/Tracking Ninja

Okā-sama: very formal and respectful way of saying "mom."

Tō-chan: very informal and familiar way of saying "dad."

Nami no Kuni: Land of Waves

Tsuchi no Kuni: Land of Earth

Mizu no Kuni: Land of Water

Kaminari no Kuni: Land of Lightning

Thanks to everyone for reading this chapter! And thanks to GarnetMonstrosity for beta-reading, as usual. Remember to Leave Kudos, Subscribe, and leave a Comment down below if you enjoyed!

Chapter 9: A Journey to Nami no Kuni

Notes:

Trying to get this over with ASAP, I don't like this arc very much

Kakashi woke slowly. His head felt like someone had cracked open his skull, slammed some stuff together in it, then closed it up with rusted nails. His muscles felt weak and sore, and his ribs felt like he'd pissed off Kushina on the absolute wrong day of the month.

Slowly, the memories of the battle returned to him, and he carefully opened his right eye. The ceiling was cracked and seemed to be rather rough. Kakashi tried to sit up, but only felt pain as he didn't move. Groaning loudly, he let his body relax a bit.

A few moments later, Sakura came running into the room. "Kakashi-sensei!" she said with a huge smile, "you're finally awake!" She walked up and knelt next to him. "You really scared, us. You know that, right? Naruto-kun was inconsolable— I had to use his whiskers against him again, and Uchiha-san won't stop needling him about it. And both will be upset that you woke up while they were gone."

"Gone?" Kakashi asked, "where are they?"

"Uchiha-san is off watching the bridge, he said he felt it was the least we could do in exchange for keeping you here," Sakura explained. "Naruto-kun ran off to try and find a way to scale the cliff face without chakra."

"Why would he want to go up there?" Kakashi asked, feeling like he was missing something rather important.

"Sensei..." Sakura said, looking down, "the Old City is up on that part of the island." The Old City? Of course, how could he have forgotten? Of course Naruto would get curious if it was right there. He'd wanted to visit the ruins of Uzushiogakure no Sato for years, but it seemed only now was he actually taking time to put it into actions.

"Sasuke-kun should be more careful," Kakashi said, "Zabuza will be up in about a week, depending on how long I've been out for, and his oi-nin accomplice is still out there."

"He knows, he's being careful," Sakura said, standing up. "I'll go and tell Tsunami-san that you're up. She makes some great miso soup!" Sakura ran off down the hallway, leaving Kakashi laying on the futon. Sighing, he tried once again to force himself into a sitting position, succeeding only through liberal use of his arms. He still felt horrifically exhausted, but at least now he could look around.

-D&D-

About two hours later, Sasuke returned with Tazuna. "Glad to see you're awake, sensei," the boy said, leaning against the wall. "I don't want to have to take on someone like Zabuza again without some Jōnin backup."

"Well, I'm happy you cared, Sasuke-kun," Kakashi said, attempting to smile with his eye. "Even if it was only to provide backup. Where's Naruto-kun?"

"Still in the woods. He should be back soon, though," Sasuke replied. As he finished saying that, rapid footsteps came by and into the house. "Speak of the devil and he shall appear," Sasuke muttered, as Naruto came running in and glomped Kakashi.

"Nii-san! You're okay!" Naruto cheered. Kakashi carefully wrapped an arm around the boy.

"Of course I'm okay, Naruto-kun," Kakashi said calmly, "now, what's this about you trying to get up to Uzu?" Naruto pulled back and blushed.

"Well, I heard from Tazuna-san that there used to be a path up the cliff, and I've been trying to find it," Naruto said.

"And what makes you think you can find it?" Kakashi asked him. Naruto simply smiled at him and jabbed a thumb at himself.

"Because I'm Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo! If anyone can find out how to get there, it's me!"

"Okay," Kakashi said, ruffling Naruto's hair, "rest up, we'll go and take a look at that in the morning."

-D&D-

When morning came, Kakashi limped his way through the woods with his crutches until they arrived a small clearing. "Sasuke-kun," Kakashi said, "Uzu probably has traps set up against it for Uchiha, like how they did against Hyūga. Therefore, it would be dangerous to both you and us to drag you up there. However, I have some training for you— do you know tree walking?"

"I know the concept, I've seen both Naruto and Bubblegum do it," Sasuke replied.

"Good, then press your feet to the bark and adjust the amount of chakra you use. Too little and you'll fall. Too much and you'll go flying off," Kakashi explained. "Well, hop to it. I'll be back later today, but I can't leave any Kage Bunshin here due to my chakra exhaustion— so I hope you are a fast learner." Kakashi turned and walked away slowly. "Ciao! Good luck, Sasuke-kun!"

Kakashi limped away from the clearing with his other two Genin in tow. After nearly half an hour of walking through the trees, they came to the cliff face. He could barely see up to the top— it was just a wall of pure smooth stone. Knowing just how Kushina was, Kakashi figured that the Uzumaki likely made it like that themselves to avoid infiltrators. The three agreed to split up and look for anything suspicious. About an hour and a half later, they did.

"Ne, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura called from her place about twenty feet up.

"Yes, Sakura-kun?" Kakashi said, craning his head to look up at her.

"I found a spiral up here! I think this might be what we needed!" she said. Kakashi nodded and walked to grab Naruto, who immediately ran up to investigate himself.

-D&D-

After staring at the spiral for about ten minutes, Naruto thought he figured out how to open it. It was a chakra seal, but not quite so simple— it needed chakra to be transferred through a medium, rather than directly as other seals did. Of course, it would take forever to get a seal together that could channel his chakra in an effective manner, so that plan was a bust.

"Wait," Sakura said, after explaining his idea to her, "why don't you just smear some blood on it? Wouldn't that do that same thing?" Naruto just stared at her.

Wow. I know shinobi are supposed to look underneath the underneath… but that seems so much simpler, Naruto thought. "Alright," he said, "let's try it out." Naruto pulled out a kunai and sliced across his palm lightly, before placing his palm on the spiral. The carving glowed briefly, before vanishing.

The air suddenly because heavy, as rock began to crack. Small rocks from the cliff face began to fall first, then larger and heavier ones; but all fell in a specific pattern. Ten minutes later, to the astonishment of the three observers, the fallen rocks had formed a perfect path up the cliff, complete with seals to hold the rocks together.

Kakashi in particular was glaring at the pathway up. "That is such bullshit," he said, not caring that he just swore in front of his Genin. Naruto found himself in agreement with his teacher— even he couldn't pull something like that off. Well, maybe he could, if you gave him a few decades.

Sakura was the first to start walking up the path. Naruto followed after her after a moment's hesitation. Kakashi brought up the rear. At the top of the cliff was a similar forest, with the remnants of an old road along the forest floor. Naruto took off running up said road, leaving both Sakura and Kakashi in the dust.

The forest and greenery around him seemingly faded as he ran, his vision focused solely on the road ahead of him. He thought he could vaguely hear his team calling out to him, but didn't think about it as he kept running. After some time of running — Naruto didn't keep track of how long it was for — the path went up a medium-sized hill. Before Naruto could reach the top, however, he screwed up his balance and tripped over his own feet, going right down on his face in a tumble. Great going, me!

-D&D-

Sakura stopped running after a minute and simply started strolling next to Kakashi as he limped along. It was hard to believe how untouched this area was. Vines and moss grew freely along the forest floor, with the exception of the road, which was likely kept free of plants by seals. After observing a bird flying from branch to branch for a few minutes, she turned to her limping teacher. There was a question she'd had, and wanted him to answer.

"Ne, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said, "what was it that you said to Zabuza? You said that if they showed up, it would make this mission S-ranked?"

"Ah," Kakashi said looking at the ground, "that would be a jinchūriki. I hope you never have to face one. They are easily the most dangerous thing a shinobi could ever realistically encounter."

"But… what are they?" Sakura asked, pressing on.

Kakashi sighed loudly, and looked down at his feet, shaking his head. Sakura looked back at him, worriedly. "I can't give specifics," the man said after a moment, "because much of the information is extremely classified. S-rank at minimum, for most of it. A jinchūriki is a person that has one of the nine bijū sealed inside of them. They essentially act as a container— holding the bijū and preventing them from terrorizing the world.

"They were created around the founding of the villages. Jinchūriki act as a village's insurance. Their last resort. They keep the balance of power by being capable of taking on entire armies single-handed if they are unleashed. It was supposed to prevent future wars… a lot of good that did. Shodai-sama gave two bijū to each of the other Kage. One of the jinchūriki of Sunagakure defected to Takigakure during the Second Shinobi World War, but otherwise it's remained the same since the beginning."

"But," Sakura said, "why did Shodai-sama only keep one?" Kakashi chuckled at her question.

"Ah, why indeed? In fact, why didn't he just keep all of them for Konoha? To be honest, we'll never really know," Kakashi admitted. "Shodai-sama was very powerful, but he was also a very kind man, from what Sandaime-sama tells me."

"So, who has what bijū? Or is that classified?" Sakura asked.

"Keep asking like that," Kakashi said, "and I can tell you a bunch of stuff without technically breaking the rules. Just vague enough that I can answer. To answer your question, each bijū is classified by the number of tails that they have— from one to nine.

"The Ichibi no Tanuki is possessed by Sunagakure. The Nibi is possessed by Kumogakure. The Sanbi…" Kakashi trailed off, "the Sanbi no Kyodaigame… is held by Kirigakure. The Yonbi and Gobi are held by Iwagakure… or at least they were. The Rokubi is held by Kirigakure. The Nanabi has been held by Takigakure, ever since the Second War. The Hachibi is held by Kumogakure. Konoha… well, there's only one left."

"The Kyūbi no Yōko," Sakura muttered, hand over her mouth. "So, the attack twelve years ago-"

"Most information on it is classified," Kakashi said, "but we had a jinchūriki before the attack… she died protecting the village."

"And if Konoha didn't have their jinchūriki anymore, then the rest of the Five Great Shinobi Nations would have attacked us, hoping to humble us after the Third War, especially after Yondaime-sama's death," Sakura muttered. "Therefore, it's improbable that we don't have one anymore— but the fact that their name hasn't been revealed likely means that they are young, or were at the time of the attack. Knowing their destructive potential, they would almost certainly be press-ganged into the Academy, if they didn't want to become a shinobi. It's unlikely they wouldn't be revealed after they became a shinobi, since Konoha would want to show itself off. Sandaime-sama would almost certainly be forced push through them becoming a shinobi as soon as they reasonably could.

"The problem is, the youngest person in our grade was N-" Sakura stopped herself, then froze in her tracks. Her eyes widened as she put the data together— the village's hatred of Naruto, the nickname 'Akuma-gaki,' his ability to greatly overpower the simplest of jutsu, and the horrific control of said power. It all made sense. "Naruto-kun..." she said, clasping her wrist over her heart. "Naruto-kun is Konoha's jinchūriki, isn't he?" Sakura asked.

"I can neither confirm nor deny that," Kakashi said, walking past her. That was all the confirmation she needed. So, her best friend was a jinchūriki— that was certainly news. Not news that she could share, but still news nonetheless. It didn't change her thoughts on him— so he had a chakra demon locked away in his gut. Both she and him had sealed and unsealed enough paint and feathers to cover the Hokage monument several times over, so it was obvious enough how it worked.

"It's not like it really matters," Sakura said, walking back up next to Kakashi. "Naruto-kun is Naruto-kun. He's him, not his… prisoner? Tenant? Whatever, he's still him."

"That's very mature of you, Sakura-kun," Kakashi said, "though I should tell you that talking about it is forbidden by decree of Sandaime-sama. It's punishable by, at minimum, a heavy fine— at maximum, people have been taken to T&I or even outright killed by ANBU for breaking this law."

"Why would I talk about it?" Sakura asked, "I want to protect— Naruto-kun!" she saw the boy laying on his back halfway up the hill, and immediately took off running to him. Tapping his shoulder lightly, Sakura felt her breathing get much faster. Come on, please be okay! she thought rapidly. After a few more taps, the boy groaned loudly. Sakura smiled to herself and hugged the boy tightly.

"Sakura-chan~," the boy whined, "it's hard to breathe when you hug me like that."

"Naruto-kun, what am I feeling right now?" Sakura asked.

"Fear, sadness, and worry are the strongest, but you're feeling a lot of things at the moment," Naruto said.

"Then you should know to shut up, right now," she said.

"Ah… right," the boy muttered, finally reaching around and hugging her back. Sakura stopped paying attention and just focused on the boy in her arms.

Well, his beating heart is a greater comfort to me than anything has been in this mission so far, Sakura thought. The only thing that could bring me more comfort would be the news that Sōka-ba took a long walk off a short pier— with stones in her pockets.

"Oi, Oi! I hate to break up such a touching moment," Kakashi called, "but we're here!"

-D&D-

A maze of and wood. That's what Naruto could sum up about the Old City. Of course, the remains of Uzushiogakure no Sato were much more complex than that. The river flowed down the middle of the ruins, but there were still many buildings and pillars with large spirals that Naruto could see. Squinting, he could see other symbols as well, but none very clear. His heart pounding in anticipation, Naruto was the first to run down the hill. Sakura followed right behind him. Kakashi brought up the rear as they walked down the path.

As they reached the gate, Naruto stopped, motioning for the others to do the same. "Booby traps," Naruto said, walking up to one of the spirals at the edge of the gate. He reopened the wound on his hand and pressed it into the spiral. It then began to glow blue, and Naruto felt the air get lighter.

Barrier seals, he thought, but even more efficient than Konoha's. If I can find the designs for these, that would be of immense help to the village! Looking back at the spiral, the blue glow began to subside slightly. He walked passed it and motioned for the others to follow him.

"The barrier will only stay down for a minute, tops. I can open it again from the inside, but I'm not sure anything good would happen if we walk into it," Naruto said, as they walked into the ghost town. Inside the village was an eerie paradise, untouched by nature, but obviously worn down by years of non-use. At each intersection, Naruto would crane his neck to see anything of significance. Whipping out his notebook and a pencil, Naruto began scribbling down what he saw.

After wandering for around ten minutes, Kakashi pointed out a building that they passed. "That looks kind of like something Kushina-chan told me about, once," he said. "I think she said it was some kind of armoury… I say we check it out."

"Why not?" Naruto said with a shrug. He'd found several cool things, but nothing big yet. Inside was something very simple, a small room filled with what looked like storage seals engraved on walls, but with other components as well. Naruto walked up to one and gave it a look over.

Let's see… standard storage seal, but with a special addit… ah! "It's a blood storage seal! It'll only open for the person that it's bonded to, or to a direct descendent of them," Naruto said. "It says their names above each one, so we can look at them as long as we can." With that, the three of them broke off and began looking at the different names on the wall. Most names Naruto couldn't recognize, or were insignificant… until he saw one particular name.

"Hasu Seidai?" Naruto asked, "why does that name sound familiar?" He stared at the kanji for a bit longer, before rapid footsteps came up behind him. He turned around to see Sakura standing there with a pale face.

"Ojii-chan..." Sakura muttered, trembling lightly, "he died during the Third Shinobi World War— he led an attack on an Iwa position in an attempt to steal intel. Only one member of his squad made it back, but they got the info on the Iwa supply lines."

"That's right," Kakashi interjected, "it revealed that their supply lines went via Kannabi Bridge, near Kusagakure. My team got the mission to destroy it."

"You told me that one," Naruto said, looking down, "one of your teammates died there— he gave you his sharingan in the hopes that it would protect you before his death. You still talk to him at the memorial stone— along with the other one and otō-sama."

"Who knows," Kakashi shrugged, going back to the other part of the room, "I guess I'm just sentimental like that. Also, be careful of the audience, Naruto-kun." Naruto turned and looked at Sakura, who was still staring at her grandfather's name.

"Your father is Yondaime-sama?" Sakura asked quietly. Naruto simply looked down and nodded. "It makes sense then, how you know Jiraiya-sama and why Kakashi-sensei knows your mother. The 'friends' line didn't exactly add up, especially with what kā-chan said about Yondaime-sama and Kushina-san."

Sakura took a shuriken and sliced lightly into her thumb, before rubbing it on the seal. A small basket appeared in a puff of smoke in front of the seal, covered in a tarp. Naruto walked over to see as she opened the tarp. Inside was a small set of storage scrolls, a genin uniform with a mesh shirt, a hitai-ate, and several inrō filled with shuriken and kunai.

"Wow! That's so cool, Sakura-chan!" Naruto cheered. "That uniform would look awesome on you, actually!"

"Uh," Sakura blushed, "thanks, Naruto-kun." The redhead chuckled lightly at that. Suddenly, a loud SLAM rang out from the other side of the room. Naruto spun quickly to look— a trap door was open on the ground, and Kakashi-sensei was nowhere in sight.

"Aw, crap!" Naruto ran over to the trap door and shot several chains straight down the hole, until they successfully found the falling item and wrapped around it. Carefully retracting them while keeping the shape, he slowly pulled the silver-haired man out from the hole he had gotten himself into.

Kakashi, upon touching the ground, shook his head rapidly. "Should have known," he said, "there are certainly traps against the Uchiha— but it checks for the sharingan, not for the blood itself."

"Nii-san, why are you using your sharingan when you're so low on chakra?" Naruto asked. Kakashi suddenly froze.

"Um, let's just keep checking these seals and see if we find anything good," Kakashi said with a wave of his hand, obviously eager to change the subject. Each seal they found, it was mostly names that Naruto couldn't recognize. In the process of looking through them, Sakura found three more seals belonging to her ancestors, each containing similar items— one contained a Jōnin vest and uniform, but the other two were Genin uniforms. After a look at another name he didn't recognize, he found one that he partially did— Uzumaki Jun. On a whim, Naruto smeared some blood on the seal, and from it emerged a much larger basket that what had come from Sakura's. Within it was a similar standard Genin uniform, armoured gloves with the Uzushio spiral, a hitai-ate, several weapons and storage scrolls, and one extra rolled up scroll.

On a whim, Naruto opened the extra scroll. The only thing it contained was Jun's name. Really? What was this supposed to do, act as a business card while he was out murdering people? Frustrated, Naruto grabbed the scroll to roll back up, when a drop of blood from his still cut finger landed on the scroll. The blood sank into the paper, disappearing, before the scroll itself began to change. Jun's name was pushed to the top as lines traced down, with more names appearing on the paper, until they stopped at one— Uzumaki Naruto. Scroll that knows my name. That's totally not creepy at all. The scroll was a family tree of his Uzumaki heritage, going to his mother, Uzumaki Kushina, her father, Uzumaki Nagisa, his father, Uzumaki Ren, and Ren's father, Uzumaki Ashina. Shaking it, he tried to get more, but nothing came of it.

Maybe if I add someone else's blood to it, it'll work? Naruto thought. But I don't know any other Uzumaki… damn! At least he could tell the name of his grandfather great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather. He'd read of the name Uzumaki Ashina before… he was the Clan Head of the Uzumaki during the founding of Konoha. The Shodai Hokage had tried to convince him to move the people of Uzushio to Konoha after the founding of Kirigakure, but he'd refused and built up Uzushio as Konoha's ally. It cost the Clan its life when the alliance of Kirigakure, Kumogakure, Iwagakure, and Umigakure allied to get rid of the village that had cost so many lost lives during the First Shinobi World War with their fūinjutsu. Then they had promptly turned on each other over dividing up the loot taken from the village. Umigakure's Village Head then declared himself Kage, and it turned the Second War into the free-for-all it became.

"Hey, it's getting dark out, we should head back to the house now!" Sakura called. Naruto looked out the door, and saw that it was indeed much darker now. "Naruto-kun! Kakashi-sensei! Let's go!" After looking at one last seal, Naruto turned and ran to Sakura, with Kakashi limping behind them, having unsealed a spare pair of crutches. As they left, Naruto felt a pull back into the city in the back of his mind, but pushed it to the side. He could always come back and investigate that. That fountain in the middle had looked particularly beautiful, after all.

-D&D-

*the next day*

Naruto yawned loudly, as Sakura next to him did the same. Of course, since Kakashi was practically bedridden from bringing out his sharingan the previous day, the two of them were left to guard Tazuna as Sasuke continued to practice tree climbing. Of course, there wasn't much to do, so Naruto just sat around spinning the water in his balloon.

"Why are only the two of you here, again? Why can't the kid with the weird hair help guard me, then train in the evening?" Tazuna asked them.

"Because he needs to get that skill done, stat," Sakura said, "once he learns that, we can get him started on how to walk and/or skate on water. That skill could be quite important— it was for me, after all."

"Right, you skated on the water back over to the shore after hitting that sword guy," Tazuna admitted. A loud snapping sound rang out as part of the crane gave way unexpectedly. Quickly, Naruto shot out four chakra chains, wrapping them around the pieces of the crane.

"Suiton: Suiben!" Sakura's voice called, as water rose from the ground and formed into a long arm, wrapping around the falling material that the crane had held and yanking it back onto the bridge. Once she had done so, Naruto watched her dash across the bridge and use Suiton: Suiben again, this time grabbing a man who had been hiding behind a crane.

Quickly setting his hands into the Mi seal, Naruto ran up the Sakura's whip and slapped the bottom of it. "Raiton: Denkō!" he yelled, an arc of lightning travelling from him hand into the whip of water and up to the trapped man. It electrocuted the man, to a loud scream from the victim, before Sakura deposited him on the ground. Giving Sakura a quick high five in congratulations, he walked up to the shaking man on the ground.

"Now, you are going to talk," Naruto said, grabbing the man by his collar. "And don't make me ask twice!"

-D&D-

*that evening*

Footsteps clashing against the tree, Sasuke ran up the trunk yet again, only to slip off at the last moment again. Scoffing, he marked his spot on the tree and fell back to the ground. Come on! he thought, I can do this! I see Naruto and Bubblegum do this all the time! Too much chakra and I shoot off! Too little and I slide back down! Panting heavily, he crouched back down for one last run up the tree. Breaking into a run, he felt his feet stick as he ran up, further and further, going right past his previous record. Yes! Sasuke thought. But those thoughts quickly soured as his foot slipped yet again and fell back. He slashed the bark with his kunai as he went tumbling down. Oh shit. Then everything went dark.

-D&D-

Meanwhile, in town, Sakura and Naruto were guarding Tazuna as he went to the market to buy food.

"Seriously, he made me ask twice! He couldn't just say 'I was offered a small fortune to sabotage the bridge?' It's like he wanted me to throw him to his doom!" Naruto said. Sakura shook her head in response. He'd been going on about that all day. Yes, it was cool that they actually managed a basic Denkō Ninjutsu, but all he cared about was the fact that the guy had made him ask the question twice. Then he had bawled out the answer, and gotten thrown off the bridge with the power of Naruto's Fūton: Reppūshō.

Unfortunately, with Kakashi unconscious, the three of them were forced to split responsibilities— Sasuke had continued trying to walk up a tree, with limited success. All over the roads of the village, there were people in rags that could scarcely be called clothes. Most of them were huddled against walls or ducked inside alleys like street children back in Konoha. The children that she could see were clothed even worse than the poor kids who lived in the Red Light district that she occasionally saw peaking out when she had to run through that part of the village quickly to get somewhere.

Whoever designed Konoha so that the fastest way from the Uzushio District to the Business District was through the Red Light District should be hung from the nearest sour apple tree, Sakura thought.

-D&D-

Back in Konoha, the Hokage sneezed harshly while at his desk, before shaking his head and returning to his copy of Icha Icha Violence. It was his favourite chapter, after all. He'd even just gotten a letter from Jiraiya announcing that the next book would be published soon: Icha Icha Domination. Hiruzen didn't know that Jiraiya even knew about that subject, but he'd certainly be reading it, if only to see how accurate he portrayed it. If the boy had gotten it ghostwritten, he was gonna interrogate out of him whomever wrote it. Maybe that could keep him away from the office when someone inevitably brought up education reform again.

-D&D-

A boy ran as fast as he could out of a shop on the left, labelled 'butcher.' A man with a cleaver ran out after him, but was unable to catch him. "Stop! Thief!" the man yelled. But the boy was too fast, and vanished into the alley on the opposite side of the street before anyone could think to help. Sakura looked down at the ground. She remembered a few times when Naruto had had to steal food just to make ends meet without having to eat only instant ramen for four days in a row. While she did feel sorry for the store owner, she also felt sad for the unfortunate child who was so down on his luck that he was forced to rob someone for food.

"It's terrible, what Gatō has done to this place," Tazuna said. "Everyone is so poor, theft is almost a must for survival, for anyone. From shop owners to the homeless."

The small group continued walking until they reached a small shop. Inside was a small counter with an old cash register and practically empty shelves, with vegetables that looked only days away from expiring. There's practically nothing here! This is horrible! Leaning forward, Sakura tried to get a closer look at the one carrot to make sure there was no mold on it. Then, she felt a hand brush her butt.

"Pervert!" Sakura screamed loudly. She then spun around rapidly with a roundhouse kick to the unsuspecting man's groin. As the man fell, Naruto suddenly fished a kunai out, stabbing the man in the hand that had touched her, before slashing his arm. Naruto then spun the man around and put the kunai to his neck.

"Naruto-kun!" Sakura yelled quickly. Naruto stopped his motion, but continued to pin the man.

"Kid, please don't kill the man! We're losing enough people as it is!" Tazuna said.

"I don't know if you were paying attention, jiji, but this thing just molested Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled. "I guess the dementia is kicking in a bit early, ne?!"

"Please," the man muttered, "please, I- I didn't mean to-"

Naruto shot a chakra chain from his shoulder and smacked the man upside the head. "No one said you could talk," he muttered.

"Naruto-kun, just let him go. We need to head back," Sakura said. It's not that Naruto wasn't justified, he certainly was. They were just in a rush— and if the man wasn't lying, it was an accident. Even if it wasn't, the hand stab was plenty punishment, and incentive to not do it again.

"But Sakura-chan-" the boy said. Naruto's face looked more sad than angry.

"Naruto. Let him go," Sakura said, more forceful than the previous time. She didn't drop his honorific often, but when she did Naruto knew to listen. The boy looked down and nodded, removing the kunai from the man's neck and putting it back in his inrō.

He glared at the man. "Get out of my sight. If you ever come near Sakura-chan again, I won't hesitate to put one in your throat. Now go." The man ran out of the shop clutching his arm. The rest of the trip was spent in silence, with the exception of when Naruto gave a small child a bowl of Miso Ramen from one of his scrolls to eat.

-D&D-

When they finally got back, Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami, made a simple curry out of what they managed to get. It was surprisingly tasty, and all of them ate it up quickly— with the exception of Sasuke, who hadn't shown up. For Naruto, it was quite relaxing, after the great annoyance that was their trip into town. Still, he thought, I'm still annoyed. Maybe I should head out into the woods to cool off— Sasuke could probably use some tips on how to tree-walk, given that he hasn't come back yet. I wonder if he can see the chakra I mold as I climb the tree— if he can, that would make this far easier.

Placing his hands into a Tori seal, he rested his head back on the chair. "Fūton: Soyokaze no Jutsu," he said simply. A gentle gust of wind then cleared out the dust in the room, mostly toward the edges. Naruto stood up and stretched. "I wanna go and find Sasuke-san. He should be mostly done tree walking by now."

"Good plan," Kakashi said, "I'll be able to do light work tomorrow, so I can actually watch him train and give him any more pointers."

"Once he finally gets up that damn tree, then we can finally have the whole team watching the bridge!" Sakura said with a smile.

"We only have a few more days until the bridge is done, after all," Tazuna said, clasping his finger. "If you'd prefer to leave, you can do so. You've done more than enough, even when I didn't deserve it."

"No point," Kakashi said, fiddling with his glove. "There's only a few days left, like you said. We'll leave once the bridge is finished, as agreed. And, of course, your agreement?"

"Yes, of course. I'll be sending installments to Konoha from customs and tolls from the bridge as soon as people start using it," Tazuna nodded.

"Why did you even make that agreement? It'll be pointless in the end," the small boy at the end of the table muttered, "no one goes against Gatō and lives."

"Meh," Naruto said. "Killing me is more trouble than it would be worth. I die and the whole island blows up— Gatō can't make any money off of an island that doesn't exist. It would be very bad for business, 'specially considering how much money he seems to have spent trying to hold onto his monopoly here."

"Shut up!" the boy yelled, "How can you be so relaxed! You're gonna die if you stay here! Best you run now before he catches up— maybe you can live for a few years! No one can beat Gatō's men, no matter how hard you train."

"Well, I'm not like you guys. I'm a shinobi of the Uzumaki Clan," Naruto said. "Sasuke-san is a shinobi of the Uchiha. Sakura-chan is a great shinobi from our village. And Nii-san can beat anything those guys throw at us, once he's healthy again. We'll do our job, and do it right, 'ttebayo!"

"It makes me sick! You just come here and act like you know everything, when you know nothing of this place!" the boy shouted, tears falling from the emotion. "You just act all happy-go-lucky, and think everyone will love you for it! So stop acting like you know everything about it! You don't know anything about pain!"

The whole room went silent, except for a plate dropping to the ground, shattering. Hearing only his own heartbeat, Naruto let the legs of his chair smack back into the ground, before promptly grabbing it by the back and smashing it to the ground, splintering it into several small pieces. He glared at the small boy, his arms trembling, fists clenched, and tears beginning to fall. Before he could lose it, though, he turned around and ran, ignoring the calls of his name behind him. Naruto ran into the room that Team 7 had been allotted and slammed the door, drawing a quick gravity seal on the door that would make it nigh-impossible to open. Unless someone happened to have Namekuji-hime on hand, they wouldn't be coming through without his permission.

-D&D-

Later that night, Naruto quietly slipped out of his room and down to the door. I need to cool off a bit— I almost lost it in there… I haven't had any incidents in years! Stepping out the door, he walked along the wooden boards, enjoying the spray of the ocean waves that gave the island its newer name. It was at least a nice distraction from his current woes… and the fact that he was still making no progress on getting the stupid balloon to pop.

As he strolled, he heard sniffling and crying. Curious, Naruto walked over to the source of it. Sticking his back to the wall, he peaked around the corner he heard the sound from. There, he saw the small boy from earlier curled up in a ball, sobbing his eyes out. Naruto looked down at the dock. It's just like when I found Sakura. He shook his head. He's different, though. He had a family here that loves and supports him, and obviously want to help him through it. Sakura's parents were gone when I found her, she had no one— then I helped her and she did. Well… at least she had parents.

Deciding what to do, then and there, Naruto nodded to himself. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he walked silently over to the sobbing boy. Carefully sitting next to him, he spoke. "You know," the boy jumped at Naruto's voice, "if you're gonna sit here and cry forever, you might as well just jump in." Naruto said, pointing at the water. "It'd be a lot less painful than wrecking yourself with sadness every day."

"I'm not gonna drown myself," the boy spat, "who would even think of doing something like that!?"

"I have. A few times," Naruto admitted, quietly. "Sometimes, when the pain became too much to bear, I thought about just ending it. It was stupid, I acknowledge that, but the thought did cross my mind. It just seemed so hopeless." Gritting his teeth, Naruto pulled his sensing off of Sakura and let it spread out, as he so rarely could. Naruto felt from the small boy grief, anger, confusion, and sadness. As if those weren't obvious, already. Why do I care about this little shit? He doesn't even try!

"Hope is dumb. People can hope, but the weak can never fight against the strong. Hoping will just make it hurt longer. If I just accept that no one can beat Gatō, it'll pass quicker. You can't possibly understand that pain."

"I guess, in a sense, you're right," Naruto said, "I never met my parents. Otō-sama died protecting our village against a demon on the day of my birth. Okā-sama died right next to him— they found her wrapped around me, trying to protect me. But I certainly understand the pain you feel.

"I was the son of two heroes, yet they tossed me in an orphanage instead of letting me stay with either of my godparents. The matrons at the orphanage hated me. They thought I was the demon in human form, since I was found where otō-sama killed it. After one of them disappeared in the night after mistreating me, they made it more subtle. I had a curfew that I had to be back by, I always had to stay in a room, I wasn't allowed to play with the other kids. Whenever prospective parents came by to adopt children, I was always locked in my room. The one time a family did show interest, they claimed that they'd lost my paperwork, and they adopted another child instead. I was always let out last for dinner, only being able to eat what was left.

"I ran away many times. At one time, when I was walking around during a storm, an old man who runs a ramen shop brought me inside, dried me off, and gave me a bowl of ramen. Ever since, I've gone there as often as I'm able. Even then, people glare at me when I just pass them by. They'd cross the street just to get away from me while I walked. They'd grab their kids and leave when I came to the playground. The only break I get it the Uzushio District of Konoha. The people from Uzushio settled there after the war, and have their own rules."

"So that's where Uzu went..." the boy muttered, further burying his face from view. "Why do you still try, then? You should know that living doesn't mean anything. I just exist because I don't have to see tō-chan yet."

"You're right. Life doesn't mean anything on its own. That's why I give it meaning— my friends, the people around me, the buildings I like to look at, and even the food I eat. I decide what life means to me, not anyone else," Naruto said. "The people of this land aren't able to choose what it means— Gatō prevents them from doing so. That's why he has to be stopped."

"But no one can—" the boy began.

"You're right," Naruto interrupted, "no one can. But you all aren't just one person. With enough people, even someone as powerful as Gatō would fall."

The boy looked up a bit at Naruto. "D-Do you really think that? If enough people stood against him at once, we could fight him?"

"Of course. Gatō isn't a shinobi or a samurai. He's an old man with money. I've only seen him hire a single nuke-nin, so I assume he's stingy. He likes to make examples, but can't keep doing so forever. If enough people stand up and refuse to fear him, he'd probably cut his losses and run for it," Naruto explained. "Of course, if you're lucky, there is always the chance of a more… permanent… solution."

"And… what is that more permanent solution?" the boy asked. Naruto frowned and looked down at him.

"Just bring some rope. Someone else will take care of it," Naruto said, purposefully cryptic. The boy nodded. Naruto could feel his emotions starting to recede a bit. The boy's face at least reflected some hope— or at least that's what Naruto thought. He wasn't great with facial expressions.

"Thanks, I guess. I didn't really think about strength of numbers. Also, my name is Inari, so stop calling me 'kid,'" Inari said.

"Well, then, get some sleep, Inari-kun. Tomorrow, your grandfather has a bridge to finish. Once it's done, the guy will finally show his face, more than likely. That's your chance to attack," Naruto said.

"Right!" Inari said, jumping to his feet and running inside.

Naruto shook his head. How the hell did that work? I wasn't even trying, but he just responded well to it. Rather than continuing to wonder about how the hell he actually pulled that off, he simply hopped off the dock and stood on the surface of the water, letting the waves splash his face. It was far more calming than he'd been expecting. Perhaps this place had some hope for it, after all.

-D&D-

The first thing Sasuke noticed when he woke up was his head hurting. The second was the birds chirping around him. The third was the hand shaking his shoulder. "Wake up," a voice called, "you'll catch a cold if you sleep out here." Groaning lightly, Sasuke opened his eyes. Above him was a… boy, with waist-length hair. At least he was used to long haired effeminate males from when the Uchiha were still alive.

"Ow," Sasuke muttered, rubbing his head. At least he wasn't concussed. That would have been difficult to fix on a mission. Though, why his team hadn't come and gotten him, he didn't know. Either they just didn't care, or thought he was fine. Or Naruto had checked up on him and decided it would be funny to leave him in the woods. He would not put that past the redheaded prankster.

"So, what would a person be doing in the forest with a basket of medicinal herbs?" Sasuke asked, as polite and formal as he could. Said boy across from him looked down at the baskets, then back at him.

"My… father… was injured in a fight. I came to grab some herbs to speed along his recovery," he said. "Would you mind helping me, Shinobi-san?" Biting his lip, Sasuke was about to refuse. But then he thought about it. He really had nothing better to do, and wasn't in the mood to knock himself unconscious falling from a tree again. So, reluctantly, he sighed and agreed.

For at least an hour, he discreetly used his sharingan to find the herbs that the boy had been looking for. They weren't hard to find, they were more or less just hidden in plain sight. Others herbs were just sticking out of the ground in an easy to access location that was on the other side of where the boy had found him. Sasuke didn't keep track of the time, but the boy was very helpful in telling him which herbs did what as he found them. Of course, a simple flash from his sharingan engraved those in his memory forever— one could never tell when they might come in handy.

After some time, the boy simply smiled at him. "Okay, I think I've gathered enough herbs. But… I must ask, what is a shinobi such as yourself doing out here in the woods?"

It was an innocent enough question, and it's not like it would reveal anything crucial. "Training," Sasuke said, crossing his legs. Of course, it was a bit awkward, but at least he could easily reach his inrō if he needed to make a quick getaway. Otherwise, if someone snuck up on them, then it could get dicey.

"But… you already look strong. Why would you need to train?" the boy asked, looking down at the ground.

Sasuke looked down at the ground as well. He fought hard to keep his eyes open. If he closed them, all he would see was the image of Itachi standing over their parents bodies, the bloody sword in his hand and his mangekyō sharingan activated. What a joke, Sasuke thought, I'll never fight the way he wants me to. He just wants to lure me into a trap to finish the job! Maybe add my eyes to whatever sick collection he's keeping with the rest of the Clan's.

"I need to get stronger," Sasuke finally answered, "just being strong isn't enough. I need to be the absolute best that I can possibly be. I always need to be pushing my limits."

"And is that strength for your own sake, or someone else's?" the boy asked. Sasuke sat still and thought about that question. It was strangely difficult. He wanted to get stronger and avenge the Uchiha, so he guessed it was for someone else's sake, but also for his own.

"That's a difficult question to answer," Sasuke answered honestly. He wasn't going to go into any further detail. If it would satisfy this boy's curiosity, then so be it. These things were common knowledge back in Konoha— and probably in the other villages as well, knowing how efficient each village's spy network was.

The boy seemed to be looking down and remembering something. It was like how Naruto would often describe him doing. Do I really look like that when I remember the past?! Sasuke thought.

"When a person is protecting something that is precious to them, that is when their true strength comes out," the boy said, eyes hardened. Sasuke was about to respond, but then thought about the words. It made sense. Kakashi had fought hardest when he was trying to protect them from Zabuza. Naruto always fought hardest when he was afraid Bubblegum might be in danger. He himself had fought harder, when he'd protected Naruto from Hana-jukeisha.

"I guess… you may have a point there," Sasuke mumbled. The boy smiled and nodded. He picked up the basket and walked away.

"I hope we'll meet again somewhere. You'll become strong, I know it," the boy said. "You're also probably the first person I met that didn't mistake me for a girl at first. I always meant to cut my hair, but never ended up getting around to it."

Sasuke simply sat there and thought about the boy's words some more. In every instance of a person being at their strongest, they'd been protecting something. Yondaime-sama defeated the Kyūbi no Yōko while protecting Konoha— as well as his wife and son, if the journal that okā-sama left is correct. The Sannin always defeated their enemies while guarding each other's backs… protecting each other.

As he pondered the thoughts, a hand tapped his shoulder. Looking up, Sasuke saw Naruto frowning down at him.

"Sasuke-san! What're you still doing out here! Come on, we need to go and eat food~!" Naruto whined. Shaking his head at the boy's antics, Sasuke accepted the hand. Naruto kept glancing at him, but Sasuke assumed it was his natural worry. At least someone cared enough to check up on him. Then again, maybe Bubblegum had wanted to, but Naruto volunteered first. It didn't matter to Sasuke either way, though.

Notes:

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu - Shadow Clone Technique

Suiton: Suiben - Water Release: Water Whip

Raiton: Denkō* - Lighting Release: Lightning

Fūton: Reppūshō - Wind Release: Gale Palm

Fūton: Soyokaze no Jutsu* - Wind Release: (Gentle) Breeze Technique

Namekuji-hime - Slug Princess (aka, Senju Tsunade)

Jukeisha - suffix meaning "convict," someone convicted of a crime

*Original Jutsu created by me

Thanks for reading this chapter! It's un-beta'd right now, but that should change soon. Comment below and leave kudos, I'll see you next chapter!

Chapter 10: Nami no Kuni, Conclusion

Notes:

Finishing the Arc now, getting this out of Land of Waves, finally.

It was nightfall by the time Sasuke finally reached the top of the tree. Naruto had given him some tips, and recommended using the Hitsuji hand seal to guide his chakra if he was still having issues. Sasuke didn't understand why Naruto hadn't simply told him about that in the beginning— but then again, he didn't understand much about Naruto, anyway. Sure, he had a bit more insight after the events of that morning, but the last Uzumaki was every bit as confusing as that stone tablet under the Naka Shrine.

I've awakened the sharingan now, Sasuke thought, maybe it has something on it that will help me defeat him? Whether he meant his brother or Naruto at that moment, he never decided, before climbing back down the tree. He didn't stop on his way back to the house, where he simply pushed open the door with a satisfied smirk on his face. "I made it to the top of the tree, finally. I didn't even need the Hitsuji seal to do it," he announced.

"Very good, Sasuke-kun!" Kakashi said, nodding at him. "Starting tomorrow, all of us will be guarding the bridge! It'll only be a couple more days at most until the bridge is completed, after all."

"Yes, indeed," Tazuna confirmed. "There is little work left to be done. Once the bridge is completed, goods can flow across it. Gatō may wish to destroy it, of course, and I expect him to try. But we can take care of that later. I expect him to at least try to recoup from his losses before trying again. That gives us valuable time, which we will use. If we suspect something is wrong, we would likely send for a team from Konoha— and have the money to pay for a B or A-ranked mission this time."

"Of course," Kakashi said, "you likely won't have someone as nice as me next time. Make sure you inform them up front about the monetary situation, they can set you up with some credit that you can pay back."

"That won't be a problem, of course. You've been very helpful, Shinobi-san," Tazuna said, bowing his head.

"Right then!" Naruto yelled, jumping up. "Let's get some rest and then do what we came here to do!"

"Naruto-kun! Not so loud!" Sakura said, grabbing the boy by his jacket sleeve.

"S-Sorry, Sakura-chan!" Naruto stuttered, not quite so loud this time. A slight blush also adorned the boy's face. Sasuke didn't understand what the relationship between those two was, and he honestly hoped he never did— it was troublesome enough putting up with them. Great, now I'm starting to sound like Shikamaru.

-D&D-

The next morning, the group woke up quickly. It was, after all, the first day that all four of them would be guarding the bridge together. As they walked through the village, several people waved at Tazuna, who waved back. Naruto shook his head, but smiled all the same. He was obviously some kind of inspiration to them, and it was good for him to embrace the role.

As they approached the bridge, Naruto noticed that there wasn't any noise. That was weird, as several workers always arrived early and got the crane moving so they could grease it down easier. Then Kakashi threw his arm out suddenly. That's when Naruto saw the first worker unconscious, then the rest came into view.

"Take Tazuna and head back to the village, now!" Kakashi growled out. As they went to do just that, a thick fog began to roll in from the water. "Crap! Never mind then, get in a defensive formation around him! Protect each other, and do not lose sight of each other!"

Naruto quickly flew through seals, before clapping his hands. "Fūton: Reppūshō!" he called. A gust of wind blew out around him, briefly extinguishing the fog around them, but it came back after a few seconds.

"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu!" Zabuza's voice called from the distance. Kakashi jumped backwards just as the massive dragon smashed into the bridge. The dragon broke into a torrent of water that splashed all over the centre of the bridge. "You think I didn't learn from last time?" the voice called out, seemingly from all directions, "now that I know you have a Fūton user, Kakashi, I've adjusted the fog a bit. It won't be so easy this time!" Kakashi ducked, and a sword swiped right over his head, grazing the top of his hair.

"Nii-san! Kick his ass!" Naruto called, pumping his fist in the air.

"Don't be so sure!" the nuke-nin called out, before five copies of him rose from the ground around them.

"You just had to jinx it, didn't you, Naruto?!" Sasuke called out to him. Said boy fished a kunai out of his inrō and held it in a reverse grip.

"Oh, shut up, Sasuke-san! Just kill these clones so we can—" Naruto hadn't even finished his sentence before Sasuke was standing back in his previous position, and all the clones fell to water around them. "Show off!" he called.

"And? The clones are gone, aren't they?" Sasuke said.

"Oh-ho. These genin seem to be even better than I'd expected," Zabuza intoned. "Take care of them, Haku."

"Yes, Zabuza-sama!" the voice Naruto recognized as the fake oi-nin said. Knowing it wouldn't help him in the mist, Naruto closed his eyes and took his sensing off Sakura. As it expanded, he could feel all of them, and could sense their rough location in relation to him— except for those within a certain distance, that he could sense completely. Suddenly, the oi-nin, Haku, dashed straight for them.

"Move! Sakura-chan, stay with Tazuna-san! Sasuke, back me up!" Naruto called. Two calls of "Right!" and "Why do I have to stay back, Naruto-kun?!" answered him. Naruto rolled his eyes and jumped up, throwing a kunai at Haku.

"Just trust me on this, Sakura-chan!" he called, as he heard the kunai clang off of something in front of the oi-nin. "I've got it!" As the oi-nin approached him, Naruto bounced back, and Sasuke ran in front of him, kunai drawn.

-D&D-

As soon as Sasuke saw Naruto jump back, he rushed forward. He could track the sound of the kunai with his ears, even if that wasn't the best weapon to use in the mist. It didn't matter, as following the sound brought him straight to the boy Zabuza called 'Haku.' As he swung his kunai, the masked boy brought up a senbon and blocked it. At the same time, the boy made no attempt to break the block and counterattack, either.

You're gonna play that game to stop me from doing jutsu? Sasuke thought. Well, you obviously don't know this trick. Sasuke shoved his free hand at Haku's other hand, quickly forming the Mi seal, Haku's copying his own out of muscle memory, before Sasuke flew through the next four. Sasuke simply smirked at the masked boy as he looked at his own hand.

"Thanks for that," he said, before bringing his foot up to the boy's chin, and kicked him away, using the force of his chakra to bounce back. While airborne, Sasuke pressed his hands into the Tora seal. "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" he called, shooting a large ball of fire in Haku's direction. It obviously missed, but lit up the boy's shadow for Sasuke to see. Without warning, Sasuke ran over to Haku and punched him hard in the stomach, sending him stumbling back.

The mist dissipated for a short moment, as Haku stood back up. Naruto chose this time to swap with Sakura, and sent her up to assist Sasuke. When she arrived at Sasuke's side, he glanced at her and nodded, before fishing out another kunai and standing at guard.

"I'm disappointed, Haku; at this rate, we'll be driven back," Zabuza intoned.

"You're right, Zabuza-sama," Haku replied, standing back up, "we can't have that." The boy placed his hands into a sign reminiscent of the Tora seal, but with his index fingers crossed under his middle. Sasuke then saw chakra visibly radiate off of the boy, like Naruto when he was about to make an entire army. As more chakra radiated off, Sasuke noticed that he could see his breath as he exhaled. Looking down, crystals of ice began to form on the numerous puddles caused by the earlier Suiryūdan no Jutsu.

"Shit!" Kakashi called out to them. "Sasuke, Sakura! Get out of there, now!" Not about to question Kakashi's judgement on this, Sasuke turned to run, only for the water to rise up in a wall, still freezing in the process. He turned to run another way, but the water only rose up around him in every which way. As he continued looking around for a source of escape, Haku's mask and body appeared in a single wall of ice, before appearing on all of them.

"Are these," Sakura said, "mirrors?" Haku's voice rang out around them in response.

"Hyōton Hijutsu: Makyō Hyōshō!" his voice called. Hyōton… but that bloodline is supposed to be dead!

"Hyōton," Sakura recited, "the elemental kekkei genkai combination of 'Suiton' and 'Fūton'. Using the wind to cool the water, they have control over the created ice, and their chakra is fused into it in many instances. This kekkei genkai was once common in Yuki no Kuni, but most of their users were exterminated in the chaos following the First Shinobi World War, making it exclusive to the Yuki Clan of Kirigakure no Sato.

"However, during the Third Shinobi World War, many of their members were wiped out fighting against Uchiha Clan forces, who could outright counter their jutsu in several cases."

"How?!" Sasuke asked, hoping that Sakura would finish her rant quickly and just get to the point. It was fine when they were training, but it was another thing when they were in the middle of a fight!

"Well, if you'd let me finish, I'd tell you! It's quite simple, honestly. You'll think you're stupid the moment I say it. It's just—" Sakura said, before a senbon impaled itself in her shoulder.

"Well, that's quite enough of that," Haku said, another senbon sliding into his hand. And then all Sasuke knew was pain. He tried to raise his arms to protect himself, but the senbon were relentless. Damn it, Bubblegum! he thought, why couldn't you just cut straight to the point for once!

Each moment, another senbon sliced into his skin and exited just as quickly, leaving scratches, gashed, and holes in his skin. Naruto! You better get us out of this soon! Sasuke thought quickly. Then he heard Sakura scream.

-D&D-

The moment Kakashi heard Sakura's scream, he grabbed Naruto's shoulder and held him tightly. Naruto glared up at him, murder in his eyes. "Naruto," Kakashi whispered harshly, "if you run there now, you'll only get gutted from being distracted! We need a plan of action!"

"Well, Nii-san, got any ideas?" Naruto asked, throwing his arms out to the side. Kakashi glared at the dome of ice. He did have one idea, but it would require time. Time that he didn't have, as he quickly flickered over to Tazuna's backside and parried a blow from Zabuza's sword with his tantō.

"I got one, but I would need time to do it! Right now, we need to beat this guy first!" Kakashi called. Almost instantly, Naruto was at his side. Just as quick, Zabuza faded back into the mist, and it seemed to thicken.

"He's spreading his chakra all over the mist," Naruto muttered. "It's making it hard to see his location." The boy grit his teeth in frustration, obviously not happy about that fact. "Nii-san," he said suddenly, "give me your tantō. Let me take him, you do whatever you need to do to protect Tazuna-san."

"Naruto," Kakashi said, deadly serious, "this is not the time for jokes. Even if it wasn't a joke, I'm not sending a Genin, months out of the Academy, to attack an S-rank nuke-nin!"

"But, I'm not just a Genin, Nii-san," Naruto said, looking up at him with determined eyes. "I'm the jinchūriki of the Kyūbi no Yōko. I can fight him!"

"You don't even know how to use the damn thing's powers yet!" Kakashi said, "it's out of the question!"

"Nii-san, please!" Naruto begged. "Sakura-chan is getting weaker, we need to get her and Sasuke-san out of there, now!"

"Getting yourself killed to help your comrades won't help them!" Kakashi said, parrying another attempt by Zabuza.

"If you won't help me, Nii-san, then I'll do it myself!" Naruto yelled. The boy crossed his fingers in the Bunshin seal.

"If you do that, I'll have you expelled from the Shinobi Forces, Naruto!" Kakashi yelled.

"I don't care! It's like you said, those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash; Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto yelled. Blue chakra began to flow out around the boy as three Kage Bunshin appeared around him. Those three rushed into the mist, and never returned. Clenching his fist around his tantō, Kakashi threw it in Naruto's direction. The boy nodded at him, as a golden chain shot from his shoulder and grabbed the tantō, pulling it back into his hand.

-D&D-

As soon as the tantō was in his hand, Naruto smirked. Shutting his eyes again, he let his sensing try to locate the nuke-nin in the mist. Unfortunately, Zabuza's chakra was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Cleching his teeth, Naruto crossed his fingers again, creating several more Kage Bunshin, and sending them all over the bridge in pairs. Sure enough, one was soon cut down, sending the memory back to Naruto. So, the chakra in the mist gets slightly weaker and then skyrockets right before he appears? Perfect.

As Zabuza rushed another one of them, the clones all smiled in sync. "Bunshin, Daibakuha," all intoned. Zabuza immediately substituted with one of his clones as a huge explosion went off around the area he once stood.

While Tazuna wailed in the background about damage to his bridge, Naruto raised the tantō to block the next attack as it came down. Surprisingly, the small sword held firm as the two pushed against each other. Then, Naruto felt Sakura's chakra drop rapidly. Wait, what?

-D&D-

*in the dome, moments earlier*

After near constant pain, Sasuke was finally able to fire off a shuriken, momentarily blocking some of the senbon and giving him a moment to breathe. Almost immediately Sakura stumbled up next to him. "Use your sharingan! It can see him!" she growled out. Mentally, Sasuke slapped himself for not thinking of that. He quickly activated his sharingan and focused on the fast moving boy. Time slowed as he watched the boy move at a speed that was almost normal.

Haku threw another round of senbon at him, and this time he dodged out of the way of each and every one. Haku then began to jump from mirror to mirror, throwing senbon that he either dodged or blocked each time. Looking over, Sakura was finally able to dodge many of them, or deflect the with kunai and shuriken. Glancing back at Haku, he jumped from another mirror, leaving a slight opening for Sasuke to strike. Smirking, Sasuke grabbed a kunai and hurled it at where the boy was going to be. It struck the boy dead in the chest. But before Sasuke could celebrate his victory, the boy turned to water.

What, Mizu Bunshin?! Sasuke thought, but then— he turned and saw nothing. Haku had completely vanished.

"Uchiha! Duck!" Sakura called. He made to do so, but then saw the senbon coming from the other direction— if he ducked, he'd be skewered! Gritting his teeth, he knew he had to take the senbon in the back to keep his legs functioning. It would be painful, but he could take it. Bending his knees, Sasuke jumped forward to avoid the senbon and rolled on the ground behind them. Gritting his teeth, he braced himself for the senbon coming for his back.

Only he felt nothing. Reaching around to check, he felt no new senbon on him. Turning around, he instead saw a mop of pink standing there. She turned her head around to look at him. "You didn't dodge fast enough," she said, coughing up some blood. "You damned idiot," she muttered, losing her balance and falling back. Before she could hit the ground, Sasuke ran forward and grabbed her.

Carefully, he held her in his arms. The girl coughed blood again. "Sorry… I guess I'm not a very good medic— I'm supposed to be the last of my squad standing."

"You idiot!" Sasuke growled. "Why would you save me?!"

"I don't," another cough, "know," she said. "My body," she coughed again, "moved on its own." Sakura looked up at him, pleading. "Please, beat him. Beat him and help Naruto-kun," she said, before coughing again. "Do what I couldn't… help him," her eyes drooped, and her breaths became quickened. "Please… help him… S-Sasuke..." she muttered, before slumping in his arms and closing her eyes.

For what felt like minutes, Sasuke just stared at her ashen face. After finally finding his senses, Sasuke took a deep breath. He committed himself to what he was about to do. "Don't worry. I will… Sakura." Bringing his hands up to his sides, he looked straight at the mirror where Haku stood. Clenching his fists, he glared at the figure.

"Is this the first time one of your comrades has died?" Haku asked him, tilting his head. Sasuke chose not to answer him, and sped through hand seals before the fake oi-nin could respond.

"Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu!" he called, before blowing out several small fireballs that scattered around Haku. The boy responded by bouncing back into his mirror. Each fireball hit a single mirror, failing to make anything more than a small crack in each.

"That type of firepower can't destroy my mirrors; you'll have to try a bit harder than that, Uchiha-kun," the boy said.

-D&D-

Kakashi had been observing Naruto with his normal eye while he gathered chakra in his left one for his technique, when the boy suddenly went rigid. This allowed Zabuza to quickly move in and slash at the boy. Before Kakashi could move, Naruto barely pushed himself back, and thus only got a massive gash from his left hip to his right shoulder, rather than being bisected by the massive blade. Of course, the momentum left Naruto splayed rather haphazardly on the bridge, but the boy pushed himself up and onto his knees, despite the searing pain he must be in. Then Kakashi looked dead at Naruto, and his face was distraught, before turning to outright sadness. The boy's face scrunched up and he buried his head in his arms. Naruto shook and Kakashi could hear the sniffling from across the bridge.

Did something happen to Sasuke or Sakura? Kakashi thought, still watching Naruto. The boy continued shaking and crying for a few more moments, before he pushed himself to his feet, his eyes obscured by his hair. He muttered something under his breath, and Zabuza grabbed his sword and looked at the boy.

"What was that, brat?" the nuke-nin said. Naruto wobbled as he took a step forward. Around him, the water left on the bridge began to boil and steam, as the boy walked steadily closer to the nuke-nin. Oh, Kakashi thought, oh that's not good. Not good at all! I might have to use my sharingan to restrain the boy before— suddenly, a burst of chakra flowed out from the boy, bubbling out from his stomach, slowly coating his body in red. That happens. Shit, that's not good! That is very not good!

"I said," Naruto growled out, "I'm going to kill you!" Naruto fell onto his hands and knees as the chakra continued to spread, forming into horns above his head and two long tails behind him. Not good! Kakashi screamed internally, not good at all! The wounds on the boy's chest began to steam as they closed, and Naruto let out a roar, blowing away all the mist around him, and growled as he hunched for an attack. Out of control jinchūriki! That is not what I wanted to write on my team's first C-rank mission report! The boy charged the swordsman, as fast as Kakashi could see. The nuke-nin was smart enough to dodge out of the way of the rampaging jinchūriki, as Naruto's punch shook the entire bridge as it hit slammed into it.

Naruto's seal is still holding, even if the Kyūbi's chakra is escaping! I still have time! Kakashi thought, as he felt the chakra in his left eye increase dramatically. Good, my mangekyō is activated. Now, time to see if I can still do this! Kakashi stared straight on at the mirror, closing his right eye to completely focus his dōjutsu.

In the centre of the mirror, the air began to swirl and blur. A small barrier appeared around it, blurring the air inside. The mirror stayed steady. Focusing harder, the swirl got bigger. Then, a small crack appeared in the ice near the barrier. Then another one. Slowly more cracks appeared in the ice, and spread. Holding his head to keep it steady, Kakashi continued to focus his mangekyō on the mirror. The cracks began to radiate out in a pattern around the swirling vortex.

Finally, a sound reminiscent of shattering glass rang out as a piece broke off the mirror and was sucked in, followed by another piece, and another. Within moments, almost the entire mirror had been sucked in. Through the mirror, Kakashi could see Sasuke's shocked face. The boy quickly performed several hand signs and substituted with a fallen kunai next to Kakashi.

Taking a deep breath, Kakashi fell to one knee as he lost his hold on the mangekyō, feeling it shift back into a normal sharingan. Okay, I got Sasuke out. Kakashi thought. If Sakura is down in there, then Haku should come out of the mirror now and try to stop us. Quickly looking back at Naruto, Kakashi watched as he punched Zabuza in the stomach, sending the nuke-nin flying into one of the mirrors and shattering it completely, before crashing out the other side and breaking a second one.

The mist dissipated completely after the punch, leaving the entire bridge visible to Kakashi. Naruto stood steady, the tails of chakra dancing behind him, when he suddenly fell to his knees screaming and holding his head. Appearing quickly, Haku threw several senbon at the boy, only for the cloak of chakra to absorb and dissolve them to dust.

"Damn fuzzball! Shut up!" Naruto screamed, as the chakra began to recede slowly. First, the second tail vanished, then the other tail, then the horns. Finally, the red chakra itself receded back into Naruto's stomach. Once the chakra was gone, Naruto fell onto his hands, panting heavily.

-D&D-

As soon as Naruto fell to his knees, Sasuke ran to him. The boy was spent, and Sasuke wasn't about to let his other teammate die on him. Crouching down, he touched Naruto's shoulder. The boy looked at him with a sad smile.

"Hey, Sasuke-san. My chains made the Kyūbi shut up for now, but these asses still need to be beaten," Naruto said. He looked at Sasuke dead in the eyes. "Nice sharingan, it's gotten better." Glancing at a puddle, Sasuke noticed that his sharingan had indeed improved. His right eye now sported all three tomoe, while his left contained two. It wasn't complete, but it was very close. Noticing movement out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke grabbed Naruto and jumped, avoiding another barrage of senbon. Landing next to Kakashi, he handed Naruto over to his teacher before turning back to face the masked boy.

"Sasuke-kun," Kakashi said, making Sasuke turn around to face him again. "Stay here. Guard Tazuna-san, but finish off Haku there if you can. I'll take care of Zabuza." Slicing a small cut on his thumb, Kakashi performed five hand seals, then slammed his hand into the ground. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Kakashi called out. In a puff of smoke, several dogs appeared on the ground, before rushing over to both Haku and Zabuza, pinning the latter and partially restraining the former.

Seeing a chance, Sasuke rushed forward in an attempt to knock Haku's feet out from under him. Haku stepped back and used his single hand to form seals. One hand seals… I haven't seen that since— several unpleasant memories returned to Sasuke at that time. The image of his parents bloody and dead on the ground, Itachi standing over them, flashed by in his mind. As well as the images of his dead aunts, uncles, and cousins.

"Fūton: Toppa!" Haku called, a gust blowing from behind his mask in a powerful gust toward him. Remembering his training with tree climbing, Sasuke used his chakra to stick to the bridge and keep running. While he ran, he used flipped through the hand signs for his own technique.

"Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu!" Sasuke called, spitting a large ball of fire partially shaped like a dragon head flew straight into the gust of wind, magnifying greatly as it impacted. He thought he could see some water forming up, but the fire was much too hot, and it simply boiled most of it away. When the steam cleared, much of Haku's kimono was burned off, he sported bright red burns up and down his body, and his mask was cracked.

"Here's some advice," Sasuke said, striding over to the false oi-nin, "don't shoot a Fūton jutsu at a Katon user." As he got closer, the mask began to crack further, and pieces started to break off. When Sasuke was right in front of Haku, the last piece of the mask broke off, and he froze when he saw the face in front of him.

"You? But… but… why?" Sasuke asked, his eyes returning to normal. The long haired boy in front of him looked down at the ground. "Why?! You said that you were searching to help your father, not seeking to help an S-class nuke-nin!"

Haku smiled wistfully. "I suppose you wouldn't understand," he shifted on his feet, now devoid of his geta sandals. "I suppose I should start from the beginning, shouldn't I?

"Mizu no Kuni has been in some tough spots recently. In the Third Shinobi World War, the Rokubi Jinchūriki died, and the beast had to be sealed into a young child. The Sanbi was later stolen and then killed when inside it's new jinchūriki, leaving Kirigakure no Sato without any deterrent against the other villages, and they crashed out of the war, before the Yellow Flash ever took the field against them. The Bloody Mist descended into a bloody civil war, with the clans of Kirigakure taking sides.

"Two Clans in particular fell into a brutal feud— the Kaguya Clan and the Yuki Clan. The Yuki Clan were survivors from Yuki no Kuni that defected to Kirigakure during the First Shinobi World War, they carried the Hyōton kekkei genkai. Meanwhile the Kaguya Clan originated in Hi no Kuni, and carried the Shikotsumyaku kekkei genkai. They claimed to be descended from the Rabbit Goddess, Kaguya-hime. Legend tells that they fled after a war with the Senju Clan that left the Kaguya with no choice but to flee, even though only two Senju, a pair of brothers, were still alive. Their old allies during the war, the Uchiha Clan, turned their backs on them and refused to help them. The remaining clansmen loaded themselves onto boats and crossed the sea to Mizu no Kuni. Ironically, it was the elder of the two surviving Senju brothers that came to this island that we now stand on with several of his warriors, and set himself up here, to watch in case they ever returned.

"The Yuki and Kaguya fought on opposite sides, devastating the landscape. For years, many towns up and down Mizu no Kuni had their streets stained red from blood— combatants or otherwise. Then, after nearly a decade of civil war, the Sanbi Jinchūriki of the time, Karatachi Yagura, came to the battlefield and single-handedly ended the war. Such was his achievement that he was proclaimed Yondaime Mizukage, at only fourteen years old.

"The Yuki and Kaguya Clans, devastated, were forcibly disestablished in the village. The Kaguya Clan fled back to the mainland, their leadership intact. The Yuki Clan, however, did not have any more leadership, and thus scattered throughout Mizu no Kuni. For the years of suffering their powers inflicted on the people of the country, the people of it feared the Hyōton and Shikotsumyaku. The surviving Yuki Clan members hid their powers to not face ostracisation.

"My mother was a Yuki Clan survivor. She married my father, hiding her power. Then, I was born, and we were a happy little family. But, I inherited my mother's kekkei genkai. My father saw me using it once… and later that day, he gathered an angry mob, killed my mother, and tried to kill me. In my fear, I killed him with my Hyōton.

"I lived on the streets of different villages for a while after that. I would dig through trash scraps for food, slept wherever the snow didn't settle, and huddled next to houses for warmth. Then Zabuza-sama found me while he was going around Mizu no Kuni. He chose to take me in. He gave me a home, he gave me food, he gave me a purpose. When Yagura turned out to be just like his predecessor, I joined Zabuza-sama in executing his coup d'état. When that failed, I followed him as we left the country with our comrades that could follow us, to raise the money to try again. I live to serve and be useful to him. Without serving him, my life has no meaning, and I might as well just be a hollow shell."

Sasuke stood and attempted to make sense of all that Haku had just said. Everything that had been said made sense to Sasuke. He'd lost everything extremely fast as a child, and had sought out anything to give his life meaning. And unlike Sasuke, he didn't have the convenience of revenge being an option. As he opened his mouth to reply, he heard loud clapping.

Turning to the source of the noise, Sasuke saw a man with a purple hat and grey jacket clapping at him, before the man opened his eyes and smirked. "See, that was great and all. But, we have some work to do. Boys!" the man said, as many more men began climbing onto the bridge behind him. The man turned back to him and grinned wider, withdrawing a katana from a scabbard at his side.

"Momochi Zabuza! You are your partner are obviously not worth what it cost to hire you! S-rank my ass, I told my the boss it would be more worth it to hire Akatsuki! They're a bit more expensive, but they always deliver!" he called. "Consider yourselves fired! Get them, boys! And once you do, kill the kids and cyclops, then loot the town for all it's worth!"

Hearing coughing, Sasuke whipped his head around to see Naruto up on one knee. After giving him a thumbs up, Naruto crossed his fingers, muttering the call for his Kage Bunshin. Within moments, many Naruto covered the bridge. Kakashi nodded at Sasuke as well, flipping through his own seals. Sasuke did the same as Kakashi. "Bunshin no Jutsu!" both called, illusionary clones appearing around them.

Then the Naruto Army charged, with the Sasuke Company and Kakashi Brigade right behind them. Two of the men tried to turn back, but the samurai responded by cutting the net that they'd climbed up with his katana. "We came here to do a job, and no amount of children will stop us!" He held his sword forward, and charged, some of the men getting the courage to do the same.

It was a short and bloody skirmish, but several of Naruto's Kage Bunshin still stood when it was over. About midway through the battle, Zabuza had gotten back up, pissed that he wasn't getting paid, and started having a good time cutting down thugs with his blade. Haku had wanted to join, but he was made to sit down before he hurt himself further.

-D&D-

After the massacre was over, Zabuza had hauled a short old man with glasses off the boat and thrown him down on the bridge. Said man stumbled back up to his feet. "You are dead! All of you! It doesn't matter if you kill me, I have contacts that I've already sent your likenesses off to! They have nearly infinite money, and won't stop until your heads are mounted above my nephew's mantelpiece!"

Of course, no one was really paying him any mind. Naruto had walked over to where Sakura lay on the bridge, pale and still. Carefully, he'd picked her up and rested her on his knees, muttering softly under his breath everything from prayers to sad ramblings.

"Little boy," Naruto heard a voice from behind him. Quickly turning, the fake oi-nin, Haku, stood there and knelt next to him. Naruto glowered at him, a light red haze going over his vision.

"What do you want?" Naruto growled. The oi-nin shook his head.

"To help you with that," he said, pointing to Sakura. Before Naruto could ask what the boy meant, Haku's hand reached out and grabbed one of the senbon in Sakura's neck, gingerly pulling it out. Almost immediately, the pink-haired girl inhaled sharply, before breathing at a slow pace.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto said loudly. The girl didn't wake up, but colour was already returning to her skin. Letting his emotions loose, Naruto cradled her tightly and cried. He wasn't sure whether it was worry at almost losing her, or relief that she was alive. His sensory abilities already picked up her minuscule amount of remaining chakra flowing through her body.

-D&D-

Sasuke walked up next to Haku as Naruto continued to cry. "Why did you spare her life?" he asked. "Not that I'm complaining, but you had no reason to not kill her."

"Well," Haku replied, looking down at the ground, "I was aiming for you, and I didn't want to kill you; I just wanted to disable you so that you wouldn't get in my way. I wouldn't have killed her in any case, anyway. She's precious to you… and you fight for those precious to you."

Precious? Sasuke wasn't sure if that was the word he would use for her. She certainly was precious to Naruto, if the loud sobbing was any indication. But Sasuke didn't know quite how he felt about her. He was certainly grateful to her for saving his life… well, not exactly, but she was willing to die to save him, and that counted for something.

"Hey, we missing something?!" a high-pitched voice called. Sasuke turned and saw Tazuna's grandson, Inari, standing there with a large bowl on his head and a crossbow resting over his shoulder, and a coil of rope around the other. Behind him was a large mob armed with snapped brooms, rusted cleavers, random knives, pitchforks, and other assorted items that they could grab.

"Not much!" Sasuke called back, "just an old geezer who doesn't know when he's been beat. Figure you lot could teach him a lesson in that." At that, the mob got a dangerous glint in their eyes as they marched forward and surrounded Gatō. Despite his protesting, they forced him to move forward through the town. Kakashi forced himself up to follow, and Naruto carried the unconscious Sakura bridal style. Zabuza and Haku remained in the back watching carefully.

As they reached the town square, one of the town's residents threw Gatō against the wall. Each person that wished to take a hit at him threw a punch or a kick, sometimes both depending on their grievance. Inari himself simply shot Gatō with his crossbow in the groin, much to the chagrin of all the male witnesses. After several minutes, the man was kneeling in a bloody heap on the ground.

"You're all dead! I own you all! I own this town! In fact, fuck this town! When my nephew gets word of this, he'll bring hell down upon your heads! You think I'm hell?! Wait until you face him! No one survives the wrath of Haruno Kaika!" the man screamed.

Naruto's head shot up and he glared at the old man. "Right," he called, "like he'd do jack shit for you after you nearly killed his niece!" Naruto shifted his hold on Sakura just enough for the man to be able to see the crest on the back of her shirt. The bloodied man seemed to get even paler. Especially because if what he'd said was true, he'd already sent word to the Haruno Clan to get a hit all of them… and asking the Haruno Clan Patriarch to order his own granddaughter's death was… highly unlikely at best. She hadn't harmed the Clan, after all, and her father seemed to finally be getting back into the Clan's good graces.

"Let's finish this!" one of the crowd called.

"But how do we do it?! It's hard to choose!" another asked.

Inari blinked, then raised his arm. Several people looked at him. "I have some rope!" he said, innocently. The people of the crowd looked at him, and then smiled. They were cruel smiles, that showed malevolence with every crease. One man nodded, and took the rope from Inari. Jeering and shouting erupted as several people held him by the arms and the man wrapped one end of the rope around his neck.

"Hang him! Hang him! Hang him!" the crowd chanted, as one end of the rope was thrown over a 10 foot sign. Many in the crowd grabbed hold of the rope and began to pull, and Gatō began to lift off the ground, his hands clawing at the rope and his feet kicking. A look of pure terror showed from his face as he flopped around in the air. After about twenty seconds of cheering and jeering, the man's feet stopped twitching.

"Good riddance," Zabuza muttered behind them.

-D&D-

The next few days were spent recovering. Sasuke didn't realize how exhausted he was after all of that. He'd gone back to the house and slept until morning. Apparently, while they were at the bridge, another one of Gatō's men had tried to take his daughter, Tsunami, hostage. But Naruto had left a trap by the door that had exploded in his face, knocking him out while also sending him sinking into the ocean. No one had noticed a thing until his body turned up floating the next morning by the bridge. At the least fish would eat well.

However, on the morning of the third day, Sakura was still unconscious. Apparently, she had severe chakra exhaustion, and was lucky to be alive. They would be running at top speed back to Konoha to get her looked at by the hospital, but she was completely stable for now. In an effort to wake her up, Sasuke had observed Naruto wrapping his hand around her wrist, and summoning up some of that bubbling red chakra that had healed him on the bridge. It had barely touched her hand when Kakashi had flickered in.

"Naruto!" he screamed. The boy jumped back and the chakra receded into his seal.

"Nii-san, what—" he said.

"Don't 'what' me!" Kakashi said, "you can't just give any person bijū chakra! It'll kill them!" He grabbed Sakura's hand and showed that it looked like it had been stuck in an open flame. "And worse, you pushed it into her tenketsu!" Kakashi quickly fished a scroll out of his vest and placed it over Sakura's hand, before releasing it. The symbol etched on the scroll transferred to Sakura's hand, in the shape of a small spiral.

Once the spiral appeared, Kakashi pulled out a small brush and ink, and pushed up Sakura's sleeve and began drawing several symbols that he had no knowledge of, but that Naruto was studying intensely— he'd even pulled out his notebook. Figuring it might be useful, Sasuke activated his sharingan to watch.

After several painful minutes of him applying the seals to her arm, he began to extend the lines of seals in a circle along the floor. Once he finished, he began rapidly making hand seals that Sasuke instinctively copied. "Fūja Hōin!" Kakashi called. Sakura's body thrashed even as she remained unconscious, and the letters on the ground and her arm withdrew into a circle that surrounded the spiral. Once the letters stopped growing, Sakura's body stopped thrashing, and she returned to sleeping. Naruto got another severe admonishing from Kakashi, before the man went back to his own room and promptly passed out for the rest of the day.

Two days later, the bridge was complete. A boat had also come by, to take Zabuza and Haku off somewhere.

"Out of curiosity," Sasuke asked Haku, "where are you two going?"

"Oh, we're heading back to Mizu no Kuni," Haku replied, "Apparently, the one leading the rebellion against the Yondaime Mizukage is very interested in our services. She, as the claimant Godaime Mizukage, wishes to have have Zabuza-sama return as a Jōnin, as one of the Seven Swordsman would provide her claim with a great deal of legitimacy. She also offered to make me a Genin under his command, to sweeten the deal."

"Try not to blab too much, Haku!" Zabuza called. "Hatake-san. I really should kill you for Akechi-senpai's death… but it's not my place. And he was kind of a dick, anyway."

"Thanks for that," Kakashi replied in a nod. With Sakura wrapped tight around Naruto's shoulders, Team 7 set off across the bridge back to Hi no Kuni. It was a fairly large bridge, so even at their running speed, it still took them several minutes to cross.

"Who was it that Zabuza just mentioned?" Naruto asked. Kakashi turned to look at the boy as the kept running.

"Oh, he was talking about Sataki Akechi, The Great Dragon of Kirigakure," Kakashi said. "He was a powerful ANBU of Kiri, and apparently Zabuza's mentor when he was in ANBU. His signature move was Suiryūdan no Jutsu, it gave him his moniker. I killed him on a mission a few years back when I was in ANBU. Yes, that is technically classified, but you already knew that fact. I'll tell Sandaime-sama and he'll likely only give me a stern talking to over it."

"You plan on coming back here, Naruto?" Sasuke asked. The boy nodded with a light smile.

"Of course, dattebayo! I want a group with me when I search the Uzumaki Compound, though. There are probably tons of traps in there!" Naruto replied.

"But, Naruto-kun, couldn't you just disable them?" Kakashi asked. Naruto scratched the back of his head and giggled, but didn't answer the question. Sasuke just shook his head. All of them are idiots. But goddamn it, they're decent idiots! I'm not gonna let anything happen to them. That's my promise.

Notes:

Jutsu names!

Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu - Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique

Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu - Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique

Hyōton Hijutsu: Makyō Hyōshō - Ice Release Hidden Technique: Demonic Crystal Ice Mirrors

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu - Shadow Clone Technique

Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu - Water Clone Technique

Bunshin Daibakuha - Clone Great Explosion

Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu - Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique

Fūton: Toppa - Wind Release: Breakthrough

Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu - Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique

Bunshin no Jutsu - Clone Technique

-Other Japanese-

Oi-nin - Tracker/Hunter ninja

Thanks to y'all for reading this chapter! This one is also unbeta'd, but oh well, that should change soon. Subscribe, leave kudos, and please comment down below! See you next chapter, where we will be completely done with the Wave Arc!

Chapter 11: An Oath Sworn in Steam

Notes:

Sorry it took so long, I'll be updating this story up to the current chapters within the next few days.

On their third day of travel back towards Konoha, Sakura finally woke up. While she was still weak and couldn't walk, she was at least able to speak. While she rode on Kakashi's back on the last leg of their journey, he relayed the events of the bridge and what followed.

"So, in short, Gatō is dead, Zabuza and Haku are off to join the rebellion in Kirigakure," Kakashi said, "and that mark on your hand is a juinjutsu that I kept on me in case something like that happened. The circle around it keeps it contained. Just to let you know, though, it responds to your will. So if you let it, it'll come out. I have to highly recommend you not do so, though. It will kill you."

After that sobering thought, Sakura let her head rest on his shoulders. She didn't talk much, as it took more energy to talk that she really wanted to use. After another day of travel, they arrived at the gates of Konohagakure no Sato. They must have looked awful. Kakashi's vest was torn up, Naruto's jacket was torn and has a huge slice down the middle of it, and Sasuke looked like he'd gotten into a tussle with a giant porcupine.

At least we're back in Konoha now! Fresh food, soft bed… and Sōka. Shit. Tō-chan and Kā-chan won't be home until the end of the year! I don't wanna have to put up with her again! Okay, don't panic. I'll just stay at Naruto's, no issues. I haven't stayed over at his place for that long before though… longest I stayed there was a week.

"Hey, Naruto-kun," Sakura called, "once I get out of the hospital, would you mind if I just stayed at your place? I don't wanna see Sōka-ba after what happened when we left."

"Of course, Sakura-chan. You know you always can, dattebayo!" Naruto said, not skipping a beat. After some admonishing by the two Chūnin at the gates, they were let into Konoha, and they made a beeline for the hospital. Carefully, Sakura was carried up to the desk.

"My teammate here is suffering from pretty bad chakra exhaustion. Would you mind looking at her?" Naruto asked. Looking up, the receptionist nodded and rang a bell to call an iryō-nin to look her over. A green glowing palm brushed her face and arms, before the medic frowned.

"Can we get a gurney over here?" she called. "Severe chakra exhaustion and running a high fever." Carefully, Sakura felt herself lowered onto a gurney and taken into the hospital. Great, so much for being subtle.

-D&D-

"Think Sakura-chan will be okay?" Naruto asked as they trekked up the stairs to the Hokage office.

"She'll be fine. I left instructions for them to not touch the seal, so all she has to deal with is chakra exhaustion. The hospital is great at fixing that, so there are no issues there," Kakashi answered. They finally came to the door outside the office. The ANBU guards appeared for brief moment, then waved them in, before vanishing again. The three members of Team 7 walked in through the door. Inside the room was a bunch of smoke flowing out the open window, and the room stank of tobacco.

"Ah, Team 7! You've finally returned!" Sarutobi said, before laughing. "Now I can finally stop deflecting questions!" His face suddenly turned dead serious. "I've read the written report, Kakashi-kun," he said, waving his hand to activate the silencing seals. "But I'd like you to relay it back to me, in detail." Kakashi nodded.

"We left the village with our client to escort him back to Nami no Kuni, and about four days into our trip, we were attacked by two Kiri nuke-nin, Gōzu and Meizu," Kakashi said, "we considered turning back, but certain individuals," he glanced at Naruto, "convinced me, against my better judgement, to at least escort Tazuna-san home.

"However, this proved to be a bad choice, as midway through escorting him on the island, we were attacked by another nuke-nin from Kirigakure: Momochi Zabuza-san, one of the Seven Swordsman. Because of my arrogance, I got trapped inside of his Suirō no Jutsu, and my team managed to get me out by Sakura-kun using Henge no Jutsu to turn herself into a Fūma Shuriken and forcing Zabuza-san to drop the jutsu. Shortly after, Zabuza-san's partner showed up and knocked him out. He was disguised as a Kirigakure hunter-nin, and I was, regretfully, unable to see through the ruse before he had left.

"After the fight, I was overcome with chakra exhaustion, and so my team carried me back to Tazuna-san's home to rest. Each took turns watching the bridge until I was well enough to walk. Once I was, I gave Sasuke-kun instructions on tree walking while I escorted Naruto-kun and Sakura-kun to the ruins of Uzushiogakure no Sato to look for items, since we couldn't stay there for very long. We found a few items of note there."

"You didn't touch the reflecting pool in the centre of the village, right?" Sarutobi asked.

"No, we barely paid it any mind, Sandaime-sama," Kakashi confirmed.

"Good. Naruto may be an Uzumaki, but that thing is evil. It'll kill anyone that touches it, generally. And woe to the soul who tries to walk on top of it," the Hokage said, "a shinobi from a squad I was travelling with long ago tried to water walk on top of it as a joke. It swallowed him whole. He came flying out, dead by drowning, a few days later. The people of Uzu never touched it, they just cleaned it with a stick. Only person that could touch it was the Uzumaki Clan Head— they would just jump straight in. If the pool accepted them, then they were officially head of the Clan. If not, then it was onto the next candidate. Each member of the main clan would have a small water from it poured over their head at their birth— as a way of connecting them to it should they become Head."

"Then maybe I should—" Naruto began, but everyone turned to him.

"NO!" they all shouted.

"To continue on," Kakashi said, "after the trip to Uzushio, all four of us made to guard Tazuna-san until his bridge was finished, as thanks for letting us rest at his home. While there, we were challenged again by Zabuza-san and his partner. During that fight, Sasuke-kun fully matured his sharingan, but Sakura was put into a near-death state by Zabuza-san's partner. This caused Naruto to unconsciously tap into the Kyūbi's power, and he activated a cloak with two tails. He managed to restrain it after beating Zabuza, thankfully. Afterwards, the businessman Gatō showed up and threatened all of us with death via payment to Sakura's grandfather— but after no one cared to give him the time of day on that, the oppressed villagers of Nami no Kuni rose up against him and lynched him in the street. We came back a few days later, while Zabuza-san and his partner left to join the rebellion in Kirigakure."

"I see," Hiruzen said, "any other details?"

"Yes," Sasuke said, "to get me away from Haku, Zabuza's partner, Kakashi-sensei used a mangekyō sharingan power." The Hokage looked at Kakashi, but nodded.

"Hokage-jiji," Naruto said, "could you maybe get someone to look at my seal? I'm having to use my chains to keep it shut, I think I let too much chakra out at once. I only had to use one chain at first, but I had to use a second as of this morning."

"Ah, your seal may be a bit too loose because of your release of the Kyūbi's chakra, Naruto-kun," the Hokage said. "We can put a two-pronged seal over it to reinforce it for now, but ultimately, we'll need Jiraiya-kun to tighten the seal with your seal's key, that he has."

"Can't I just make one?" Naruto asked.

"No, you can't. Minato-kun made the key specifically tailored to your seal— if you made your own seal, then you could make a key for it. That much I know for certain," Sarutobi replied.

"Ugh, why'd otō-sama have to give it to someone who's never around?!" Naruto whined. "And don't worry, Sasuke-san knows already— his mother wrote about it in her journal."

"Damn it, Mikoto-kun," the Hokage muttered, "I told you not to write it down anywhere. Where you that upset about not getting Naruto-kun's custody?"

"Custody?" Sasuke muttered.

"She was my godmother, Sasuke-san," Naruto said, "since my godfather was on a mission and couldn't come back, your mother was supposed to be the one to raise me. The other clans refused to let her."

"And I hadn't been reinstated as Hokage yet, so there wasn't anything I could have done at that point. I had him put in an orphanage with a bunch of other Kyūbi orphans and had my ANBU shadow him. I had hoped he'd make friends while there, but I obviously didn't do enough," Hiruzen said. "Sasuke-kun, Kakashi-kun said that your sharingan is fully matured now— may I see that?"

Sasuke nodded. Naruto looked over as the boy activated his sharingan, showing off the red eyes with three tomoe in each. The Sandaime nodded. "And Kakashi-kun, any effects on your eyes from the use of your mangekyō?"

"No, Hokage-sama. Nothing besides the immense chakra drain," Kakashi said.

"And still no insight on exactly what the technique does?" Sarutobi said.

"No. Sorry," Kakashi replied, scratching the back of his head. Sasuke, on the other hand, had a look in his eye, though Naruto couldn't quite pin down what it was supposed to be.

"Alright. Naruto-kun, stay here so that I can add the extra seal. I'll also grant you the bounties for Gōzu and Meizu. Kakashi-kun, Sasuke-kun, dismissed," Hiruzen said.

-D&D-

A few days later, Sakura was discharged from the hospital, back in pristine condition. Her aunt had raged over not being allowed to visit her, but she was legally an adult, in most ways. She could deny anyone the right to visit her— at the moment, the only ones she wanted to see were on her team.

Almost immediately, she walked her way back to Naruto's apartment, where the ever-faithful boy had set up a futon at the far end of the living room for her, as well as a small dresser for her to store her clothing in… that was previously in Naruto's room.

Walking into Naruto's bedroom, the boy was sitting cross-legged on the ground as he placed different clothes into storage seals on his wall. "Naruto-kun! You didn't need to give me the dresser! This probably isn't a permanent arrangement!" she said.

"I needed to replace it anyway. It's nearly September, and your parents won't be back until the Chūnin Exams— with any luck, we'll get to watch the year above us fight a bunch," Naruto said. "Where are the next ones, anyway? I know that they're here in December."

"After this round in Konoha, they'll be in Sunagakure next July, then they won't be in any village next December," Sakura said.

"Why won't they be?" Naruto asked.

"Because, they'll be in the capital of Tetsu no Kuni. All the shinobi villages will be sending their Genin, and the Samurai are very… well, they don't tolerate bad behavior," Sakura said. "It would probably be our best bet— less likelihood of you being assassinated or Sasuke getting his eyes gouged out by some greedy foreign Genin."

"Eh?" Naruto said. "But wouldn't that probably cause the Fourth Shinobi World War? Is getting a sharingan that you can't turn off really that important? Sasuke doesn't even have that extra thing that Kakashi has!"

"Trust me, Naruto. That's why the Uchiha abandoned the Kaguya Clan to the wrath of the Senju and their allies— because one Kaguya warrior got greedy and killed one of his allies, tried to make it look like an accident, and stole both his eyes. For some people, a dōjutsu is worth getting millions killed," Sakura said. "Also, can I see your new seal?"

"Oh, um, sure," Naruto said. He pulled up his shirt and let a small amount of chakra flow out. His typical Hakke no Fūin Shiki showed proudly, and overlaid around it was a simple circle seal with two prongs, one facing up and one facing down. It seemed fairly weak, but overlaid on top of his existing seal, it probably did just fine.

"Out of curiosity, why a two pronged seal?" Sakura asked.

"Highest we can use without it being overkill— another Shishō Fūin or anything over it would just be dumb, and I can't use an odd numbered seal on top of mine or it'll cut off my access to the Kyūbi's chakra. It's been slowly mixing with mine for years, just cutting it off will cause issues. Too high of an odd numbered seal, and it would practically be the same as just outright ripping it from my body," Naruto said.

"What happens when a jinchūriki loses their bijū in that way?" Sakura asked.

"Oh, they die. No questions asked," Naruto said with a shrug. "My mother survived for a few hours, but she was on her last legs by the time she sacrificed herself to hold the Kyūbi off, she would have died fairly rapidly anyway, even if she hadn't."

"What if they had the beast sealed back into them before they died, assuming they were powerful enough to not die right away?" Sakura asked.

"Um… I don't know. I mean, maybe if Otō-sama had enough time he could have sealed part of the Kyūbi back into Okā-sama," Naruto said, "but it may not have mattered. I'm just not sure of the answer there."

-D&D-

Under the warm summer sun, Sasuke ran to the side and threw another kunai into the target, hitting dead centre. Even while moving I can hit fine, but it's not enough! After coming to a stop and collecting his kunai, he walked back across his training field.

After toweling his face off, he walked back to the main part of the compound, drinking from his water bottle as he thought. What was that trick with the mangekyō sharingan that Kakashi-sensei used? He glanced at the Uchiha archives building as he walked past it. Maybe that has something? Otō-sama did always have higher access to it, same with the elders. Probably not anywhere we would think to look.

Resolving himself, Sasuke walked into the building. There was still dried blood in a few places, but he focused on anything but that. Out of the desk by the front - where the Uchiha Clan Archivist once sat - Sasuke grabbed out a candle and lit it with a match, not trusting his control of small amounts of fire just yet, before putting a small glass cover over it.

Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and walked down into the archives. The doors hadn't been opened since… that night, so there was quite a lot of dust around. Rows upon rows of books that hadn't been touched in years. Sasuke knew where the restricted section was, and walked past the tonnes of tomes. Eventually, he reached the gate where the restricted section was, and pushed it open lightly. Looking at the book covers within, it was mostly old genealogies and treaties— things he would likely have to read once he became Clan Head.

After hours of looking over tomes found from all over, he finally came to what he was looking for. A seemingly inconspicuous book near the centre shelf on the left side of the section, about the history of the sharingan, started by a woman named Uchiha Naori, and added to by various other Uchiha over the years. The last to add their name to the list was his father, Uchiha Fugaku. Thumbing through the pages, it contained mostly normal things about the sharingan, including how it evolves the tomoe, how it activates, and the different techniques one can use with it. Overall, it was only a bit more detailed than the basic primer that every clansman was given when they were children. But at the back of the book, there was a small blood seal. Taking a deep breath, Sasuke used the corner of the paper to slice his finger, letting a bit of blood drip onto the page.

With the seal released, the book became almost twice as long, and filled with many pages of other designs of the sharingan— mangekyō designs. Hiding it in a book that most people would put back on the shelf out of boredom, then tucking the secret in a small seal that no one without a sharingan could catch. Brilliant. The first mangekyō in the book was a spiral pattern. No abilities were listed for it. All mangekyō sharingan after it were some variation of a pinwheel fan or shuriken. Various abilities cropped up throughout it. Powers over fire, absurdly powerful genjutsu, space-time ninjutsu that could let someone jump dimensions. Sasuke wasn't sure how that last one worked, but it was clearly not something to mess with. As he paged through, he came to one in specific.

"Kamui— a rare ability that could appear in the mangekyō sharingan. Creates a spiral-type portal around a focal point that will suck anything, or anyone, into the dimension it is linked to," Sasuke read quietly, "it could also manifest as personal teleportation, allowing a person to transport themselves, or any individual part, into the dimension." Sasuke nodded and marked the page to open later. Turning to the back, one of the last entries was for his father, Uchiha Fugaku.

Drawn in the centre of the page was a mangekyō sharingan in a clockwise mitsudomoe with a dots in the centre of each. Underneath, it had two abilities listed for it. "Right eye," Sasuke read, "Tsukuyomi, the most powerful genjutsu that exists. Traps the target in a world of the caster's creation, by default for three days, the time can be increased with more chakra, or ended by the caster's disgression." Sasuke clenched his fist. Three days. That's about how long he had been trapped in the genjutsu Itachi had cast on him. He had a name to that ability now— he could find some way to counter it.

"Left eye," he continued, "Enton: Kagutsuchi, the power to manipulate or even disperse the flames of Amaterasu. Without a caster of Amaterasu, this ability cannot be further observed at this time." Well, that one was completely useless. Sasuke flipped the page, the last one labelled. This one was labelled 'Uchiha Shisui.' His second cousin on his father's side, and his fourth cousin once removed on his mother's. This one was in the shape of a four-sided shuriken, with a four small tomoe around the outside.

"Both eyes possess the genjutsu of Kotoamatsukami, the function of which is unknown— it's likely quite powerful, though," he muttered. That was supremely unhelpful. Looking at the blank next page, Sasuke took a deep breath. Taking a pen and ink bottle from the desk, Sasuke began to trace Kakashi's mangekyō into the book, being careful to line the edges of the shuriken up properly. What was the name of the Uchiha who gave him his sharingan? Right, that was Uchiha Obito. Carefully writing both of their names under the fresh drawing, he recorded down Kamui's description and powers.

Quickly moving to the next page, he drew a circle, but then stopped. He couldn't bring himself to recall the memories of that night. Sasuke decided to let the ink dry, and then show the book to Kakashi next time they met.

-D&D-

Sakura reached in the air and stretched. "I'm gonna go and take a shower. You ought to as well," she said. But then she had an idea. "Come on, it'll save time if we both go at once."

"But didn't your parents tell us not to do that anymore?" Naruto asked, looking up at her.

"Meh. What they don't know can't hurt them— I don't see why we can't, though. We don't even face each other," Sakura said.

"I agree with you, but what does that matter? We've known each other since the start of the Academy, and changed in front of each other more times than not at this point," Naruto said, before he stopped and blinked. "I think I know why Ino's rumours took so easily."

"Well fuck her and her rumours," Sakura said, walking out of the bedroom, and into the bathroom. Looking around, there was even a separate clothing hamper for her to throw her clothes into now, and a section of the bathroom counter for her to put her stuff. Naruto is so sweet it hurts sometimes, Sakura thought.

A few minutes later, she was finally standing under the running water letting her thoughts run through her head, or maybe just the warm water. After a few minutes, she heard the shower door open, and footsteps come in behind her.

"Been a while since we did this," Naruto said quietly. It was rather uncharacteristic of him. He would usually be over the moon.

"Yeah, since before the last few months at the Academy," Sakura said, smiling despite herself. Especially since her best friend was right there with her, and there was no mission or otherwise to keep them from just talking. As she was about to open her mouth, she felt two arms wrap around her shoulders and hug her tight.

I knew it, something is bothering him, Sakura thought. "Naruto-kun, what's wrong?" She grabbed one of his hands and squeezed it lightly.

"I..." the boy stuttered, "I'm scared." Sakura frowned. Naruto rarely got scared of anything, and would never admit to being scared— the fact that he was now had to be a sign of something. Not of anything good, certainly.

"What of?" she asked, in the calmest voice she could.

"I— don't know the words for it," Naruto admitted, "I'm just reminded of our time at the Academy… and it reminds me of when I was betrayed by someone I trusted. I'm scared that it will happen again. I don't want it to! I want to trust people, but that bastard made me paranoid! It still scares me, it scares me that someone I trusted could betray me so fully, and that it could happen again!"

Spinning around, Sakura quickly hugged the boy back and held him tight as he began to shake and cry. She carefully rubbed her hand along his shoulder to soothe him. It was best he let it out now, rather than in front of an audience. "It's okay, Naruto-kun. It's okay to be scared," she whispered.

"But- but how can I trust people like this?!" Naruto said, "I need people to have my back, otherwise I'll die quickly as a shinobi! In the past few days I've had nightmares of getting blasted point-blank by one of Sasuke-san's fire jutsu or Nii-san driving his Raikiri through my heart. I don't want it to affect my performance, but I'm afraid it will!" Sakura pulled back and looked at his face. Naruto was so obviously distraught, but she didn't know how to help him. And she would die before she let him go into a counselling program controlled by either civilians or Ino's relatives.

Keeping her left arm around him, Sakura carefully placed her right hand over his heart. She could feel the long scar from Kubikiribōchō as she placed her hand flat against his chest. She then took a few steps back, so that she was arm distance away from him. She could see the blush on Naruto's face from seeing her like this, but there were no secrets here. Not between them.

"Naruto-kun," she said, keeping her eyes locked on his, "place your right hand over my heart." The boy, blush not vanishing, closed his eyes and reached out his hand for her chest. His blush only deepened when he figured out exactly where he hit. Rolling her eyes, Sakura used her left hand to put his hand in the right spot, a little up and to his left. The boy looked at her, carefully in the eyes, his own showing his 'sorry.' With a slight smile she hoped he would take as 'no problem,' she nodded at him.

"Uzumaki Naruto," she said, "I, Haruno Sakura, do swear on both my life and my clan's honour that I will never betray you or knowingly act against your person." Naruto's blush deepened, and more tears returned to his eyes, but he nodded and smiled.

"I, Uzumaki Naruto, do vow and confirm the same," the boy said. The two simply stared into each other's eyes after swearing that to each other. Naruto ended it by raising his left hand to his mouth and biting it slightly, enough to draw a little blood. Sakura did the same in response. After nodding to each other, the two smeared the blood on each other's chests, swearing on their blood.

After their oath, the two quickly finished washing up and changed into fresh clothes. There was a team meeting later that day, and they needed to look at least okay for it. Besides a quick talk about the new seal on her hand, they did so without any distractions.

-D&D-

An hour later, both stood on a small bridge overlooking a stream, along with Sasuke, who showed up shortly after them. Naruto wore his normal outfit, sans the jacket that was still being mended. Sakura had changed up her outfit completely, wearing her grandfather's summer genin uniform that they looted from Uzushiogakure with a vest sporting her family crest on top. Sasuke was wearing the same thing as usual, but was sporting a jacket that was a slightly lighter shade of blue than usual.

Sakura hoped he was in a decent mood; because if he wasn't, it'd bring down their entire day. Sasuke looked at them and waved, and both waved back. It had been awkward for Sakura to talk to him after the whole 'saving his life' thing, after all. To brush off the awkwardness, Sakura decided to start the conversation with something very much not about that.

"So, how long do you think we'll have to wait for Kakashi-sensei today?" she asked. Naruto spoke up right away.

"Probably normal. Nii-san will just sit and chat to the memorial stone for hours. It's not like otō-"

"S-rank!" Sakura reminded him. The boy's face turned as red as his hair.

"Ahem," Naruto coughed, "it's not like Yondaime-sama will answer him. And I don't think he's listening, anyway. So I'm not sure why he does it."

"Maybe it's his way of coping with the loss?" Sasuke said. "I mean, from all I know of him, he lost both of his teammates one by one, then when he was finally starting to work through it, his sensei died. It would have destroyed a lesser man. He's lucky to still be sane at this point."

"Well, I'm not, per se," Kakashi cut in from one of the torii arches above the bridge. "After Minato-sensei died, I joined ANBU for a long time, and even had a stint as a member of the highly-specialized Root division. I only left ANBU a few years ago, since Sandaime-sama thought teaching Genin would be good for me."

"Well, the Genin you taught mostly turned out alright, except that one you booted from the Shinobi forces. Not even sure what became of him," Naruto said.

"Oh, he tried to turn his life around, but never found any place that would accept him, so left the village with his family. They live somewhere in Cha no Kuni now, but they still carry the stigma of having a family member dishonourably discharged from the Shinobi Forces," Kakashi said.

"That seems a bit harsh," Sakura said, "but you don't get a dishonourable without good reason most of the time. You have to do something pretty bad to earn that— unless you're a scapegoat for something, but that seems unlikely in this case."

"Kid tried to maim Aka-bō when he went to the memorial stone to talk to his mother," Kakashi said. Given what he had said earlier about Kakashi's habits, his two teammates gave him a side-eyed stare. The boy at least had the courtesy to blush. "Since the team wasn't doing too well, anyway, I failed the other two and gave the last that, as punishment. It was fairly lenient. Last time a shinobi tried to hurt Naruto-kun, about a decade ago, he entertained T&I for two weeks, was dishonourably discharged and stripped of all rank, then had his chakra sealed before being hanged in a dark room with almost no witnesses."

All three of them gulped at that description. Sakura tried to not gag at the thought. Konoha did not mess around when it came to protecting their jinchūriki. "But that's a bit too dark for right now, so let's get started on our day! We're gonna be learning elemental nature transformation!"

"But Nii-san!" Naruto whined, "we already know what our affinities are!"

"You are right, and each of you are extremely lucky to possess two of them each. However, before any of you can learn the cooler things, you'll need to learn how to control one of your elements better. So, each of you, choose one of your elements to go all-in on," Kakashi said.

After looking at each other wearily, they nodded.

"I'll train my Fūton more," Naruto said.

"I'm already very good with my Katon, so I'll focus on my Raiton," Sasuke said.

"I'll continue training my Suiton," Sakura said.

Kakashi nodded at each of them. "Well, I'll leave a Kage Bunshin here to watch over Sakura-kun's progress, and Naruto-kun can continue training with his leaf cutting. Since Sasuke-kun wants to learn Raiton, I'll keep an eye on him personally. It's quite a volatile element."

-D&D-

After several hours of training, the exhausted members of Team 7 lumbered toward Ichiraku Ramen for dinner, at Naruto's insistence. While Naruto had been attempting to cut a leaf with his chakra, and getting a few slivers off of it, the other two had much different tasks.

Sasuke had been assigned to channel static electricity that he created through a small stone to break it. To do so, according to Kakashi, required both speed and great power. Sasuke hadn't made much progress, much to his frustration. Training with Katon had been hard as well, but not as annoying. He got substantially more frustrated as he was informed that the training for Katon was, in some ways, even more difficult at times.

Sakura, on the other hand, was forced to draw out water from a leaf that she was given, and pool it on top of it without letting it break. Like that experiment that they'd done in year 2 of the Academy, when they'd dripped water on top of a coin to show some properties of it. Sakura understood how it worked, but it was still difficult to pull off. She still did it, to her sensei's surprise, but she still needed to fine tune it a bit more before she could move onto the next step, which was apparently quite annoying, even for experienced Suiton users.

As they walked, Kakashi apparently was getting summoned for something by the Hokage, and so flickered off to leave the Genin to keep walking. As the boys walked, Sakura walked off to the side after a quick indicator, hoping to clear her head for a moment. Once she mastered Suiton, she would need to get very good at Doton. Kakashi had indicated to her that once she finished up both of those to his liking, he would have her do mostly physical exercises, 'maybe even training with Team 9,' he'd said. He wouldn't let her touch trying to fuse them again until after she made Chūnin. By then, she might have the chakra to at least make a bonsai without nearly passing out. After all, it was still super weak, and her family tree didn't give her any hints as to how she could possess it.

Then, the sound came. "Oi, Forehead Girl!" the voice called. Sakura stopped. And I was having such a good day, too! she mentally whined. She turned to see Ino jogging up the street with her teammates in tow— they'd probably just gotten released, too. After waiting a while for Ino to get to her, Sakura crossed her arms and gave her a level glare.

"What do you want, Ino-buta?" Sakura said. She hated the blonde even more than in the academy, now that she knew exactly what disgusting rumour Ino had been spreading about her and Naruto. I don't even like him that way! she screamed internally. Even if I did, I can't understand emotions like that yet! I've barely hit adolescence! This caused her glare to intensify, which Ino returned with smirk.

"What, did your boy-toy ditch you? Figures, even he had to have gotten tired of your ugliness eventually," Ino said, flipping her hair, "and at least you're not holding Sasuke-kun back with how pathetic you are."

Sakura was surprised that's all she had to say, but shrugged. "Nah, Naruto-kun is just getting our orders ready at Ichiraku. Sasuke-san is with him— he even complimented my skill today, isn't that great?" Hook, line, and sinker.

Ino went red in the face and sputtered. "Wha-What?! No, you're lying! No way that Sasuke-kun would praise your skills and not mine! I was the top student in our class besides him!" she said.

"And yet, you've never once shown that your skills are worthy of praise. Need I remind you that despite your totals, your skill on the taijutsu test was barely passing? And that if you'd screwed up that last kata any further, you'd have failed and fallen behind Hinata-chan?" Sakura said. She knew Ino was still bitter about almost losing the position of top kunoichi to the Hyūga heiress. While Sakura had tried, she just couldn't pass the bluenette's grades, not without getting a perfect on the ninjutsu and taijutsu tests, which she didn't. Stupid katas, why did I have to trip over my feet!

"Well, Forehead, since you obviously seem to be on a roll today, and waving how much smarter you are than me around, how about you answer me this," Ino said, crossing her arms. Suddenly, she grinned and opened one eye in Sakura's direction. "Uzumaki-san has such a rare hair colour, I just have to know: does the carpet match the drapes?"

All Sakura could do was stare, even as she felt heat rise to her cheeks lightly. Of all the things she could have said, that was what she chose? Glancing around quickly, she saw a small trash bin that was probably just filled up. Running over to it, she quickly grabbed the bin and spun around, releasing it at the unsuspecting blonde, with a cry of "INOOOO!" Said girl didn't even have time to dodge before the bin hit her squarely in the gut, sending her flying back a solid five feat.

Like a predator, Sakura slowly strode up to the fallen kunoichi, murder in her eyes. Step by step, she walked closer and closer, until she stood directly in front of Ino. The blonde looked up at her, defiant. Then, Sakura simply smiled and closed her eyes.

"Feel free to mock me all you want, Ino-buta. But say anything bad about Naruto-kun again, and I'll make you wish that you couldn't sense chakra," she said, her tone not changing the entire time. Sakura simply spun on her heel and walked a few steps, before looking over her shoulder.

"And for your information, Naruto-kun is a redhead, through and through," she said, a cheeky grin on her face. Ino then blushed brightly.

"Wait, you actually did b—" Ino began, but Sakura didn't listen. She simply closed one eye and stuck out her tongue at Ino, pulling her one eyelid down at the same time. Then she turned her back to her and jogged off, in a better mood than she had been before. After a minute, she arrived at Ichiraku, where Naruto and Sasuke both sat waiting for her. Smiling brightly, she ran over and joined them. Her Shio Ramen never tasted so sweet as it did today.

-D&D-

The small camp was unlike anything that Haku had seen before. Unlike when he'd lived with Zabuza in Kirigakure, this had shinobi of all ranks running in and out of various tents and running off into the distance. Some others were carrying injured shinobi on a stretcher to a large tent with a small white marking above it.

Of course, he was following Zabuza and their ANBU escort to a different tent, this one mostly inconspicuous, except with its size. After a nodding, the ANBU opened the tent flap and signalled for them to go inside. After walking into the tent, several more ANBU surrounded them, and escorted them up to a makeshift desk made from three folding tables and four filing cabinets.

Behind the desk sat a young woman with ginger hair. She wore a Jōnin uniform, but also wore a cloak identifying her as the claimant Godaime Mizukage. Haku thought she looked familiar, but couldn't identify exactly who it was. Zabuza, on the other hand, tensed at seeing the person.

"Of all the people it could have been leading the rebellion, it just had to be you, Mei-chan," he muttered. Haku blinked in surprise that his teacher was so familiar with the woman.

The woman narrowed her eyes at him. "And who were you expecting to lead it? It's not like there's tons of Kiri Jōnin that have the nerve to face Yagura. Besides, were you expecting someone else?"

"No, I just didn't know who could be leading it," Zabuza explained. "Have any of the other Seven Swordsman shown up?"

"No, unfortunately," Mei replied, "besides a few reports of Hoshigaki-san occasionally popping up here, you're the first one I've seen since the civil war started."

"And what about Utakata-san? I would think he'd be helpful in facing Yagura in the future," Zabuza asked.

"No sign of him. I have people all over Mizu no Kuni looking for him. Unfortunately, so does Yagura," Mei said. "As far as I can tell, he just wants to be left alone— if he helps us take down Yagura, I'll happily discharge him as a shinobi and strike his bounty down. But we need to actually find him to give him the offer.

"Now, since you're here, I'm assuming you want to join up with me? Good, having two of the Seven Swordsman here will make this far easier. Have you given thought to taking on an apprentice?" Mei asked.

"If you mean for my sword, I already have one: Mangetsu-san's younger brother. Haven't seen him since my attempted coup, but he wouldn't die so easily. Otherwise, I have Haku-kun here. He's a scion of the Yuki Clan, and has their kekkei genkai."

Mei looked over at Haku. He blushed lightly at being stared at by such a beautiful woman. "A Yuki? That's good, we had a girl who was an offspring of the clan as well, but she left due to a mission gone wrong— her sensei and one teammate died, the other convinced her to leave so she wouldn't follow them. Having the kekkei genkai again would be an immense boost. How old are you, boy?"

"I'm fourteen, Mizukage-sama," Haku said, bowing respectfully.

"Have you worked with other shinobi your own age before, or attended the shinobi academy?" Mei asked.

"No, Mizukage-sama; I worked with the Demon Brothers occasionally, but they mainly worked separate from Zabuza-sama and myself," Haku said.

"Alright, that's fine. Despite your power, I'll instate you as a Genin of Kirigakure no Sato. Assuming that Zabuza-san is willing to take on a team as a Jōnin-sensei, of course," Mei said, turning to smile at the swordsman.

"Me, a Jōnin-sensei? You've got to be joking," Zabuza said.

"Afraid not. I need most of my Jōnin out in the field, and I'd rather not just leave the poor Yuki boy in the Genin pool. It wouldn't be for long— the Chūnin Exams are in a few months and your apprentice can be promoted there. Then I'll put you both into ANBU and send you off to do missions for me. Until then, though, you need to watch over some Genin."

"Ugh, fine. Whatever. As long as I get Yagura's head when this is all over, I'll support this," Zabuza said with a sigh. "Just don't give me any incompetents. When do I have to meet my team?"

"When I finish assembling them," Mei said, "I have one person I know will take a shine to you, but I'll need a third member— it'll be done soon. Now run along with your brand new Genin. I'll get him a Shinobi ID Number soon."

-D&D-

Sarutobi sighed as he opened another signed request for him to address issues at the Academy. Apparently, Umino Iruka had been forced to improv a lecture about Uzushiogakure for the younger kids after his grandson mentioned the village during the lesson on the Second War, since it wasn't mentioned anywhere in the textbook. Crinkling up the letter and throwing it in the incinerator, he moved on to the list of mission requests.

I would have time to address educational reform if I could have about ten days in one sitting… if Danzō hadn't screwed up the negotiations, I'd be able to do that! The aged Hokage thought, reading through the monotonous requests and separating them into piles based on rank. Muttering to himself, he quickly wrote and signed an order to have Homura, Koharu, and Danzō assigned to the graveyard shift for guard duty.

Babysitting, D-rank. Sewage Cleanup, D-rank. Dog Walking, D-rank. Tora… D-rank, Much as I would like to make that an S-rank just so I could send my ANBU after it. Bandit camp that needs cleaning out, C to B-rank. Assassination of a troublesome noble in Kaze no Kuni, S-rank. Nuke-nin on northern border, A to S-rank. Escort of Madam Shijimi back to the capital, C-rank. Guarding the harvest prayer at Hi no Tera, C-rank.

Sarutobi took a deep inhale from his pipe. I might accept Jiraiya's offer of that special herb he picked up that he said cooled your nerves far more than tobacco. It can't make it any worse.

 

Notes:

Suirō no Jutsu – Water Prison Technique

Henge no Jutsu – Transformation Technique

Chapter is currently unbeta'd, though that should change soon. Thank you all for reading! Leave Kudos and Comment, and I'll see you all next chapter.

Chapter 12: Beginnings of Missions and Plots

The alarm clock sounding was the first thing Sakura heard. After a few seconds of it beeping, she reached over and smacked the mute button. Rolling over, she looked at the time: 5:30 am. Team meeting in an hour… ugh! Smacking her head on her pillow, Sakura carefully climbed off her futon. After stretching and waking herself up, she took the sheets and blankets off and folded up the folded the futon to be dried.

Quickly washing and getting dressed, she walked over to the small kitchenette, only to see that Naruto wasn't there. Turning around, she walked to his bedroom door and knocked. "Naruto-kun, team meeting today!" she called. No answer. She knocked again. "Naruto-kun! Get up! We need to meet Kakashi-sensei in half an hour!" Still nothing.

Grumbling, she opened the door to his room. Naruto was still lying on his bed, one of his arms hanging limply, his hair splayed all over his pillow, and drool pooling at the corner of his mouth. He would be awful for anyone to share a futon with, I swear. She walked up to the boys side and crouched down next to him.

"Naruto-kun, please wake up, I don't want to be late on your account," she said, poking him in the side. He didn't even stir a bit. Sakura clenched a fist in annoyance. Fine, be that way. Walking around to the other side of the bed, Sakura climbed up onto it carefully. Then she jumped up as hard as she could.

"Naruto-kun! Wake up, you crazy idiot!" Sakura screamed as she came crashing back to the bed. The redhead went flying up into the air with a yelp and crashed on the floor, splayed rather ingloriously with a groan of pain. Sitting up, Naruto rubbed his head.

"Sakura-chan~! What was that for?" Naruto groaned.

"We need to meet Kakashi-sensei! Come on, we need to hurry or we're gonna be late!" Sakura said.

"Nii-san can wait," Naruto muttered, climbing back into his bed, "he won't show up for another few hours, anyway."

"I'm not just gonna leave Sasuke-san alone waiting for us. Now get up and ready, or else I'm gonna drag you to our meeting spot in your pyjamas," Sakura said, crossing her arms.

"Right. Go back to sleep, Sakura-chan," Naruto muttered, closing his eyes. Sakura sighed internally.

-D&D-

Sasuke walked up the road as he took small bites of the leftover barbeque from the previous night. Since Team 10 was out of the village on their first C-rank mission, they took the opportunity to try out Yakiniku Q, since they wouldn't have to deal with Ino on that occasion. They ate plenty of it, and each had plenty of leftovers to go along with it. As he finished, he tossed his trash in the bin and kept walking up the street, ignoring the rather awkward stares he got from the general populace.

That was probably what he missed the least from the village during their outing in Nami no Kuni. The awkward staring. Yeah, my whole family is dead. Now stop staring at me like I'm gonna snap and join them at any given second! Sasuke thought. Glancing up at the road as he walked, he mostly just saw the oncoming people during the morning rush hour.

Suddenly, Sasuke felt something crash into him. "Oi, watch it, broody!" a voice called. Sasuke turned his head, and saw… a puppy. A white puppy that barked in his face. Then he looked down to see a boy with brown hair and red facial markings. Oh, Inuzuka Kiba, former classmate of mine, Genin of Konohagakure no Sato, assigned to Team 8 under Yūhi Kurenai.

"One, that was rather rude of you, Kiba," Sasuke said, the irony not lost on him. "Second, you crashed into me. So, if you'd apologize for that, I'll be on my way, and we can forget this ever happened."

"Why you!" Kiba yelled. "Say that again, I dare you!" Sasuke shrugged and walked up to the boy, activating his sharingan. He poked the boy hard in the shoulder as he was distracted by the eyes.

"I," poke, "expect," poke, "an," poke, "apology." With one final hard poke, Sasuke turned away and started back to his former position, only to hear footsteps behind him. Too easy, he thought. As Kiba approached him from behind, Sasuke grabbed the boy's wrist and tossed him over his head, and Kiba landed hard on his back. The boy just lay on the ground, groaning.

Sasuke simply stared down at him. I should probably tell Naruto that I stole his pig-toss to use against Kiba. Meh, I'll do it eventually. Sasuke looked down at the boy as he tried to force himself back up. He pushed himself to his feet and tried to lunge at Sasuke again. Sasuke simply stared the boy down in the eyes and cast a simple genjutsu, causing the boy to fall to his face unconscious. Sighing, Sasuke turned around, only to come face-to-face with a blue-haired girl with pale lavender eyes.

"S-Sorry about that, Sasuke-san," the girl said. "Kiba-kun isn't very happy today, he wanted to start a fight with the first ex-classmate of our he could find… I'm sorry about that. He's usually better."

"It's fine, don't worry about it," Sasuke said. Thinking for a second, he recalled her name. "Hinata," he added. The girl nodded and walked over to carry her unconscious teammate away.

"Oh, and Sasuke-san," she called over her shoulder. "Let Sakura-chan and Naruto-san know that I want to talk to them. I'll meet them at Ichiraku for dinner tonight."

"Gotcha," Sasuke called, waving his hand behind him as he walked to the bridge to meet his team. Thankfully, no more Genin tried to get into a fight with him. When he arrived, he saw Sakura leaning against the bridge railing, and Naruto sitting on the ground in his pyjamas.

Sasuke simply sighed and walked up to his teammates. "Naruto, why are you sitting on the ground wearing froggy pyjamas when we have a team meeting?" he asked.

"Sakura-chan dragged me out of our apartment," Naruto answered. "I didn't get ready fast enough." He simply tapped a seal on his pyjama sleeve and his jacket, pants, and shoes appeared on him instantly. Granted the shirt appeared a bit too big around the chest, but a quick Hitsuji seal and puff of smoke later, it looked completely normal.

Sasuke wasn't sure exactly what his teammate did, but the redhead looked far more relaxed. Leaning back against the bridge, he chose not to worry about it as he relaxed and waited for Kakashi to show up.

Finally, after spending several hours under the late summer sun, Kakashi flickered onto one of the gates above the bridge. "Hello there, my little Genin!" Kakashi nodded with a smile. All of them simply glared at him. Naruto and Sakura jumped up at the same time and pointed at him indignantly.

"You liar!" they chorused. Sasuke simply grunted in agreement.

The masked man chuckled nervously as he descended. "Well, I had a meeting with Sandaime-sama. We have a day of D-ranked missions lined up for us until about 16:00, at which point we have to report to the Hokage's office."

-D&D-

Their first D-ranked mission was cleaning up litter in the Naka River. Kakashi also took that opportunity to show Sasuke how to walk on water— and told them to pick up all the garbage while doing so to avoid falling in. Sasuke at least picked it up faster than he did tree-walking. Even if he had to keep a one-handed Hitsuji seal up as he did so. The river was cleaned up pretty nicely within a few hours.

Their second mission of the day was pulling weeds out of an herb garden. Though, the client was particularly unhelpful in refusing to specify which plants were herbs and which were weeds. It was as if she expected all shinobi to be skilled in horticulture. Thankfully for Sasuke's sanity, which felt fragile enough some days, Naruto knew plenty about horticulture. And the Hokage slapped on a bunch of fines that got added to their pay for trying to cheat the shinobi of Konoha, and said client was blacklisted for a period of 6 months.

After that disaster of a mission, a simple mission of dog-walking got them back in good spirits. One of the dogs tried to pull Sakura around, but she wasn't having it, and used the same skills as water and tree walking to stick to the ground and keep it going the right way. As they were walking the dogs, Sasuke walked close to Kakashi and got his attention.

"I found a book in the old archives that says what the technique you use with your right eye is called," Sasuke said. Kakashi looked up from his book and at Sasuke.

"Indeed? Do you have a scroll with the information on it, or the book itself, Sasuke-kun?" Kakashi asked. Sasuke nodded and passed him a small scroll. The Jōnin slipped the scroll into a pocket on his vest and went back to his book, pretending as if nothing had happened. Probably to keep the secret— after all, his teammates barely knew anything, and Sasuke himself only knew the core details of the Mangekyō and how it worked. It was beyond even S-ranked secrecy amongst the Uchiha themselves, the rest of Konoha knew practically nothing about it.

Which was probably a good thing, judging from the abilities that he'd read about. If the other villages discovered them, they would probably be sending assassins to finish the job. He clenched his fists and glared ahead of him. Of course, they would certainly take me out, I'm still just a weak Genin. The Hyūga would be laughing their way to the bank at that one.

-D&D-

Silently, the members of Team Seven stood before the mission's desk as the Chūnin on duty looked over their reports. The poor man looked exasperated, chugging down coffee as he read over each D-ranked report. It was obvious this was a job meant for two people, but only one was on duty.

"Oi, Chūnin-san, where's your partner?" Sakura said. The man gulped down another drink.

"Iruka-san isn't here to help me. He had to run home after the Academy got out. He had to change… probably shower, too, actually."

"What happened?" Sakura asked.

"Omago-sama happened," the Chūnin answered, "Iruka-san ended his spar when he'd just started to win because of suspected cheating. He wasn't, but all observers agreed that it was a very logical conclusion to make. The boy didn't, however, and decided to lash out a bit."

"Eh? What did Konohamaru-kun do?" Naruto asked. The Chūnin glared at him, for what though, Sakura couldn't tell.

"What didn't he do is the question. Paint, Chocolate, Feathers, Barbeque Sauce, Rotten Eggs… and that's just what I could smell," he said.

"Hah! My little kōhai learned well!" Naruto cheered. Clenching her fists, Sakura quickly drove her elbow back into Naruto's ribs with a yelp from the boy. Naruto coughed after she glared at him. "I mean, I'm very sorry for my kōhai's conduct, and I will make sure to scold him on proper behaviour."

"Don't worry about it, Uzumaki-kun," the Chūnin said, "I'm sure Sandaime-sama is giving him plenty of trouble as it is." Naruto frowned and nodded, shoving his hands in his pockets. "All these reports are good, no questions. I'll file them away— Team Seven, dismissed."

-D&D-

An hour later, Team Seven stood in the office of the Sandaime Hokage, with the curtains shut and privacy seals active. The Hokage took a deep breath from his pipe, before breathing it out carefully.

"What will I ever do with you three," Sarutobi said, shaking his head. All three stood at attention, though Kakashi was reading Icha Icha Violence, apparently in anticipation of the next book that was due out soon. Granted, it had nothing to do with the plot of Violence, Naruto knew that for a fact.

"First off, Naruto-kun, drop the Henge." the Hokage ordered. Complying, Naruto formed a Hitsuji seal and a puff of smoke marked his transformation back into a boy. I'll change back once we leave, Naruto thought. "Now, then. Team Seven has been doing quite well since their accidental A-ranked mission, wouldn't you say, Kakashi-kun?"

"Indeed. Their training is going very well. Sakura-kun's juinjutsu hasn't caused her any problems, and D-ranked missions are being completed effectively and efficiently. Sasuke-kun's sharingan has improved spectacularly. Naruto-kun's supplementary seal has held up, and he has been able to practice his jutsu just fine."

"That's good. Because you three are lucky. Thank your sensei for this, you all are going on a series of C-ranked missions!" Sarutobi said with a grin on his face.

"Eh?!" all three said at once. Kakashi simply closed his eye and smiled at them.

"You all said you were bored with the D-ranked missions. If we do these, then it'll keep you guys busy," Kakashi explained. "Besides, it's only three missions. We'll be staying in Hi no Kuni, so there won't be any S-ranked nuke-nin attacking us this time."

Naruto threw up his hands and stretched. A new series of missions would be fun, and maybe by the time he came back, Konohamaru would have improved his speed in dodging even further. Maybe even to the point he would be a decent sparring partner. Sparring with the same two people every single day was boring, and no one on the other teams was worth challenging— all of them were either to easy, or far too difficult to beat.

He would beat Hinata in a spar one day, even if it was the last thing he did before getting his throat smashed in by a Jūken. He doubted she would do that personally - she was too nice and thought the world of him and Sakura - but her family likely didn't share in that.

"Indeed, Kakashi-kun," Sarutobi intoned. "Now then, about your missions here," he inhales a long drawl from his pipe, before breathing it out. "Madam Shijimi-sama, Daimyō-sama's wife, is making a pilgrimage to the Hi no Tera, a monastery in the southeast. Your first mission is to accompany her there during her stay. I also ask that you work with the people at the monastery to investigate some grave-robbing that has been done recently.

"You shouldn't encounter anything more than bandits at most," the Sandaime continued. "Once the pilgrimage is over, you will have the task of escorting Madam Shijimi-sama back to the capital, with the end of summer now coming. I also will give you a scroll for Daimyō-sama. I must stress that you do not open it, it's for his eyes only.

"You will spend some time in the capital, most of November in fact, before returning home with Daimyō-sama's reply to me. I think that should be plenty of time outside the village to satisfy your adventurous hearts. If I need you lot to do anything else, I'll send a bird to Kakashi-kun's location. You'll leave tomorrow morning. Team Seven, dismissed, except for Kakashi-kun. I need to speak to you. The rest of you, wait outside."

-D&D-

"If I may ask, Sandaime-sama," Kakashi said after his team left, "why send us on this series of missions? Surely, there are plenty of Chūnin teams more qualified for such a role?"

"Do you wish to decline the missions, Kakashi-kun?" Sarutobi said.

"No, Hokage-sama, I just fear they may not be ready. I also get the feeling that there is something more to all of this," Kakashi replied.

"Perhaps," Sarutobi replied, "there is something more. ANBU has sent me worrying reports from outside the nation. Kirigakure has fallen to civil war, Iwagakure is rapidly rearming, and Sunagakure is far too quiet. Kumogakure is the only one of the Godai Sato in which things are proceeding as normal. I fear that within the generation, war could be on us once again."

"Then, isn't that every reason to keep our Genin in the village? Train them harder to get them ready for a possible conflict, let the Chūnin do missions like this?" Kakashi asked.

"On the contrary, it's this very reason that our Genin must be seen outside of the village. If we suddenly stopped sending our Genin outside the village, the other villages would pick up on it, and it would only drive us further onward, toward another war. And I fear I would not survive to see it," Sarutobi said, picking up a folder and handing it to Kakashi. Kakashi flipped it open and his eyes widened at the contents within.

"How long?" Kakashi asked, in disbelief.

"Who knows? I could have anywhere from six months to six years," the Sandaime said, his age showing on his face. "I hope to at least see my grandson make Genin, but I doubt that I will. The next generation I believe will be our most powerful yet. Team Seven is one of the most powerful teams we've ever assembled, with the potential to make it even stronger.

"By going to the capital, I hope for Team Seven to make a favourable impression to Daimyō-sama, as well as attract attention from the court. They need to be seen. Come the Chūnin Exams next year in Tetsu no Kuni, all of the shinobi villages will be there. Your Genin can show their power and strength publicly, before all the world. It will be a strong positive on your record, which is a very good thing," Sarutobi explained.

"I'm not sure I understand, Sandaime-sama," Kakashi said, though he had a feeling that he actually did.

"But I think you do. I won't be alive for much longer, and I'd like to take this hat off one more time before I die. My students either aren't available or don't want the hat, though I still try to convince Jiraiya-kun; if I could find where Tsunade-hime is, she would be even better. But if neither of them are willing to take up my hat, you are the next best option. You were Minato-kun's student, you've been in the field consistently, and you aren't tied to any of the major clans," the Sandaime said.

"But, what about Minato-sensei's teammates," Kakashi asked, "couldn't they be willing to take up the hat?"

"I doubt it. Hiashi-dono is busy leading his clan and faces enough issues running the Hyūga without the extra responsibility of being Hokage. And Mebuki-chan has been out of the Shinobi Forces for thirteen years, ever since she became pregnant with Sakura-kun out there. Neither of them particularly stand out as good candidates for the position."

"I… I just don't think I'm a good choice for the position," Kakashi said.

"It has to be you, if we can't get one of my two remaining students to take up the hat after me. The surviving members of Team Jiraiya would be unsuited for office, none of Tsunade-hime's students survive, and all of Orochimaru's students are either dead, not qualified, or betrayed the village with him. Koharu-chan never took a team of her own, and it's far too late for her to do so now, while Homura-kun trained your father and his team, all of their students perished during or after the wars. You and Team Seven are the best we have right now. And besides, given Sakura-kun's aspirations, you would likely only need to keep the seat warm until she works her way up to the position, at which point you could go and do whatever you'd want. We need to be prepared, otherwise Danzō will claim the seat before my body has even cooled, with an 'I win, old friend' being all he says at my funeral."

"I would think once she gets her elements fully mastered that Mitarashi-chan would be a good option," Kakashi said. The Hokage frowned.

"I might consider it if she stopped bugging me about 'education reform' every few days. Now, do you understand?"

"Yes, yes, I get it, Sandaime-sama. I'm your best option after your own two students. Not that I want the job, in fact I very much don't. But I'll do what is best for Konoha," Kakashi said./

"Good, that's what I wanted to hear, Kakashi-kun. Have your team get prepared, you'll leave at dawn tomorrow. I also had a special collection of scrolls delivered to Naruto's apartment, made by his grandaunt. I think he'd be interested in their contents. The scroll for Daimyō-sama will be delivered by Kuma-kun later this evening. Dismissed, Jōnin Hatake."

"Of course, Hokage-sama," Kakashi replied, bowing deeply, before turning and walking out of the room, right as he came to a particularly saucy scene in his book.

-D&D-

"So, dinner at Ichiraku, then we head home and get prepared?" Naruto asked the others as they walked up the main road of the village.

"Sure. Though, I think Hyūga-san has something to talk to you guys about, she'll probably be there, too," Sasuke said.

"Hinata-chan will be there?" Sakura asked. "Might be nice, haven't seen her since just after graduation. I wonder what she wants?"

About 10 minutes later, the trio walked into Ichiraku Ramen, seeing Hinata leaning against the lamppost just outside of it, she joined them as they walked to the VIP Counter and ordered their normal ramen.

"Glad I could come here and see you guys," Hinata says, scratching her head, "Hanabi wouldn't shut up about the Academy today, it was really irritating. I get it, she hates what happened in her spar, but she could calm down about it."

"No problem. What's the issue, Hinata-san?" Naruto asked. The girl took a piece of pork from her ramen and ate it, before turning to Naruto.

"The Hyūga Clan Elders are being… difficult. I've made my displeasure at the family juinjutsu known to them, and they are doing everything they can to get rid of me as the Clan Heir. It's rather difficult to do that when the other main heir candidate is steadfastly loyal to the current heir, but they are trying anything they can," Hinata explained. "Currently, there is a plan afoot to get me officially declared heir, so that my sister will be branded, then have the proclamation cancelled and marry me off to another main house branch member, so that they stay in control. It would probably be Sora-dono, he's the current Head of one of the main families of the Hyūga, and is unmarried with no children."

"How old is this 'Sora' and when would they do this?" Sakura asked. Sasuke just sat in silence, eating his Tonkotsu Ramen and occasionally glancing over at them.

"Sora-dono is 38, and they would likely do it sometime shortly after I turned 14," Hinata explained. Looks of revulsion spread around the group.

"Tha-that's barbaric!" Sakura sputtered. Sasuke, for his part, spat out his ramen broth at hearing that and turned to them, sharingan active.

"It's also against the Clan Charter," Sasuke said, "child marriages were strictly abolished— you need to be 18 to marry, or 16 with the approval of the Hokage and the Council of Clans."

"It would be a 'betrothal' officially, but I would be married in all but name. Anyway, that's not why I asked you all to come here," Hinata said, "I've got that one covered, but I need your help designing a whole new seal."

"Eh?! A new one? But we fixed that juinjutsu already, what else could you want?" Naruto asked.

"I want a fūinjutsu that will prevent my dōjutsu from passing to a holder's children," Hinata said, clenching her fist.

Naruto looked at her in shock. "Why would you want something like that?" he asked.

"Because, Naruto-san," Hinata said, twisting a finger through her hair, "Hyūga are not allowed to marry outside of the Clan. This is to avoid the bloodline spreading outside of the Clan. However, while male Hyūga have been able to get around this rule by asking the Elder Council, ladies haven't been able to. They don't want the Byakugan to leave the Hyūga Clan— that's why I want this seal.

"It would a simple seal that would be invisible unless activated, that prevents a dōjutsu from passing to offspring of the person whom the seal is applied to. It would allow the women of the Hyūga Clan to marry outside of it without the risk of losing our kekkei genkai. Maybe it would also allow us to diversify the Hyūga Clan gene pool and get some new hair or eye colors into the family; everyone has blue hair and lavender eyes right now."

"Would you want it to be based on my modified juinjutsu?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, please. If you could make it a simple add-on that would be ideal, but if not, just getting it done would work," Hinata said, taking another bite of miso ramen.

"And the payment?" Naruto asked, taking a bite of his own.

"500,000 ryō guaranteed," Hinata said, "with an additional one million on job success." Naruto just turned and stared at her.

"Eh? Um, Hinata-san, are you sure you wanna pay me that much?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, this is easily worth it. I need this to save my family. I have plenty of money I'm allowed to spend; Otō-sama might be confused about it, but if I had to tell him, he'd understand," Hinata said, clasping her hands.

"I'll try, Hinata-san," Naruto said, after a few moments of contemplation. "I can't guarantee that I can do it, but I'll try."

Hinata smiled and finished her broth. "Try is all I need," she said. Unzipping her jacket slightly, she reached into an inside pocket and withdrew a bank cheque for 500,000 ryō, just like she'd said, in addition to a storage scroll and commission scroll. "The storage scroll has an exact copy I made of your modified version of the Hyūga Juinjutsu. The commision scroll has what I told you written down. The cheque is worth the amount agreed upon."

Hinata left some money on the counter to pay for her ramen, and stood up. "Thank you, Naruto-san, for helping me as best you can," she said before walking out of the ramen stand and running off into the village.

"How will you make such a seal, Naruto? I'm not sure anything like it has ever been attempted," Sakura said.

"Well, the current juinjutsu had to be invented to interact with the Byakugan somehow, right?" Naruto said, "we just need to find something to deal with heredity."

"I might have something like that in my clan archives," Sasuke said, rubbing his arm where the hot broth had landed, looking away from them. "The Uchiha Clan was working on ways to avoid the theft of our bloodline for as long as it existed as a unit. While we were never the most skilled with fūinjutsu, there should be something there from what we did find."

"Awesome! Could you make sure to pack those when you get your stuff for our trip, Sasuke-san?" Naruto said, trying not to let his enthusiasm shoot too high. Sasuke simply nodded and waved as he walked into the distance, away from Naruto and Sakura. Once he was out of sight, the two began the walk back towards the Uzu District.

"So, what should we pack?" Naruto asked, "I mean, some of these missions do have the potential to turn B-rank, if Hokage-jiji was implying what I think he was. We weren't very prepared for what went down in Nami."

"Plenty of extra kunai and shuriken, your sealing stuff, maybe bring tents this time?" Sakura said.

"But I only have one, Sakura-chan," Naruto said. "And as nice as Nii-san is, I don't think he'd understand the idiosyncrasies of our friendship."

"Look at you and your fancy vocabulary! I can just grab mine from my house. If she gives me any crap, then I'll just sick Hinata-chan on her," Sakura said, grinning and cracking her knuckles.

"Err… is that allowed? I think using Hinata-san would be a bit too far for any non-Shinobi," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head and laughing slightly. Sakura simply looked at him dead in the eye.

"No, it's really not," she said. That ended the conversation. They separated after entering the gate of the Uzu District, with Sakura agreeing to meet Naruto back at his apartment once she grabbed what she needed.

-D&D-

Sakura took a deep breath as she arrived at her parents' home. She'd stopped referring to it as her own home over 2 weeks prior, even if it was technically still her legal address. The Hokage made sure that everything for her was sent to Naruto's apartment, after all.

Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Sakura carefully opened the gate to her parents' meagre yard. Carefully closing it behind her, she fished out her old house key and walked up to the door, before stopping. There was a new door on the house. All the locks looked very different. She wouldn't be able to get in, not without knocking on the door.

Taking a second to not just punch the door down in anger, Sakura walked up to the door frame very carefully. Then, very formally, knocked three times. Nothing. Sighing, Sakura simply sat down on the step and waited. At least she had plenty of storage scrolls. She made a resolution then and there to pack up all her stuff and move it to Naruto's apartment. That was far more of a home than this place was, anyway.

After waiting for what felt like forever, Sakura stood up and knocked on the door again. Still no answer. Sakura clenched her fist and looked up towards one of the nearby trees. She made a quick sign in the ANBU sign language, letting them know it was her house - technically - before turning back to the door. Cracking her knuckles, she focused her chakra into her hands, like a hand version of tree or water walking.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled back her hand and clenched a fist. Then, with a cry of "Shannarō!" punched the door as hard as she could. The door flew inwards, embedding itself in the back wall and decimating the frame. Hearing a loud scream inside, Sakura simply walked inside and up the stairs to where room was.

'Was' being the operative word, since it was empty, save for a bunch of boxes. Opening them, she found it did indeed have her stuff. Pulling out her sealing scrolls, Sakura sealed the boxes into them. She would have Naruto dig through them with Kage Bunshin once she got home. Blinking, she realized that she had just thought of his apartment as 'home.'

As she sealed the last box, she heard a creak on the floorboards behind her. Reacting instantly, she fished a shuriken out of her inrō and threw it behind her, grabbing the scroll and jumping back at the same time. To her surprise, Sōka was standing there, and with a clang of metal from her father's wakizashi, hit the shuriken into the wall beside her.

"You've got a lot of nerve, Sakura, just breaking down the door and taking what you want," Sōka said, her eyes blazing in anger. "Do you know how much it cost to repair the damage your damned team did last time?"

"Not much, I checked the bank records. Quite frankly, your dinner last night cost more than all the housing damage combined," Sakura said, not even bothering to look at her aunt as she grabbed her shuriken out of the wall.

"That's just from your father's account. I emptied my entire bank account out, mainly to fix the damage to the walls that Uzumaki caused when he destroyed the door to this room. That damn wall was load-bearing, and we had to rip out all of it! And now this! You're a damned menace!" Soka yelled.

"Because you're always so cruel to him! If you were nicer to him, then he wouldn't have thrown the door!" Sakura yelled, arms at her side and fists clenched.

"If I was nice to him, then he would be around me! I don't want to be around him!" Soka replied, leaning on the door frame.

"What, because of his burden that you can't separate from him?!" Sakura growled out.

"Oh whatever, I don't care about that. I knew Kushina-hime, and I know what she was. I don't trust the little Uzumaki to hold it the way his mother did! He'll lose control of it one day, I know he will! And when he does, it won't be around me, because I pushed him away. You should really follow my example, it would preclude you dying a horrible death."

"I'm not abandoning Naruto-kun! No matter what anyone tells me, no matter what happens, I'll always try to help him!" Sakura yelled. Quickly, getting an idea, she squeezed her palm around the shuriken blade to pierce her skin, letting the blood run down her hand. "That, I swear on my blood."

Sōka simply stared at her, then shook her head, the look on her face not retreating. "You'll regret that one day, Sakura. Now get out, and expect a bill for all of the damage soon." Sakura nodded, and ran out of the house before she could change her mind. It was all she could do to not break down crying.

-D&D-

For Sasuke, packing wasn't exactly hard. He had all of his weapons stored with copious amounts of precision and kept a private record of how many he had and used, and how many he would need to order to restock it. He packed plenty of shuriken and kunai, as well as a small whetstone to sharpen them should they get dull while in the storage scroll or his inrō.

Therefore, once he was packed, he could go through all the different scrolls that his family had, to see if he could find any with reference to seals regarding dōjutsu. Finding Uchiha fūinjutsu was unlikely at best, given how secretive they were about everything, but Sasuke was determined to find something.

There were numerous scroll archives, and digging through them were mostly just birth and census records. Seeing a big scroll in the middle of a large pile, Sasuke grabbed and pulled it, dislodging several scrolls. However, one falling in particular caught his eye— a black scroll casing with red trim. The entire world froze except for that scroll, which he hadn't seen in years. Not since Itachi had used his mangekyō to burn their cousin alive as he ran to see what Sasuke's screams were about. The black flames being one of the last things he saw before… Sasuke snapped himself out of that. He didn't want to remember that, not tonight.

Tossing the black scroll in his bag, to put back later, he finally found a large scroll. According to its casing, it was written about 750 years prior, about an Uchiha attempt to restrain their dōjutsu with a seal like that of the Hyūga. Of course, it was practically indecipherable due to having been written in manyōgana. Sasuke was tempted to just set the damned thing on fire. No one reads manyōgana anymore, it had been irrelevant for at least 500 years. Only someone with random historical knowledge that has no use in the modern… day. It was a long shot, but there was the possibility that she did know it. Quickly stuffing the scroll into his bag with the rest of his scrolls, he pushed the pile back into the closet and shut the door tight, tossing the bag over his shoulder. Naruto can find some use out of the scroll, assuming Sakura can translate it.

-D&D-

When Naruto arrived back at his apartment, the first thing he noticed was the boxes of scrolls stacked around his living room with the Uzumaki and Senju symbols stamped on each case. Quickly creating several Kage Bunshin, Naruto and his new clones dug through each one. All of the ones he quickly sampled were based on chakra transportation.

Chakra can be carried by fūinjutsu from one location to another. As long as this type of fūinjutsu has existed, people have wished to use it on their own bodies to assist their usage of chakra in ninjutsu. However, this has always backfired, and always in the same way: using an artificial network of chakra directs it away from a person's own, causing the person's real chakra network to atrophy and become less usable, weakening them far more than the artificial network enhances it.

Naruto blinked at that scroll, written in the same cursive script he'd seen before with Uzumaki texts. It had obviously been written before Uzushio's fall, but who wrote it he couldn't tell. One of his clones quickly passed him another scroll.

Byakugō no In , known in Uzushiogakure as  Infūin , is a seal which has long existed in the records of the Senju and Uzumaki Clans. Its history is unknown, but it is well-known as being the pinnacle of chakra control and the basis for all chakra storage seals. The seal can be redirected to channel chakra to basically anything, which has led some Seal Masters to theorize that it could have applications outside of direct combat. A member of the Senju Clan once suggested using it to stimulate cell repair and rapidly accelerate the healing process. While progress into experimenting with that has been done, it still needs plenty of progress to be of any use. And even if it was completed, it could not defeat the Hayflick Limit, the amount of times a cell can divide in a person's lifetime, and thus it would rapidly decrease their lifespan.

The  Infūin  also seems to have the possibility to link into other seals should one link it correctly, however it would likely need some form of conscious switch to ensure that it doesn't affect the other seals.

Naruto jumped as he heard his door slam open behind him and slam shut again. He quickly turned and fished a kunai out of his pocket, only to see Sakura standing there, trembling with her fists clenched.

"Sakura-chan! You scared me," Naruto said. She stood still for a second, before running up to Naruto and embracing him tightly, still shaking. "Sakura-chan, what's wrong?" he asked. He felt wet drops on his shoulder as Sakura continued to shake. He wrapped his arms around her back carefully, hoping to comfort her at least a small bit.

"Sōka-ba… she packed up all my stuff into boxes and essentially told me to never come back," she said, before sniffling loudly, "to my own home!" She trembled again. "I'm not wanted by my own family, even. I'm just a little outcast girl that no one wants around."

Naruto wanted desperately to say something to her, to reassure her that she was wanted, but he didn't know how to say it at all. He decided to just be blunt about it. "I want you around, Sakura-chan," Naruto said, biting his mouth shut the moment he said it. She rested her head on his shoulder, seeming to acknowledge his statement. Carefully, so as to not disturb her, Naruto guided her across the room to her futon, sitting down while keeping his embrace tight around her. After several minutes, Naruto carefully laid her down on the bed, but she refused to let go of him. Accepting his fate, Naruto simply closed his eyes and let sleep come to him. They could pack in the morning, Sakura needed him more right now.

Notes:

Now wasn't that sweet? No need for a jutsu list right now, since there was no combat in this chapter. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! Currently unbeta'd. Please Comment, leave Kudos, and Subscribe. See you all next chapter.

Chapter 13: Start of Two Journeys

The sun was out and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. A rarity in Mizu no Kuni. Of course, that didn't really matter one way or another. Momochi Zabuza hated that Mei was forcing him to teach a Genin team. He had been hoping to just take Haku as an apprentice for a short time, then head back into ANBU to finish taking down Karatachi, but obviously the so-called Godaime enjoyed tormenting him. So, here he was, sitting on top of an old Ninja Academy preparatory school in a Jōnin vest, alongside Haku and two other kids. Both of whom looked wet behind the ears, fresh out of the Academy. Or, rather, whatever passed for an Academy when it came to Mei's Kirigakure.

"Well, you lot don't look like much. I told Mei-chan I was looking for Genin with actual skill," Zabuza said. The two children sitting in front of him - a boy with brown hair and another with blue hair - both bristled. The blunet simply put his hands together and looked away, while the brunet instead slammed his hands down.

"Well, I'm sorry that Godaime-sama couldn't get you exactly what you're looking for! But we're at war, and we have shit we need to do! If we are to bring the Yondaime down, we need everyone that is available. So, you can either sit around with your thumb up your ass waiting to get your perfect students, or you can put some fucking effort in, and get us working as a team, and you might be a bit more satisfied by the time it's over!" he yelled. Zabuza crossed his arms, rather annoyed by the boy's audacity, but also impressed by his bravery.

"Well, someone's got a mouth on him," the blunet said with a roll of his eyes. Zabuza was inclined to agree.

"What's your name, boy?!" he demanded. The boy simply stared him back with no fear.

"Hayase Akira, what does it mean to you?" the boy asked.

"Well, if you expect to serve under me, then I expect you to show some respect, Hayase. I don't care how good your Academy scores were. I want results. If you can't perform up to my expectations, then take off that hitai-ate and get the fuck out, I have no use for you otherwise," Zabuza growled. Hayase looked him up and down, then nodded.

"Yes, Sensei!" he said, sitting back down. Zabuza then looked over at the blunet who seemed to be trying his best not to laugh.

"And you? What's your name, and if you have any experience, mention it here now before I throw your ass off this fucking roof," he said to the boy.

"Well, what experience I have," he said, looking up, "I was on Genin team before, six C-ranked missions under the belt 'til my Sensei and one teammate went and got themselves killed," he rubbed the back of his head, "as for my name, Sataki Ryūji at your service!" he finished with a wide grin.

Sataki… well, I'll be damned. The rumours were true— Karasu really was screwing Tatsu-taichō. And he wasn't even subtle naming his kid!

"Hmm… your name sounds familiar," Zabuza said, knowing exactly who the kid was, "any relation to Sataki Akechi?"

"Well it should be damn well obvious, those masks don't really hide hair well, do they? Plus my name just screams 'look at me, my dad's the Great Dragon of Kirigakure!" he said throwing his arms straight up. "Two points for guessing who kā-chan was."

"Oh, don't play coy," Zabuza said, hefting his sword over his shoulder. "I know who she is, just not the name. The only name I knew her by was 'Karasu.' There were always rumours that she was screwing Tatsu-taichō, but it was never confirmed; after all, she was our squad's best when it came to getting information from different men, and some women."

"Ew, don't put it like that! Besides, fun fact, they were married," he said crossing his arms, "Two years before I showed up."

"Ah, so that was the fault of Sandaime-sama. He's the one that assigned them to the same team, about 15 years ago," Haku piped up. "From what Zabuza-sama tells me, the rumours about those two first started after the Great Dragon fought the Yellow Flash, right before the Sanbi vanished for several years."

"So what, you want us to share life stories now, like we're one big happy family?" Ryūji asked, rolling his eyes.

"No, I was making sure you were actually Taichō's kid. Now get your asses moving! There's a simple scouting mission that we're going on. If you live and do well, you'll survive. And I won't be helping you on this. Sink or Swim here, you'll do it on your own merits," Zabuza said, before simply jumping to the next roof. "East gate of the town, ten minutes, or you're out of the team!" Haku immediately jumped after him onto that roof, pulling a small bag out of a storage scroll on his wristband and tossing it over his shoulder.

"You seemed a bit harder on them than usual, Zabuza-sama," Haku observed.

"Yeah, well, Taichō's kid can suffer a bit for the last mission I was on with his father. Fucking berates me for being a few minutes late after sharpening my sword, but he tells us to focus on the mission when he's several minutes late after probably making out with Karasu for too long!" Zabuza growled, sheathing his sword and jumping off towards the gate, Haku right behind him.

-D&D-

A small alarm clock beeping was Sakura's first indication of consciousness. Reaching over, carefully, she smacked the snooze button and slowly opened her eyes. Immediately, she felt something wrapped around her body, rather tight. Turning her head, Sakura saw Naruto lying next to her with his arms wrapped around her. Quickly looking at her outfit, it was no more dishevelled than usual when she fell asleep in her clothes.

Naruto, you're so sweet. You just laid down to keep me company, and held me in my sleep. So many would have taken advantage of me in that state, but not you. Never you, Sakura thought, smiling as she slid carefully out of bed, nudging Naruto awake in the process.

"Mmm, Sakura-chan~?" Naruto said, carefully opening his eyes.

"That didn't take long," Sakura said, unbuttoning her dress to change.

"Well, you usually wake me up in my own room," Naruto said, not skipping a beat.

"Yeah, I do. And thanks, Naruto-kun," Sakura said.

"For what, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked.

"For being there for me, for not taking advantage of me like so many other boys would have," Sakura said. It was rather ironic, she thought, that she said that while she had no top on, but she knew Naruto didn't care.

"I would never do something like that!" Naruto said, eyes wide. "I could never hurt you, Sakura-chan!"

"I know, Naruto-kun," Sakura said, smiling brightly at him. "Now come on, I don't think we packed anything last night, and we have plenty of stuff to go through!"

-D&D-

After going through everything they thought they would need, Sakura arrived at the south gate with Naruto. As usual, Sasuke was already there waiting for them, leaning against a lamp post without a care in the world.

"Took you longer than usual. Did you two finally stop hiding it, or are you still in denial?" Sasuke called.

"Sasuke-san, what are you talking about?" both chorused. Sasuke simply sighed and waved off the conversation. Sakura looked at Naruto, but he simply shrugged. Okay, what does he mean? Even Naruto can't get a read on him! If the negative-empath can't get a read on him, there's a problem!

"Well," Kakashi called from the top of the lamp, "since my adorable little Genin have arrived, I guess it's just about time to leave." Team Seven lined up and nodded, looking up at Kakashi as he pointed up the road, to an ornate chariot and several men with spears guarding it.

"We'll be guarding that, all the way to Hi no Tera, near the border with Cha no Kuni. And we have to walk there at normal speed. It should take us about three weeks of walking normal speed, assuming no natural disasters or unforeseen slowdowns. So, we should get there in time for the Harvest Festival!" Kakashi said, giving them a small smile. His entire team simply glared at him.

"She's Daimyō-sama's wife, can't she move a bit faster than that?" Sasuke asked.

"Unfortunately, no. She'll go at her own pace, and she'll pay us handsomely just to follow. Now, shall we be off?" Kakashi asked. Team Seven nodded, as the chariot began moving to the gate, with the baggage train behind it. Team 7 turned and took up positions around it. Kakashi sat on top of it, Sasuke guarding from the left, and Naruto & Sakura guarding from the right. Carefully, the chariot rolled out of Konohagakure no Sato and into the deep forest.

-D&D-

"At least we have shinobi for the trip this time, on the trip here all we had were samurai, and they don't talk. At all," one of the soldiers said, trying to make conversation.

"So, what? Did you just twiddle your thumbs all the way to Konoha?" Sasuke asked,

"No," the youngest said, "there were some wolves and… well, that was about it," he shrugged.

"Well, that doesn't sound like fun, but I heard roasted wolf is quite delicious," Sasuke said, cracking his knuckles. All the soldiers looked at him and gulped loudly.

"Of all the bad luck, how'd we get saddled with an Uchiha?! They were supposed to all be dead, goddamn it! Now we're screwed!" one of them muttered. Sasuke simply activated his sharingan and looked directly at the old man with a blank stare.

His junior put himself between them, "Sorry, sorry, this geezer's been around a while, claims his grandpa was saved by a Senju and that nonsense," he tried to defuse the tension, "Just ignore him, he's a relic, more like a unit mascot."

"Mascot?! I'll show you mascot you damn fool!" the man yelled.

"Heh, the only reason you're not retired is because your dad saved Daimyō-sama from drowning as a kid; so just enjoy the fact that they remember a good deed," the younger man chuckled.

"You young kids have no respect," the old man said. "I'm old enough to remember the Sandaime Hokage from when he was still a young man. I saw the Densetsu no Sannin before they got their title during the Second Shinobi World War. I've seen shinobi do things that you've only seen in your nightmares!"

"Sure, jiji, sure. I think the guard on the luggage is a bit short, head back there and check for me, would ya?" one of the Samurai called. The old man muttered several things about the samurai's mother and a goat, but he obeyed the order.

"I don't think attitudes in the capital have ever gotten better towards your clan, Uchiha," one of the other men said. "If people know of your clan at all, it's mostly though the things that Madara did."

"Well, that's likely enough to change soon enough," Sasuke said. "Once the souls of my ancestors can finally rest, then I'll restart the clan. This time, people will know us for something positive, rather than knowing us as stuck-up pricks."

"What do you want your clan to be remembered for, then?" the man asked.

"Strong warriors who would die to protect their friends and comrades without question. Well, maybe not without question, it should be someone's own decision to do that, but you get the point," Sasuke said.

"How're you gonna bring back an entire clan with just yourself?" Naruto asked, running up next to him. Sasuke just looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"Well, Naruto, you see, when a man and a woman enjoy each other's company very, very much–" he began, before Naruto cut him off.

"I know about that, 'ttebayo!" Naruto yelled. "What I meant was, it's just you! How can you revive an entire clan… how many kids do you expect to have?!"

"I don't want to try and fill up every house in my district, Naruto. I just want to have enough kids that it will be up do a decent number by the time I die of old age," Sasuke said, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, but who would you even marry?" Naruto asked, "none of the girls in our class really seemed worthy of the Uchiha name… or any clan name for that matter, except maybe Sakura-chan and Hinata-san. And Hinata-san is already the heiress to the biggest remaining clan in Konoha."

"I just turned twelve a month ago, Naruto. I have plenty of time to find a bride," Sasuke said, locking his hands behind his head. "Now pay attention to the road, we have someone very rich to guard, after all."

"Come on, Sasuke-san~! At least give me a hint~!" Naruto whined.

"I'll tell you, if you finally admit your feelings for Sakura," Sasuke replied. Naruto's face went beet red.

"Don– Don't put it like that, Sasuke-san!" Naruto stuttered, looking away quickly. Sasuke simply smiled slightly and walked away from him. "We're just friends, nothing more than that! Come on, don't be like Yamanaka-buta-chan! Sasuke-san! Come back!"

-D&D-

There weren't very many things that Sakura hated while travelling. Sleeping in tents was fine, she could sleep on anything. Cooking anything they could hunt or scrounge up was perfectly fine as well, even if it didn't always taste good, it allowed them to pack lighter. The long walking distances were always fine, since she had kept up with Naruto for years as he ran in circles around the village.

No, what she hated most was that she had to wash herself in rivers, and they were always freezing. And she had to walk a fair distance from everyone else just to get some privacy while she did so. So, she had to swim around in circles until her body adjusted to the water, then scrub herself down before she got hypothermia… well, maybe she wouldn't, but she didn't want to risk it.

Quickly pulling herself out of the water, she scrubbed down with a small cloth and sat down to let herself dry. Hearing a rustling, she quickly looked up, only to see someone hanging upside down with their face buried in the cliff, and a golden chain wrapped around their ankles. A loud groan of pain rang out from the man as she looked at him.

"Enjoying the view?" Sakura called, giggling afterwards, knowing exactly what fate befell the man. At least Naruto wasn't trying to murder someone this time. It only took about ten minutes for her body to dry, as she tossed her uniform back on, sans hitai-ate.

Quickly jogging up to the top of the cliff, she found Naruto sitting on a rock, a chain extending out of his back shoulder as he drew on one of his blank scrolls. As she arrived, the boy closed the scroll and sealed it back inside a storage scroll with his brushes and ink.

"You ready to head back, Sakura-chan?" he asked, not skipping a beat.

"First, please drop the man. He'll just land in the water anyway. Second, could you please dry my hair?" Sakura said. Naruto nodded, making the Tori seal with his hands and letting a small gust of wind dry her hair. "What, no yelling out its name this time?"

"Nope. No point, really," Naruto said. "No point in calling out 'Fūton: Soyokaze no Jutsu' when there I'm just using it to dry someone's hair."

"Makes sense," Sakura replied, tying her hitai-ate back around her head to keep her bangs out of her eyes. Naruto smiled and withdrew his chain, as they heard a loud yelp followed by a splash behind them.

"So, what do ya think the deal with this mission is?" Naruto asked, as they began the walk through the forest.

"Something about grave robbers that we need to investigate, while also guarding Madam Shijimi as she prays, thanking the kami for a good harvest this year," Sakura answered.

"But… why would people rob graves at a temple? I don't get it. We weren't given too much info on the matter, were we?" Naruto asked.

"No, we weren't. Sandaime-sama didn't get that much information himself, they just mentioned grave robberies, and he wanted us to take a look. I imagine that they will give further detail when we get there," Sakura offered.

"So, they get a bunch of Genin assigned to a mission… but with grave robbers, it could be freaking ANBU robbing those graves for secrets! We could be walking into a huge trap!" Naruto said.

"Well, if things go bad, find a wide open area and just let loose. Sensei will grab you back to reality once you're done," Sakura said with a smile. Naruto looked at her, eyebrow raised.

"You seem strangely optimistic that I wouldn't just blow up the entire surrounding landscape, Sakura-chan," Naruto said. "That's what happened with the Gobi Jinchūriki last time he went on a mission. He went nuke-nin after that, and no one's seen him since."

"Well, then make sure to keep a lid on it, Naruto-kun," Sakura said as they walked into the large camp. "Maybe one day, you'll be able to control some of its power?"

"I doubt it. It hates me; I can tell that without even being able to read it. The day I learn to control it is the day I vow to destroy our home," Naruto said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh don't be such a pessimist, Naruto-kun! I'm sure you'll learn someday!" Sakura said, as cheery as she could. Naruto smiled with response to that.

"Thanks for believing in me, at least," he said. They soon reached the small part of the tent city that had been allotted to Team Seven. No one else was there, since Sasuke and Kakashi were off training their sharingan together.

Sitting down around their fire-pit area, Naruto pulled his scroll, brushes, ink, and notes back out as he continued reading them. Sakura, as well, pulled out the scroll Sasuke had given her and continued to transcribe it into something readable. It wasn't even just the manyogana, it was also the fact that many of the kanji were written in different standards than she was used to, so it took a fair amount of guesswork for each sentence.

After quite some time of translating, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Kakashi with his hand up, and a small plate of food in his hand. "You need to keep your strength up, Sakura-kun. Otherwise, you won't be very helpful in combat, should it come," Kakashi said.

Gratefully, Sakura took the plate. "I don't think I'm all that helpful, anyway. I helped a bit during the fight with Zabuza, but otherwise I just got nearly killed by a kid who isn't much older than me, and stood around the rest of the time. How am I of any use in combat, anyway?" she said, looking down at her plate. "Naruto-kun and Sasuke-san always do all the work, anyway. It's stupid. How will I ever be Hokage at this rate? One of those two would be better suited for the job."

Kakashi knelt down and placed a hand on her shoulder, making her jump slightly, but calming down as soon as she looked into his eye. "Sakura-kun, tell me, why do you want to be Hokage?" he asked.

"I see Sandaime-sama protecting the village and people in it, and I want to be like that. I want to keep everyone in the village safe," Sakura said, focusing on Kakashi sharply. "Ensure everyone is able to come home to their families, by keeping war from our borders. And if it cannot be avoided, I'll be at the front, making sure as few of ours die as possible. But, as well, to keep my people from becoming marginalized.

"I've heard many shinobi openly disparage the fact that the Uzu District exists, likening it to a village within a village, as if it creates instability. They want to make it available for anyone to live in at all, which I fear will destroy our culture once and for all, just like the coalition wanted back during the Second Shinobi World War."

"Sakura-kun, please," Kakashi said. "You just started out as a Genin. Even Minato-sensei was a Genin for over a year before he became more powerful as a Chūnin apprenticing under Jiraiya-sama. You will get stronger. Not everyone starts off as powerful as they become, in fact, most don't. And yet, some may find that those regions with the lowest valleys sometimes have the highest peaks."

"Who the hell said that last one, sensei? I know that wasn't yours," Sakura said, giggling a bit.

"Minato-sensei, actually. He said that to me about my teammate, Uchiha Obito. He's the one who gave me this," he said, tapping his hitai-ate with two fingers, over where his left eye was hidden. "According to him, he heard it from an old toad who trained him and Jiraiya-sama at one point."

"A... toad?" Sakura asked, eyebrow raised. "Like, the ones Naruto-kun summons?"

"Bingo. Jiraiya-sama passed the scroll onto both of his apprentices. Well, Naruto-kun is more like a future apprentice, but I have no doubt that Jiraiya-sama will claim him once you lot are promoted to Chūnin," Kakashi said. "I'm also sure that Sandaime-sama would ask me to take Sasuke-kun on as an apprentice once he is promoted. The question, though, is where you will go. Perhaps you could become Hokage-sama's assistant? That would certainly get you used to all the paperwork that comes with the job. At least until you become a member of the Jōnin Council."

"Can I focus on becoming a Chūnin before you start grooming me to become Hokage?" Sakura asked. "I mean, I'm still a Genin. Who would want me in charge? I have no clan, no kekkei genkai, and no connections to anyone. Not to mention, again, I'm a Genin."

"Well, you have one important connection," Kakashi said. "You have the love of the Kyūbi Jinchūriki. Minato-sensei became Hokage just based on that, and all the friends he made along the way."

"I mean… wait, Sensei what do you mean love?" Sakura asked, face reddening.

"Sakura-kun… everyone can see it," Kakashi said, patting her on the shoulder as he stood up and walked away. Sakura just stared into her food. Love… but… does Naruto even understand those feelings… unless he meant familial love? No, no, he wouldn't have made that last comment if he meant familial love, he would have just said it. But… could Naruto actually love me that way? I… I don't… I don't know how to think about this.

"Oi, Sakura-chan!" Naruto's voice called from behind her. The boy grinned and waved at her as she turned to look at him. "I think I've managed to finally hit a breakthrough with this seal! Here, now if you notice how this kanji–" Naruto began. Sakura shook her head. I don't understand most of what he's saying, but he certainly looks happy talking about it.

-D&D-

A few weeks later, Team Seven and the rest of the party arrived in a small village, near the southern border of Hi no Kuni. It had a modest inn, where the party bought out the entire thing. Team Seven received two rooms: one for the boys and one for Sakura. Naruto, however, was unable to sleep. He stayed up late working on the seal, but then hit a roadblock.

But if the dōjutsu is locked then it should… no, no! That won't work genetically! Damn it, even Mito-obā-sama's notes aren't super helpful, and Sasuke's is mostly about shutting down a dōjutsu, and has some supplementary stuff, but… ugh! I need someone who specializes in genetics to weigh in on this problem, or at least some notes!

Placing his brush in his water bowl in frustration, Naruto stood up and walked over to the balcony, looking out over the river. Damn it, I have to do this! I can't let Hinata down, not when her entire family's future is riding on this!

Sighing, Naruto turned and walked back to his futon, laying down and closing his eyes. He had a long day ahead of him once the sun came up.

Almost as soon as he'd closed his eyes, he felt like, Naruto was being shaken awake. He looked up and saw Sasuke frowning down at him.

"Naruto, come on! We need to go!" he growled. "Get changed, now!" Quickly jumping up, Naruto complied, quickly washing and putting on his formal Genin uniform, then putting his normal clothes in a storage seal. Quickly tying on his hitai-ate, he ran out the door behind Sasuke, who was also in his uniform. Since they needed to make a formal appearance, the uniforms were necessary.

Sighing, Naruto went to knock on Sakura's door. After taking a breath, he did so. "Just a second!" she called. Naruto leaned back against the wall as he heard loud shifting around and the tell-tale sound of clothes being sealed into a scroll. When the door opened, Naruto felt much of the blood in his body rush to his cheeks.

Sakura stood there, smiling, in a deep blue furisode kimono decorated with cherry blossoms, and a soft green obi wrapped around her waist to complement the kimono. Her face had been touched up with makeup, and her hair was braided into clips to show off her face. She also wore tabi socks that matched her obi with her zōri sandals. A quick step back showed Naruto she was also wearing a soft pink Hiyoku underneath the Kimono.

"Oh, hi Naruto-kun!" Sakura said, smiling widely. "Is it time to go? I hope I didn't go too overboard with this! I just need to tie my inrō to by obi and we can head off."

"You didn't go overboard Sakura-chan. You look very beautiful," Naruto said, smiling, then quickly looking away. Crap! Why'd I have to say that?! I swear, if Sasuke rubs my face in that, he really will be the last Uchiha when I'm done with him!

"O-Oh," Sakura said, blushing as well. "Thanks, Naruto-kun, it really means a lot." She brought her eyes back up to Naruto's, and they just stared for a while. They were interrupted by a loud sound of a throat clearing. Both quickly turned to see Sasuke leaning against the wall, smirking.

"If you're gonna kiss, just get it over with," he said. "We need to get to the temple— there's no time for preteen awkwardness."

Feeling his face overheat, Naruto waved his arms rapidly. "No, no, it's not like that! Sasuke-san, don't be mean!" Sasuke simply shrugged and walked away. Mumbling insults, Sakura walked after him, with Naruto in the back. The group walked outside, finding Kakashi reading Icha Icha Violence while sitting cross-legged on the wall above the door frame.

"Took you three long enough. You look quite stunning, Sakura-kun. Now, head over and join the procession with Madam Shijimi-sama," Kakashi said, snapping his book shut. "Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun, with me. We'll walk at the front."

-D&D-

About half-an-hour after leaving the inn, the procession came into view of a large set of stone stairs that raised up further than Naruto could see. In front of the stairs stood seven figures of various heights, wearing white robes, and varying lengths of black sashes around their shoulders. Taking the front, Naruto followed Kakashi from the left while Sasuke followed from the right, as they approached the elder monk in the centre.

Kakashi walked up to the elder monk and bowed respectfully, Naruto and Sasuke following his lead. "Hatake Kakashi, Jōnin of Konohagakure no Sato. I am Madam Shijimi-sama's bodyguard. I am glad to make your acquaintance."

"Hatake-shinobi, welcome!" the old monk said, bowing politely in response. "I am the Head Monk of Hi no Tera, my name is Bansai. These are my fellow monks. Please, tell Madam Shijimi-sama that Hi no Tera is at her disposal for as long as she needs it."

"My thanks, Rōsōryo-san," Kakashi said. "These are my Genin subordinates, Uzumaki Naruto-kun, and Uchiha Sasuke-kun. They will accompany me."

"Off course, Shinobi-san. It's quite rare to see an Uzumaki and an Uchiha get along. Your procession may proceed," Bansai said, turning around. He began to walk up the stairs, with his companions following in staggered pattern.

"Do we really have to climb all those stairs, Nii-san?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, we do, unfortunately," Kakashi said, plenty of sympathy evident. "And we have to do it slowly, so that the men with the palanquin can follow us. I hope you boys didn't skip leg day, because we have a lot of climbing ahead of us."

Both Naruto and Sasuke sighed as Kakashi began climbing the stairs. They both followed closely behind him as the rest of the procession climbed up slowly, especially with the palanquin slowing them down. After several landings, Naruto was feeling the burn in his legs. Especially since he had to stop every few steps to wait for the ashigaru to catch up.

"How much longer is this staircase?! I can feel my lungs trying to kill me!" one of them called.

"Man, if this is what the Daimyō has his ashigaru trained to, I dread the future of this country!" Sasuke called. Naruto rolled his eyes. Sasuke always did have a way with people… I thought he was the nobility, shouldn't he know how to be nice and courteous?! Said ashigaru took a deep breath, and began to march harder. Naruto grinned at the sight. Sasuke was a bit flippant sometimes, but he did mean well. Even if it was a bit hard to see it.

Despite the complaints of the ashigaru, he was excited. He was actually getting practical experience in these types of missions! Doing well here would probably mean Kakashi might consider entering them in the Chūnin Exams early! Naruto smiled at that thought: him making Chūnin before he even turned 13. He'd probably never meet someone who could beat Kakashi's record – how he became a Chūnin at 6, no one really knows – but at least he could show off his strength, and give Sakura a great opportunity to show her own off.

Notes:

Jutsu and Translation list!

Fūton: Soyokaze no Jutsu — Wind Release: [Gentle] Breeze Technique

Mizu no Kuni — Land of Water

Taichō — Captain

Kā-chan — mother

Manyogana — Very old way of writing Japanese. It's really irritating.

Hiyoku — An underpiece of a kimono, unfortunately they are rarely used anymore.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Remember to Follow, Favourite, and of course, REVIEW! I'll see you all next time.

Chapter 14: A Tale of Two Brothers

After what felt like hours, Naruto finally arrived at the top of the stairs. Turning around, he looked about at the land around him, a vast expanse of greenery as far as he could see in all directions, except for where Hi no Tera stood. Turning around, an ornate temple stood, with an ornate iron door at the front, framed by Tengu statues on either side. Looking over, Sasuke seemed to have a similar reaction. Kakashi couldn't be read behind that mask of his.

After waiting a few more minutes, the men carrying the palanquin up the stairs finally arrived and rested it down. The door carefully opened, and Madam Shijimi stepped out, with her formal headdress and her jūnihitoe kimono richly decorated, with the outermost having designs of flames along the bottom, and the kanji for 'fire' along the back collar, clearly showing who she was.

Carefully, the woman stepped forward as the ladies followed her, many clearly exhausted from the long walk up. In the procession, Sakura smiled at the two of them as the rest of the ladies continued to follow Madam Shijimi, surrounded by the Samurai and many of the ashigaru. Kakashi motioned for them to follow, and they quickly obliged. With a loud groan, the doors opened to a large stone walkway, and everyone quickly made their way inside, the doors closing behind them as well. Looking at the inside, Naruto could see numerous seals inscribed on the metal, strengthening it immensely. It would take a Kage to break that door down with pure force, Naruto thought as the group walked on.

Once they reached a crossroads, Naruto, Kakashi, and Sasuke followed one monk to up a hall, while the Samurai and ashigaru followed Madam Shijimi into another part of the temple. It'll be fine… if anything happens, Sakura will protect Madam Shijimi. As they walked up the hall, Naruto noticed some glares coming his way. He tried to ignore it like he usually did, but Sasuke seemed to be confused by the looks.

"Why'd they have to bring shinobi here?! Samurai are bad enough, but this is just horrific! Why'd Bansai-sama let them in?! We need to talk to senpai, he'll take care of them!" one monk, who looked in his mid-twenties, tried to whisper to another standing next to him. Unfortunately, everyone heard them. Naruto gave a glare of his own when they looked up, causing them to glare back. Naruto turned away and looked ahead as they continued walking. Huh, so they didn't turn away and walk faster when I glared. Guess they must not know about jinchūriki this far out… or maybe they do, and just not about me.

Naruto noticed a few more glares of that nature as the monk opened a door and ushered them in. Carefully, the three entered, with the monk sliding the door shut and touching a paper seal. Naruto recognized the symbol on it— it was a silencing seal. No one would hear what occurred here.

"Well, it is quite good to see you again, Hatake-senpai," the monk said, smiling. "I haven't seen you in quite some time."

Kakashi nodded, looking at the monk as they kneeled on the mats provided for them. The monk knelt across from them. "Likewise, Chiriku-kun. You left to join the Twelve Guardians with Asuma-kun, then retired outright a few years later. I still don't know why Sandaime-sama approved, you were quite talented," he said. The monk, Chiriku, nodded and grabbed a tea kettle from the table, pouring four cups of tea, and sliding three over to them.

"Don't worry, I checked for poison, there is none," Chiriku said, nodding at the tea. "I assume you heard about the grave robberies. Sandaime-sama would obviously send someone skilled here to investigate. I do wish he'd sent Asuma-kun, but you are certainly more than up for the task."

"Asuma-kun is busy training the next generation of the Ino-Shika-Chō trio," Kakashi said, sipping his tea through his mask genjutsu. "They are off on their first C-rank mission. I brought these two with me, since they are obviously skilled enough for this." Kakashi shot a quick look at both Naruto and Sasuke to not mention Sakura. "The redhead is Uzumaki Naruto, yes he's Kushina-san's son, and on my right here is Uchiha Sasuke."

"From the eyes," Chiriku said, looking at Sasuke, "I'm going to guess that he's Mikoto-sensei's son. Kushina's son and Mikoto's son on the same team, what are the odds there?"

Naruto and Sasuke both looked at Kakashi confused. After a moment, he shook his head. "Naruto-kun, your mother was Mikoto-sama's apprentice when she was a Chūnin. After Kushina-chan made Jōnin, the two remained close friends, and hoped you two would grow to be friends as well." Kakashi chuckled lightly. "As a baby, Sasuke-kun once snuggled Kushina-chan's big belly where you were. I never saw her happier than that moment." Naruto blushed brightly at that and tried not to look at Sasuke, who was probably as, if not more, embarrassed than him at that story.

"Ah, makes sense. Anyways, what has Sandaime-sama told you about the grave robberies?" Chiriku asked. Kakashi shook his head.

"Not much, unfortunately. All we heard was that important graves were being vandalized. However, we were also told it wasn't an important matter, and that you've got it under control," Kakashi said. "A man-short Genin team with a strong Jōnin was considered plenty for the mission." Naruto simply looked at Kakashi, mentally astonished that he could lie so easily to someone he knew. Remind me to always double-check what Nii-san tells me with someone else or in a book, he cannot be trusted! Naruto thought.

Chiriku clenched the handle of his teacup tighter and glared down at the table. "They've even got into our messenger service?! This is unreal! Bansai-sama needs to do something about this, and soon!" Chiriku growled out.

"What's the problem?" Sasuke asked.

"You know why us monks exist, right?" Chiriku asked. Sasuke shook his head. "We monks exist to practice and spread the teachings of Ninshū, the ideology of Rikudō Sennin," he continued. Sasuke's eyes widened, and he nodded at that information.

"Rikudō Sennin?" Naruto asked. He knew that name from somewhere, probably one of Sakura's books, but he just couldn't remember it.

"Rikudō Sennin was the founder of the world we now live in. There are many legends about what he did," Sasuke explained. "If you believe all of them, he's done everything from creating chakra to building the moon from his sheer power. There isn't very much consistent across all the legends… the main one being that he was very powerful, and he possessed the Rinnegan."

"Rinnegan?" Naruto asked, mostly to himself. He remembered Jiraiya mentioning it, he just needed to remember the exact conversation.

"Yeah. You remember how in class, Iruka-sensei mentioned how the Sharingan and the Byakugan were two of the Three Great Dōjutsu?" Sasuke asked. Naruto nodded, remembering Sakura's review of that lesson, at least. "Well, the Rinnegan is the last one, and it's shrouded in mystery, even amongst the Uchiha. I don't know if the Hyūga know much about it, but I doubt they'd be inclined to share."

"Many doubt the Rinnegan actually exists, you know," Chiriku stated, taking a sip from his tea. "At this point, it's never been seen outside of those legends and the drawings of Rikudō Sennin."

"He's right, honestly," Kakashi said, sipping his tea. "It's quite possible the Rinnegan never actually existed in the first place, simply a result of people embellishing legends and building upon the absurd stories with their own."

"You're wrong," Naruto blurted out suddenly, remembering his conversation. "It is real. Ero-sensei saw it with his own eyes."

"Ah," Kakashi said, shaking his head. "He told you about the three orphans from Amegakure, didn't he? Naruto-kun, Jiraiya-sama was suffering from severe post-traumatic stress at that time, and no one was able to go to Amegakure to verify that story before he claimed that all three were dead. While I almost always trust him, I'm not sure of the accuracy of that story." Gripping his pants, Naruto stood up rapidly and bit his thumb, flying through hand seals before Kakashi could stop him. "Wait, Naruto–"

"Ninpō: Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Naruto called out, making everyone back up as they waited to see who or what Naruto would summon. A puff of smoke went up, and when it cleared, a small orange toad was sitting on the floor. Naruto sighed, Gamakichi was not who he had planned on summoning.

"Yo, Naruto-san, what's up! You haven't summoned me in forever!" Gamakichi called.

"You wouldn't happen to know Ero-sensei's old messenger toad, would you?" Naruto asked.

"Oh, Gamasen-sama? Of course I know him. He loves to drone on and on about how Jiraiya-san was always so happy training those three kids; one of them had the Rinnegan, would you believe?! I thought Ōjiji-sama was joking when he said that he'd met a young man with those eyes in his youth, but apparently he wasn't lying there! Oh, crap, you summoned me at a bad time, tō-chan is gonna kill me, I gotta run, get me candy next time!" Gamakichi then vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving Naruto starting dejected at the ground.

"Well, whatever, I don't really care if the Rinnegan is real or not," Chiriku said. "That tangent has nothing really to do with the conversation at hand.

"We monks exist to carry on Rikudō Sennin's teachings, of using chakra in peaceful ways, or at least to keep the peace. We travel around different regions of Hi no Kuni, assisting the priests and priestesses with protection or just performing the ceremonies. Several of us also set up other small shrines and temples in villages and towns that lack them.

"Inevitably, though, due to the nature of our work, it will bring us into conflict with others. That's why I'm here. I train the younger monks in anti-shinobi tactics."

"Wait, why would you need to train in anti-shinobi tactics?!" Naruto asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, it's quite simple," Chiriki said. "Imagine a Kiri ANBU comes to attack Madam Shijimi-sama. Which would you rather have? A bunch of people who can punch, or a bunch of monks who know how to take on a shinobi? I know which one has the higher likelihood of success, and it isn't the former."

"So, that young monk who talked about 'taking care' of us when we arrived knows anti-shinobi tactics? Terrific," Sasuke said, completely deadpan.

"Those people are… difficult. There is a group of rather militant monks in this temple, especially amongst the younger trainees. They believe ninjutsu is an abomination, the antithesis of everything Rikudō Sennin believed in. Shinobi are the worst offenders to them, yet they find Samurai to be terrible as well, albeit less so than Shinobi, since they also use their chakra as a weapon through their blades. They adamantly wish for the end of shinobi in general, and ideally samurai as well, with monks taking over as the dominant military power," Chiriku said, shaking his head. "They weren't so bad before, mostly they just made noise about shinobi being annoying and went about their day, even were able to work with shinobi in many cases. Then, everything changed when that school opened up in town.

"About 10 years back, Konoha opened a shinobi scout school in the local town, depriving Hi no Tera of its main recruitment ground, as the Jōnin running the school finds children with chakra and brings them in for shinobi training, before often sending them up to Konoha to become shinobi. Since then, they've only gotten more militant, to the point where many of them are just itching to kill any shinobi should they get any kind of reason for it, good or bad!" Chiriku said, clenching his fist.

"Well, I'll try to avoid provoking them, then," Naruto said, bowing his head. The rest of the meeting progressed quietly, with Chiriku informing them of the grave that had been robbed formerly belonging to a member of the Twelve Guardian Shinobi who had died preventing a coup d'état, the only survivors of which were him and Sarutobi Asuma.

-D&D-

Once the tea ceremony had ended, Kakashi had flickered off to the rookery to send a message back to the Hokage, and ensure there wasn't any funny business with the messages. Shaking his head, Sasuke leaned back on one of the pillars in the courtyard, watching the monks practice their bujutsu. Naruto, he knew, was sleeping on the balcony above him. All-nighters on fūinjutsu are not conducive to successful missions, Naruto!

Stretching his arms, Sasuke stepped away from the pillar and walked towards the well on the edge of the courtyard. Distracted, however, he didn't notice as he walked into a younger monk who was talking with several of his friends.

"Oi, watch where you're fuckin' going, shinobi!" the teen yelled at Sasuke. Crossing his arms, Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Well, I was about to apologize," Sasuke said. "But since you are being rather rude, I'm not going to bother."

"Err… Denki… he has dark black hair and onyx eyes… I think the boy's an Uchiha," one of the other boys said.

"Oh, fantastic," the boy, Denki, muttered. "Not only do they send shinobi, but they send an Uchiha?! Konohagakure once again disrespects everything this temple stands for!"

Sasuke looked Denki dead in the eye. "And what exactly is that supposed to mean? I do hope it wasn't an insult on my Clan, otherwise I won't be very pleased," he said, turning his sharingan on to stare at them.

"Oh what, the Uchiha were one of the most warmongering of the clans that participated in the Sengoku Jidai!" Denki snarled. "Everyone knows that their blood is tainted, it's no wonder they destroyed themselves. If you ask me, it was a long time coming."

The moment the words left Denki's mouth, Sasuke snapped. He didn't know what he was doing at all until his fist impacted with Denki's face. Upon seeing their friend get sucker-punched, the other three turned and lunged at Sasuke. He hit the first one with his kick, but the second grabbed his leg and threw Sasuke to the ground with the help of the third. However, as they moved to continue, a loud metallic sound rang out and golden chains wrapped around the arms of the teens.

"Okay, that's quite enough there!" Sasuke heard Naruto call from behind him as he stood up. "Leave Sasuke-san alone, or I'll yank your arms right out of their sockets!" All the teens gulped as Naruto walked closer, until he stood right next to Sasuke. "Now," Naruto said, retracting the chains, "get out of here before I feel the need to bust something much more valuable to each of you." To emphasize his point, Naruto whipped a kunai out of his inrō and pointed it towards one of their groins. All the teens slowly backed away from the grinning Naruto, before turning and running away screaming.

After a moment, Sasuke turned to Naruto. "Naruto, how long were you watching?"

"From about the time he claimed that Konoha was disrespecting Hi no Tera. So… almost the entire time. I jumped in to intervene when I heard the comment about tainted blood. Not sure what that is about," Naruto said.

"Well, let's go and find Kakashi-sensei. He should be able to take care of this issue, or at least direct us to the right person to talk to on this matter," Sasuke replied, shaking his head and deactivating her sharingan.

-D&D-

"I think I win," Sakura said, for what must have been the fifth time that afternoon. Despite how much experience the ladies bragged of having with poker, they sucked at it. Went all in on obviously bad hands and folded very good ones. "So, who lost the most this time?"

"I believe it was Aoi-chan this time," one of the ladies, Oichi, said. "I guess that means you have to speak of what you plan on doing, this time!"

"Well, if I must," Aoi said, finishing correcting her makeup after smacking her face during that last hand. "Once we return to the capital, I'm hoping the skills I've picked up with my calligraphy will finally catch the eye of a visiting nobleman, or someone equivalent. If I can be picked to become a consort, then my children can live better lives and inherit my father's material wealth." She looked around at saw everyone looking at her curiously. "What, were you expecting more? That's really it. I'll focus on other ladies around the court once we get there, maybe find someone I'm actually interested in."

Sakura found herself wanting to hit her head on the table. It was almost nothing but discussions of finding a nobleman of good standing to become a concubine of. Please, just let the ceremony come already, I'm not sure how much longer I can take with these ladies!

-D&D-

After walking around for nearly twenty minutes, Naruto and Sasuke finally found Kakashi. He was sitting on a rooftop, still reading Icha Icha Violence. "Oi, Nii-san! Stop reading Ero-sensei's smut and get down here!" Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, Kakashi flickered away and then stood behind the boys.

"Well, I'm down here," Kakashi said, as he marked his page and tucked the book into a pocket in his vest. "Now what could you two want?"

"Some asshats were provoking Sasuke-san by saying he had 'tainted blood.' I stopped it right as it was turning into a full-on brawl," Naruto said, his blue eyes looking more like ice than water at that moment, at least from Sasuke's view.

Kakashi sighed, loudly. "Of course they did. Come on, let's speak with one of the monks, they ought to have something for us."

About ten minutes later, the group was sitting in a room with the head monk, Bansai. "I'm so very sorry for the behavior of our trainees. Rest assured, their actions will not be taken lightly."

Sasuke clenched his fist. "They called my entire clan 'of tainted blood!' There better be a damned good punishment or I might be taking this matter to Hokage-sama next."

Bansai coughed into his fist. "Please, no need for that," he said. "I promise, they will be punished." Bansai then shook his head. "Tainted Blood, huh? That's… one way of interpreting that legend."

"Which legend?" Sasuke asked, wanting to know what the hell they meant.

"In one version of the legend of Rikudō Sennin, he had two sons. If they had names, they are lost to history. When he died, he imparted his will of Ninshū unto both. One took his father's wishes and embraced it, while the other betrayed his father's wishes and bastardized it into a decidedly more… malevolent force," Bansai said.

Sasuke took a deep breath, closing his eyes to think on the story. When he opened his eyes, he looked to his side. Naruto was gripping his pants and staring straight ahead, obviously deep in contemplation himself. Kakashi, as usual, had the best poker-face of anyone in the room.

Bansai continued then. "For obvious reasons, Rikudō Sennin named his faithful son as his successor. The other was, for lack of a better term, exiled. Soon after Rikudō Sennin's death, however, the exiled son returned. The youngest son of the faithful son even betrayed his father and joined his uncle, believing him to be the rightful heir. The two brothers fought, and in a tragic turn of events, the faithful son was forced to strike down his own brother.

"The reason this connects with you, is due to the fact that the fallen son had children before he died. The family split up after said fight. The younger son of the faithful was remembered for something involving 'Dancing with Bones,' whatever that is supposed to mean. The remaining children of the faithful were said to possess a thousand skills between them and their own children. The fallen son was said to have been the greatest master of dōjutsu ever known." Bansai sighed. "The fallen son's bastardization of his father's ninshū eventually became known as–"

"Ninjutsu," Kakashi finished. Bansai nodded.

"Yes. One of the reasons why our more… backwards-thinking members are more hostile to you, I'm afraid, Uchiha-kun. It connects to you because–"

"Let me guess," Sasuke said, "the fallen son is the progenitor of the Uchiha Clan. It matches my clan's legend."

"Yes. Out of all the records we've come across, the fallen son founded the Uchiha and the faithful son's children of 'one-thousand skills' adopted that as their name, Senju." Both Sasuke and Naruto took a deep inhale of breath at that. "Yes. It would seem that, from the beginning, even before the Sengoku Jidai, the two clans were rivals. A blood feud since the beginning; and of course," Bansai said, looking at Naruto, "the Uzumaki Clan is an offshoot of the Senju Clan. That fact is well-established in historical record."

Kakashi coughed loudly. "Of course, boys, this is all legend, remember? You don't need to take it literally."

"But it lines up too evenly to not," Sasuke said. "The legend states that the fallen son founded the Uchiha. The Uchiha family legend states that we are descended from Rikudō Sennin though his son, though it never states how many he had. It also talked about 'reclaiming our rightful place.' I suppose if the fallen son saw himself as the true heir, it would make sense for that piece to be there."

"He's right," Naruto said, "from the small amount I have on the Uzumaki and Senju family legends, it also claims descent from Rikudō Sennin, but specifically from 'The heir of Rikudō Sennin' The legend lines up too well with both of our family legends to not be true. Granted, I don't have the full Senju family legend. If I ever find Namekuji-hime, I'll ask her for the full thing."

Kakashi sighed. "Okay. Maybe it does match up with your families' origin stories. So what? It was many generations ago, at least. A spat between siblings hundreds of years ago has no effect on the shinobi you are today."

"I know, Nii-san, I know," Naruto said. "I doubt it would actually have caused a rift between us, anyway. I mean, seriously, that's ancient history at this point and both our clans are dead. Might as well start from scratch in terms of our relations."

Sasuke just sat in shock, staring at Naruto. Just like that, Naruto was willing to throw centuries of conflict out the window and start fresh? He's right, there aren't exactly any Senju or Uzumaki left to hold grudges, and the only Uchiha left besides me is irrelevant to the wishes of the clan except for that of his death. I suppose this could be a new start for the Uchiha as well. After a moment, Sasuke let show a slight smile. "Naruto's right. There's no point in retreading the past," he said. Then Sasuke offered his hand to Naruto. "I'm willing to start over, if Naruto is. A new beginning, for all of us." Naruto smiled brightly.

"Of course, Sasuke-san! Conflict was never an option, dattebayo!" Naruto declared, clasping Sasuke's hand in his own. Maybe, without other clansmen to get in the way, this time it'll actually work out.

-D&D-

Stretching his arms, Naruto stepped out the iron doors of Hi no Tera and into the woods. The last few days, ever since the declaration between him and Sasuke, had been rather awkward for the two of them, but they made do. They had also gotten several messages from Sakura at their dead-drop, mostly filled with complaints about how boring the ladies were. Apparently, even Ino was more interesting to listen to than them.

But, given the almost daily flashpoints with the militant monks, Naruto decided it would be a good idea to get refreshed from spending some time in the wilderness. From the corner of his eye, he could see birds in one tree, and could see a deer in the distance as well. In the other direction, two rabbits rushed through the underbrush, and lightning bugs lighting up a small area further back.

Continuing to walk ahead, Naruto didn't see a tree root as he tripped over it and fell to the ground, making two people jump back. Looking up, Naruto saw a teen in the monk robes holding the hand of a young lady in an ornate kimono, probably one of Madam Shijimi's court ladies. Their clothes were also massively out of place, giving Naruto a huge clue as to what they were likely doing, or at least trying to do. "Don't mind me, I'm just passing through," Naruto said, jumping up and brushing off his uniform as the two ran past him, muttering about how they were 'just getting to the good part'.

As he kept walking though, he sensed people in his area. Thinking it was more teenagers wanting privacy, he just kept walking, avoiding the areas they were in. After about ten more minutes of walking, he arrived in a small clearing. But the people he sensed were still there… at an even closer distance than before. Oh shit.

Then, he heard footsteps along the ground behind him. Sighing, Naruto waiting until he sensed them only a few feet away from him, then sidestepped to the left, while leaving his right foot pointed outwards. A confused grunt sounded out as a young man in the monk uniform flew in front of him and landed face first on the ground.

"The hell was that for?" Naruto asked, crossing his arms. The monk pushed himself to his feet and spun around, facing Naruto again. He then jumped at him again, as Naruto heard rustling in the bushes. Why can I never have a C-rank mission where someone doesn't jump me from the bushes?

Jumping back, Naruto narrowly avoided being hit by two more monks, but didn't feel the one rushing him from behind until he was already in the air. Naruto tried to throw a chain at one of the trees, but was hit before he could, and fell straight to the ground on his face.

"Oi, look at this little thing!" one of them called. "Is he really the one that caused Denki and his fellows so much trouble?"

"Eh, they're probably just getting weaker, no way this little shrimp could have done this! Look how tiny he is, he's like a Grape Tomato with that red hair of his," another laughed.

"Don't call me that, you assholes!" Naruto yelled trying to push himself up, only to get kicked back into the dirt by the arrival of another one.

"We're the assholes? You're a shinobi. You're the ones who get paid for warmongering, and then fighting in that war? How many war orphans have shinobi caused, just from the Shinobi World Wars, let alone the Sengoku Jidai?!" the newly arrived one said.

"And you're beating an eleven-year-old boy into the ground while he's on a mission to protect the wife of your Daimyō. It doesn't really matter what other shinobi do, you're being assholes," Naruto said, forcing his head up through the pain.

"Um, he does have a point," one pointed out. "He's eleven, how much wrong could he have really committed?"

"Oh, shut up!" the big one in the middle called. "He's a shinobi, that's all that matters. They keep corrupting the world with their influence and spreading ninjutsu all over the place!"

"R-Right, of course!" the previous one called back. The big one ran up and grabbed Naruto, pressing him to the ground.

"I have just the thing for this little kid," he said, pulling out a piece of paper and sticking it to Naruto's face. Feeling a tug internally, Naruto forced it away from him, but it felt like it was forcing its way into his every crevice. Until it reached his stomach. Then Naruto's whole world exploded in pain.

The only sound in Naruto's head became his own screaming, as a pain even greater than when he'd been stabbed took hold in his stomach. He thought he could hear satisfied laughing in the background, but from whom, he couldn't tell. Then, it shifted to a feeling of tearing, like someone was ripping the skin off his stomach. He could feel tears flowing down his face like a stream, he couldn't bear the pain. Then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped.

Naruto opened his eyes and saw all the monks staring at him. He quickly grabbed the seal tag that had been placed on him and ripped it off. "What was that?!" Naruto screamed. "What the fuck is wrong with you, using a torture seal on a little kid?!" His fists were clenched tight as he glared at all of them. As he glared, he noticed a reddish tint take hold of his vision.

Uh-oh. Naruto thought, quickly willing his chains inside of his body to where his seal was supposed to be. Sure enough, the seal that the Sandaime had put on him to reinforce his seal had been destroyed by whatever they had done to him. Several chakra chains over the weakened parts quickly reinforced it, but it required constant upkeep from Naruto to maintain.

"Wh-What are you?!" the seemingly youngest called.

"It's just like you said," Naruto said, "I'm a shinobi." Then, he just smiled at them. "The better question is, who are you?"

"Quite frankly, fucked is what they are," a voice called from the tree. Naruto looked up and saw Chiriku standing there, with 15 other monks. And all of them were glaring down at the teens.

"Oh shit," the big one said, likely summing up all of their thoughts.

-D&D-

"So, to sum up, you attacked a child in the woods because he had on a shinobi headband. That's it?" one of the monks demanded from a trainee. Said trainee was nodding rapidly.

"Yes! He said that we should take out the shinobi one by one, and since this one seems to be the weakest, we should take him out first!" the trainee said, curling up into the fetal position.

As the older monks were interrogating the younger, however, Naruto felt something on his senses… a fairly large chakra signature… just to the east, where one of the graves was supposed to be. Naruto quickly turned to where Chiriku was standing behind him.

"Chiriku-san, there is a large chakra signature near the grave site! Head back to the temple and get reinforcements, I'll try to stall them!" Naruto called, running up the nearest tree and jumping off in the direction of the signature. He felt other signatures in the woods, probably more monk trainees, but he didn't have time to find any more of them right now, he needed to make sure that no more bodies were stolen!

After jumping through the trees, Naruto arrived at the edge of a clearing, marked with monuments all around it with seal tags stuck to them. However, the chakra signature was inside! Dropping to the monument, Naruto grabbed the tag and looked carefully at it.

Simple barrier seal. He quickly pulled out his brush and ink. Just connect these two to short out the mechanism… and done! Putting his hand across, he quickly confirmed that there was no longer a barrier there. Quickly rushing into the clearing, Naruto pulled a glow stick out of his supply scroll and snapped it on, running down the stairs and into the tomb. But there was nothing in there. No robbers, no inspectors… and no coffin. And Naruto couldn't sense where they'd gone either. So, either the person robbing the place had suddenly died, which was unlikely, or they had a way of avoiding his chakra perception.

Then, he heard footsteps rush up the hallway behind him, and felt seven chakra signatures rushing in, one of them extremely strong. Naruto spun around, only to see seven monk standing there, looking at him in shock.

"Too late," Naruto said, shaking his head. "Coffin's already gone." Taking a deep breath, Naruto was about to continue, before the largest one at the front pointed a finger at him.

"He's the thief! Beat him down, then we'll get the coffin back and return heroes!" the big guy called. Naruto recoiled and backed up.

"No, I'm—" Naruto tried to say, but was cut off.

"Shut it! Get him, boys!" another monk called. Then all seven rushed Naruto at once.

Naruto wasn't even going to try and fight seven monks at once with taijutsu, not without his chains. As they got close to him, Naruto jumped into the air, near the ceiling, flipped through his hand seals, and clapped his hands together. Fūton: Reppūshō! Naruto thought loudly, not wanting to shout in such a small area, as he forced his hand upwards. A powerful gust of wind blasted up, destroying the roof of the tomb and sending Naruto flying up with it.

When the smoke cleared, Naruto saw all seven monks rising into the air with him, surrounding him. Oh, fantastic. Naruto crossed his fingers in resignation. "Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," he muttered, as twenty more Naruto appeared around him in a puff of smoke.

"Leave it Konoha to use Daimyō-sama's wife as a cover to undermine us!" one monk called.

"What use do you damned shinobi even have for a corpse?!" a younger one, who still had his hair even, called up.

"I don't know, but there were a host of grave robbings in the past of our rōsōryo, about 15 years ago, but all the sō sent to investigate were killed by a peculiar kind of poison, often found on weapons of several Konoha-nin during the Second Shinobi World War," the big one called.

All twenty Naruto clones landed on the ground and divided into groups to fight the different monks. Since Naruto wasn't very good at taijutsu, it was mostly relying on wave tactics. While the monks were far better at taijutsu then Naruto, and by extension the Kage Bunshin, they couldn't fight many Naruto at once. One by one, each monks was tackled to the ground, until it came down to the small one, the one who had demanded what use he had for a corpse.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at him. "You look a bit young, why are you here?" he asked.

"I should ask the same of you, shinobi! You come into our sacred temple under false circumstances, then you rob the graves of those you claim as your comrades?!" the trainee called, pointing at Naruto accusingly.

"I'm telling you, you've got the wrong guy!" Naruto said, putting his hands behind his head. "The coffin was already gone when I got there! So while you lot are wasting time fighting me, the real thieves are getting away with the coffin!`"

"You broke the barrier seal into this place! So why should we believe a word you say?!" the trainee asked. "Everyone knows shinobi lie and steal to get their way! You'll rob a store in blind daylight, leaving the owners to wonder where the theft came from, then they'll hire shinobi to investigate! You manipulate everyone in the world, just for the sake of keeping the ryō flowing through your villages!"

"That's not true! We're hired to protect people, not rob them!" Naruto replied.

"Shut up! You're either lying or unbearably naïve!" the trainee called, gripping his right arm tightly. Focusing on him, Naruto's eyes widened. This young boy, barely older than him, was the strong chakra signature he'd felt. Something was off about it. The wind around him began to pick up, flowing leaves along the ground. His chakra… was almost similar to his own. It was faint, but the amount of similarity was too much to ignore. Another jinchūriki?! Naruto thought. No, the chakra is too weak for that… but it's too similar to mine to not be something!

Before he could say anything further, however, the trainee jumped into the air. "Die! Jūha Shō!" he called. Swinging his right arm, a blade of chakra rushed down and swept along the ground, targeting all of Naruto's clones, and cutting them in half, dissolving them one by one, until Naruto was the only one left. Glaring at the trainee as he landed with a satisfied smirk on his face, Naruto crossed his arms.

"So, ninjutsu is a great perversion of Rikudō Sennin's ideals, but here you are using it! I would say you're in for some divine retribution!" Naruto said, breaking out laughing afterwards, while pointing at the boy.

"Shut up, thief!" the big monk called, charging him. Jumping back into the air, Naruto flashed his hand signs again, clapping them together.

"Fūton: Reppūshō!" Naruto called, blowing all the monks away from him and to the ground. A few seconds is all I need, here! Naruto thought, biting his thumb and quickly flying through the hand signs he needed, before slamming his hand to the ground. "Ninpō: Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" he called, as a puff of smoke erupted from the symbol that appeared on the ground under his hand. Out of it, a small orange toad hopped onto Naruto's head as he jumped back into the air.

"Oi, Naruto-san! What the hell is this?!" Gamakichi demanded. Naruto looked up at him apologetically, with a sad smile.

"Sorry, 'kichi. I need you to blast some water down there, stat!" Naruto said.

"Of course, you look like you're in trouble here! Just remember to get me more candy next time!" Gamakichi said, throwing his head back. "Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu!" the toad called, before spewing water out of his mouth, down at the monks. As soon as they were all soaked on the ground, however, Naruto placed his hands into the snake seal.

"'Kichi! Stop the water on my mark!" After a few more seconds, he had the chakra prepared. "Now!" Gamakichi stopped the jutsu just as Naruto's hand flew forward with his own. "Raiton: Denkō!" Naruto shouted, shoving his lighting covered fingers into the falling stream of water, electrifying it. The monk on the ground screamed loud as the electricity flowed into their bodies, until they weren't anymore, falling to the ground, many of them badly burned. The only one left was… the young trainee that had used ninjutsu against him.

"So, what do you say we finish this here?!" Naruto called, cracking his knuckles and grinning. "Feel free to go, Gamakichi, I'll give you candy next time I summon you," he whispered to his small summons. A small popping sound indicated to him that Gamakichi had returned to Mt. Myōboku.

"Screw you!" the boy called, raising his right arm across his chest and charging him. Naruto rolled his eyes and charged the trainee as well. As they approached, the trainee grinned. "Jūha Reppū Shō!" the boy called, a large blue arm of chakra shooting from his right arm, accompanied by a gust of wind.

Naruto grinned to respond in kind. "Fūton: Reppūshō!" Naruto called as he thrust his hand straight into the large arm. With his other, he grabbed a shuriken from his inrō and threw it at the boy, enhancing its speed with the wind. Naruto heard a cry of pain from the boy, knowing his shuriken struck. But, at that time, the chakra arm exploded into wind, sending Naruto flying back across the ground, before he finally skidded to a stop. As Naruto tried to stand back up, the trainee grabbed his shirt and began smashing his fist into Naruto's face.

"Say I'm using ninjutsu again!" he yelled as his fists continued to land. "I dare you! Do it!"

Naruto spat out blood to his side. He then looked back up at the trainee and grinned. "You're using ninjutsu. Pretty powerful, too. I didn't know you had a Fūton affinity, too! That's pretty nifty!" Naruto said, only to be met with another first.

"It's not ninjutsu! It's ninshū! I would never corrupt myself with ninjutsu!" the trainee called, tears falling as he continued to punch Naruto. After about ten more seconds, Naruto finally maneuvered his leg to the right spot. Sighing internally, he raised his knee as fast as he could. A look of pain spread across the boy's face as a high-pitched squeal came from his mouth. Naruto grinned, then smashed his forehead into the other boy's.

The metal of the hitai-ate smashed into the trainee's forehead, sending him falling backwards onto the ground. Naruto forced himself up into a sitting position, placing his hand on his face, as he felt his hitai-ate slide off his head and onto the ground. Clenching his hands into fists, Naruto forced himself to his knees, and glared at trainee monk, who had done the same and was now glaring at him, his forehead bleeding bad, forcing one of his eyes shut from the weight.

"Is, is," Naruto began, before coughing loudly and spitting out more blood. "Is that all you've got, or what?"

"You… You…" the trainee growled out, before jumping to his feet. "I'll end you!" he shouted, trying to run at Naruto again. Before he could reach Naruto, however, the boy tripped on the ground and face planted right in front of Naruto. Looking at the boy's ankle, however, there seemed to be wire string wrapped tightly around it. Following the wire string outwards, Naruto saw a pair of red eyes staring at him from the woods, coming closer until it crossed where the barrier once was. Once passed through, Naruto could finally sense him.

"That's twice you've saved me in the woods, now. People are gonna think I'm doing this on purpose!" Naruto called out as Sasuke finally approached him.

"Yeah, well, at least this time you've got witnesses," Sasuke responded, offering his hand for Naruto. Gladly taking it, Sasuke pulled Naruto up to his feet. Almost as soon as he was up, at least twenty monk from the temple arrived, including the head monk, Bansai. They began rounding up the various monks lying around the field immediately, and Chiriku frowned as he approached the trainee that gave Naruto so much trouble.

"I'm disappointed. I expected so much more from you, than to throw your lot in with them, Sora-kun," Chiriku said, turning away and frog-marching him to the line of monk. As he stood there, Naruto realized just how exhausted he was, falling until Sasuke grabbed his arm, resting Naruto's arm over his shoulder as he walked him back to the line of monk, where the monks were pleading with Kakashi to not use his Raikiri on the young trainee that had hurt him. When they finally got to Kakashi, his attention immediately shifted to the boy.

"Don't worry, Nii-san~," Naruto said, wobbling off Sasuke. "I'm just… fine~," he said, before he felt sleep coming onto him faster than he'd expected, and darkness took him, along with the peaceful embrace of sleep.

Notes:

Fūton: Reppūshō — Wind Release: Gale Palm

Ninpō: Kuchiyose no Jutsu — Ninja Art: Summoning Technique

Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu — Water Release: Water Bullet Technique

Raiton: Denkō — Lightning Release: Lightning

Jūha Reppū Shō — Beast Gale Palm

Raikiri — Lightning Cutter

Hi no Tera — Fire Temple

Jūnihitoe — Big intricate kimono that is rarely used anymore

Konohagakure — Hidden Leaf

Sengoku Jidai — Warring States Period

Amegakure — Hidden Rain

Ōjiji — Honored Old Man

Rōsōryo — Elder Monk

Unbeta'd. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Make sure to comment and subscribe!

Chapter 15: Mistakes are Made

"So, Sasuke-kun, to reiterate, you may not set the monks on fire. We'll take care of that issue in a couple of days, when some reinforcements for the non-crazy monks arrive. Naruto heals fast enough that he should be good as new by the time the sun comes up," Kakashi said, as they sat outside the door to Madam Shijimi's room.

"I know, I know… but right now, nothing would make me happier than to see them trapped in a stone room on fire, as their life flows out of them, and they feel every minute of it. I won't act on it or anything, but it's there," Sasuke said, sharingan activating as he finished. Kakashi shuddered.

"Not to worry you or anything… but Itachi said almost the exact same thing, word for word, a few months into your first year at the Academy, when that boy wouldn't stop mocking your hair," Kakashi said. After a glare from Sasuke, the boy adopted a slightly contemplative face.

"That kid with the freckles? The one that vanished after winter break?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah, him," Kakashi confirmed. "I saw him a few times when I was watching Naruto-kun."

"But, why would he care at all? He just saw us as a way to test his skill! Even now, I'm pretty sure I'm only being left alive as a spare set of eyes," Sasuke said, looking down at the ground.

"Who knows, Sasuke-kun? All I know is what he said to me. After what he did, I question if I ever actually knew him at all," Kakashi said.

"I wonder… was it all just for those damned eyes?" Sasuke muttered.

"I'm not sure we'll ever know why he truly did it. One day, once you're strong enough, you and Naruto-kun will hunt him down, I'm sure, and maybe he'll answer you. But I suspect you won't get anything more out of him than you already know," Kakashi replied. Sasuke didn't respond further, he just stared at the wall in front of him, trying to forget the horrific sight of finding his parents dead in front of him at eight years old.

-D&D-

Tying his hitai-ate tightly, Naruto looked carefully at himself in the mirror. There were no traces of the scuffle from the previous evening on him anymore. The healing was, in his opinion, the only positive aspect of being a jinchūriki. Once he got back to Konoha, Naruto decided then and there that he would grill the Sandaime for any information he had on jinchūriki, since he had barely been given a summation about what his role in the village was.

Finishing attaching everything, Naruto stepped out of his room and into the hallway, where Sasuke was waiting for him. "Come on, Naruto, we're supposed to stand in specific spots to cover the maximum range in case of an attack," he said. The two quickly ran out to the courtyard, where Kakashi was waiting for them.

"Good, Naruto-kun is on time for once," Kakashi said, looking behind him.

"Nii-san, I oughta—" Naruto said, but Kakashi put a hand on his shoulder.

"I know," he whispered. "I've been assigned to the south side, keeping an eye on the door. Naruto-kun, you're watching the north side, since there is another door on that side. Sasuke-kun, you're watching the west side."

"Doesn't that leave the east side unguarded?" Naruto asked.

"Well, then take care of that problem. You're a Genin on a mission, do what you think is best here. Now head up and take your positions, the ceremony is about to begin," Kakashi said. Naruto nodded and motioned for Sasuke to follow him, as they walked off towards the west side of the primary temple. Turning back, Naruto saw Kakashi sign to him 'me' and 'southeast.' Naruto grinned. Of course Kakashi had a back up plan. No one would be getting killed today, not when the Konoha shinobi knew what the bad guys were up to.

-D&D-

After nearly half an hour of waiting, the doors finally opened, and Sakura stood in her spot along the formation and followed behind Madam Shijimi as she walked to the central prayer shrine of Hi no Tera. The monks were smiling and waving, and Madam Shijimi was waving back to them, as difficult as it was in her jūnihitoe.

Sakura looked around and saw Kakashi standing on a pillar near the southeast side of the building, trying to make himself obvious. He explained this to us when we started the mission, that even though shinobi usually operate in the shadows or by hiding in plain sight, sometimes we need to make ourselves seen. For most amateur assassins, seeing a shinobi uniform is plenty to make them turn around and leave, Sakura thought.

After a few more minutes of walking, Madam Shijimi turned around and looked at all of them. "I require an attendant from amongst you, to assist me with everything I will need. You will all draw rocks," she said, taking a hat from the ashigaru and holding it out to each of her ladies, and it was just at the perfect angle that none could see into it. Sakura grinned, knowing exactly what her role was, now.

Carefully, she slid the white rock that Madam Shijimi had given her the previous night from her sleeve into her hand, and didn't take a rock from the hat. "Alright, everyone, show their rocks!" Madam Shijimi called, causing all the girls to hold up a black rock, except for Sakura, who had a white rock. "Sakura-chan, congratulations! Well, no time to lose, come on, we have much work to do and barely enough time to do it!"

Sakura nodded and followed after Madam Shijimi while the rest of the ladies spread out into the small viewing area in the crowd. Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei, please be alright today.

-D&D-

Sasuke rubbed his arms, just knowing something stupid was going to happen today. It always did. These types of things always had some kind of assassination attempt go horribly wrong, or horribly right in all the wrong ways for the assassin. He just hoped it wasn't a shinobi, he didn't want to have to deal with that. Carefully, Sasuke looked along and saw that this area of the temple was empty, with only a few souls running last minute things to the people at the main entrance.

Suddenly, Naruto tapped his shoulder. Sasuke looked at him. "You sure you're good for this?" he asked. "I can leave a Kage Bunshin here and you can guard with me on the north side."

Sasuke shook his head at Naruto. "No, you just cover the area that Kakashi-sensei told you to—" Sasuke looked at the upper part of the wall as they walked around the building.

The southwest window was open. It was hard to notice, and it wasn't all the way, but he could see it from his angle. And it was at such a place that he wouldn't be able to walk up it, not with the anti-chakra seals the stones had carved into them. Sasuke looked back to the area ahead of him, then back to the window, and everything clicked.

Of course! They knew Kakashi would notice that the east side was under-guarded, so they of course would arrange it so that Naruto would cover the northeast, and I would stand near the northwest, leaving the southwest area free for an assassin to get through! Sasuke carefully kept watching the window as he and Naruto approached centre of the west side.

"Naruto, you keep going to your spot, I've got mine," Sasuke said. Naruto turned around and looked at him carefully.

"You sure?" he asked.

"I'm sure. Positive. Now get to your location, Naruto!" Sasuke said. Naruto smiled and nodded, running off around the temple to his spot on the northeast side. Turning around, Sasuke walked back near the southwest window and hid behind a box, keeping a careful eye on ways that someone could use the window for an assassination.

-D&D-

When they got inside the shrine, Sakura was immediately tasked with helping move some of the offerings to the main shrine area, while Madam Shijimi knelt and said the prayers. Of course, she had to transport everything to the shrine in a very specific order, or it would screw everything up.

Sighing, Sakura placed the bowl of rice down and Madam Shijimi finished her line, thanking the kami for the great harvest of rice in the fields this year. At least this is going rather fast. Even if it is hard work, it doesn't take all that long!

-D&D-

Finally, Naruto arrived at the northeast side, and quickly climbed up on a box and crouched down, watching the east side carefully. Between him and Kakashi, they could cover this whole area. I still cannot believe they are that incompetent! I mean, seriously, leaving the east side completely unprotected? Amateurs! They obviously know nothing about how this game works!

I mean, seriously, it's like they were playing poker, had no cards in their hand, and bluffed big time. It's doomed to fail, and they should know it. Unless they're dumb enough to delude themselves into think certainly delude themselves into stupid things.

Also, what was up with that kid? His chakra felt a lot like mine, but I know he's not a jinchūriki because he didn't have enough chakra to be one, and he's not an Uzumaki because he doesn't have even close to the right features! Wait, what features do the Uzumaki even have? Red hair, obviously… and… um… hmm, I wonder what features they actually do have in common. That's something I'll have to look into once this whole thing is over. What was I thinking about again?

-D&D-

Sasuke glared out at the area they would have to come through, quickly scanning the rest of the west side. Heh, I guess they got scared off. I wasn't exactly subtle, I guess, but I didn't think I alone would be enough to prevent an assassination attempt on the Daimyō's wife! Carefully scanning over the area with his sharingan again, there was again nothing. Unless they're waiting for something… what could they be waiting for?

-D&D-

Kakashi stared out at the east side, keeping a check on it while also making sure no one in the crowd got any ideas. Granted, the samurai seemed to have that job in hand. He looked back over the east side… and saw a figure. It wasn't easy to spot, they were obviously trying to be sneaky, but was failing. It was a young man in ragged clothing, the type of common criminal he expected to find in most areas of Hi no Kuni. Kakashi sighed and stood up, only to sit back down.

Alright, I'll let him get this one, Kakashi thought, seeing Naruto dash from around the north side of the building and charge the man. Within thirty seconds, Naruto had tackled the man to the ground and was tying him up with rope. Kakashi shook his head. That was far too easy. Like, complete amateur move. I could have come up with a better strategy when I was an academy student. Considering I graduated when I was five, that's saying quite a bit. Unless that's what they wanted us to see… Kakashi spun around to the south side, and then the palanquin exploded.

Shards of wood went flying everywhere, into the crowd and all over the courtyard. Quickly jumping into action, Kakashi leapt off his pillar and ran into the crowd, moving people out of the way of the fire and trying to assist the wounded and help with crowd control. Of course, the bastards. They would plan something like this! Sasuke, you better be on your guard, they may be coming for you next!

-D&D-

When the explosion went off, Sakura nearly dropped the last offering. Thankfully, she managed to steady it at the last moment. She smiled at Madam Shijimi as she placed it on the altar.

"Thank you, Sakura-chan," she said, smiling kindly. "Now, be on your guard. The explosion in the south probably means they're about to pull something."

"Yes, Madam Shijimi-sama," Sakura said, carefully watching the door, in case anyone tried to force their way in.

-D&D-

Hearing the explosion, Sasuke stayed firm in his spot and didn't move. An explosion to act as a diversion and get me to move is exactly what they want! I need to stay here and make sure that they don't do what the actual plan is! Then, he saw someone running for the wall as fast as he could. In an instant, Sasuke had two kunai in his hands, and he rushed the monks that had been running. In the same movement, he had knocked the man's feet out from under him and was holding a kunai to his throat, sharingan activated.

"Alright, talk!" Sasuke yelled.

"Shi-Shinobi-san! I can explain—" the monk said, but Sasuke slammed him back to the ground.

"I don't want explanations, I want answers!" Sasuke said, continuing to yell. Turning around, though, Sasuke's eyes widened. Just as he turned around, and arrow flew out of the bushes, flying across the courtyard, and into the tarp-covered gap in the stone on the northwest wall. Jumping up, Sasuke threw one of his kunai straight where the arrow came from, and he could tell it hit something. But then a scream rang out. A loud and ear-piercing scream that seemed to affect every part of him, but he didn't understand why.

Moments later, he did. He did because he'd heard it before. He heard it on the bridge in Nami no Kuni, what seemed like so long ago now. Spinning to the south side, Sasuke ran as fast as he could. If I'm right… Naruto is going to kill me, Kakashi, and everyone else in this damned temple! Running, Sasuke ran to the door as two monks attempted to block him.

Activating his sharingan, Sasuke clenched a single fist. "I don't have time for this, get out of my way!" Focusing on both of them, Sasuke wordlessly cast a quick genjutsu on both of them, making them fall to the ground as he smashed straight through the door. When he got inside, there was blood all over the floor. Looking around rapidly, he found the blood's source, lying against a pillar with her shoulder bared.

Sakura's face was rather pale, and she held a bloody arrow in her hand as her shoulder bled from both sides. If he looked at the right angle, he could see the bloody wall behind her. She looked up at him and tried to grin.

"Sasuke," she said, dropping the honorific obviously due to urgency, "mind reaching into my med kit and getting the bandages and gauze? The arrow missed all my vitals, thankfully. No arteries were hit, at least." Quickly nodding, Sasuke dropped to his knees and pulled the bandages and gauze out of the bag, pressing both of the gauze pieces against her wound and applying pressure, just as he was taught to do in the first aid courses. He knew he needed to wait until - "Sakura-chan!" he heard a voice scream from the door - that, that happened.

"She's over here, Naruto!" Sasuke called. "Can you wrap the bandage? I'm stopping the bleeding now!" Naruto dropped to his knees next to her and picked up the bandages, slowly wrapping it around her shoulder and tightening it each time he looped it, pressing the gauze tightly against her wound. As soon as the gauze was completely covered by the bandage, Naruto cut the reel with the scissors and tied the bandage tight, finally letting Sasuke relax.

Sighing, Sasuke fell back and sat on the ground as several samurai rushed in and stood in a circle around Madam Shijimi. Naruto moved Sakura to the side and stood in front of her, tossing her his armoured undershirt to wear in lieu of her bloodstained kimono. The girl quickly nodded and threw the shirt on, wincing in pain as she moved her left shoulder a bit too much in the process. Carefully, she pulled off the rest of the kimono, sitting in the chain-mesh shirt and her shorts.

Still very pale, Sakura tried to stand, stumbling as soon as she got up. Quickly ducking, Naruto wrapped her good arm around his neck, supporting her while she nodded at him in thanks. Sasuke, for his part, packed up the med kit put it back into Sakura's bag. Carefully they walked over to the samurai, who nodded at them.

"Thanks for your assistance, Shinobi-chan. Words cannot express the sheer level of gratitude we have at this moment. I swear, we will find some way to pay you back for this!" the one at the front said Sakura. The girl smiled weakly and gave him a thumbs up as they continued walking, the samurai surrounding them.

"Uchiha-san! Please, join your teacher and the monks! We'll get everyone to safety!" another called. Looking to Naruto, the boy nodded at him, as did Sakura. Sasuke nodded back to them and ran to where Kakashi was standing, atop a roof on the west side of the courtyard. Once he reached the top, Kakashi spun around and backhanded Sasuke across the face, hard, making him fall back. The sharp spike of pain faded as soon as it arrived. Sasuke threw himself back to his feet, glaring at his sensei with his sharingan.

"What the fuck, Sensei?!" Sasuke said, rubbing his cheek. Kakashi just looked at him like he'd kicked one of his ninken. "Whatever I did, this isn't the time for it!"

"Oh, I disagree, Sasuke-kun," Kakashi said. "You nearly got one of your teammates killed for the second time! The first time was excusable, since she jumped in front of it. This time is not! It's on you!"

"I saw the window!" Sasuke responded. "The east side was unguarded, and I figured they would be banking on us leaving the window unguarded!"

"Yet you acted on your own?" Kakashi said, clenching his fist. "Why did you not just tell Naruto-kun? If you had, he could have made Kage Bunshin to guard the other areas. I don't think I need to emphasize how important it is that Sakura-kun not be killed! If she dies, then this entire temple is going to explode and we'll die as a jinchūriki with an unstable seal loses it!" Sasuke looked down and shook his head.

"I— I fucked up, okay?!" Sasuke replied, trying his hardest not to yell. "I don't know how else to say it. I thought I found it out, and I didn't have faith in Naruto to not shout it out to the entire world. So I tried to go it alone," Sasuke looked back at the chaos below them. "And look what that got me. An injured teammate and an emotionally unstable human weapon that could kill us all if anything else goes wrong."

"I hope you realize you're getting a citation for this one," Kakashi stated. "Introspection is great, but Sakura-kun is still hurt, and a large part of the blame is on you." Sasuke frowned and nodded, rubbing his cheek. Kakashi then turned away from him, looking up at the cliff. "I hope you hit the right thing up there, so let's go." Kakashi jumped off towards the cliff, as Sasuke followed after him.

When they reached the top of the cliff, behind the bushes lay a dead body. The body was that of a young man in a Konoha Chūnin uniform, but the vest was all wrong, and the outfit itself was the wrong size. Sasuke sighed in relief. Any Konoha shinobi had their uniform custom-fit for them, and a missized uniform was a sure sign of a fake.

"It's not just that," Kakashi said, after Sasuke explained his own observation. "It's also the fact that while the flak jacket is standard issue, the other pieces of his outfit are older, from before the Third War. We changed our uniforms when war broke out, and never really changed them back." Sasuke nodded, but something about the young man seemed familiar.

Moments later, several monks arrived, led by a man named Zenza. He insisted on checking the corpse personally. He checked the equipment, agreeing that it looked off. It was when he inspected the fact that his eyes widened.

"No way… this… it's Tenshi. How… I thought he was in the neighboring village?!" the man said, backing away horror. Kakashi's head turned to him.

"You know this man?!" Kakashi demanded. Zenza nodded rapidly.

"He was an acolyte here, one of our better ones," he explained. Sasuke scoffed.

"Evidently not, considering he got taken out by one kunai," he said, crossing his arms. It was at that time several more monks stepped out. One, Sasuke recognized as Denki, the young monk that had accused him of having tainted blood.

"Bullshit! Tenshi-senpai would never betray us like that!" one of them called.

"It had to have been the shinobi! They killed him then orchestrated the attack to destroy us!" another called. "They're murderers! Kill them!" Subtly, Sasuke moved his hand to his inrō, is case they decided to come charging. Then, as suddenly as it began, the monks stopped. All of them – bar Zenza – turned around and left. Sasuke let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.

"Careful, Sasuke-kun," Kakashi said, watching them run. "They'll try to attack when you aren't paying attention next time."

-D&D-

Naruto looked up at the building ahead of him as he walked along. It wasn't much further, now. He could leave Sakura to rest under the guard of the samurai, then he could help Sasuke take care of whomever did this. Monks were running every which way, Naruto ducked out of their way to avoid putting too much strain on Sakura. As he reached the steps, however, he felt a great anger behind him. As he turned to look at it, a sharp pain shot through his body from his face, send him tripping back onto the stairs. He felt himself fall and hit the stairs, hard. But it was immediately overshadowed by a shriek of pain from next to him, one that he dreaded ever hearing.

His mind went blank, except for a single thought: They hurt her. They must have done this. No one else could have. And then a deep, laughing voice in his head. You can't even protect those important to you, how pathetic. Naruto mentally willed the stupid fox to shut up. You could always use my power to defeat them. I thought you wanted to protect her, not watch her die!Naruto took a deep breath.

Fine. he thought, releasing one of the chains over the seal, and letting the chakra flow into him. When Naruto opened his eyes, the world had a reddish glow on the edge of his vision. Several monks who had been standing there peacefully before, suddenly took several steps back, as Naruto rose to his feet, glaring.

"So," he called. "Who's up first?" None of them moved. So Naruto moved first, slipping through seals and clapping his hands together, before fishing out several shuriken in a blink. Fūton: Reppūshō! he thought, the wind increasing the speed of the shuriken, driving deep into the bodies of the monks in a spray of blood.

Running forward at the one still standing, Naruto drew a kunai and kept running, before the man seemed to realize what was happening and ducked under Naruto's thrust, before punching him hard in the stomach. Feeling the wind leave his lungs instantly, Naruto went down on his knees, out of breath, as the man ran around, behind him. Jumping back up after a moment, he saw the man holding a knife to the unconscious Sakura's throat, and glaring at Naruto.

"Don't come any closer, or this girl gets it!" the monks called, his face one of pure fear. Naruto felt his rage rising even further, the red haze around his vision flaring, as he felt chakra spill out of his stomach, bubbling around him. Getting down on all fours, Naruto charged forward, arriving at the man in an instant, and driving his hand straight through the man's sternum, grasping something small and shaking, and pulling right out with a squirt of blood, as the man fell to the ground, blood spilling down the steps beneath him. Dropping what was in his hand, he looked up and saw a terrified ashigaru come running out the door and look down at him. Naruto simply pointed at Sakura.

"Take her inside and keep her safe! Her left arm is badly injured!" Naruto said, his voice more gravelly than usual. The ashigaru nodded, running down and carefully picking up the girl and carrying her inside. Closing his eyes, Naruto let his senses spread out, feeling everyone around him, and the anger that they felt. Feeling the one with the greatest anger that was closest to him, as he felt his own anger rising further and further. They hurt her, they hurt her, they hurt her. He kept repeating in his own head as he charged up the avenue, to where a monks was hiding behind a box.

"What the—" the young man began, and it was the last thing he would say, as Naruto drove a kunai into his eye and kept running, blowing apart the boxes as he ran by. The stones blowing apart under hands and feet. He kept running, as he approached the next one, who turned around in fear and looked at him with wide eyes. Jumping at him, Naruto drove a fist into his chest, hearing a loud crunching noise as he flew backwards through the air and smashed into a wall, completely unconscious.

Grinning at a job well done, Naruto turned around and ran the other way, towards where he sensed the next greatest amount of anger. Figures around him melted away, instead seeming like life-sized red dolls. Seeing his target in front of him Naruto drew back a fist. He thought he heard a shout, but could not focus enough on it not, with this target in front of him.

Naruto jumped at his target, only for the target to jump out of the way. Spinning rapidly, he threw a punch, which was also dodged, but the fox's chakra lashed out and hit at the same time, sending his target flying back into the wall. However, his target seemed to get a handle on things, as it jumped back at him with great speed.

Suddenly, however, his target stopped moving, as another figure stood in front of him. One feature stood out, however— a single red eye with a three-bladed black shuriken. Then the eye got bigger. And then bigger. And bigger. Naruto tried to run, but it followed him and kept increasing in size, even as he turned. His breathing became more rapid as he kept trying to escape it, but to no avail. Eventually, it overtook him completely, and everything went dark.

-D&D-

Naruto shot awake in an instant, light streaming in through his windows. He looked around rapidly, seeing just his room. Carefully, Naruto swung his legs off the bed and stood up, looking around. He was dressed in his civilian clothing, rather than his uniform. Although, on closer inspection, his shinobi uniform was under his shirt and jacket. After a moment, Kakashi came walking into the room, looking completely normal, if a little winded.

"Naruto-kun! I'm glad that you're awake. Do you remember what happened? And before you answer, Sakura-kun is fine, she's resting just up the hall," Kakashi said. Naruto shook his head.

"I remember someone holding a knife to Sakura-chan's throat after she fell from my shoulder, then everything went red. I can't make any sense of those memories, except when this giant black three-sided shuriken enveloped me and knocked me out… that had to have been a dream, no way that was real," Naruto said, looking at Kakashi, whose eyes were rather wide. "Right?" Kakashi sighed.

"It wasn't exactly real, but it was part of a sharingan genjutsu I used to get you to stop. You let the Kyūbi's power out too much, and you were practically destroying part of the temple. But then you attacked Sasuke, so I knocked you out," Kakashi explained. Naruto shook at the revelation that he had attacked his teammate when his power had gotten out of control.

"I… but I thought I had it under control!" Naruto cried, falling to his knees. Kakashi walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I don't have the fūinjutsu knowledge to fix it right now, but we need to keep a careful eye on your seal. If it weakens any further, we could be in some serious trouble," Kakashi said. "It's not your fault, Naruto. Few people choose to be a jinchūriki, and you certainly aren't one of them." Naruto felt the tears well up in his eyes, and he let them fall.

"I'm sorry, Nii-san," Naruto said, as the tears continued to fall. "I guess I'm not as great as I thought." Kakashi shook his head.

"It doesn't matter how great you are now, it matters how great you can be. You're only eleven, and a Genin," Kakashi said. "You'll always get better as time goes on." Naruto just looked up at his teacher. It didn't stop the tears. He knew that Kakashi was right, but it didn't make him feel any better. He'd still killed people that hadn't done anything wrong, and that hadn't been in the mission parameters to attack. Naruto just didn't know where to go from there; where could one even go after killing like that?

Notes:

I'm so sorry for taking so long guys! College just started back up, and I had trouble getting back into my rhythm. I promise this story is not abandoned!

Anyway, not much to translate here:

Fūton: Reppūsho — Wind Release: Gale Palm

Currently unbeta'd. Thank you all for reading this chapter! Subscribe, Leave Kudos, and Comment (most important one); I'll see you all next chapter!

Chapter 16: And so it begins

It hadn't taken much for Naruto to return to sleep after Kakashi had spoken with him. Kakashi carefully tucked him in with the blanket, before walking out of the room and shutting it. Two ashigaru stood guard outside of it, nodding at Kakashi and gripping their weapons tight. After a few more moments, Kakashi held his breath, and walked out the front door of the building they resided in, only to find nearly twenty ninsō standing outside.

"Shinobi-san!" the one near the front called. "Explain what the hell happened with your subordinate! He killed or maimed seven of our kōhai!"

"Hmm?" Kakashi asked, assuming the façade of even more intense laziness. "I'm sorry, but how is it my fault?" He would let them get comfortable, it was easier to strike when the opponent was unprepared, after all.

"How is it your fault?!" the man growled. "Do you have any sense of liability at all?! You should have kept your subordinate under control, instead of letting him slaughter seven of our fellow ninsō!" Kakashi wanted to reply angrily, but held his tongue.

"Ah," Kakashi replied. "Well, you see, I was busy investigating who tried to assassinate Daimyō-sama's wife, along with my other subordinate. Naruto-kun was escorting his friend in Madam Shijimi-sama's entourage to rest after she was shot in the shoulder."

"Ignorance is no excuse! He's your subordinate, and thus was your responsibility!" another ninsō called.

"You're right, and I stopped him the moment I got there," Kakashi answered, shifting slightly. He didn't know if they would try to attack him, and he needed to have his kunai ready to go if they did.

"Fine, then step aside, we're going to have words with him," the one in front said, trying to shove past him, only for Kakashi to grab his shoulder and block his way.

"I'm afraid he's asleep, so you'll have to wait to speak with him," Kakashi said. The man pulled his arm out of Kakashi's grip and looked him straight in the eye.

"Shinobi-san, I have orders to speak with him at once," he said, carefully speaking each word. Kakashi's face didn't change a bit.

"I'm sure you do. Then probably orders to put a knife in his throat once you have. So why don't you turn around and walk away before this gets messy?" he said. The monk shuddered, before backing off. He waved to the others behind him as he walked away. The others, responding to his signal, followed closely behind.

Kakashi relaxed, but realized that this wasn't over. They were going to try and do something. The different monks were either with him or against him, and he was going to find out whom. Silently, he crossed his fingers and created a single Kage Bunshin, before jumping up onto the roof. The first destination would be a simple conversation with the leader of the monks that had confronted him. That would be as good a place to start as any.

-D&D-

Despite her shoulder, Sakura knew she couldn't dither anymore. So, she put on her nicest backup kimono, and immediately ran out the door. Looking up hall, she saw Sasuke sleeping outside a door with a rock in his hand, and Kakashi sitting next to the window, reading his smut.

Carefully, Sakura raised her good arm and waved for Kakashi's attention. Within a few moments, he had vanished from the window and reappeared in front of her, book away. Despite his attempt at an uncaring look, she could see in his eye that he was worried about her.

"Sensei, how is—" Sakura began, but Kakashi held up his hand.

"Naruto-kun is fine. A little traumatized by everything that happened, but he's asleep right now," he said, before dropping his hand. "Honestly, I'm more worried about you."

Sakura supposed he had a point. She had taken an arrow to the shoulder, after all. It stung a lot, and she could still feel the shooting pain through her left shoulder every time she so much as moved. But, the last she'd seen of Naruto, he'd been fighting five monks.

"My shoulder does hurt— quite a bit, really," she finally said, "but I can still do what I'm here to do. I jumped a seven-foot gap with a skinned knee, I can do this." After a few moments, she realized she'd forgotten something. She bowed as respectfully as she could before looking at Kakashi entirely serious. "Genin Haruno Sakura reporting, the client is secure and uninjured, I turned the protection of her over to her two samurai." Kakashi coughed in embarrassment.

"Really, you didn't need to do that," he said. "I already got the report from one of the samurai, you're fine."

"Yes I did; whether you have the information or not, the parameters of this mission state that I must provide either written or oral reports about what is going on with the client," Sakura stated. "I had not provided a report since before the ceremony, ergo I had to report it here now. I don't exactly have time to write up a report for you."

"Right, and I would totally expect you to deliver your report half-dead," Kakashi muttered. "Look, I'm dealing with a rather important issue right now, or at least the other me is. I'm a Kage Bunshin. Naruto-kun lost it after seeing you hurt; he went rampaging through the temple, and killed seven monks." Sakura stared in shock, then began to tremble.

"Will this begin to happen more? He told me a few months ago that the more he uses it, the weaker his seal will get. How did he kill them, was it attacking them or did they attack him? And… oh no, what will Sandaime-sama do when we get back?!" she said, trying not to panic. After a moment she felt Kakashi lightly grab her shoulder. The trembling stopped, but Sakura felt tears running down her cheeks.

"I said this to Naruto-kun last night, and I'll say it to you now. It's okay to cry, especially amongst comrades," Kakashi said, kneeling down to look her in the eyes. "I'm going to tell you a story. When I was thirteen, I was put in charge of a mission as a Jōnin for the first time. I thought I was ready, and didn't consider what it really meant. In the course of that mission, I lost my eye, and one of my teammates, all because of a stupid mistake I made.

"I tried to protect my one teammate with my newly invented jutsu, but I didn't realize its side effects, and I lost my left eye in the process. That mistake caused one of my teammates to die when my blind spot forced him to protect me during a cave-in. He passed his sharingan to me with the promise to keep our remaining teammate safe." Kakashi's hands trembled as he said that. "I never let myself mourn for him, and will never forgive myself for being unable to keep the promise I made to him. Every time I pull up my hitai-ate, I still feel the sting of being unable to save her, feeling like I betrayed the trust he put in me when he gave me this sharingan.

"My point is, let yourself cry, and let yourself worry amongst your comrades. It gets the weight off your shoulders now, and allows you to work through it faster. I never let myself do it, but one of my jobs as your Jōnin-sensei is to make sure you don't make the same mistakes as me. You want to be Hokage one day, don't you? Learning from the mistakes of your predecessors, and letting yourself feel when you aren't in the middle of something is one of the greatest traits a Hokage can possess," he finished.

Sakura forced herself to smile a bit at that. She knew that Kakashi was right. She clasped her hands and bowed to him politely, before turning around and leaving to check on Madam Shijimi.

-D&D-

The chirping of the birds outside his window was the first indication to Naruto that he was awake. Yet, unlike when he'd woken up over the past few days, his eyes didn't feel heavy, and his head wasn't pounding. In fact, he felt pretty good, all things considered. At least, until the events of what happened before he fell asleep crashed down upon him once again.

I really did that. I really killed those people, and for what? Only a couple of them were actually trying to hurt me, the others were running away from me! If nii-san hadn't gotten to me in time… I don't even want to think about what I could have done! At that moment, Naruto heard a deep chuckling in the back of his mind, before images flashed before him of a burning village, and blood strewn across several streets. It looked nothing like any village he had ever seen before, but it's buildings reminded him of some of the older buildings he'd seen in Sakura's books. Is… is this thing serious? Its showing me an image of… a village that no one remembers, burning and with people dying. That's what I would have done. The image faded away as Naruto curled up, silently sobbing.

Yes, the voice in his head said. This is what they see you as. You have no one beside you but me, who will always be here. Naruto wanted desperately to tell the voice to shut up, that it was wrong… but was it? Kakashi was around out of obligation, even if he no longer cared he would still be stuck there. He'd attacked Sasuke the previous night, and for all Naruto knew the boy would forever resent him for it. When he thought about the last member of their group, however, he clenched his fists.

Shut up! You're wrong, I'll never be alone! Naruto screamed into his mind. The voice chuckled as his obstinance.

I've been bound to several like you before. You know, the only people that will ever change anything, are those that realize that you are only a tool to those that call you 'ally' or 'friend.' They don't truly value you. The moment you prove yourself powerful, heh, they'll pull your chain like you were a dog. Naruto scowled at the words as they came in.

Shut up; your attempts at manipulations don't phase me, Kyūbi! Naruto screamed in his head once again.

Is it truly manipulation if it is the cold-hard truth? the voice asked rhetorically. The day will come when you will have to make a choice— do you wish to remain in your gilded cage, or will you seek your freedom?

"Shut up!" Naruto screamed, shooting up in bed and clutching his head. He heard the Kyūbi chuckle one more time, before its voice faded altogether, and Naruto was left in silence. After a moment, he chuckled to himself. Gilded cage, huh? He didn't want to think about what the Kyūbi had said, but those two words kept echoing in his head, but it wasn't in the Kyūbi's voice— it was his own voice.

Naruto suddenly felt his shoulders be gripped tightly, shocking Naruto back to reality. Slowly, he looked up, and saw Kakashi staring worriedly at him.

"What's wrong?" Kakashi asked, staring into the younger boy's eyes. Naruto opened his mouth to answer, but the Kyūbi's words continued to echo in his head. I'll tell nii-san later, he thought, once my seal is fixed. Naruto looked down at his hands.

"Nothing, just a bad dream, Nii-san," Naruto said. "How're the others?" Kakashi hesitated, but then loosened his grip.

"Sasuke-kun is asleep. Sakura-kun is checking on Madam Shijimi-sama. Her shoulder is healing well enough, though it won't heal completely for some time," he answered, looking away from Naruto in the process. "How's your seal holding up?"

"Kyūbi is chattering a bit too much for my liking, but I can hold it in right now," Naruto replied. "It doesn't like me much."

"I couldn't tell," Kakashi said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "You seem fine right now, so why don't you go and try to find Sakura-kun? Just be in the main hall for dinner this evening."

"Sure, Nii-san!" Naruto said, jumping up. He quickly tapped the seal on his pyjamas, unsealing a spare jacket and pair of combat sandals, that he quickly donned as he ran out the door. He didn't know where he was going, but he didn't care. He would find Sakura and that would make his day better.

As he ran around a corner, though, he felt himself smash into something, and he flipped over onto his back and tumbled into the wall. In a moment, Naruto had forced himself back to his feet and had his hand in his jacket, ready to pull out kunai if need be. At least, until he saw who was on the ground.

"You!" Naruto said, pointing a finger accusingly. The young monk on the ground jumped up and glared at him.

"What do you want? You here to nearly kill all my comrades then humiliate me again?" the boy, Sora if he remembered correctly, asked. Naruto clenched his fists, then relaxed slightly. He's trying to bait me. I'm not falling for it.

"Oh hush, Sora-kun," Naruto said, making the boy bristle. "For the record, you guys attacked me. So, I won't be fighting you."

"You know what I mean!" Sora said. "Now what do you want?!" Naruto thought about that for a moment, then smiled widely.

"Catch me if you can, Sora-kun!" Naruto called, as he spun and ran. He heard a call of 'hey!' from behind him as the footsteps followed. Grinning and laughing, Naruto didn't stop running through small alleyways in between buildings in the temple complex, until he ran up the cliff outside of the temple, leaving Sora to climb the pathway up. When Sora finally arrived, Naruto was standing upside-down on the largest branch of the tree overlooking the complex, grinning down at him, before giving the little monk a wave. Sora glared up at him in response.

"What do you want? Or are you just luring me up here to kill me?" Sora asked, gripping at his right arm. Naruto frowned, before releasing the chakra on his feet, letting himself fall to the ground.

"Why would I want to kill you?" Naruto asked, walking past the boy and sitting near the cliff edge. The boy didn't answer for a second.

"Because," Sora finally answered, "that's your job. Shinobi kill, all problems to shinobi are solved by death. Negotiations are simply that the last one standing wins. Ninjutsu itself exists for the sole purpose to kill people." Naruto smiled sadly, and looked up at Sora.

"Is that why you think I use ninjutsu? To maim or kill anyone who crossed my path?" Naruto asked. Sora crossed his arms.

"After what you did yesterday, what other answer is there?" he asked. "What the hell was that, anyway?!" Naruto's face fell at that. Should I tell a lie or… no, no point.

"That was," Naruto began, hesitating. "That's the reason I use ninjutsu," he finished. When Sora looked at him confused, Naruto continued.

"I can't control the power inside of me. Bleeding some of it off through ninjutsu can help me keep some level of control over it." Sora scoffed.

"Why would you want to control it?" he asked, his voice full of contempt. "It kills anyone in the area except your handler, it clearly is perfect for someone with your job." Naruto rested his chin on his crossed arms, as he curled his legs up against him.

"Because I don't want to hurt my friends," Naruto replied. "You saw what happened yesterday. I'm terrified of what that power does to me."

"What it does to you?" Sora asked.

"It changes me," Naruto clarified. Sora scoffed again.

"So, what, does it make it easier to kill? You'd think that would be helpful," he said. Naruto turned to look at him, nearly coming to tears thinking about the previous day.

"You don't understand!" Naruto insisted. "When I lose control, bad things happen— but it feels good! I don't want to feel good from killing people!" The boy stumbled back at that, and his eyes softened.

"I.. I didn't realize—" Sora began, but Naruto interjected.

"No, you didn't! No one does!" Naruto said, punching the ground. "It's always the same! They all think it makes me love the taste of blood or something, and want the target to be anyone but them! So I'm left here, with everyone trying to avoid me, in fear of becoming a victim of some kind of monster." Naruto thought he should stop, but he was on a roll, and Sora didn't seem to sufficiently get it.

"Meanwhile, I'm here trying to do my job, that I was hired to do, protecting Madam Shijimi-sama, but you lot just couldn't accept that! No, it had to be part of some nefarious scheme to corrupt your damned ninshū! Fuck off, my name is Uzumaki Naruto! I'm the heir of the guy who fought to protect ninshū, but just because I wore a hitai-ate, it meant I was a killer and had to die; never mind the fact that I am Eleven! Years! Old!" At that, Naruto shot to his feet and jumped off the cliff, letting himself coast down the side until he reached the ground. He had dallied long enough, it was time to find Sakura and calm down.

-D&D-

The dinner, Naruto concluded, had to be one of the most awkward things he'd ever attended. And he'd had to stand in front of hundreds of people to read passages from old prayer books. Everyone was laughing and having a good time, though Naruto noticed plenty of the guests had guarded looks in their eyes, and he could sense nervousness coming off of them.

The order was very specifically decided to ensure everyone had their due respect shown. Madam Shijimi sat at the head of the table, being the clear superior of everyone there, and her entourage sat a little ways down the table from her. Her samurai sat at the table on her right, alongside many of the younger monks; Naruto, along with Sasuke and Kakashi, sat with the ashigaru on Madam Shijimi's left. The elder monks sat at the table directly across from Madam Shijimi. Aside from the centre square of tables, there were several more tables that went out across the entire courtyard.

Although, in light of the circumstances, Madam Shijimi had 'permitted' Sakura to sit with the rest of Team 7. Naruto had internally groaned at that fact. When we get out of this damned temple, she better be dropping that persona! I do not want to have to tiptoe around my... best friend. Naruto heard the deep chuckling of the Kyūbi in the back of his mind, which he forced out of his thoughts. He didn't want that damned fox influencing his dinner here. After a moment, Naruto felt a nudge on his shoulder. He quickly looked over and saw Sasuke frowning deeply.

"If it makes you feel any better, at least Sakura-san doesn't have to deal with the handmaids anymore," he said. "At least not after tonight. We are due to leave tomorrow, remember."

"I'm not sure I get what you mean?" Naruto said, raising an eyebrow at Sasuke. Feeling a poking on his back, he turned to see Sakura frowning.

"I don't like them. They're constantly… ugh. I don't like them. All they want to do is talk about how they want some big-shot in the court to choose them as a secondary consort," Sakura muttered, looking down at the food and poking at it with her chopsticks. Naruto had to think about that for a moment.

"But… aren't most of the girls not that much older than you?" Naruto asked. "What if the dude's like 50?" Sakura sighed.

"Means that they have to work that much faster to get a child out and then ensure that said child is the only heir. Or, just to get a child and then separate; a few of them just want a father with a good lineage for their child," she replied. "They keep trying to get me to agree to be set up with someone, as it 'would be good for my family lineage.' I should never have brought up the fact that I have no brothers."

"Just be glad they aren't Daimyō-sama," Kakashi said, as his food continued to phase directly through his mask, only for him to replace his actual mask before Sasuke could activate his sharingan. "Never let him 'introduce' you to one of his nieces or nephews. I mean, if he says he's going to, you can't stop him, but if he offers to, at least try to politely decline." The entirety of Team 7 all leaned over and looked at him as if he'd said something completely nonsense.

"Alright then," Sasuke said, returning to his kneeling position. "Anyone have any useful insight? I doubt whomever attacked Madam Shijimi will just wait until we leave. We caught their first attempt, so they're probably desperate; it didn't seem to be a plan created by anyone with any actual skill outside of misdirection." Sakura coughed into her hand.

"Well, to be fair, I caught their first attempt. You just cleaned up," she said, chuckling afterward. "Sensei, how did you learn to put up with the nobility?" Kakashi chuckled.

"Well, you see, when I was a boy I—" Naruto tuned out Kakashi as he looked around the room, letting his sensing spread around for the first time in a while. The sensory he felt from it was unreal, almost like a switch had been flipped in his mind. Most of the room had almost faded away as he just felt each person's emotions, flowing out of them like an overflowing fountain. It was unlike anything he could have described. He looked at one of the handmaidens and saw nervousness. Naruto then looked at Kakashi and saw a lot of regret, hidden behind his joking manner.

As he absorbed them, however, he saw one of the food carriers hurry by. Naruto watched him… his emotions were a mess of anger and hatred. Oh no. Naruto jumped up and ran in a wide arc, stopping right in between the carrier and the table with his arms spread.

"Stay right there!" Naruto called, making the entire room freeze and stop. He knew from the silence that all eyes were on him. One monk who was standing in the back looks at Naruto completely deadpan.

"Okay, kid. First, what? Second, the fuck?!" the guy said in disbelief. Naruto blinked, and carefully glanced back at Kakashi. Kakashi simply looked at him, and very slightly nodded at him to continue. Naruto gulped inaudibly as he looked back at the food carrier. Okay, how the hell do I do this without sounding like I've lost my mind?! He tried to avoid shaking. This was his moment. Naruto raised his arm and pointed at the tray of food.

"I saw someone drop something in the food!" Naruto said. "Taster, check the items!" The young woman dutifully nodded and stood up, walking up to the man.

"I-is this really necessary?" the man carrying the food asked. "It's obvious the boy shinobi has a grudge against us!" Naruto just glared.

"Unless you want to eat it yourself, you'll shut up," he growled out. Naruto's vision tinted red for just a moment, but sweat began pouring down the man's head. The taster took a piece of chāshū off the plate and tossed it into her mouth. An awkward moment passed after that, during which you could hear a pin drop. Then, the woman's eyes rolled back into her head as she collapsed to the ground.

As the woman fell, Naruto rushed forward and tackled the guy carrying the food to the ground, quickly knocking him unconscious. Then the room exploded into chaos. Several samurai were next to Madam Shijimi in a moment, joined the next moment by Sasuke, Kakashi, and Sakura. It was at that moment that Bansai rose up and glared over the room.

"I didn't want to have to do this, but it seems I have no choice!" he called, stopping the entire room for a moment. "My loyal monks, find all of the members of the Society of Rebirth; terminate with extreme prejudice!" There was a single more moment of silence. Then, sensing someone coming up behind him, Naruto jumped to the side, bringing his ankle down on the back of the monk's neck with a sickening crack. The younger monks stared at him in horror for a moment.

"The shinobi are here to kill us and eradicate ninshū once and for all!" one of them called, pointing. As if they had been waiting for a pre-arranged signal, many of the monks suddenly turned and began attacking their neighbors, whether samurai or their fellow monks.

-D&D-

As soon as the first punches were thrown, Sasuke felt a tap on his shoulder. Looking up sharply, Kakashi looked him directly in the eyes.

"You two, assist the loyal monks!" Kakashi ordered. "I'll escort Madam Shijimi-sama to a safe location, then I'll join this myself!" Kakashi finished by grabbing his hitai-ate and raising it up to expose his other eye. Sasuke nodded, closing his own eyes for a moment, and letting chakra flow into them. When he opened them again, his vision had sharpened intensely, and he quickly separated from Kakashi, rushing forward and drawing three shuriken.

As he neared one group, Sasuke quickly ran up the wall and tossed the shuriken, hitting two rogue monks. Quickly leaping off the wall, Sasuke flew directly into a third one, smashing the man's head into the table. After noting the locations of several more people, Sasuke flew through the hand seals for his technique, firing multiple small fireballs around him into the monks he'd seen. He soon landed back on the table and nodded at what he'd done.

Sasuke then turned around and looked at the other side of the room. There was just a huge pile of bodies… well, they were unconscious, but there were a lot of them. And at one end of it was Sakura, yawning. Really? I got through all this trouble for ten guys, and she just downs half a room and yawns about it?! She will not outdo me! He then looked around the room again, and noticed one person was missing. Wait… where is Naruto?!

Notes:

I am shocked to say this... there is nothing to translate!

Next chapter ends the arc. This story is unbeta'd, and I'm having a bit of trouble with that part. Subscribe, leave kudos, and please leave a comment (come on, it only takes a minute!), and I'll see you all next chapter!

Chapter 17: Childhood's End

The monks overflowing with hate were at least all lined up for Naruto as he charged by. Naruto pulled out several shuriken and a kunai, before leaping into the air, catching four with the shuriken and one directly through the knee with his kunai. Once they dropped, Naruto quickly knocked them out before continuing on. Activating his sensing again, he saw his target running up the cliff that he'd been on this afternoon, and noticed several more figures up on the cliff.

Crap. Okay, take this slow, this isn't too bad. A large monk tried to jump him, but Naruto spun around said monk and brought an elbow down on the man's bald head. After a minute, another – younger – monk dropped down, this one just glaring.

"I thought you were different!" the monk said, clenching his fists. "Even after you hurt those seven, Sora-kun told me that you were just scared, unable to control it! But it was obviously a lie! You're supposed to be the descendant of Rikudō Sennin's heir! But instead, you use his gift to kill, like the tainted bloodline, and all your kind that that bloodline created!" Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Again with the tainted bloodline spiel," Naruto said, tired of hearing this. "See, here's the thing. The idea that his bloodline is somehow tainted by his ancestor fighting mine due to him feeling cheated out of his inheritance is an incredibly stupid one. Yeah, his ancestor made some mistakes, and corrupted Rikudō Sennin's teachings, and was probably a terrible person. That doesn't mean that he is. So, why don't you shut up?"

Before the monk could respond, a kick to the head knocked the man out. Grinning, Naruto gave a thumbs up to his clone that had just done the work for him, before the clone dispelled itself. However, in his relief, he failed to notice it when a big burly guy came up behind him and grabbed him, spinning him like it was a game. Naruto was about to break out of it, but then had a random thought. He's using both hands to spin me, giving him better balance… damn it. Why didn't I think of that! Mentally smacking himself, Naruto quickly made a single hand seal, before giving the monk spinning a bit of a shock as he broke out.

-D&D-

After ducking out of the way of a punch, Sasuke quickly hamstrung the man who had swung at him with a kunai, before knocking him out.

"Fucking die, Uchiha!" a shout came from behind him. Sasuke simply stabbed his kunai back with a sigh, piercing through skin with a sickening squish. He heard coughing behind him, but chose not to look back. He instead turned in the direction of his teammate.

"Should we go and help Naruto? He ran that way!" he called. Sakura, from her position on the roof, looked in what he presumed was Naruto's direction.

"Nah, it's fine. Naruto-kun just broke out of a hold using a Raiton Jutsu. It was very shocking for the poor man," she replied. Sasuke resisted the urge to facepalm.

"If you have time for puns, mind actually getting back down here and helping?! We're working here!" he called back. As he finished saying that, another monk came rushing at him. However, before he could reach Sasuke, a blast of water came rushing from the air and knocked him off his feet. A moment later, Sakura landed next to him.

"That count as helping, or do I need to take a more direct approach?" she asked, before laying out the man with a single punch to the face. Sasuke just coughed into his hand.

"I think that counts," he muttered. I am never working with her alone again. Sakura simply smiled sweetly at him.

"Good. Now, as you said, we have a job to do," she said, "I'd say we continue it." She then spun and punched a man trying to sneak up on her, and with a loud slam, the man fell back on the ground, completely unconscious. She then stretched her non-injured arm high into the air and yawned deeply. "Is this really the best they can do?"

"Sakura, don't, when you say that—" Sasuke began, but was interrupted as another group ran around the corner. This one was led by a taller man with a bō staff.

"Well, well, looks like it's just the Uchiha and a little girl!" one of the boys – who Sasuke recognized as the kid Denki – said. "I guess we'll be getting rewarded tonight!"

"Now, now, Denki," the big one said. "Don't get cocky. We need to actually beat them first. Channel your hatred for the fight, but don't let it control you. Preventing your emotions from controlling you is one of the goals of ninshū, after all." Denki, to Sasuke's surprise, actually stopped.

"Right, of course. Apologies," he muttered. Sakura walked up next to Sasuke at this point.

"Sasuke-san, who's this?" she asked.

"Oh, that's Denki. Annoying brat of a monk who claims I have tainted blood because of my ancestor trying to kill Naruto's over a familial disagreement on inheritance," Sasuke said.

"Oh," Sakura responded, having to actually think about that response. "Okay then. That's really dumb." Sasuke shook his head in agreement.

"It sounds dumb because of how terribly he says it!" Denki called. "It's the eyes! Passed down by the blood of the traitor, they will always draw their user towards darkness, enhanced only by the curse upon that kekkei genkai!"

"That sounds even more dumb and ignorant!" Sakura called. "What, were you brainwashed or something?!"

"It's not I who was brainwashed!" he replied. "It's you, and all of Konoha! Would have been better had they all died. You—" Sakura interrupted him yet again.

"Yes, yes, 'and he'll just betray you for power in the end, too.' I've heard that spiel from multiple people in the village as is," she said. Sasuke looked at her confused and worried. He hadn't known that kind of talk had continued after the massacre. "And here's my response to that: fuck all of you!" she continued, which also made Sasuke's eyes widen. He'd never heard her swear, or even yell at anyone but Naruto. "Uchiha Sasuke is a loyal shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato, heir to one of it's two founding clans, and one of the best damned shinobi we have! Besides that, he's my teammate, and I won't stand for this!

"You know, you guys really like to hype yourselves up. You claim that you're the heirs to Rikudō Sennin, that you follow his teachings! But, all I see are a bunch of cowards. You stand there and preach peace while openly declaring your desire to murder a child and rip his eyes out. I see through you; you're not just cowards, but hypocrites, too! Ninshū calls upon all of us to be open to each other, to communicate, to be accepting of each other no matter our backgrounds, professions, lineage, or place of origin! Yet, here you are, openly flouting that. You're all like parasites, worming your way into something and then pretending to be part of it, while never having any place in it!" she finished with clenched fists. After she finished, she opened her eyes to see all three of them pissed off.

"Right," the big guy in the middle said, "leave her for last. I want to enjoy breaking her."

-D&D-

(A/N: Theme for this scene: Tales of Vesperia OST— Chance for a Big Reversal)

Sasuke looked at Sakura, who looked back at him and nodded. No words needed to be exchanged. The two spun forward and charged. As they got close, they separated, and Sasuke withdrew two kunai, slashing at the monks who came close to them, slicing at their legs and sending them to the ground. Looking to his side, Sasuke saw Sakura kick a man in the face, before putting him in a headlock and spinning him around into three other monks with her legs.

"Where did you learn to do that?!" he called in surprise, as he drove a kunai into a monk's eye socket, ignoring the blood that hit his cheek in the process.

"That, I learned from my father," she snarled, as she stabbed a man in the ankle with another kunai while pushing herself to her feet. By this time, only the big guy was left, and he looked pissed. Once again, Sasuke looked at Sakura, and she had her hands ready to form the Tora seal.

Of course. Sasuke, in response, prepared to use the only raiton jutsu he knew. He quickly flashed his sharingan on and off to signal her that he understood, a painful process but one that seemed to work. Sakura quickly shot threw her seals and shot a blast of water at the monk, making him growl. Good thing it's rather humid tonight, else Sakura might not last long.

As the splash of water hit him, Sasuke used shoved the small bit of electricity in his hand into the stream, sending it flying up the stream and into the monk, who screamed loudly in pain. The two kept it going for another several seconds, until he stopped screaming. Then Sakura stopped the water flow. She stumbled for a second, but Sasuke quickly steadied her.

"Did-Did we just kill him?" she asked, worriedly. Sasuke looked down at the man and frowned. Damn, stopped too quickly, he's still breathing.

"No. He's still breathing. He won't be walking anytime soon, though," Sasuke replied. "Come on. There are plenty more monks to take out before Sensei gets back." Sakura quickly wiped the sweat off her forehead and nodded.

"Right."

-D&D-

As Naruto scaled up the cliff path, he encountered fewer and fewer monks, though the ones he did were easily taken care of— one blast of Fūton: Reppūshō, and they'd never bother him or anyone else again. Or, if they survived, they'd be taken care of by the loyalist monks before they could fight again. When he got close to the top, and a big monk stepped in front of him. Naruto's vision became lined with red, and he kept running forward.

"Get out of my way!" he roared, as he jumped at the man, who was trembling in front of him. Naruto punched him hard in the face, feeling it give way in front of him as his head snapped back, and he heard the crack of a neck snapping. The red in his vision vanished as the man fell back. Naruto felt a bit nauseous at the sight, but forced himself to carry on. He could puke up his dinner when he wasn't in danger of being stabbed the moment he looked away.

It felt good, didn't it? Naruto head the Kyūbi whisper in his head. The feeling of having someone's life in your hand, and snuffing it out. The primal urge to kill. Naruto shook his head.

Shut up. Naruto said internally. The Kyūbi just continued.

Humans...you all think yourselves civilized and the shining example look around Ninshu, Ninjutsu, do you think anyone actually cares about it? No, it's simply the excuse. You're all animals, only for some reason you need a reason to sate your urges. Naruto clenched his fists so hard he trembled.

Shut up! If they don't care, then I'll make them care! They'll care about their reasons, I swear it! Naruto screamed. He heard dark chuckling in his head.

If you truly believe that… then be my guest and try. You'll find nothing but misery on that path. Kyūbi replied. A monk suddenly lunged at Naruto, only to find a kunai in his throat from Naruto, before he tore it out the side of the man's neck, leaving him to bleed out. Naruto paid no attention to the twitching monk as he walked the last little way into the clearing on top of the cliff. The red at the edge of his vision wasn't vanishing this time, but he seemed to have more control over himself than when this normally happened.

At the top of the cliff was an old man, who was talking to the young monk-in-training he'd spoken with earlier that day. Sora, if he remembered the name correctly.

My chakra… the Kyūbi growled. I feel my chakra coming from within him. That boy is a chakra thief, you should eat him. Naruto stopped in shock.

What?! Where do you feel that?! He asked.

From the whelp's arm, the one wrapped in bandages. Kyūbi growled once again. Take my chakra and kill him! I won't impede it, this will be too much fun to watch— two humans trying to kill each other with my power!

"Shut up! I don't kill because you want me to, I'm not some animal to fight at your pleasure!" Naruto yelled. It was a moment before he realized he had yelled that out loud. The dark chuckles of the Kyūbi slowly echoed away as the presence left his mind. The old man and Sora both were looking at him. The old man especially glaring dead at him. In the back of his head, Naruto thought he recognized the man from somewhere, but he didn't know exactly where.

"Ah, if it isn't the Kyūbi kid. They actually let you become a shinobi? Isn't that interesting," the old man said with a chuckle. Sora blinked and looked at him accusingly.

"H-He's a demon?!" the boy said, backing away. Naruto clenched his fists, but tried to remain calm. He'd grown used to the insults in private, though he couldn't use ANBU to threaten people this time.

"I told you, didn't I?" Naruto asked, smiling sadly. "I have a dark power within me. I can't control it. If you want to call it a demon, go right ahead. It's not entirely wrong, either." The old man grinned wildly.

"Well, this just makes everything easier, doesn't it?!" he said, grabbing Sora's wrapped arm as his other hand glowed bright. "Fūin, Kai! Show this demon the power granted by Rikudō Sennin!" At that, the old man's arm smashed into the wrapped arm.

"Eh?!" Naruto said, raising an eyebrow. "But… that's Kyūbi's chakra. You just lied to the kid you want to fight me. That's not a good way to start." The old man glared at him.

"You lied?!" Sora demanded, as he sank to the ground in clear pain. "This power… it's demonic! Not from the Sage at all!"

"Of course! What better way to cleanse the impure than by their own power?!" the old man declared. "Now, use this pure chakra to cleanse the Fallen Son's taint from this world! This is your destiny, as a warrior of Ninshū!" Naruto just stared at him oddly, all the red fading from his vision for a moment.

"Old man… I think you need to take your pills," he said. The old man waved him off.

"Silence, shinobi! Now, Sora, kill him," he commanded. The boy was trembling on the ground.

"I… no, I can't!" he said, as red chakra began to leak out of his arm. "He's Uzumaki! He's a descendant of Rikudō Sennin's successor!"

"He's not, not really," the old man said, with fire in his eyes. "He's spat on that lineage through ninjutsu and his demonic cohort. He's not anything that matters anymore. End him, now!" The boy screamed on the ground as the red chakra continued to spread. Reacting, Naruto rushed forward and thrust his hand out, touching the chakra. In an instant, the red in his eyes returned, and he felt power spill out of him.

Okay, runt, now I'm truly angered! Naruto heard the Kyūbi roar in his head. That pathetic whelp with the white hair thinks he knows Rikudō Sennin's will, does he?! I have more than a few things I could tell… through killing him! End him, now! The amount of force behind the Kyūbi's words was something Naruto had never felt before. It was as if… he was hurt by it, or it caused him grief? What could cause such feelings in a being that otherwise was hatred incarnate?

However, Naruto didn't have much more time to think about it before the power around Sora suddenly exploded, like a giant red beam into the sky, sending him flying back until he stopped at the edge of the cliff. Looking back, the chakra was warping and almost solidifying around him. The pure power emanating from him was unlike any he had ever felt.

However, the power Naruto felt flowing into him was quickly rising to match it. He felt his skin burning in some areas of his body, but he grit his teeth as the chakra slowly formed into a cloak around him. I've never felt power like this before. Naruto stood up straight and stared at the chakra receding back into a figure where Sora once was.

Enjoy it while it lasts, runt! Now deal with that fake, before I change my mind! Kyūbi roared in his head. The presence was always there, now, but, somehow, it didn't weigh as much on him this time. The figure suddenly solidified into a vaguely human-shaped mass of red flaming chakra, with three tails swinging behind it. Taking a deep breath, Naruto crouched down, looking at his target, and then charged straight at it. Sora did the same, rushing straight at him. In a moment, however, he felt the crazed mass of emotions rush underneath him, and Naruto jumped over him, moments before an arm of chakra burst from the ground under where he had just stood.

Sora looked at him with the glowing white eyes of the chakra mass and roared. It was a roar that chilled to the bone, sounding almost otherworldly. Naruto offered no response, other than to use the momentum of his fall to smash his fist into Sora's face. As soon as his hand made contact, he felt chakra rush into him, almost like a dam had burst.

Of course, the Kyūbi chuckled. Chakra will always return to its rightful owner, or at least mine will. Sora seemed to roar in pain, as Naruto's right arm was covered in deep red chakra. However, the deep red chakra was quickly subsumed into his cloak. After a moment, Sora grabbed Naruto and threw him quickly into a tree with his extending arms.

Kyūbi, why can't I use extending arms? Naruto asked as he threw himself from the tree, avoiding Sora's punch.

Don't address me so casually, runt! And I have no interest in telling you. Kyūbi offered no further insight.

Useless fox. Naruto thought as he pushed himself back to his feet. He ducked under the next blow and ran at Sora for another blow. This time, however, the old man picked up a staff from the ground and clubbed Naruto over the head with it, sending him to the ground.

Get out of the dirt, runt! That was pathetic! Either fight or just curl up and die! Kyūbi said. Naruto groaned as he got back up and glared at the old man.

"Alright," Naruto growled, his voice coming out as something from his nightmares. "You're not gonna be in a retirement home after this, old man; you'll be in a funeral home!" The old man laughed.

"I'd like to see you try!" he yelled. Naruto was happy to oblige, rushing forward and grabbing the staff with both hands. The power of the Kyūbi continued to rush through him, but he held his breath even as he felt more rush into him. At once, he felt Kyūbi's will rush through him, for only an instant.

"Be cleansed by this 'pure chakra,' false sage!" he, or maybe Kyūbi, roared. He pulled his leg back, and kicked at the old man's legs. The old man leapt over his kick, instead using the momentum to pull the staff from Naruto's hand and swing it again. Naruto pulled out two kunai from his holster and blocked the strike. As soon as he'd blocked, however, he felt Sora rushing in again from behind him. Gritting his teeth, Naruto pulled his right arm from the block and backhanded the charging Sora, sending him flying back into a tree.

"Yeah, that's how it feels! Now stop being a moron and come back to your senses!" Naruto called. However, at that moment, his block failed, and the staff struck him in the side, knocking the wind out of him. Forcing himself back to his feet, Naruto rushed forward and grabbed the staff again. But this time, he pinned it to the ground, and swung his leg back… this time with a different target. After a grin, he swung it forward.

Judging by how the old man's eyes widened, he'd hit his target dead on. His grip on the staff loosened for just a moment, but that was enough time. Naruto pulled as hard as he could, yanking the staff out of the old man's hand. Quickly, he smashed the staff into the man's head, sending him face-first into the dirt. After another quick smash to make sure he was out of the way, Naruto turned back to where Sora was crouched on the ground.

"I know you're still in there!" Naruto called. "And I'll be dragging you out, conscious or not!" He then gripped the staff and got into the stance he remembered from bukijutsu training. "Come on!"

-D&D-

After taking out another monk, Sakura quickly ducked to the ground to avoid a kunai that flew over her head and into another monk's stomach, sending him to his knees. Quickly, she rushed forward and punched him in the face, knocking him out, and probably shattering his hips in the process as he fell straight back, while his knees stayed in place. Sakura turned around to face her red-eyed teammate.

"So, what now?" she asked. Before Sasuke could answer, another voice came from above her.

"Now, we make a new plan," Kakashi said from atop a lamppost. "You two have done very well."

"Does this mean we can help Naruto-kun?" Sakura asked. "I saw the giant red beam, I think he's in trouble!" Kakashi nodded.

"We need to take care of stuff first. Actually, you run on ahead and take care of that. Sasuke-kun, you run after her once the monks arrive to secure this location. I'll follow after once I give them the run down of the situation." Sakura nodded and started off towards the cliff face. She'd make sure Naruto was safe, and if he wasn't, then she'd try her best to make him safer until Sasuke got there. She wasn't sure how well she'd do, but it was Naruto, failure wasn't an option.

-D&D-

Naruto planted his feet as Sora rushed in for another attack. As he jumped, Naruto kicked him hard in the face, using the staff as leverage. As Sora's head whipped back around, though, Naruto used his momentum grab the staff as he hit the ground and smash it across Sora's face, and send him tumbling across the clearing.

Naruto ran charging at him with the staff, quickly across the clearing. As he approached, Sora whipped around again, punching the staff dead on, and snapping it in half. Why didn't I think of that? Naruto thought as the fist impacted his chest. As it touched him, he felt the chakra from Sora flow into his seal, before he went flying back across the clearing.

Naruto quickly found his feet again, staring directly at Sora. Well, at least I have a strategy. Grab him and suck the chakra out. He can't regenerate it like I can! Naruto ran at him again as Sora did the same, jumping at him. Instead of blocking, Naruto stretched his arms out and waited for Sora to land.

When the blow came, Naruto wrapped his arms around Sora, or whatever was left of him in there, and held him tight. Instantly, Naruto felt like he was burning from the chakra rushing into him, but he grit his teeth as tight as he could. This was nothing compared to getting stabbed. Sora, instead of staying however, drew back his arms and began landing punch after punch on Naruto's face.

Naruto, instead of trying to take the punishment, instead flipped Sora over and returned the favour, punching him over and over, absorbing more chakra each time, with each punch yelling "Wake up!" After a few more punches, the flaming cloak started to give way to a cloak that reminded Naruto of his own, though Sora was still as feral as ever.

With one last punch, Sora head hit the ground hard, and his eyes seemed to come back into focus. Upon seeing this, Naruto quickly backed away as the boy carefully stood up.

"Sora… are you awake? Are you okay?" Naruto asked, one hand out, slowly and carefully.

"I… what is, what's happened?!" he asked, looking around wildly. Naruto took a deep breath and stepped a little bit closer.

"That old man, he flooded you with bad chakra, that you could never have control. He wanted to you to kill me," Naruto explained. Sora was still looking around wildly.

"I, I can't, I can't control it!" he screamed. Naruto stepped a little bit closer.

"It's okay, don't worry!" Naruto said, trying his best to smile. "You don't have to control it right now, just push against it."

"I… I don't know if I can," Sora said. Naruto stepped a little bit closer.

"Don't worry," he said softly. "No one is going to hurt you anymore. You'll be fine." Sora looked back at him, his eyes no longer shooting wildly. Naruto knew he had the boy's full attention, and he was calm at the moment. Or at least as calm as one could be. He had to be careful, though, so much as a bird chirping could disrupt his focus and send him feral again. Carefully, Naruto reached out his hand towards Sora's chakra cloak.

"Don't worry," Naruto repeated. "You'll be safe." However, as his hand almost reached it, he heard a loud call.

"Naruto-kun! Are you okay?!" Naruto looked up to see Sakura with her hands cupped around her mouth, seemingly panting from having run up the cliff. Oh, fuck.

Instantly, Sora's head whipped around, and he looked at the pink-haired kunoichi. Sakura immediately dropped her hands from her face as her eyes widened. Sora immediately crouched down and ran in her direction. Naruto didn't even think. His vision was overwhelmed with red as the world seemed to warp around him, and his hand drove deep into something warm and squishy, and he heard a scream behind him.

After a few more moments, the world seemed to recenter itself, and came back into focus. Naruto saw his hand driven deep into Sora's torso, the chakra cloak flowing into his own. Looking behind him, Sakura had her hands over her mouth in shock, and her eyes wide in fear. Horrified, Naruto quickly withdrew his hand, drenched in blood, as he fell back, and Sora fell in front of him, blood rushing from his mouth. Naruto tried to speak, but couldn't get any words out, as he slowly felt all of Sora's emotions turn to intense fear, and then it slowly faded away to nothingness.

All of Naruto's emotions broke at once as the tears came flooding out. He didn't even try to hide it as he openly sobbed. It was like a confirmation of everything, that he couldn't control himself, that he just killed, and that he just brought death to everyone around him. He didn't know how long he was crying for, until he felt something warm press against him. He knew it was Sakura, and he quickly hugged her back. It didn't make it feel much better… but he knew she was there. No matter how many people he killed, she was still here. He helped her, she'd help him.

When Kakashi and Sasuke arrived, that's how they would find them, holding each other tight, and Naruto still sobbing even in his sleep.

Chapter 18: Preparations and Departures

"To another job well done!" the brown-haired boy cheered, holding a cup of tea up like a toast.

"Yeah yeah," the blunet, Ryūji, said, hitting his own cup to the brown-haired boy's. "Less talk, more food. I'm starving after saving your ass back there!" He quickly grabbed the bowl of tonkotsu ramen in front of him and began eating it happily.

"Oh shut up, Sataki-san!" the brown haired boy, Hayase Akira, called to his teammate. "I didn't need saving, you just decided to jump in! I had that covered, you nearly blew my cover with your so-called 'saving!'"

"You're joking right? I can't believe you allowed that kunoichi to just stroll right past you! What were you doing, ogling her chest?" Ryūji replied, incredulous.

"No, actually, the ninja behind her was ogling her butt, and I was going to use that as a distraction. But you just had to ruin that," Akira muttered.

"Sure... Yuki-san, what's your take on our perverted little teammate?" Ryūji asked, clearly trying to get a second opinion on his side. These two are going to get us all killed. Haku thought as he took his hand off his face. Sataki Ryūji was skilled – Haku had heard he'd graduated the Academy younger than most – but was far too emotional at times, and tended to let those emotions get the better of him in a fight. Hayase Akira, on the other hand, was as normal an Academy Student as one could find; both of his parents had been ninja, and he'd joined the Academy to follow in their footsteps. When his parents joined Mei's cause, he'd joined them too.

"Look, Sataki-san, Hayase-san," Haku began. "I wasn't there for whatever that was. I was busy helping Zabuza-sama kill the bridge guards. We only found out when you two didn't show up with the charges and were surrounded by fifteen loyalist ninja. So, whatever happened, you two failed miserably at being stealthy."

"Oi! I take offense to that!" Ryūji loudly objected. "Those idiots got dealt with quickly once you got there, anyway. The mission was a success, we were only caught because of bad luck, that's all!" Hayase scoffed.

"Right. If you call charging in yelling 'take this!' at the top of your lungs before using a huge flashy jutsu, bad luck, I suppose it was," he said, taking a bite of the tonkotsu in front of him.

Ryūji raised a finger as if to say something, then put it back down, as if realizing that Akira was telling the truth. "And? I noticed they were heading towards you, so I figured I'd give you some time and make sure my moves don't get rusty." Haku and Hayase didn't even bother to respond to him. He was clearly bullshitting and they both knew it. Ryūji clearly wasn't even trying to hide it, either, given how he changed his story within 5 minutes.

"Well, if you are done," Haku said, noticing his ramen bowl was now empty, "why don't you go and think about what you are going to say during your debriefing? It wouldn't do to change your story abruptly in front of Godaime-sama, after all."

He looked at Haku deadpan, "You know Yuki-san, sometimes you…" before he finished, Haku noticed his gaze shifted to behind them, "Ya think that cute waitress likes me, the redhead?" Haku sighed.

"What is it with you and redheads?" he asked, shaking his head. "Whatever, head out back, I'll meet you in a few minutes to discuss what actually happened."

"Fine, come on Hayase-san, I wanna head to the bookstore, rumours about my favorite series is circulating and I wanna know the slightest details," Ryūji muttered.

"No, Hayase-san stays here. You go out back. I'll talk with him, then meet you," Haku clarified. "Zabuza-sama left me in charge while he was gone, so you better listen." Ryūji simply blinked and grinned.

"Fine, tell me when my break is over!" he said as he almost skipped out of the diner. Haku pinched the bridge of his nose as he groaned. The Demon Brothers had been so much easier to manage, even when he was twelve. But, Mei wanted them to take care of these two Genin, and as she was the only thing preventing their heads from going on spikes, they had to grit their teeth and do their duty.

"Okay, Hayase-san, give me your story," Haku said, as soon as their third teammate was well out of earshot. Hayase looked to the door, and nodded.

"Sataki-san, he didn't just rush in blindly. He seemed to deliberately want to do something. But, I'll explain. We were hiding out in the bushes, waiting for the patrol to pass by. I noticed a cute kunoichi, but then Sataki-san burst out and yelled some battle cry before engaging them in combat, leaving me no choice but to break cover and assist," Hayase explained. "He did make sure to keep me safe where he could, but it lead to them overwhelming us before you and Sensei could arrive and help." Haku nodded. He hoped Sataki had a good explanation. Otherwise, Haku would probably need to dig a shallow grave and come up with a perfect cover story within the night.

"Thank you, Hayase-san. Keep eating here, I'll go talk with our teammate," he said, ruffling the boy's hair. Hayase nodded at him with a smile. Sighing, Haku left the restaurant and slipped out onto the streets. It didn't take him long to find Sataki, sitting on underneath a window in the fetal position, handing a scroll to what looked like a swarm of moths. Said moths then vanished into smoke. Haku bit the inside of his cheek, but knew how he had to start this. He dropped down next to Sataki and sat down next to him.

"I didn't know you were a Summoner, Sataki-kun," Haku opened with. Sataki nodded.

"Yeah. Sorry I didn't mention it before. They're just moths, so I prefer to keep it a bit close to the chest. All these badass summons and I just have little moths? It's a bit embarrassing. I've used them to help with some recon, but otherwise I've had no need to use them, thus no point in mentioning it," he explained. "Let me guess. You're wondering 'what is he sending to the loyalists?,' right?"

"That was my first idea. From the report Hayase-kun gave me, you always seem off, always look like your gathering things, and now you're handing scrolls to summons. You have to admit, it doesn't look good for you," he said. Sataki sighed and bit his thumb and pressed the ground, a small swarm of moths flying from the summon circle, he extended his hand and took the same scroll Haku had seen from them.

"Ya see, here's your scroll," he muttered, a small blush adorning his face. Haku took the scroll and opened it carefully. Icha Icha Special Complete Edition, featuring all collectors editions with extended chapters and whole new endings, as well as a special book of notes from the author himself! Order now and get a special discount on Icha Icha Domination, coming soon! Haku blushed and carefully closed it, handing it back to him with an apologetic look. "I didn't really want to show my teammates while I'm ordering it. I finally got my bonus, so I was gonna just buy it to avoid the looks I get for reading it at the library." Haku coughed in embarrassment.

"So, um… the whole ambush thing?" he asked, trying desperately to change the subject. Sataki tried to say something but sighed and looked to the ground, his face shifting to resentment.

"I knew one of the ninja; Look, after my parents died, I was passed around relatives," he explained, "one of the ninja in that unit was Kā-chan's brother, he was the last one I had to stay with before I graduated. The ass spent most of the money my parents left me on whores and gambling.I realized I screwed the mission but-" he looked at Haku, "Please Yuki-san, I don't want to get kicked out of this unit, Momochi-sensei was taught by Tō-san, if he could teach me then—" Haku placed a finger on his lips and shushed him.

"Calm down," Haku whispered. He had to remain calm, both of them did. "I understand. Trust me, I do. But you can't let your emotions get to you, especially now. You admitted your mistake. That's good. When you took the oath as a ninja, you chose to put your feelings aside for what needed to be done." He took a deep breath, before continuing. "Everyone screws up, everyone has their moments of weakness." Haku remembered a small redheaded boy on a bridge crying over a pink haired girl as he explained. "You made a mistake, now try to learn from it." Sataki smiled at Haku.

"Thanks Yuki-san...Haku?" Haku shook his head.

"Maybe you can call me that in the future, once we know each other better. Stick with family names for now, okay?" he said.

"Fair enough," Sataki said with a shrug. "You're not going to have me apologize to Hayase-san are you? I managed to kill plenty of them, so it wasn't like we were doomed." Haku sighed.

"Sorry. Orders are orders. If you two don't make up when I order you to, then Zabuza-sama will be much less gentle about it," Haku said. Sataki sighed but then his face lit up and he grinned.

"Ya know, I am at least trying to save up a bunch of stuff, and once I have enough," he said, "you get Hayase-san; you, me, and him can have a nice night of fun, how about that?"

"No," Haku said, shaking his head. "For having graduated early and at the top of your class, you seem to have a very loose grasp of the ninja rules." All Haku got for that statement was a laugh, and not a happy one.

"Yuki-san, we are soldiers. At any time, we could be sent off to die based on our stupid rules. I might as well live while I can, so I won't regret anything when I die; honestly, with this war we might not be able to reach our twenties, and I want to survive long enough to kiss a girl," he said. Haku smiled a bit.

"Well, I'll make you a deal, Sataki-kun," he said. "If you fight as well as you can until we take down Karatachi? I'll put in a good word with Godaime-sama to let you retire to inactive duty, then transfer to the reserves. She does owe me, after all. I might just take that chance myself, try and find if I have any relatives left." Ryuji scoffed

"You're joking right?!" he said laughing, "Don't get me wrong, I hate how much we waste the lives of our comrades but that doesn't mean I plan to abandon any of you," Haku saw something in his eyes as he said this, some untapped ambition, "When this is all said and done, I will climb the ranks; and when I'm Mizukage, I'll make sure no one will have to suffer in a pointless war again!" Haku looked closer, and saw something else in his eyes. It was a blanket. It wasn't ambition, he was trying to hide some emotions. He knew those eyes; he'd seen them in himself every time he looked at his reflection for years.

Haku stood up silently, and offered his hand to the blunet. Sataki took it and Haku helped him up. Carefully, the two walked back to the restaurant. Things would be fine, the kid was just clearly troubled. Haku knew what that was like, and he would make sure Zabuza understood that when he got back.

-D&D-

The sun was high in the air when Sakura finally awoke. Sitting up slowly, she winced as her shoulder throbbed in pain. Carefully, the medics won't be here for another few days, she thought. Her wounds had been bound more properly after the attack, but the one on her shoulder would probably give her trouble until it was healed properly. A few moments later, a knock came on her door. Sighing, she quickly tossed on a shirt and looked at the door.

"Come in!" she called. The door opened and Kakashi stepped in, before walking to lean against the wall.

"Thought I heard you wake up. You didn't leave the room at all yesterday, you feeling better?" he asked. Sakura nodded, but looked down at the bed.

"Yeah, much. I still feel terrible about it but-" Sakura took a deep breath, before looking Kakashi in the eye. "I can focus until we get back to Konoha. I'll deal with it there." Kakashi looked her up and down, then sighed.

"Look, do what you want there, but try not to keep everything bottled up. It worked out terribly for me, and I don't want you to repeat that mistake," he explained. Sakura nodded.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of it once we're home," she said, smiling despite herself. That answer seemed to satisfy Kakashi, because he changed the subject.

"Naruto-kun left his room this morning, and I know he's still not feeling well. Could you go and talk to him? We do have to leave in a few days, after all, and if he's not ready to go by then, we'll have to wait even longer for a replacement team to escort Madam Shijimi-sama to the Capital while we head home," he explained. After giving Kakashi confirmation, the man simply crossed his fingers and popped out of existence in a puff of smoke.

I wish I had the chakra level to use Kage Bunshin, Sakura thought as she dug up some casual clothing from her bag. Maybe if I keep up my current level of training, I'll be able to make a single one in a few months. After putting on a jacket due to the chill that had blown in, she walked out her door and out into the temple complex.

Many buildings were still in ruins, and everywhere she looked, there were dark spots of red, ranging from the size of one of her nails to what looked like ponds of dried blood. Sakura looked away from the latter, not wanting to think about what caused that.

Looking up an alley, she saw several monks carrying what seemed to be makeshift body bags. They had been using real ones before, from what she'd remembered.

Just how many monks died in that purge?! Sakura wondered in shock. Two more improvised body bags were carried past her as she made her way to the garden in the back of the temple. Once she was in the garden, it was trivial to walk up the cliff face to the small clearing. In the clearing, she saw two feet hanging from either side of a tree branch rather high up. Sakura walked up the tree, and sat down on the branch. Naruto was a few feet up from her, staring out over the temple.

"Thought you might be here," she began. "What's troubling you?" She knew the answer, but his answering it would make her feel better about all of this, if only marginally. The boy shook his head, not even looking at her.

"You know exactly what's wrong, Sakura-chan," he said, looking out at the temple. "He was like me. Sora, I mean. He was cursed with having chakra inside him that he couldn't control. When they broke it out of what sealed it, I tried to save him, I almost did. But I was forced to kill him." Before Sakura could speak up, he stopped her. "I know. I don't blame you. There was no way you could have known, and I'm not such a child as to blame you for something you had no power over." Sakura wrapped one arm around a protruding branch as she looked back over at Naruto.

"You two had… had similar chakra. Was he another jinchūriki?" she asked. That would clearly explain why he was so upset, as he didn't tend to bond to people that quickly. Naruto shook his head.

"No. He wasn't a jinchūriki, I'm sure of that. I would have felt the other bijū when mine and Kyūbi's chakra smashed into his form," he said. "He had some of Kyūbi's chakra in a seal," Naruto continued, pointing at Sakura's hand. "Just like you do, but without the countermeasures we put in place to protect you from it." Sakura looked at the mark on her hand carefully, terrified at the idea that the chakra could burst forth from it at any time and turn her into a nearly unstoppable killing force. Naruto seemed to hesitate for a second, before taking a deep breath and turning to her.

"Honestly, it's not really even about Sora… it's that fact that I killed an innocent blindly, outside of my control with the power inside me," he said. "Kyūbi always kept saying I would, I kept yelling at him that he was wrong, that I wouldn't let it consume me… but I did. I let it consume me, I lost control, and I killed a kid barely older than us for it!" Sakura reached over and placed her hand over his, squeezing it lightly.

"Naruto-kun, I get it. But, what else could you have done? You did all you could for him. When that failed, you rushed over to protect your allies, and killed the attacker. You did exactly what was expected of you, and the absolute best you could do. It's not your fault, either. You protected yourself and me, as any good Konoha-nin would do," she smiled and leaned over further, wrapping her arms around him. "Besides that, you probably saved me there. I'm not sure if I can ever repay that." Naruto embraced her back.

"Sakura-chan, you don't ever have to repay me for protecting you or anyone else. Like you said, a good Konoha-nin always protects their friends. And, of course, Nii-san's motto," he said, reassuringly. Then he let go and shifted a bit. "Also, Sakura-chan? I'm enjoying the hug and all, but you're putting too much weight on the branch. I'd rather not have saved your life only for you to die from falling off a tree." Sakura sighed and let go of him, shifting back to the larger part of the branch.

"Please, Naruto-kun. You're not some kind of mindless murderer. You're a kind boy who protects his friends… friends like me and Sasuke-san. Come on, Sensei is worried about you, and you know how he gets when he's worried," she said. After a few more moments, Naruto nodded and followed her down the tree.

-D&D-

After the stress of training for a few hours, the cold feeling rushing around Sasuke's arms as he plunged them into the small fountain was a great relief. After splashing some on his face to let himself focus again, he sat down next to the fountain.

Why am I even here, at this point? he wondered, staring down at his hands. Naruto spent the time fighting some crazed monk apprentice pumped full of demon chakra. Sakura was taking down rebels left and right even with her bad shoulder… and I was only playing second fiddle to her. I didn't do anything.

Clenching his fists, Sasuke looked up at the training dummies, all filled with kunai, each embedded deep in the wood and straw. If I can't even be of use to my teammates, then how can I expect to be strong enough to avenge my clan?! Part of him was saying that it was worthless, that he'd never match up to the golden-boy that had been thought of as a potential Godaime candidate. He didn't want to listen to it, but that evening had proven that they didn't really need him for much, if anything.

"Oi! Sasuke-san!" he heard behind him. Glancing behind him, he saw Sakura run up to him, Naruto dutifully following her as usual. She clearly wanted something from him, but what exactly he was unsure what exactly. Not wanting to be caught off guard, he initiated the conversation first.

"What is it, Sakura? You found Naruto, at least, so he's around," he said, sitting down on the corner of the fountain. He leaned over and looked at Naruto and softened his expression a bit. "You certainly look better." Naruto gave a small smile and nodded.

"Yeah, I feel a lot better. It still hurts, and I feel it creeping up always, but right now I can focus on the better things," the redhead said. Sasuke nodded at the boy. He certainly understood that, probably better than Naruto knew. Before any tension could arise, Sakura quickly spoke up.

"Ultimately, we were caught off guard when the betrayal happened. Even with Naruto's unmasking of them, it took us longer than necessary to actually start fighting. And we fought mostly incompetent goons or people who didn't know how to use chakra. If that had been an army of shinobi, we'd have been slaughtered," she said. Sasuke resisted the urge to roll his eyes, but ended up doing so anyway.

"No duh. We're Genin. This is our second C-ranked mission. We don't have the capability to fight entire armies of shinobi on our own, and if we ever do, then I'd be surprised," he said. Sakura just pointed to Naruto.

"We have him. His mother is infamous for slaughtering an entire Kumogakure platoon on her own; kā-chan told me about that one, apparently beat a Shimo-nin to death with his own spine?" Sakura said. Naruto sighed.

"That's not possible to do, Sakura-chan," he said. "She did rip out a man's pancreas and try to get him to eat it, though. Nii-san told me she was aiming for his liver, but missed; she apparently failed the anatomy portions of her training. Some cultists call her the Bride of… um... something, I don't remember exactly what it is. It started with a J, though." Sasuke scoffed.

"Yeah, like it matters. Okā-sama wrote of Kushina-hime in her journals quite extensively, so I know that story very well," he muttered. "So, why are you here? Surely it's not just to reminisce about the past. That's not like you two at all."

"I don't know, maybe we needed a break? It was only days ago that we tore through a bunch of monks in the temple. We need to relax for a bit. At least comparatively. I aggravated my shoulder injury, so that'll need to be looked at once the iryō-nin get here. We need to cool off, before things inevitably go wrong again," Sakura stated firmly, crossing her arms with a slight wince. Naruto stretched and yawned loudly, before placing his hands behind his head.

"Come on, guys. If we need to cool off, let's spar, 1 v. 1 v. 1!" the boy said, pumping a fist in the air. Sasuke and Sakura both turned and looked at him for a moment, before sighing. Sakura spoke first.

"Look, Naruto-kun, I can't spar until I get my shoulder looked at," Sakura said, frowning deeply. "If you wanna test your mettle against Sasuke-san, go ahead; I can referee the fight. But, I can't do anything physical right now." Sasuke just looked at Sakura, a bit annoyed that she had put him on the spot like that. I could say I don't want to spar right now, but… damn it, I have my pride, too! I can't walk away, not when I've been overshadowed by those two this entire mission. He took a deep breath and stood up. Even if the only person I'm proving anything to is myself.

"Alright," Sasuke said after a moment. "I'll spar here. Only rule I want to offer is no using your jinchūriki abilities. I'll shut it down if you do." Naruto coughed into his fist.

"You can't, only Nii-san can. Sorry," the redhead said, his cheeks going a bit pink. Sasuke went a bit pink, too, and closed his eyes for a moment. When they opened again, his vision was suddenly much sharper, with a slight tint towards the red in the fringes of his sight.

"Fine then, just don't use them," he said, as Naruto tossed off his hoodie and got into his own awkward starting position. Sakura then stood halfway between them.

"You two can begin whenever," she said, not even really looking at them. The two stared each other down, making the seal of confrontation. After a deep, breath, both charged.

-D&D-

Several minutes later, both of the boys were lying on their backs, panting from the exhaustion of the spar. Sakura had run off to find Kakashi once the fight had ended, so the two were alone when Naruto finally stood up and walked over to Sasuke, offering him a hand up. After looking at his hand for a moment, Sasuke finally took it and Naruto pulled him to his feet.

"Nice job," Naruto offered. "I know that was technically a draw, but you've been training for hours, and I was fresh. Had you also been fresh, you would have beaten me cleanly." After looking surprised for a moment, Sasuke's face returned to normal and he looked away.

"I guess, but this was also a fight with specific limits. It would have been far different with no limits on our powers," he replied. "If I just had a bit more…" he trailed off, crossing his arms. "No point dwelling on it. Power doesn't come freely, as you've so masterfully shown. You have a ton of power inside you, but at the cost of it always trying to take you over." Naruto shrugged and nodded. He's not wrong.

"The obvious answer is to keep training," Naruto said. "It's a… not sure exactly what you'd call it, but as you train more, you have to train harder and harder to keep getting the same results, until you get to the point where a fight for your life in a battle is about the same as a normal training session." Sasuke looked at Naruto, the red eyes still faintly glowing, his face twisted slightly in annoyance.

"Do you really think just training will let me stand a chance against him?" he demanded. "If it was that easy, he'd have been killed before he managed to kill everyone." Naruto wasn't sure how to say his answer precisely, but gave the most honest thought he could.

"No, not really. But, you have something the rest of the Uchiha didn't. You have me. ANBU work mostly with ambush. It's a lot harder to ambush someone who can sense you and has the raw power to punch out a Kage stuffed inside them," he said. Naruto had to admit, he was embellishing his power a bit there; he didn't think he stood a chance against any of the Five Kage, but it got his point across better… and he wasn't going to admit weakness like that in front of Sasuke of all people. It seemed to get his point across, at least, as Sasuke closed his eyes and his face relaxed. When he opened his eyes again, they'd returned to their normal onyx hue.

"Come on then," Sasuke finally said. "Let's go and find Sensei, it's not like we have anything else we can do today."

-D&D-

Yawning deeply, Sakura went over the room one more time, ensuring that she had packed everything. Everything was inspected from top to bottom, ensuring she wouldn't forget anything. After a second look over, Sakura put her bag carefully over her shoulder, to not mess with her new sling, and walked out of the room, going down the halls until she reached the area where the ashigaru stood. Two of them nodded and moved aside as she walked by.

The handmaidens and the few eunuchs were all double checking the procession and ensuring that everything had been loaded into the carriages. All of them nodded as she passed by, walking slowly to the room where Madam Shijimi had resided. After a few moments discussion, the guards allowed her into the room.

"Ah, Haruno-chan, is your arm healing well?" the woman asked after noticing Sakura. She nodded in response.

"Yes, Madam Shijimi-sama, the iryō-nin said that it should be fully healed by the time we reach the capital," Sakura said, trying to maintain her formal tone. The woman nodded to her.

"I am going to inform my husband of all of this, so this entire temple may be watched for some time to ensure everyone was taken out," Madam Shijimi said. "Some of my husband's lesser wives may be implicated in this as well. Few others have any reason to wish me dead. So, your presence in the capital with me sends a strong message." Sakura nodded, and allowed her to continue speaking, only interjecting occasionally, until Madam Shijimi finally dismissed her to finish final preparations for departure.

Focused intently, Sakura walked through the temple, looking at the scaffolding everywhere, monks of all ages carrying materials to repair the temple. The procession would leave soon, and while Sasuke and Kakashi were already waiting, she still needed to get their final teammate.

After a few minutes, she arrived in the clifftop clearing, where a small stone shrine rested. As expected, Naruto was sitting in front of it silently. Carefully, she walked up next to him and sat next to him.

"Naruto-kun, it's time for us to go. I'm sure he'd be happy with the grave you arranged for him," Sakura said, smiling at him. After a moment of reluctance, Naruto returned the smile, and the two stood up.

"I pray that he will find the peace in the pure land that he failed to find here," Naruto said, as the two walked back down to the courtyard of the temple, where the large party awaited. Kakashi ruffled their hair when they arrived and got into position. A few minutes later, the group began to move out, as the Chūnin squad that had arrived to relieve them waved, as did the monks. As the group moved out, a sense of happiness flowed through Sakura. She knew that these people were happy and waving, at least partially, because of her. It was a feeling she never wanted to lose.