Weapon's In Hand
PRE-AUTHOR'S NOTES
This story takes place after the Last Great Ninja War and basically everything happens the way it should. The only real changes is this takes place about 6 months after the war, Sasuke is still in the village but heavily restricted and watched. Naruto is basically ignoring Hinata's love confession (as what actually happens until "The Last" Movie), and this story officially has more TenTen than 2/3 of the original series (Come on, you know it's true).
I tried to make the character's as in character as possible however, some OOCness may be present.
That's basically it. I hope you enjoy the story!
END PRE-AUTHOR'S NOTES
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO, NARUTO SHIPPUDEN NOR ANY OF IT"S SPINOFFS, GAMES, MOVIES, OR CHARACTERS. EVERYTHING IS OWNED BY KISHIMOTO. I CLAIM NOTHING!
"Hey Sakura-chan, want to grab some ramen with me?" Naruto excitingly asked the pink haired Kunoichi as she made her way to the hospital.
"Sorry Naurto, but I can't today." Sakura easily replied as she continued walking only for him to follow behind her.
"But why not?" Naruto questioned undeterred as he moved in front of her, forcing her to stop and look at his smiling face. "Your shift ends at 8pm right? Ichiraku doesn't close till midnight, and you'll be starving."
"Well I-I have something planned for today." Sakura said as she looked to the side, her face beginning to turn red.
"Like what." Naruto continued to question, instantly picking up on her nervousness but not really registering its meaning.
"Well," Sakura began as her hands subconsciously started playing with each other. "Sasuke-kun's been acting strange lately. I think he's going to ask me out today." She said as her face turned a deeper shade of red.
"Oh." Naruto said, his face finally losing his trade mark grin. "I-I see."
Naruto's sudden change in demeanor quickly snapped Sakura out of her thoughts as she turned her head back to Naruto and smiled. "It's not that I don't want to hang out with you Naruto." Sakura quickly affirmed. "It's just that. Well I've been waiting so long for Sasuke-kun to come back to the village and now that he's finally here I-." Sakura let the sentence drop as she lowered her head in an almost sad smile.
"Yeah. I understand." Naruto sadly replied with lowered eyes only to quickly jump back with smile. "Why don't we try again next week? We can even bring the Teme along, after being on the run for 3 years and only just getting out of jail I bet he's forgotten what good food taste like."
"He'd like that." Sakura agreed as she once again looked up at the blond. "I'll check my schedule and get to with you on a good day to go."
"Sounds great." Naruto said with a smile as he turned around and gave a backwards wave. "See you then Sakura-Chan."
Naruto hadn't even taken 3 steps from Sakura before he felt two slender yet toned arms wrap around his waist and a head buried into his back.
"S-sakura?" Naruto asked in shock.
"Thank you, Naruto, for everything, you brought him back like you promised. I always knew you would." Sakura softtly said, as she held the hug for a few more seconds before finally releasing him and allowing him to turn back around. "I just…He's lucky to have a friend like you, we both are." She said with a big smile and he could've sworn he could see small amounts of water around her eyes.
"Y-yeah Sakura-chan, don't mention it." Naruto replied with a small smile. "You would've done the same for me."
As Naruto turned and walked away from Sakura, he silently thanked kami for her distraction. He knew that if her likely thoughts of Sasuke, Team Seven, and everything else hadn't distracted her, she would've seen through his fake smile the moment he dared put it on.
3 hours later
Training Ground 10, Forest area.
"Don't you think your taking this too far." Kurama asked as Naruto rushed through his personally created obstacle course. "I can heal your body from these cuts all day long, but that still doesn't make it alright."
"I'm fine." Naruto re-affirmed for the half dozen time since they started, as he quickly moved to dodge the several dozen kunai and shuriken that began raining down from all directions.
He had created several dozen shadow clones and had them hide in a narrow part of the forest. Their orders were to throw any weapons they had, or could get their hands on, at him when he tried to go through the path. This allowed him to keep his reflexes up in lieu of sparing, or at least that's what he liked to think as on a normal day he'd be able to go several hours without so much as getting a scratch from the thrown weapons. This was partly due to the skills he had acquired over the years and partly because he knew how his clones would attack as they were all based off himself; however, with everyone else he could think of sparring with either busy with missions, life, or restricted this was the best he could hope for right now.
That being said this obviously wasn't a normal day as evidenced by the tears and dried blood on his shirt where kunai had made several shallow cuts and subsequently healed by Kurama.
As Naruto masterfully weaved through the barrage of weapons he made sure none came to close to striking him, he had gotten with 10 feet of finishing the course when it happened.
As he took another step toward the end his mind suddenly wandered and his mind flashed back to the conversation he'd had with Sakura earlier that day.
Flashback
"Thank you, Naruto, for everything, you brought him back like you promised. I always knew you would."
End Flashback
"Kid!" Kurama roared within him as Naruto snapped out of his daydream too late to stop the kunai flying towards his chest.
Thinking quickly, he lunged to the left and felt the cool metal puncture his right arm as a result. His eyes widened as he registered the pain before his body landed heavily on the ground. Muffling a curse, he made sign to dispel his clones who had ceased their barrage once he'd been struck and remained on the ground for only another moment before getting up and ripping the kunai out.
"Arg!" Naruto shouted as he ripped out the weapon and examined his profusely bleeding wound. "How bad is it?"
"It's a deep puncture." Kurama responded. "It'll take a few minutes to heal."
"Good." Naruto said as he made his way to one of the taller trees and sat in the shade.
"What the hell was that about anyway?" Kurama asked as he took to work healing the wound. "You've been screwing up all day, but that kunai almost hit your heart and it only missed the artery in shoulder by a few inches."
"I just lost focus is all." Naruto numbly responded, his previous conversation with Sakura now back to replaying in his mind since the danger had passed.
"It's more than that brat." Kurama grumbled. "And until you start telling me what's going on this is the last wound I'm healing."
"What do mean this is the last wound your healing" Naruto said in disbelief. "What happened to being able to heal my wounds all day long?"
"I said I could brat not that I would." Kurama replied. "Besides we might be friends now but I'm not your personal medic ninja, if you want someone to continuously heal your wounds then go talk to that pink haired girl; she actually seems to enjoy it!".
Naruto's retort died in his throat at the mention of Sakura as he lowered his gaze to the ground. He quietly stayed in this position of sitting against the tree with his left arm on top of his bent left knee. His right arm remained at his side as the wound slowly healed from Kurama's power and his right leg laid flat against the ground.
"So that's what this is all about." Kurama finally said after several moments of silence passed, Naruto's silence instantly confirming the fox's suspicion. "I should have known, that girl's always involved in your stupid stunts one way or another."
"I should be happy." Naruto responded in a smaller tone than the fox was used to hearing from the boisterous blond. "The teme's back, the village is safe, and Sakura-chan's happy again. Everything is just like I've always wanted it to be."
"Except for the girl." Kurama replied. "You've been chasing her since I can remember."
Naruto shook his head as a sad smile graced his lips. "I knew that she'd go for Sasuke the moment he came back. I tried everything I could think of to make her like me, but in the end I guess the Teme had me beat from the start."
"So go for another girl." Kurama replied as he silently wondered how he went from fearsome 9 tailed demon of destruction and chaos to a teenager's relationship advisor. "I've seen the girls following you around since the war, just take one of them and be done with it."
"There's no other girl like Sakura-Chan." Naruto replied sadly.
"And what's that supposed to mean." Kurama asked in slight annoyance. "You have half the women in this village and likely the other villages as well vying for you, one of them is bound to be like that girl. Hell, what about that pale eyed girl, she had a thing for you right?"
"Hinata-chan's nice and I do care for her, but not the same way I do for Sakura-Chan." Naruto replied. "They just can't compare with each other."
"There both women right?" Kurama asked, his annoyance more apparent. "What makes this pink haired girl anyway? What makes her different that the rest?"
"Sakura-Chans..." Naruto mused as he lifted his head in deep though while watching the sunlight glisten through the leaves. "She's strong and determined, even when we were kids she never stayed down long. Her eyes hold a certain strength to them yet are filled with compassion which makes them even more beautiful, and even though she may knock people around or occasionally destroy something you can tell that she deeply cares about everyone. She has the will to never give up or back down from anything, and an infectious smile that…"
"Ok, ok I get it." Kurama interrupted. "At least try to find someone else instead of moping around like a fool. If you keep screwing around like this you're going to end up getting us both killed and I didn't survive Madara, the First Hokage, Kushina, the 4th Hokage, Obito, and Madara again just to be killed off by some hormonal teenager in a training accident!"
"Sakura-chan's the only one for me." Naruto affirmed. "But, you might be right. Perhaps, perhaps it is time I moved on. If the Teme makes her happy then that should be enough for me. Her happiness is more important than mine." Naruto said with a small smile.
"Whatever you say boy. But I still say you're a fool though." Kurama grumbled before switching subjects. "At any rate's your arms healed, so if you want to try your stupid course again I'll heal you. Just make sure you don't zone out again, if I die then it had better be for something worthwhile and not because of your hormone induced thoughts."
"As if I'd ever die before becoming Hokage." Naruto replied in a more upbeat voice as he formed an all to familiar hand sign.
OOOOOOOOOOOO
Meanwhile at the training ground 10 entrance.
Tenten idly walked towards her favorite training ground, a kunai spinning in her right hand as she walked. She wore her typical outfit under her zipped Chunin vest with several scrolls attached to her back, 2 on her waist, and her kunai and shuriken holsters strapped to her right leg.
Training ground 10 had always been the preferred training location of Team Gai and even though the team had gone their separate ways with Neji gone, Gai hospitalized indefinitely, and Lee…doing whatever Lee does she still felt a strong bond with the place she spent most of her Genin and early Chunin years.
She occasionally wondered if that's why she always came here despite the other grounds being much closer. She finally decided that it was because when she was here, she could almost pretend that their squad was still together and alright. That Gai and Lee were still running around the village and creating awkward sunsets when they would passionately hug each other for no earthly reason while her and Neji honed their skills and pretended not to know the other two. That she could expect the 4 to meet up at the same time 5 days a week for practice and a "speech of youth". Looking back, she deeply missed those days, back when everyone was together. Back when Neji was alive.
Of everything that had happened in her life after the war, Neji's death had been the hardest for her to accept. He was the closest thing she had to a best friend, and the only one of her squad ,besides herself, that she believed sane. Even so as the weeks and months passed after the war she had accepted and finally managed to move on. He didn't sacrifice himself for her to wallow in self-pity she finally realized; especially when Gai-Sensei, Lee, and the rest of the village now relied on her for support.
The war had been devastating for everyone, especially the Leaf Village. With so many talented and experienced ninja dead, missing, or forced to retire due to injuries sustained in the short but bloody conflict, she had suddenly found herself, along with most of the other remaining "rookies" among the top 15% of ninja in terms of sheer combat experience.
This meant that the most challenging missions were reserved for her, and she was called upon to lead squads far more often than she personally preferred. She had even heard an unofficial rumor that Lord Sixth was considering allowing her to take the Jonin Exam soon which, if true, would only mean she needed to refine her skills even further if she hoped to make it in these peaceful but still trying times.
That's why she made it a tradition to continue coming to the Training Grounds at least 3 times a week, unless a mission prevented her from doing so, to practice and learn new ways to utilize her weapons.
More than a few ninja's, both allied and enemy, had made fun of her reliance on such weapons rather than ninjutsu in the past but over the years she had earned the respect of the former and most of the lather either didn't survive their fight or now knew better than to underestimate her a second time. And she was determined that it stayed that way.
With these thoughts in mind she continued walking to her traditional spot only to stop halfway there when she kept hearing kunai and shuriken clashing. Usually she wouldn't think much of it as this was a training ground so hearing ninja practicing or sparring was expected; however, this sounded like an entire army was fighting.
"What's going on?" She mentally questioned as she moved towards the sounds.
As she moved closer she began to hear the noises more clearly, more specifically the thudding noises of seemingly dozens of weapons hitting the tree's and the ground in an area up ahead with even more hitting each passing moment. This caused her to begin moving far more cautiously as she made sure not to be hit by a stray weapon should one veer into her path.
Eventually she came to the edge of one of the many paths through the forest and was met with an unbelievable sight. There, running through a hail of shuriken and kunai, was a blond-haired man armed with only a single kunai.
"Obviously, he's a ninja." Tenten thought as she watched the man effortlessly dodge the weapons and deflected the few he couldn't.
"His speeds amazing." She marveled. "It's like he's not even trying."
Between the barrage of weapons and only the man's back being visible to her, she tried but couldn't make out who he was.
What little she could identify was it appeared to be a young man with short blond hair, he wore a dark blue shirt that was covered by a Chunin vest sporting what looked like an orange whirlpool symbol on the back, not unlike most chunin vest save for the color, but also one on the sleeve of his shirt. The rest of his outfit consisted of a pair of dark blue pants and sandals. She could barely make out a weapons pouch attached to his left leg as he seemingly finished the course.
"Just who is this guy." Tenten thought as she watched the man stretch for a moment and turn back towards her.
She didn't know if it was curiosity or something more that kept her there, but for some reason she couldn't take her eyes off him as he calmly walked back to where, she guessed, he had started the course.
"No way." She thought in disbelief as the man made his way back, his features began to come into focus. Another minute or so and tiny whisker marks could be seen leaving no doubt who the mysterious man was. "Is that…Naruto?!"
She continued to watch as Naruto finally reached his starting point, and in an instant shot back down the road only to be met with another barrage of kunai and shuriken. Tenten watched in further amazement as the continually weaved, deflected, and avoided the projectiles.
She knew she shouldn't be surprised. Naruto had for basically saved the world, so seeing him dodge simple weapons shouldn't have been that impressive. Especially given what she'd seen of his fight with the traitor Obito and Madara.
"Still I can't help but be impressed that he-." Tenten's thought were caught off as she thought she spotted an opening in his defenses. She continued watching, her expert eyes analyzing his every movement only to confirm what she saw a few seconds later.
"He's leaving two points open." She confirmed, a small smile gracing her lips. "One near the back-left shoulder blade and one between on his side between the 2nd and 3rd ribs."
The openings were small, in fact unless you were a master of projectile weapons and knew where to look you'd likely not even notice but to Tenten they might as well have been the size of Konoha.
"If I threw a pair of Shuriken just right, I could make them bounce off each other and hit those spots." She idly thought as she reached into her holster, as an odd excitement began coursing through her veins. "Let's see what you've got Naruto."
She waited in complete silence for several minutes until he finished his run and came back for another try. She watched as he began to sprint and just as he was beginning to dodge the weapons thrown at him she made her move.
She effortlessly threw the dual weapons at him only for them to go off course and hit each other behind him, the sound of their clash drowned out by those of his kunai. However, this had been Tenten's plan as the weapons bounced off one another and altered their course right to where the blond ninja was open.
Tenten watched with excitement as the weapons closed in on her target, waiting and expecting to see how the unsuspecting man would evade her attack.
Much to her surprise however, Naruto gave no reaction to the approaching weapons. In fact, it was like he hadn't seen them at all. A horrified feeling began to swell within her as time seemed to slow with the weapons still on target, it wasn't until they had almost hit their mark did she finally scream.
"Naruto! Behind you!" Tenten yelled as loud as she could only to watch Naruto instantly turn to see the oncoming weapons.
She watched as his eyes widened and quickly jumped while turning to block the weapons only for him to leave the other side of him defenseless. Tenten's expression darkened even further as she could only watch several of his own kunai, which had been thrown earlier, stab the man. His seemingly limp body, being carried by his momentum, falling deftly into the brush just out of the young girls view.
"No!" Tenten mentally screamed as she quickly ran from her spot to where Naruto's body fell. "What was I thinking!?" She reprimanded. "Oh please be alright."
"Naruto!" Tenten yelled as she finally reached the brush expecting to find a severely wounded, if not deceased ninja. However, to her astonishment and confusion she found neither, in fact she couldn't even find a body at all. Instead all she found was several kunai laying close to one another.
"But where-?" She mentally questioned while continuing to look through the bush. "Where is he?"
"Whew that was a close one huh?"
Despite her years of experience, Tenten could barely contain her surprised yelp or the apparent shock on her face as she quickly turned towards the voice's owner.
There Naruto stood only a few feet in front of her but also several above her, his feet easily standing on the large branch of an even larger tree.
"Naruto, you're alright!" She exclaimed running up to the blond, who jumped down to meet her, and resisting the urge to hug him yelled. "I thought I killed you!"
"Nah but it was a close one though." Naruto said in a nonchalant tone. "I just had to turn around and block the Shuriken to give me enough time to substitute with one of my clones. "
"Clones?" Tenten asked
"Yep, I've been making Shadow clones and hiding them in the tree's to throw these weapons at me." Naruto further explained.
"So that's what happened?" Tenten realized. "That's why I couldn't find a body, the clone must've dissipated the moment it hit the ground."
"But that can't be right." Tenten continued to think thought as the blond looked calmly at her. "He managed a substitution despite being taken completely off guard? I never even saw him make a hand sign."
"But that's not important right now." Naruto said in a slightly more serious tone, effectively snapping Tenten out of her thoughts, only to become one of excitement. "Where did you throw those Shuriken at? It completely got through my defenses."
"I targeted your back left shoulder blade and your side." Tenten immediately replied, his excitement not bothering her in the least after dealing with it in Lee and Gai-Sensei for years on end. "I saw how you tried to block only the attacks aiming for your vitals with your kunai, and you focused on dodging the rest. I figured that if I targeted non-vital areas that were neither in your field of vision nor coming at you from the front or sides they may get through."
"That's awesome Tenten!" Naruto affirmed. "I never would've thought of that."
"Well, I never thought it'd actually work!" She assured, a faint blush appearing at the praise. "I never wanted to actually hurt you." Her smile widened a few moments later as an idea popped into her head. "How about we train together today?" She offered. "I could help you find some more weaknesses if you want."
"That'd be great!" Naruto eagerly accepted before giving a confused look. "But are you sure it won't hurt your training."
Tenten shook her head. "I actually haven't even started yet." She explained. "Besides you'll make a way better target than the training dummy's I'm used to, not to mention I won't have to worry about holding back against you like I would if I trained with anyone else."
"Alright, let's do it." Naruto agreed as he began to explain how his clones were positioned, and Tenten began explaining what she would do.
Several hours passed as the two continued their training, they occasionally broke to give each other pointers and occasionally told exciting or hilarious tales from their careers. Eventually, long after night had fallen, both decided they had, had enough for one day.
With darkness long since descended on the village by the time they returned, the streets were nearly empty as Naruto continued to tell Tenten a story of the first real time Team Seven tried to look underneath Kakashi's mask.
"And after that we finally had, had enough. We just all yelled and pleaded with him to take the mask off just once." Naruto excitingly told with a smile as the duo walked.
"What did he say?" Tenten asked with a smile of her own, her mind imagining a much younger Naruto, Sakura, and even Sasuke trying to pull one over on the current Hokage. She'd broken down with laughter several times already in the story over how he always seemed to keep that piece of fabric on always.
"He pretended not to know what we were talking about at first, but eventually told us he'd take it off." Naruto said in between snickers.
"Well." Tenten pressed.
"He made a big deal of showing off as he slowly went for his mask. Then right when he pulled it down he yelled." Naruto said as he and Tenten stopped walking so he could mimic Kakashi pulling down his mask. "It's another mask!"
Tenten started laughing at Naruto, who said the line with his best Kakashi impersonation. "You mean all that time…he had another mask on?" She asked between breaths.
"Yep Sensei always was 10 steps ahead of us back then, even today I still don't know what he really looks like." Naruto replied as he placed his arms behind his head and gazed at Hokage monument in the distance. The sixth head in construction but still a way from being finished. "Shikamaru even told me he's planning on having the darn thing carved into his face for the monument."
"You know." Tenten said as she stood beside Naruto and gazed at the monument. "Now that you mention it Gai-sensei once told us that despite knowing Lord Hokage since they were students in the academy, that he'd never once seen him without a mask on. Makes you wonder what he really is hiding, doesn't it?"
"Puffy lips." Naruto said out of nowhere causing Tenten to laugh, his eyes never once leaving the monument.
"Buck teeth." She quickly replied after catching her breath as both ninja turned to face each other.
"Or a mole!" They both said simultaneously, causing them both to laugh for several seconds.
"Well this looks like where I get off." She said as the laughter died down and they had resumed their trek for a few more minutes. "I live just down the block from here." She said pointing to the street on the right.
"Then your pretty close to me." Naruto said as he pointed down the street they were currently on. I just moved to an apartment a couple blocks from here."
"Well, it's been fun." Tenten said as both ninja moved to look at one another.
"Yeah it has." Naruto agreed with a tender smile. "We need to do it again sometime."
"Definitely." She agreed, as a strange warm feeling began building in her stomach.
As Naruto turned to leave he quickly stopped and glanced back at the brown-haired girl still looking at him. "You know…" He began only to stop momentarily after seeing her gaze before speaking again. "I have to help Kakashi-sensei and Iruka-sensei with some paperwork and lessons tomorrow, but I was planning on training again the day after." He continued explaining before asking her. "Do you want to join me?"
"Join you?" Tenten asked almost in a daze, her mind seemed a bit sluggish and for the life of her she couldn't understand why.
"Yeah." Naruto answered. "You see, well, Sakura-Chan's always busy at the hospital these days and doesn't have time to train like she used to and Teme is still restricted from doing any of that stuff so I don't really have anyone to train with right now." Naruto's smile widened. "I had almost forgotten how much more exciting it is to train with someone rather than all by myself. So what do you say?"
"Y-yeah." Tenten replied before finally shaking off the fog in her brain. "I should be free that day. How about we meet here at 2pm? We can grab something to eat and head straight for the training grounds."
"Sounds good." Naruto said as he looked at Tenten for another second before turning around walking down the street. As he walked off he gave a backwards wave and yelled. "See you then Tenten-chan."
As Naruto walked away towards his apartment, Tenten hadn't even realized she had been staring at his retreating form until he was almost out of sight.
Shaking her head slowly she continued to watch him while silently wondering what was going on with her. As she finally turned to head home one distinct and utterly random thought continued replaying in her head.
"Has Naruto's shoulders…always been that broad?"
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Outside of Naruto's Apartment
"What was that about?" Kurama finally asked as Naruto turned the corner to where his apartment was located.
"What do you mean?" He questioned in reply.
"You kept staring at that girl so long I had to make sure your body hadn't frozen." Kurama half joked before adding. "Was there something wrong?"
"No." Naruto easily replied as he finally reached his new apartment and took out his keys. "It's just…" He said trailing off.
"Just what?" The demon fox asked.
"She has beautiful eyes."
END CHAPTER
AUTHORS NOTE
Well that's it for this chapter. Now before I start talking and making excuses about why I haven't' updated my other 2 Naruto stories in a few months and have basically dropped off the face of the Earth till now. I just wanted to ask everyone a question. When I originally thought of this story I meant for it to be a one shot. My original plan was for it to follow the same route as "Perhaps" and "Avenged" in that it would be a pairing story only without as much angst or bloodshed; however, as I wrote it became something I feel I could make a legit story out of (at least for a few chapters) which is why it ended the way it did. My question to you, the wonderful readers of the world, is would you like me to make a story out of it or make leave it as is. I'm torn on it and could really use your feedback so please review and PM what you think.
As for my other works in progress: "Naruto: Legend of Naruto Namikaze" and "Naruto: The Plot" I had to take another break on them until recently due to school and finals. I had intended to upload my already completed chapters of "The Plot" during this time only to find out that the next chapter had either been deleted or moved from my computer somehow. I spent 2 weeks trying to find those files to no avail. I still have an earlier draft of the chapter and have backed up the other pre-written chapters so it doesn't happen again so all I need to do is summon the will to re-write the chapter and we're good to go. As for Naruto: LoNN, the next chapter is about halfway written and I'll finish the rest up as soon as I can.
As always Read, Review, but above all enjoy.
Guaridan's Blade- OUT!