He warily stared at his defeated foe from his perch upon Gamabunta. Finally the monster known as the Kyuubi had been defeated. Minato looked besides him. His son Naruto lay asleep, not realising the great burden he had just been given. 'I just hope that he's treated as the hero he truly is.' Minato thought. He could feel his strength as he struggled to roll over so he could stare at the night sky one last time.
"Hehehe! Your appointed time had come" Cackled a voice appearing from nowhere.
"Who… Who's there? Breathed out Minato as he tried to move his towards the direction he heard the voice. Once he had managed to turn his head he saw a strange child with bad hair fading into view right before him.
The strange boy puffed himself as he stared down on Minato "I'm the envoy of the dead. When you die you have no choice but to follow me into the next world. Yuk Yuk Yuk!" The man crowed as he laughed towards the heavens.
"Bu… uttt… I… tho…" Minato tried to continue but his voice failed him. He had thought that the Shinigami would have taken his soul. Was this strange child the true form of the Shinigami? He really hoped it wasn't, he had only just met the child and he already found his nerves being grated.
The strange man walked up to him and crouched by his side "Heh, normally I wouldn't come anywhere near this place, but you happened to summon the Shinigami when he was in the middle of an important meeting. So when he was finished he had to rush back and I got sent down here to collect your soul. Now hurry up and die, I the door to this realm's only open a limited time and I don't want to risk a buttinsky ruining my fun." Explained the child as he poked Minato in the sides sending stabbing pain throughout Minato broken body.
Minato winced as he child continued poking his side seemingly trying to get him to die faster. 'If I knew that I'd meet this person I'd never have used the jutsu in the first place.' He thought, truly meaning it.
"Arugh! This is taking too long." Complained the boy, Minato tried to smile; it was gratifying that he was making this… 'annoyance' suffer along side of him. "I'm sick of waiting, time for you to leave your body." Proclaimed the boy as his right hand reached for Minato's head, grasping it in a solid grip. The boy yanked back pulling Minato straight up into a standing position.
"Wha… what just happened?" Minato exclaimed in shock, his voice suddenly returning to him.
"Hmm, oh that. I just removed your sprit from your body. It's easy for me to do as the envoy of the dead. Yuk Yuk Yuk!" The strange boy exclaimed him as he lorded over Minato.
Suddenly a loud pop was heard. Minato eyes widen in shock as he quickly looked at where his body had been. Gamabunta had returned back to the summons realm now that Minato had died. "Naruto!" he cried in fright as he watched in horror as his son plummeted towards the ground.
"Damn it." He heard the strange child mutter under his breath. Suddenly the boy disappeared only to reappear a instant later near the ground just in time to save Naruto from his plummet to his doom.
Upon seeing his son safe and sound he left out a sigh of relief. "I don't know how I can ever thank you enough for saving my son. Thank you. Thank you." He repeated over and over once the boy came back.
"You can start thanking me by shutting up. I just didn't want to extend my stay here delivering a child." The boy snapped. "Where do you want me to leave him?" He asked as he scanned the area.
"What…? No, I want you to take him to Sarutobi so can be properly looked after." Minato exclaimed in slight horror. 'How could anyone be so callous towards an innocent baby?'
"Look, I only have a limited amount of time in this plane. I have to take you to where you gotta be and get outta here before the door back home closes!" The boy yelled at Minato. Upon seeing the look Minato was giving him he immediately took a step back. "Well… I suppose I check on him after I drop you off. And if it looks dangerous for the kid I'll look after him." Immediately Minato's face brightened up.
Minato grasped the boy's hand "Thank you!" He exclaimed 'If I ever get to see Kushina again I need to thank her for teaching me 'the look'."
"Now, before it's too late time to go." The boy stated as he grabbed Minato's hand and took off with him.
00000001
Majeh salivated as he looked over at the body of the deceased Kyuubi. He'd always like fox meat and now he got to try some super big fox special meat. He couldn't wait to roast it. "I wonder how the tails will taste?" He thought out loud. Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by the faint sound of a baby's cry. "Damn it!"
Majeh descended to where he had placed the man's child and sure enough it was still there. Obviously the people who the man had expected to find his son had either failed to show up or they missed the boy. "And I just had to go and make that promise didn't I. Oh well, looks like you're coming with me kid." Majeh proclaimed as he scoped up the boy.
00000010
Sarutobi looked over the remains of the battle field where Minato had defeated the Kyuubi.
An Anbu Shunshin'd in front of him. "Sir we found the 4th's body but so far we have been unable to locate any child that you told us of. Also the Kyuubi's body has disappeared." The Anbu reported.
Upon hearing those words it took all of Sarutobi's will not to let his shock show on his face. He turned his back to the Anbu "Very well, it seems as if Minato's technique has completely annihilated the Kyuubi and has left no trace of it. Have 3 Anbu unit's scour the area for any survivor's and if any are found I want them reported to me immediately."
"Yes sir." And with his orders the Anbu immediately Shunshin'd away.
00000011
"Is that so?" An old man asked from behind a large wooden desk. The old man was wearing a large Wiseman hat and wire frame reading glasses.
"Yes sir. I sent the guy the guy in the Hawaiian shirt you were talking to, to the guy's office." Majeh reported to the old man as he chewed on some food.
The old man raised a gnarled finger at Majeh "What are you eating?"
"Roasted meet from a thousand year old Kyuubi's tail. YUUUMMMM!"
Immediately the old man hit Majeh over the head with a large stamp. "And you're hogging the delicacy all to yourself? You selfish little twerp!" The old man Screamed at Majeh.
"Hey, I already left a tails worth of meat for you." Majeh screamed back.
"Have you no manners? Respect your elders and hand it over" before tirade could continue a baby's cry was suddenly heard. "What the hell is that Majeh?" The old man demanded.
"Heh, well I promised the guy I picked up that if it looked like his kid was going to die I'd take care of him." Majeh quickly stammered out.
"Idiot! Do you realise what you did? You can't bring a living mortal to the sprit realm whenever you please. Especially not when we can't… send… wait a minute, what's that on the baby hand it over." The old man quickly demanded.
"What's so bad about bringing the kid? Besides I can leave him with a good family any way."
"The problem Majeh is that this child has the sealed form of the Kyuubi in him. This is bad, very bad. Shit I need to get in touch with Bob fast."
"What's the problem about him having a daemon sealed in him?" Majeh questioned.
"What's so bad is that the plane the kid is from only had 9 very powerful daemons. Losing one especially the strongest creates an imbalance, in which most likely daemons from other planes will rush in to fill creating further imbalance as more and more daemons enter the plane." The old man growled out.
""Eh, I'm sure they'll be fine, besides next time the door opens we can just send the kid back through the door." Majeh proclaimed as he waved off the old man's worrying.
"The thing is that the next time the door to the plane the kid is from opens that we can use will be in a hundred years time."
"Oh, shit."
"Yes, now get out of my sight I need to try and contact Bob to try and lessen the damage."
00000100
"Well then Naruto. Are you ready to return home?" The old man asked a twelve year old boy wearing an armless silt shirt which showed off his chest and a pair of silk trousers, he had long spiky blond hair and looking thoroughly bored.
"Yea, yea. I just wanna go." Naruto complained.
"Fine, the door is open, and remembers you're to wipe out all of the daemons besides any of the original great nine. Also a representative of the management of the plane will also be sent to make contact with you. Now go." The old man barked out.
00000101
Death, Minato mused, sucked. Not the normal suck of spending all of eternity changing his son's diapers or being poked in the arse by little red guys with pitch forks that old woman had warned him about. Hell even his one true fear of the after life from when he was live paled in comparison to this. At this moment he'd gladly take doing a literal mountain of paper work, hell he even personally train that freakishly scary kid with the weird eyebrows at the same time.
No of course he couldn't get away with a nice normal death. Minato had to get the one death that really, really, really sucked. Oh no, the Shinigami Bob (Why he was called Bob of all things Minato still couldn't figure out), decided to make him the official Luau designer, coordinator and builder.
When he first got the job he thought it would be smooth sailing. After all the Shinigami wouldn't have that much free time on his hands for parties. And he wouldn't do that many anyway. Of course immediately after he figured it would be easy Bob revealed what he looked like. 'I'd never think I see anything stranger than that Maito Gai kid. But seeing a seven foot tall well muscled man with horns growing out of his head wearing a long sleeved Hawaiian shirt with kaki pants really did top that.'
Of course when he found out just how many Luau's Bob wanted yearly, well it was simply staggering. Added to the face that none of his jutsu's actually worked in the spirit world. 'Well a few do but none of them I can actually use, what I wouldn't give for the ability to use Kage bunshin no jutsu.' He grudgingly thought as he looked at the Tiki he was carving at the moment. What was really bad about this job was that after every Luau Bob wanted more and more. Now he had him hand making all wooden objects for the Luau.
Bob, Minato reflected had to be the laziest person he had ever met. He made even Nara Shikaku look even harder worker than the weird kid in comparison. Not only that but the guy made Orochimaru look like a dyslectic brain dead three year old in terms of planning ability.
He had learned shortly after dying that the jutsu he had used on the Kyuubi had in fact been originally created by Bob for the soul purpose of acquiring good workers for himself. After all anyone strong enough to use the jutsu would know the price and would be willing to do what was needed. And by doing that Bob was able to create a work force which did all his menial tasks for him, leaving him with plenty of time to laze around and throw Luau parties.
'Jiraiya-sensei was right. Getting an awesome woman like Kushina would wreck all kinds of havoc on his Karma.' He sighed as he picked up his hammer and chisel and continued working.
'Damn I wish I had just let the Kyuubi destroy Konoha, anything is better than this.'
00000110
'Hmm, so this is what my home looks like' Naruto mused as he looked around 'looks like Dongyoung.' Naruto stretched his limbs out as he let his senses wander checking for any signs of spirit energy. 'Ah there's one, not very strong but I shouldn't complain.' And so Naruto started on his journey to destroy the evil sprits in the elemental country.
00000111
"Aniki, aniki!" A young man screamed as he raced down a worn dirt path.
"Wot is it ya lousy git!" Gobadu growled at his wimpy underling. After all, the little git wasn't even 6 foot tall.
"There's a weird kid coming here. I think he might be trouble" Replied the underling.
Gobadu grabbed the underlings lose cloth of his clothing as he lifted him a foot in the air so they could see eye to eye. "Wot, if it's just a kid they you should' a took care of it yourself."
"But, aniki I think he's a ninja." The underling whimpered.
"Really, show me this 'ere ninja boy."
00001001
Gobadu and his underling were waiting near a dirt road watching Naruto walk down the path. A large amount of their bandit gang had shown up to fight the foe. "You stoopid git! That's ders no ninja boy!" Gobadu berated. "If it was a ninja boy he would 'ave a ninja 'ead band." They watched the boy with the odd clothes walk down the path. His long silk shirt almost trailing along the ground but never reaching.
"But, look he's got that weird sword." The underling pointed to the boy. Attacked to his back was a slightly large straight sword. It was wrapped in cloth but was obviously a double edged blade.
"Blade smade. Listen up you git. Dere's only two types of dangerous peoples. Ninja people and monk people. If dey don't 'ave a ninja 'ead band their not a ninja and if dey got 'air on deir 'ead then deir not a monk. Since dat kids got neither he's prey. Now Get 'im!" Gobadu screamed as he rushed out of his hiding place his underlings following him.
Upon seeing the bandit gang rushing hum Naruto took his sword in his right hand straightening himself up. He allowed a smile to ghost his face. It looked like he'd get to properly stretch his limbs a bit before he reached the evil spirit.
00001010
Naruto whistled a little tune he had learnt when he was little. He was almost skipping. The play with the bandits had allowed him to workout a knick in his back which had been annoying him since he got here.
"Uggh, remember boyz, kids with weird swords are now also really dangerous." Naruto heard the bandit groan through the pain he was obviously feeling.
'Hmm, I wonder if I can get some grub money if I took them to the local town.' He thought as he quickly turned around and started to tie up the gang.
00001011
Yuuhi Kurenai looked over her team. After the defeat of the evil spirit that the town had contracted them to eliminate they weren't much worse for wear. "Well, it seems as that wasn't that hard. Currently were near the village Hisoka and they've put in a request for a bandit removal. If you three are feeling up to it we can go and do that, but if you want to play it safe that's fine with me."
"Are you kidding, me and Akamaru are always ready to kick some arse!" Kiba yelled with enthusiasm. More than happy to go on a second mission.
"I am prepared." Shino stated.
"I, I'm fine" Hinata whispered.
"Come on Hinata. You gotta say it louder. After all you've gotta get a good reputation to go with your ability." Kiba called to Hinata encouragingly.
"I, I'll try." Hinata whispered back.
"Any way kids, enough of the chit-chat I want to be at the town before it gets dark so time to set out." Kurenai ordered.
00001100
Kurenai walked out of the village elder's house. She was slightly disappointed to hear the news. "Well apparently we were too late to stop the bandit gang. Someone came along and took care of them and handed them to the local authorities about 2 days ago." She explained as she watched Kiba's face fall while Shino and Hinata both remained impassive.
"Then are we going back to Konoha since we have no mission to fulfill?" Shino flatly asked.
"Not quite yet. We have permission to be away from Konoha for about another week and so I thought we do a little survival training exercise. The rules are simple, we'll go to the exit of the town and when someone leaves the town today one of you will follow the person. Same with the next person to leave the town. The objective is not to be seen. After three days travel you will all head back here. I'll also keep in touch with the standard radio devices, if you leave the distance in which they can communicate then they'll beep. If they do so you're to return here immediately. Understood?" Kurenai explained. Upon seeing them all nod their heads he smiled. "Ok then, let's get ready."
00001101
Kurenai watched the path as Hinata finally left following an old lady with a bad back that was using a cane to move around. Shino had followed what had appeared to be a woodsman while Kiba had got a strange young boy wearing odd silk clothes.
Still she had to admit that the kid looked pretty good with his chest bared. 'I bet even Gai wasn't that good looking at that age. Wait what the hell am I thinking? Shit I've been around Anko way too much.' Shaking her head to banish the bad thoughts she had to admit that those arm bands he wore. They were quite large and seemed to be made of leather with cloth bandages wrapped around them. Even stranger was the fact the kid was wearing leather boots. Kurenai had almost never even seen those, let alone someone wearing them.
00001110
'Shit, shit, shit!' Kiba mentally screamed. 'So much for the easy task, why do you hate me world? I have such noble aspirations.' At first he thought he got an easy mark, but today had proven otherwise when a sleeping bear was found blocking the path.
He had thought the kid was going to bolt for it but instead he had poked the bear awake. The bear rather annoyed at being woken from its nap prepared to attack the kid. Kiba was getting ready to save the kid when he suddenly leapt at the bear faster than Kiba could see and broke the bear's neck with a single strike to the back of its neck.
Sure he could have done the same, but with no where the ease of which the kid did it. It was also when Akamaru was able to get a whiff of just how strong the kid was. 'Shit I didn't think anyone that young could be around sensei's strength. I'm so unlucky.' Kiba mentally laminated.
Suddenly the kid stopped eating his bear meat and turned his head to where Kiba was hiding. "HMMM… Do I sense a spy? Someone's not being very careful!" Naruto called out. Just because you're hiding doesn't mean I don't see you! I'm going to have to beat you for following me around!"
"Fuck, fuck, fuck! I've been caught! Please don't do anything to me!" Kiba fervently prayed as he backed up behind a tree and tried to make himself as flat as possible.
Naruto started to clean up the campfire and pack up his things "Hmm Okay… Here's what 'm going to do: I'm going to kick my boot so far up his arse he'll be burping leather. Then I'm going to give him a haemorrhoid inducing wedgie, the likes of which has never been seen… or felt." At this point tears of horror were flowing down Kiba's face as he heard the boy describe his fate. "And once I've stretched his underwear over his neck I'll strangle whatever life is left in 'im!" Kiba let out a silent scream of horror at those words.
Naruto turned and started walking down the path towards a small village in the distance. "That's what I'm gonna do. But since I'm so busy, I'll have to do it later."
"OOHHEE! Kurenai I'm still alive. Hehehe--! Hehehe!" Kiba giggled slightly insanely as he realized he was safe. And left himself fall down to a sitting position on the branch. 'Crap I just can't let him get away. I don't wanna fail the mission. But I don't wanna be any where near that guy.' Kiba mentally argued with himself for a bit. 'Damn it, the mission needs to be finished no matter what, that what Kurenai always says. Guess I'm gotta be a lot more careful this time.' Upon his decision Kiba resumed following after the boy doing everything he could not to be detected.
00001111
He looked around. The village was slightly run down. Not that surprising from a place this remote. The lingering feeling of depression surrounding the villager was to be expected considering the strength of what he felt near by. 'Sometimes I really hate this reincarnation deal. My spiritual senses are shot to hell, no choice but to find this evil spirit the hard way.'
He started walking towards the largest building he could see, near the centre of the village.
It was in better shape than the rest of the village but not by much. Obviously the evil spirit hadn't taken up residence in the village.
Opening the door to the hose Naruto stepped inside the village elder's house.
00010000
In a large barren room sat an old man on his knees. In front of him was a small group of middle aged men. They all had faces of worry showing on their faces.
"Everyone! Please calm down. We've sent a word to the temple of fire. A high priest will arrive… soon… I hope… We just need to be patient." The old man pleaded to the other villagers.
"But elder, the sun sets soon. We'll have to offer another child to the monster!" A villager cried. "There is no time left to wait." He said pointing to a window where the sun could be seen setting.
"Ahem, Yo! Anyone home?" Naruto called as he entered the elder's home.
"Huh? Who's that?" The old man questioned.
"Hey! Look, I'm searching for an evil spirit. Can anyone here point me in its direction so I can go kill it?" Questioned Naruto as he walked into the room where the villagers were having their meeting.
Staring stupidly at the boy who had just entered the villager who and cried about the setting of the sun could only point dumbly in the direction of where the evil spirit was currently residing.
"Thanks for the info. Gotta go, there's work to be done." Naruto called back happily as he quickly left the house.
"You idiot!" The old man screamed. You just sent that young boy to his death. Quickly we must stop him before he kills him self." The old man screamed as he raced outside his house to stop the boy. Once exiting his house though he couldn't find any signs of life. The boy it seemed has disappeared.
00010001
Kiba watched from beyond the tree line. He couldn't believe how stupid he had been. He thought that when the kid he had asked how to avoid any dangers nearby, instead the kid was walking straight towards certain doom.
'Seriously, how hard is it not to notice the bones on the sides on the road under the bushes?' Kiba mentally screamed. As he glanced at a larger pile of bones glistening in the sun the undergrowth not fully covering them up.
Still in these situations it was safer to follow the idiot and let the daemon kill him than to risk fleeing and be found by the daemon. Harsh, sure, but you gotta make sacrifices to survive. Besides Kiba didn't really like the kid after what he had said to him.
After wandering down the path Kiba was almost ready to take his chances at running away. The stench of the dead was hammering his sensitive nose something chronic. His eyes had started watering a couple of minutes ago and it was all he could do not to keep from throwing up.
Surprisingly tho the kid had started whistling a strange tune Kiba had never heard before, it was mildly interesting.
Suddenly the boy stopped whistling and Kiba quickly checked to see if he had finally noticed the bones 'And it's about damn time to!' Kiba mentally berated the kid in his head. When he looked properly he saw that it was actually the appearance of a woman walking down the path which had caused the boy to stop whistling.
Kiba strained to hear what they were saying, who knows hopefully this woman could convince him to turn back and leave and then Kiba could get back safely.
"Oh my! You shouldn't be here child" Kiba hear the woman exclaim. While he couldn't see here very well he had to admit she had a very soft voice. It was extremely calming.
"Really? Well I came here for some business I had to do." The child explained to the woman.
"Oh no, that just won't do. You need to leave quickly. A malevolent daemon lives near here that devours the flesh of children. You must leave the area quickly!" She hurriedly explained to the child as she started to push him away.
Kiba watched in joy as the boy actually seemed to comply and turned in the direction the woman was pushing him 'Hooray, he's actually listening to reason. Looks like I'll make it out of here alive after all.' Kiba was practically jumping for joy.
"Oh really, then I guess I can leave. Besides I don't need to go any further anyway." The boy replied as he started walking back down the path.
Suddenly the woman's posture changed. She seemed to grow slightly larger and although he couldn't see that well, but Kiba swore he features became daemonic and she grew claws. He almost shouted a warning before stopping himself. After all it would just doom him the she daemon was already swinging her arm at the child's unprotected back.
Just before the daemon's claw reached the boy's back a well of light sprung from the ground enveloping the she daemon and stoping her attack. Kiba watched in amazement as the child folded his arms over his chest and looked over his shoulder at the daemon "Huhuhu…! Ms monster, you do that you're out-matched, don't you?" The boy laughed at the daemon.
He turned to face the daemon uncrossing his arms slightly waving them over the ground. While he did this arcs of lightning spread in the area of light enveloping the daemon. The boy then finished by levelling an open palm at the daemon "Terminate!" He cried. Instantly the area which had been covered in light exploded in a fury of destruction incinerating the daemon.
"Holy shit!" Kiba breathed. He couldn't believe what he had just seen. What just happened couldn't have been real. Even Kurenai couldn't destroy a daemon strong enough to take human form in a single attack, jet this kid had just done it. And with ridiculous ease from the looks of it. He couldn't help but break out into a cold sweat as he gulped at the amount of power the boy must have.
The boy kicked a large rock which had gotten in his way as he started walking down the path. "Ticks me off! Jeez! He complained. "And you… Come on out!" He called out as he walked down the path.
After hearing that Kiba started sweating bullets. 'Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap.' Kiba mentally ranted. Kiba did his best to not move, hoping the boy wouldn't pursue him further. On his head he could feel Akamaru shiver slightly still cowed by the attack the boy had thrown out.
The boy looked directly at where Kiba was hiding. "Are you going to make me come after you?" He questioned. Kiba just pressed himself even tighter against the tree praying he'd go away while Akamaru whimpered in fear.
Quickly the boy's hand flashed towards the handle of a sword he had strapped behind him hanging horizontally on his waist, drawing it slightly. "W-wait! I'm… I'm coming. I'm coming out!" Kiba quickly cried as he moved onto the path. 'Damn! I'm so screwed' Kiba mentally cried.
The boy stared at Kiba "You hiding and watching me… It's really annoying, yo know!" He whispered as he drew his sword a little more. "Enough to make me want to kill you!" He finished at a yell as he fully drew his sword holding it out in front of him, the tip pointed at Kiba.
"Um… Uh…" Kiba was trying to think of a way to escape with his life, he couldn't.
"However… there is a way for you to live…" The boy spoke to Kiba, confidence and strength apparent in his voice. "I'll spare ya if you become my slave forever, and if you promise to obey my every command!" He instructed.
Kiba's eyes shot open and he screamed "What?"
The boy's eyes narrowed "What? You don't like my idea? Then…" He growled "YOU CAN DIE!" He yelled releasing an intense aura of power sweeping the dirt, leaves and rubble from the path and sending his hair in the air giving him a look which put the she daemon to shame.
Kiba nearly pissed his pants in fright, Akamaru wasn't as brave. Quickly he screamed "Okay, okay. I'll do it!"
Suddenly the boy stopped radiating the aura and turned laughing "O-ho, heehee! You're all mine!"
00010010
Sarutobi stood on top of his face on the Hokage monument overlooking all of Konoha. He sighed as he though back on what had just happened ever since the Kyuubi had attacked Konoha. 'I don't know what happened to your son Minato but if I ever find him I'll do my best to make up for the many years that he's missed out on being with the people who should have been his family.' It was a promise he made every year.
Minato's child, which he had said he was going to seal the Kyuubi into, had disappeared after all was said and done. Sarutobi blamed no one but himself. If only he had been there with Minato his child wouldn't have been lost and he would have been able to grow up as the hero he was.
Instead the Body the Kyuubi and the child had vanished. Sarutobi had told everyone that Minato had used a secret jutsu to completely annihilate the Kyuubi at the cost of his life. He was glad the people had believed that. It even spread to other ninja villages making Konoha seem even stronger than it had ever been. After all who wanted to war with a village which had annihilated the great Kyuubi.
Still shortly after the destruction something truly horrible had occured. No one was sure just what the cause was but daemons had started appearing everywhere. At first it had been a few relatively weak daemons and it only took a Jounin or two to be able to destroy them, but then stronger and stronger daemons started appearing.
Until one fateful eight years ago when an extremely powerful daemon appeared in Kumogakure and managed to almost wipe them out. It took the Raikage and most Jounin in the village to be able to stop it with the Raikage using a suicide jutsu in the end. Completely annihilating Kumogakure in the process. If what the survivors had said was true it was a single daemon which did it. Only about three percent of the village survived the encounter.
What was worse was that a daemon had appeared in Konoha five years ago matching the description of the one which had destroyed Kumogakure. It had started in the Uchiha sector. Thankfully due to the intervention of Jiraiya, Itachi and himself they managed to stop the daemon. Of course the Uchiha clan had been almost wiped out. Only a handful of them remain and Itachi took grievous injury to the chest and took a year to recover. Even now his chest hurts when in the presence of daemons.
Of course many had suffered due to the problems with the daemons. None more so than Kurenai. She had watched her team butchered before her eyes by a daemon who wanted to play with her when she was seventeen. She was thankfully rescued by an Anbu group before anything serious happened, but the poor girls mind had snapped. Almost immediately after she left the hospital she was placed in.
No one was sure exactly what she did but she disappeared for three weeks. When she came back she had changed completely and in more ways than one. He looks had subtly changed. Slightly sharper eyes, her hair naturally turned red at the tips. What had really changed though was her chakra, before she was a genius at genjutsu, but after her disappearance it had changed completely.
Her chakra became rough and powerful. It was no longer suitable for subtle uses like genjutsu required. Instead she learned attack jutsu as fast as she could. What was most surprising was how effective her attacks were against the daemons. Normally they were resilient to chakra attacks, although chakra attacks were the only thing for a while that could actually hurt them.
Instead attacks preformed by her seemed to work extremely well against daemons even though they were no stronger than any other attack. It was a mystery they had still not worked out to this day. Due to this Kurenai had gained the title of second strongest in Konoha.
00010011
Kurenai was worried. Kiba was late. It was something she had hammered into her students heads as soon as possible never to be late. She had worked with Kakashi for a year and had developed an intense hatred for people who were late. Kiba would have known better. Not only that but he wasn't responding to his radio.
That meant something had happened. "Shino I'm going to need you to have your bug's track Kiba's sent. Hinata I need you to keep a careful watch for anything out there, something bad might have happened to Kiba so we need to be careful." She commanded.
Hinata was slightly pale as the worried about her team mate while Shino seem the same, but Kurenai could see his tell tale sign, the slight tensing of his left thigh showed that he was just as worried about Kiba as everyone else. Quickly they set off hoping against hope Kiba was ok.
00010100
Minato appraised his work. The Luau look perfect, while the carvings could have been done better they were still pretty good. 'Now to get outta here before any one shows up' He thought as he prepared to leave.
"Yoho! So lucky!" A voice cried out from behind him.
Minato froze as he heard the voice. 'Oh shit, oh shit! Oh please not him!' He frantically prayed to any who'd listen as he turned around. No such luck, right behind Minato was the one person he hoped he never run into again.
There standing in front of him was Ikkaku Maderame, with his ever present friend Yumichika Ayasegawa beside him. "Originally I thought standing guard was too troublesome, so I left early… And here's Minato right in front of me!" He laughed as he prepared start his Tsuki-Tsuki dance. "Lucky! Today is my lucky day!" Ikkaku sang as he pointed his katana at Minato "As for you, you are very unlucky!"
Minato started to sweat as he racked his brain for an excuse. Unfortunately Bob had decided that there was nothing for him to organize for the Luau today and had said he was free for the next 2 days to rest. 'I'd never thought I wish for more work.'
"Tsu! Tsu! Tsu, tsu, tsui!" Sang Ikkaku as he danced around on the tips of his toes. "Tsu, tsu, tsui, tsuih!" He sang as he balanced on the balls of one foot stretching his other foot out behind him and stretching his arms out in front of him holding his katana parallel with his shoulders. "Tsu, tsu, tsui, tsuih!" He continued singing as he mirrored his last positioned. "Tsuih, tsuih, tsuih, tsuih, tsuih!" He cried out as he slammed his katana on the ground and then using his right arm on the katana cart wheeled over the katana. He finished by landing on both feet shouting "Tsu… ih!" in tandem with the landing of each foot.
He finished with both feet two should widths apart facing away from him with his legs bent to the point that his thighs were almost horizontal. He had both arms extended in front of him with his hands open palms towards Minato holding his katana with his thumbs. "Ta… …Da!" He cried out as his bald head reflected an immense amount of light at Minato nearly blinding him.
"…" Minato just stared at Ikkaku. He could never do anything after seeing the Tsuki-Tsuki dance of Ikkaku's. It freaked him out almost as much as his nightmare of an entire population of Maito Gai's. He involuntary shuddered at the image.
"What are you still doing there? I've done the Tsuki-Tsuki dance, now it's time to drink! Move it before the others get here and get all the good sake!" Ikkaku shouted at Minato pointing his katana at the area in which Minato placed the high quality sake.
'How the hell Ikkaku can sniff out the highest quality sake from a kilometre away I'll never know.' Minato mused as he let himself get dragged by Ikkaku. 'Great now I'm going to wake up with at least a maddening hangover in the morning.
It wasn't that Minato was a light weight when it came to drinking, far from it. Back when he was alive he was the drinking champion of Konoha. He could even recall the one night before he made Hokage where he challenged Jiraiya to a drinking contest, and when he drunk Jiraiya under the table he challenged Tsunade. After Tsunade passed out he even challenged Orochimaru. After drinking Orochimaru under the table he earned Orochimaru's hate.
After that it became a joke that Orochimaru was the light weight of the Sannin as he could only finish five and a half bottles while Tsunade and Jiraiya both drank seven. He'd honestly never seen Orochimaru look as pissed as he did on the day after the challenge.
Still even with his impressive ability to drink 24 bottles of sake before passing out it was nothing when the average drinker drunk his body weight in sake before passing out. He just hoped that what happened last time this happened didn't happen again.
00010101
Kiba stared ahead as he and the boy, Naruto he had learned was his name, made their way to Konoha. Kiba had managed to convince him that they should head for a larger village. The fact that Kiba said he could organize better food and such in Konoha helped his argument. Not that he told Naruto just what type of village Konoha was.
He'd hoped that they'd meet up with Kurenai on the way to Konoha but she must've gotten sick of waiting for him. Still he wondered exactly what she was doing. It'd been five days since Naruto had killed the daemon. He had used what he called a Pegasus land mine. Kiba wasn't too sure exactly what he did but it was damn effective, he doubted that even Kurenai could take a direct hit from that.
Still it had been a bit of an annoying trip. For some reason Naruto would want to go in the opposite direction to Konoha, saying something about his job being back that way. It took Kiba a bit to convince him each time to turn around and go the right way.
One thing that had helped Kiba's arguments was that he had learnt that Naruto was meant to meet someone. He'd said he didn't know who this person was or where he'd find the person. So Kiba used the fact that he'd likely find the person in Konoha as a lot of people had started to come to Konoha after the daemons started showing. Their reputation as being the strongest village attracted a lot of different people as well as most of the refugees from the now destroyed Kumogakure.
Still it was time to break camp. Now he just had t pray to any deity that was listening that Naruto didn't want any 'entertainment'.
00010110
Kurenai was beyond pissed. She had been tracking Kiba for the last five day. First she found out he went into the den of a daemon. 'He should seriously know better than that.' She mentally grumbled.
She learned from the villagers that a boy matching the description of the one Kiba was following had asked where the daemon was and disappeared. Later on apparently a priest from the temple of fire had arrived to destroy a daemon, but someone had beaten them to it.
They had followed Kiba's sent to where the daemon had been destroyed. After seeing it Kurenai was scared shitless for her student. After all anything that left a crater like the one on the road was well beyond what any genin especially one of Kiba's level could handle.
Of course tracking him at that point was a nightmare and it took Shino nearly an entire day to be able to find Kiba's chakra sent with the unknown's chakra sent completely covering the area. Still they had managed to find it. And they had followed it for the past four days in which Kurenai had steadily gotten more and more pissed.
First she found he had gone back to the village she said to meet up at and instead of staying there and waiting for her he had up and left, heading straight for Konoha. Then there's all the evidence he left on his way to Konoha. She had taught him better than this.
She had prepared for the worst when they started approaching Kiba. She hoped that he hadn't been captured by a daemon like she had. While she had blocked out the memories she still knew that it was the worst experience she had ever had. She had never been able to look at meat after the experience. Although at the same time she found herself craving meat, which really disturbed her as she knew the reactions were both from something else but both were linked.
And the finally reason for her anger was the fact that they had finally caught up to him and she could see him sitting on a log in a clearing in front of a fire cooking some food. She was ready to break every bone in the little shits body for doing what he had just done. Nobody made Yuuhi Kurenai worry that much while they were sitting in front of a campfire cooking dinner.
Stepping into the clearing Kurenai called out in the sternest and hardest voice she could manage. "What the hell are you doing Kiba?" While giving Kiba a look which she had used to make Kakashi promise to be on time with missions involving her.
Kurenai had believed she was prepared for any of Kiba's reactions. She personally believed he'd break down once realising he was screwed. But what had happened had shocked her stupid.
Kiba had rushed at her, far faster than what he should have been capable of and clung to her leg as if his life depended on it. "Wha…? Um, Kiba what's going on?" She managed to stammer out as she felt her leg being crushed by Kiba's vice like grip.
"Oh thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou! I'm so glad your here." He raced out, tears streaking down his face. "He calls me at all hours of the night and makes me do all sorts of menial and degrading tasks… He makes me and Akamaru dance and sing, and I'm going out of my mind!" Kiba bawled out.
Kurenai could only stare stupidly at Kiba, Hinata's jaw was touching the ground in shock, and she had never thought the proud Kiba would act like that. Shino's glasses had slipped off his face in shock, his eyes wide in surprise.
At that moment in time the boy Kiba had followed came out into the clearing looking pissed yelling. "Kiba you little [beep! You son of a [beeping [beep [beep [beep! I'm going to tear off your [beep and shove them right up your [beep [beep [beep [beep and then [beep [beep [beep [beep [beep on your [beep [beep [beep [beep with [beep [beep [beep in the [beep [beep and [beep [beep [beep [beep on your [beep [beep so then you'll have to [beep sideways[Beep!" After his tirade the boy noticed Kurenai and her student's and raised a hand to wave at them. "Hmm, hi there." He spoke.
"Kurenai-sensei I'm going to take a nap now." Kiba squeaked out as he passed out in fear. Kurenai noticed a small wet patch forming in his pants as she quickly moved away from him.
She quickly checked her other students and noticed that both of them had been scared to the point that their brains had also shut down due to the boy's threat. 'Great, now I'm alone with the one kid who could make Ibiki fall to his knees and scream "I'm not worthy!"' Kurenai mentally laminated.
00010111
Naruto craned his neck as he checked out the gates of Konoha. 'Heh, if it wasn't for my time as an envoy to the dead I'd actually be impressed. These gates are pretty big. I wonder why they need to be that big in the first place." He thought as he tried to work out just how high the gates.
Upon hearing a muffled noise Naruto looked over his shoulder to see Kiba seemingly holding in a cry for joy as he stared at the gates. 'He's probably thinking that someone in there is going to bail him out.' Naruto let out a low chuckle watching as the dog boy seemed to flinch at the sound.
He had to admit that after Pooch had woken up last night from his little shock it had been hilarious watching the mutt try to convince his teacher to try and negate the contract Kiba had made. 'The idiot couldn't tell just how pissed the woman really was. What a moron.' Naruto mentally laughed. Just picturing the mutt's face from last night was too much for Naruto to hold in and he let out a loud, maniacal laugh.
Upon hearing the laugh Kiba immediately jumped back away from Naruto. Positioning himself so he could quickly escapes as he stared at Naruto horror evident in his eyes. Kurenai took a small step away from the clearly insane child as she eyed him warily, while Hinata and Shino both took a very large step away from the scary kid while preparing in case something happened.
Quickly halting his laughter Naruto briskly walked through the gates of Konoha. Upon stepping through the gates he noticed that none of the others had entered. Looking back he saw all three of them still standing outside of the gates watching him with looks varying from curiosity to straight out horror. "Hey Pooch are you hungry? Let's go eat." Naruto called out over his shoulder.
Once hearing the question Kiba was broken from his horror. "Ugh… well… I'd like to eat with you, I really would. But you see… I… have… to… report to… my clan head. Yeah that's it. I gotta report what's happened to my clan head." Kiba laughed out as he scratched the back of his head. "Any way I best be off. Don't wanna keep my clan head waiting after all." The proclaimed as he raced off past Naruto quickly disappearing among Konoha's streets.
"I too must report to my clan head." Shino flatly stated as he slowly and purposefully walked in the same direction that Kiba had left.
"I… well… I… I should be going." Hinata stammered out as quickly rushed past Naruto.
"Hmm… seems like you're popular at the moment." Kurenai laughed.
"Whatever. Can you just point me in the direction of the nearest restaurant?" Naruto grumbled.
Kurenai pointed her finger in a direction. "Thanks then." Naruto called as he turned in the direction she pointed.
"You do have money right?" Kurenai asked. Upon seeing him nod she moved to face the tower. "Well I actually have to make a report. When I'm done you better still be in Konoha and haven't caused any trouble. If you have… well let's just say well find out how hard it is to preform a circumcision with a rusty blunt Kunai." Kurenai cheerfully let out with a sweet smile gracing her face.
Once Kurenai finished her threat Naruto immediately clasped his hands in front of his face, his eyes welled as he stared at Kurenai with tears welling in his eyes "No, no! Oh dear, no! I don't want my body defiled by some freaky shota-con! Somebody save me!" Naruto cried. Kurenai quickly stepped back and worriedly scanned for anyone. Upon seeing no one she shunshin'd away as fast as she could manage.
Once Kurenai had left Naruto turned around and wiped his tears away and continued walking in the direction she had pointed and started whistling a tune. 'I wonder what the food here is like. I'd always heard Dongyoung had some interesting food.' Naruto mused as he unknowingly headed straight for Ichiraku Ramen.
00011000
"I see, so it seems you have an interesting trip. This boy you met up with then what would you rate his abilities at then?" Sarutobi asked Kurenai as he puffed away at his pipe, savouring the rich flavour of the tobacco.
"Well Hokage-sama from what I managed to ascertain about the daemon which the boy, Naruto destroyed. As well as the amount of chakra I was able to feel from him I would place his abilities at upper Chuunin, he might be able to just push it to specialist Jounin but it would be a pretty big stretch. While he has a seemingly enormous spiritual power his physical power is fairly low. As a result I would imagine he could preform a few high level jutsu's before he exhausts himself." Kurenai listed of.
"Hmm, very well. Where is the Naruto at the moment? I would like to speak with him. And if possible could you also bring the rest of your team with you." Sarutobi asked as he took a long drag on his pipe.
"As of right now Naruto is eating. I pointed him in the direction of the cheaper food stalls. It shouldn't be too hard to track him down. As for the rest of my team I could find them in moments." Kurenai stated.
"Very well, please collect them if you may." With a wave Sarutobi dismissed Kurenai. Sensing that she had left the room Sarutobi turned to face the window. 'Is it really you Naruto? Or is it just the hope of a foolish old man?' Sarutobi mused as he puffed away on his pipe.
00011001
Naruto slurped down another bath of ramen noodles as he quickly finished off another bowl. "Wow, I don't think I've ever seen someone pack away ramen like you kid." Teuchi laughed as he watched Naruto drink the remaining broth from the bowl.
"Heh, well I've never had food like this before. It's very good. Almost as good as someone I used to know." Naruto laughed back. "Give me another!"
"Sure thing kid. By the way, would the person who cooks better than me be any one I know? That way I know who my rival is." Teuchi asked as he prepared another bowl of ramen.
"Well no one you would know. I met her a life time ago." Naruto commented as he stared off into space as he thought about the person.
"Heh, don't worry kid at your age a lifetime is nothing really. I'm sure you'll meet someone just as special as her. After all you got the rest of your life ahead of you." Teuchi advised as he poured the finished ramen into Naruto's bowl.
Naruto turned from his daze to look Teuchi dead in the eye "No, she really was a once in a life time person." He stated seriously. "Anyway enough of this. This ramen is really good. It's just a shame you don't have any good meat." Naruto laughed.
"Oi! What do you mean by no high quality meat? The stuff I use is some of the best in Fire country. If you can find any better meat than this and bring a good supply of it I'll give you free ramen for a month." Teuchi exclaimed with mock hurt.
"What? Only a month for getting good meat? What a rip off!" Naruto exclaimed, obviously faking being hurt by Teuchi's comments.
"Hah! If I gave you any more than a month I'd bet I'd go out of business with the amount you've eaten." Teuchi laughed.
"Oh, well I guess you're right there." Naruto laughed as he scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment.
"Heh, any way, what brings you to Konoha kid?" Teuchi asked.
"Well a guy I'm traveling with said this was a good place to meet with people. I've got someone coming to meet me, but I don't know where so I figured this would be a good spot to start." Naruto explained as he started eating his latest bowl of ramen at a more leisurely pace than the last few.
"Well I guess this would be a good place to start. Do you have any idea if where the person is from?" Teuchi asked. Upon seeing Naruto shake his head in the negative he sighed. "Well that's no good. If you want to meet someone you should know where to meet them. Kids these days, you have no planning skills do you?" Teuchi complained.
"Hey, normally I'd know where to go, but the person organizing the meeting didn't do a very good job. I figured if I went to places where lots of people met I probably find him." Naruto exclaimed.
"Well I guess that makes sense. Still there are better places than Konoha to find people. After all while Konoha might be one of the safer areas we don't get much influx of people. Right now I'd say the best bet would be to head for the Elemental tournament that's being planned in the next two weeks." Teuchi explained as he checked Naruto's eating habits and decided he didn't need to make any more ramen for the kid.
"Elemental tournament? What's that?" Naruto asked as he finished the last of his bowl of ramen and put it on the counter with the chopsticks signaling he was indeed finished.
"You're not from around here are you kid?" Teuchi asked, once seeing the positive nod he went on "The Elemental tournament is a tournament set up by the Daimyo's of the five major countries. It's to help promote togetherness, or so they say. The real reason though is to show off a group's current power. What happens is that any well known group, such as Konoha with out ninja can nominate up to eight people. Although no ones ever nominated eight. To participate in the tournament. No known groups such as small monasteries or most daemon hunting circles are allowed one nominee. All nominee's must be sixteen years or younger. And they compete in a knockout tournament to decide the victor. The winner receives certain prizes which the daimyo's decide before hand. Of course the real prize is that the show cases that the nominee's group currently has the strongest student's and will be a good place to hire mercenaries from in the future. So it's how groups advertise. As a result groups will only send their strongest as well as there being entrance exams to make sure that the entrants will give a good fight." Teuchi explained.
"Hmm I see. So lots of people come to see the tournament then?"
"Yes, an immense amount of people go to see the tournament. If you're trying to find someone and their trying to find you the tournament is your best bet." Teuchi proclaimed with a smile.
Suddenly Kurenai appeared in a large puff of smoke. "Hmm, well it's good to see you listened to my advice and stayed in Konoha Naruto." She commented as she eyed off the large stack of empty ramen bowls next to Naruto. 'My god it's almost as big as he is. How the hell did he eat so much?' She mentally wondered.
"So I guess I'm wanted for something then?" Naruto asked.
"Yes the Hokage wishes to see you. So I'd like you to come right away." She all but ordered. Seeing Naruto comply and move off the stool he saw sitting on she allowed herself a ghost of a smile. "Anyway let's go!" She exclaimed as she turned around and started walking. Her faint smile growing as she noticed Naruto following her lazily. Suddenly realising something Kurenai quickly stopped. "Wait how did you pay for all that ramen?" She asked.
"Eh I have my ways." Naruto cheerfully replied. Kurenai bit back a scathing remark worried that he'd make her look like a pervert again. She really didn't want him making her look like what she did before with so many people around.
00011010
"So, you're Naruto then are you young lad." Sarutobi stated solemnly. Inwardly he was doing quadruple back flips for joy. 'Finally I've found Minato's kid. Now all I have to do is find someone from Konoha to help him ease into life here and it'll all be set.' He mentally cheered.
"Ahh, Hokage-sama?" Kiba inquired shyly.
"Yes Kiba?" Sarutobi replied as he mentally tried to think of someone he could use to bring Naruto into Konoha. 'I know Anko's free right now, but she might come on too strong for the lad. He's only thirteen right now, then again if he's started puberty she might be perfect for him.' He mentally mused.
"Well you see, I sorta made an arrangement with Naruto about being with him and it's…" Kiba started.
'Yes. Score!' Sarutobi mentally cheered as he tuned out the rest of what Kiba was saying as he mentally worked out how he could use this to his advantage.
"…and well I was wondering if I could have it annulled." Kiba finished.
'Shit, no that won't do.' Sarutobi thought. "Well Kiba, I'm afraid I can't do that. You made the arrangement so it's only proper that you follow through with it. Besides it's not so bad. You can work it in with your normal things. Besides I'm sure Naruto could use a good person from Konoha to help him sort things out and maybe find a place to live." Sarutobi cheerfully explained. "Now I think we should move on to the next part of business. Would you mind going with Kiba and his team to the Elemental tournament Naruto?"
"Not really. I was thinking of going there myself." He replied.
"Excellent." Sarutobi replied as he clasped his hands in front of himself. Then you can join the group heading out for the tournament in two days. Kurenai I trust you can make arrangements for when I arrive in a week." Sarutobi asked.
"Yes Hokage-sama." She replied sharply.
"Very well. You all are dismissed." Sarutobi spoke as he turned away from them.
