"Three" Kakashi counted, staring lazily at the warehouse with a small ANBU contingent with him.
"Two" he continued, lazily walking towards the warehouse door.
"One" the wall of the building exploded. The ANBU all reacted minutely, while Kakashi simply took a big step forward, catching the burning blond before he hit the ground.
A quick Suiton jutsu and Naruto was put out. The soot from his face was instantly cleaned off by the sudden cascade of liquid.
A second individual who had been thrown higher into the air came back to earth.
No one bothered to catch him.
Jiraiya landed next to Naruto in a loud thump and a groan, his body impacting the dirt brutally.
Kakashi snapped his fingers in front of the shell shocked blond, and the boys blue eyes darted to him.
"Type two?" Kakashi asked, pointing at the building.
Naruto glanced at the building, mumbling something before looking down in shame.
"Didn't quite catch that" Kakashi muttered, lowering himself a little bit to be closer to Naruto.
"Type three" Naruto hissed, crossing his arms, pouting and glancing away in a huff.
"Already?" one of the guard ANBU exclaimed, surprised.
"He hasn't slept yet" the middle ANBU lamented, gesturing at Naruto, "just look at his eyes"
"So of course he's already at type three" the last one commented, moving to Jiraiya and trying to help the elder Sannin get up.
Jiraiya bolted up right before the ANBU could reach him.
The sannin blinked, before turning on Naruto with a murderous expression, "you're dead brat!" he leaped.
Kakashi lazily back handed his superior out of the air.
No one harmed his little brother cept him. And only when the blond idiot deserved it.
"Ow" Jiraiya moaned, gripping his nose from his position on the ground.
Here was one of the most powerful individuals in the world… and he acted like a complete child.
Naruto stood up, "we need to start repairs soon! I was so close to finishing the inner matrix of the second seal" he began to make his way towards the crumbling and burning facility but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.
"Hokage-sama wants to see you"
Naruto blinked owlishly, "About?"
"He's worried about you" Kakashi frowned, 'I am as well'
"How long will it take? Me and the pervert were busy" Naruto gestured back to the now smouldering building.
"The ANBU will clean that up, and by the time you've finished with the Hokage, your lab will be ready again.
At the moment of the sealing, when the Kyuubi had been placed into the new born baby, Minato could have imparted any kind of knowledge, some form of understanding for his new born to take with him. Instead, his knowledge of seals, and sealing had been imparted into Naruto.
An influx of information that was meant to be understood but the concepts couldn't be grasped. A lifetime of learning that had yet to be learned.
The boy's brain didn't know how to react.
So the Kyuubi stepped in, surprisingly, and saved its Jailor from becoming brain dead.
If asked, the fox did it only because it didn't want to have to deal with a vegetable for a host.
The Hokage didn't get a chance to ask the fox what it thought however, and was now having to deal with the fallout of the incredibly intelligent eight year old.
"Hi jiji!" Naruto waved exuberantly as he entered the office, Kakashi staying outside the room as his younger brother stepped past the threshold.
"Naruto" Sarutobi Hiruzen nodded as the blond came in and sat down in front of the desk.
Hiruzen had the ANBU on guard clean the desk perfectly, removing anything that had been on it and hiding it away.
Before Hiruzen could speak, before he could secretly elude as to what he wanted to talk about, Naruto beat him to it.
"Yeah I'm working on it" the blond grinned.
Hiruzen just sighed and slumped back in his chair.
What he didn't know, was that in the five seconds that it had taken Naruto to enter the office and sit down, he had already pieced together what the Sandaime wanted him for.
"Break down the thought process" Hiruzen gestured exasperatedly.
Naruto's grin vanished, his face taking upon what the Konoha hospital psychologist had named as naruto's, 'Professional' mode.
"The desk was too clean. Usually you have a few items on it, as to suggest what you have recently been handling. Since there was nothing of importance on the desk, you must have packed it away or removed it quickly before my arrival. This means the topic of our conversation revolves around me. But as to what this topic is, I had to find other information. Therefore I turned to the shelves" Naruto looked to the left and pointed at the mission shelf. "All the mission files have been untouched because they are still as messy and in the same place when I last saw them... meaning you haven't had the need to look back recently. The topic of this meeting will not be found in the past, therefore I am here because of current affairs"
Hiruzen paled. The blonde's mind was amazing. He still wasn't used to his ability to pick apart situations.
"So I next looked at the personnel files, and as expected, each of the files is neatly arranged, meaning you, or more likely your meticulous ANBU cleaned them up and ordered them out. Now I can only assume this, but since you've called me here and the last person to leave this office was Snake, I was the topic of discussion between yourself and Snake-san"
Naruto sat up straight, hands on his knees as he looked right at the Hokage. "Which based on your reaction I can deduce that you have indeed been keeping watch on me, even when my work requires the most private level of security, especially since the task I am tackling could fall into enemy hands"
"The explosion today... Kakashi predicted you'd have moved onto the third stage by now. I have to admit I'm surprised"
Naruto smiled, "it's been difficult. Without Jiraiya, I wouldn't have been able to hold down the matrix for the second level. But now the third level of the seal comes into play, and it is in fact designed to hold down the second level of the seal"
Hiruzen nodded. The amount of Chakra to be added to the seal must have been large, based of the controlled explosion that happened at Naruto's facility.
"I know how it works now" Naruto smiled.
"Really? It's only been a month, and you think you've figured out the technique already?"
"You've been quite generous with my expenditures Jiji. All the money you've funded towards my projects has payed off"
Naruto's attire was the same every day. Black jacket with the left sleeve missing up till his shoulder, revealing his heavily tattooed arm. He work a pair of flip flops in the lab, only using Shinobi standard sandles when out on missions.
Touching one of the seals on his left arm, a seal hidden under the tattoo's, Naruto channeled chakra in order to summon a scroll.
"The first matrix ring of the seal sets your destination, and this only requires a minimal amount of chakra to set this, 'anchor'" Naruto pointed to the second ring of the heavily annotated diagram.
"The second ring is what the Yondaime referred to as 'The Bridge', this is where the second most amount of chakra is used, and it is what allows for the instantaneous movement. The seal essentially rips a hole in the space time continuum. The third seal keeps this transition safe, and more importantly, the user alive"
Hiruzen just sat back and kept soaking in the information.
"The fourth seal uses the most amount of chakra, as this matrix breaks a whole back into 'real time', allowing the user to then use the fifth matrix to transition towards the receiving Kunai"
Naruto re sealed the scroll into his arm and sat back down in the chair in front of the Hokage's desk.
"How long till you can use the technique?"
Naruto was silent for a few moments.
"A few weeks"
Hiruzen breathed a sigh of awe.
The return of the Hiraishin, the flying thunder god technique, was just around the corner.
Naruto would become a ninja to be feared.
"Jiji" Naruto was frowning now, "I have a more important request"
Hiruzen cocked an eyebrow.
"Yes Naruto?"
"Can I have some very loud speakers… and a music system"
Hiruzen's face went blank.
4 Years Later
"Get out of here pervert!" Naruto shouted, pointing at the door, "My mind needs space!"
The sannin didn't say anything. When Naruto got like this, not even a ramen bribe could cheer him up.
The Sanin disappeared before anymore chaos could ensue.
"KAGE BUNSHIN!" about 12 Naruto's appeared.
The lab was naruto's prized space. Three floors in total. Each floor had a landing which could observe the floor beneath it. Book shelves and cabinets were strewn everywhere, things hastily having been pinned to different walls. Different threads and pins were latched everywhere, attaching different papers to others. Heavy use of staples, duct tape, biscuits, coffee and an application of sealing kept the whole ship running.
Naruto did refer to his work space as the S.S Discovery.
Then the music started.
Naruto had rigged his warehouse / laboratory with the speakers Hiruzen had given him a while ago, the blond forgets when the old man gave him the stuff. Work never stopped on his ship, never.
The one time a clone had tried to rebel Naruto had made it walk the plank, which was literally a piece of wood jutting out from the third floor landing. It had been used originally for testing out new wind Jutsu, but it did a good job for a stand in execution plank.
"GET MOVING!" Naruto boomed, his finger on the remote thumbing up the volume so the song would be louder.
(Song: Traditional arrangement: Moonshine - Alexandre Desplat)
"Aye aye captain!" a clone sarcastically remarked. A second later it dispelled from a Kunai to the throat.
Sarcasm was only tolerated from the original. Captains orders.
The real Naruto heaved, the memory of a Kunai piercing his throat giving him the shivers. Swaying slightly, the captain of his ship jumped down to the second floor, moving into the archives, deciding on what him and his 'crew' would be working on today.
Looks like trying to crack the elemental configuration of Mokuton Jutsu would be today's impossible task.
Summoning another clone, Naruto ordered it to fetch him some coffee.
Clone's were running everywhere, moving objects, picking up strange devices, carrying tons of scrolls and even the occasional piece of furniture.
Just an average amount of chaos on his ship.
Back to the task at hand… replicating Mokuton Jutsu...
To be perfectly honest, Naruto wasn't a firm believer of Jutsu relating to a bloodline. Apart from anything ocular, he believed all techniques were fair game.
So the sacred techniques of the Shodaime would become his primary concern… for today atleast.
"Alright! Two teams get funky on the first floor, I want a perfect balance of Yin and Yang chakra. Use Kurama-baka if ya need to!"
The fox growled at him on the inside but otherwise didn't react to his… special… host.
Kurama had shared his name with the child after he began to display skills and a mind unlike anything he had ever witnessed. This socially inept blonde idiot was a genius, someone who would change the future of the-
An explosion on the bottom floor cut of the fox's thoughts.
"I SAID BALANCE!" Naruto roared from the second floor, leaping up to the third floor to disappear into his study.
He had other things to continue working on.
The study was comprised of a welding and full metallurgy workshop, a desk to do work on, and a large mind map which was a mental representation of where Naruto kept things stored in his memory.
Someone of another time and age would call this a mind palace, but with a mind as extravagant as Naruto's, he needed a larger place to withhold all of his memories and general knowledge. This gigantic visual representation with convenient seals attached to each portion of it made it a perfect choice.
It looked like some weird art work, but it was in fact a very important aspect of Naruto's ship.
A note on his desk made him hesitate from the metal works area. It was sealed, and new.
It hadn't been there the last time he was in his office. Naruto no longer knew days or night, just when he was working down stairs or found himself passed out in his office.
Naruto hurried over to it, dropping a seal on it before opening it. Any chakra bombs or traps set inside it would never go off due to the seal he had placed upon it.
It was a letter inside.
Naruto read it and his eyebrows shot up.
Oh crap.
"ALL HANDS!" Naruto turned and shouted out to his crew on the lower floor, "Abandon ship!"
The clones went frantic, each canceling their channels of chakra, and hastily moving up and down from floor to floor, cleaning up the un-cleanable space.
"What's the problem captain!?" One of the clones blanched, looking into the office on the third floor to see Naruto's white face as he approached the clone by the railing of the third floor.
"We've got multiple borders incoming! All hands brace for combat!" each clone dispelled instantly, which in hindsight was not a good idea. Naruto convulsed and tripped, falling off the third floor, painfully landing on his side on the railing of the second floor, then finally slumping onto the first floor in a heap.
Kurama didn't know wether to laugh or cry at his hosts predicament.
Just then, the large warehouse doors opened up, Naruto hissing on instinct as morning light came into contact with his face.
His head retreated inside his jacket.
"Ototo… you really need to get out more"
Kakashi had come to visit with his genin team.
End song
A little earlier
Kakashi Hatake leapt down to his students, a light smile on his face, something his students wouldn't be able to notice.
His students had seen him slip a strange note through the window of the odd building.
"In 25 seconds Kiba, I want you to open those doors. Setsuna help him. Sasuke, get ready to cast a fire Jutsu" Kakashi ordered, readying a water or lighting Jutsu himself.
This was of course, in case his brother needed to be put out from whatever hectic experiment he was doing.
Sounds of commotion and voices shouting inside the strange warehouse echoed out through the walls.
There was also some kind of strange song playing.
15 seconds in, a shout of "Abandon ship!" could be clearly heard.
20 seconds in, the sound of something heavy landing on metal echoed out twice.
A groan was heard from behind the sliding metal door.
"Open it now" Kakashi smiled, stepping forward as the door opened.
A blond head and white face slithered back into its hood with a hiss.
"Ototo" Kakashi chided, "you really need to get out more"
"Who is this, Sensei?" Sasuke asked.
"Team 7, meet Naruto Uzumaki Hatake, my little brother" Naruto stood up, his full face mask having been summoned onto his visage to hide his identity.
"You have a little brother?" Kiba was surprised. Kakashi didn't say anything about that at the team meet… well to be honest, he didn't say much about anything.
"And" Kakashi continued, "he's probably the deadliest ninja in Konoha"
The three genin of team seven blanched.
"What are you doing here baka?" Naruto responded simply, standing up in his full public attire, which had been summoned onto his body the moment the door had fully open.
Black gloves, black over coat, black jacket, black pants, black boots, black mask, black hood. Everything on him was black.
The strange mask was almost tribal, with different swirls and symbols all over it. It also had two moving eyebrows, which were currently fixed into a frown.
"This?" Kiba asked, and flinched as the mask turned to him, "this is the deadliest ninja in Konoha?"
"Doesn't seem like much" Sasuke murmured.
"This is your genin team?" Naruto ignored the Inuzuka heir and the Uchiha prodigy, "doesn't seem like much".
The two younger males gave out indignant cries but the hidden Hatake ignored them.
Kakashi's response took too long, so Naruto darted up to the female Uchiha sibling.
'Fast' Setsuna noted. It was almost like he had disappeared then reappeared before them.
"Uchiha? Why would-?" he disappeared again, only to reappear in front of Kakashi and poke the elder Ninja in the chest.
"Did you pick them?"
"Council did"
"Then you know not to listen to the war hawk" even though it was a statement, Kakashi nodded anyway.
"So why are you four here?" the mask that the younger Hatake was wearing now had a single raised eyebrow.
"They beat me in the bell test" Kakashi shrugged, "but I want them to do it right. So I thought who better to help me, then you"
Naruto knew Kakashi was smiling.
And in the next few seconds, Kakashi knew his brother was smiling as well.
Both Hatake's turned slowly to look at the academy students, a glint in the one visible eye of the siblings. A dark aura was being exuded from both of them.
"I've got a bad feeling about this" Kiba mumbled.
How right he was.
Sasuke leapt onto another branch, the hiss of the explosive tags catching him off guard.
The previous tree ignited in a pillar of flame and heat.
"Shit!" the Uchiha swore, leaping off the tree and into the bushes, taking to cover closer to the ground. His opponent appeared to be a master of the air, and the tree tops gave no cover from the aerial attacks.
"FUCKING RUN!" a terrified Kiba shot past Sasuke's position, a horde of identical mask wearing monsters running after him.
'I need to find Setsuna' Sasuke thought, realising he didn't stand a chance without his sister.
Meanwhile, the original Naruto sat with Kakashi next to the timer, his army of clones causing havoc for the three other individuals.
"So how exactly did you lose?"
Kakashi sighed, "the Uchiha siblings caught me off guard. I didn't expect them to work so well together"
Naruto scoffed, "and you're a Jonin"
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "and you're the specialist" he smirked.
A few explosions lit up a part of the forest.
"Damn" Naruto muttered quietly, seeing what Kakashi meant about being caught off guard.
"For Genin they are impressive" Naruto stood as the timer went off, but they are just Genin.
The three Ninja instantly appeared in front of Naruto, with one clone per Genin restraining them.
"Two of you demonstrate the purpose of this test very well, but throw in a wild card, and this 'team' would fall apart" Naruto approached the two Uchiha, "what is it that makes you incapable of working with your team mate? You seem to extent a hand of comradery to members of your clan…" Naruto vanished and reappeared with Sasuke in his arms, a tri pronged Kunai pointed at his neck.
"Uchiha" he was speaking to the girl, "kill the Inuzuka or your brother dies"
Setsuna locked up, completely freezing under the killing intent being projected her way.
"You might as well kill him, if you refuse to work with him in the field then he's a dead man already" Naruto continued, the Kunai coming closer to Sasuke's neck.
"B-but…" she stuttered.
"DO IT!" Naruto roared, and Setsuna instinctively drew a Kunai. Kiba's eyes went wide with shock. She really would do it.
Naruto seemed to just come into existence before her, catching her hand that had the grip of her Kunai.
"And this is why you can't be a Shinobi. The three of you. Uchiha's only fought with their own during the warring periods, but those times are long over. You must learn to fight alongside those of the village" Naruto rounded on the Inuzuka, "and you, dog boy. I respect your individual will to continue on, but in the world we live in, you must seek help or you will die. Many have become great shinobi but not all of them did it of their own accord. There were those that helped them. Do not expect the hand to be offered to you, sometimes you must ask for it"
Kiba was sweating bullets but still managed to nod anyway.
"You have all taken up too much of my time" the blond announced dramatically, "take over Baka-Kakashi" the mask clad boy disappeared.
"Danzo-san?" Naruto asked in mild surprise as he reappeared in his office, "you're early"
The old man appeared out from the shadows, "I was a little eager to see the results of your experiments"
"The seals are not ready yet, but if-"
"I was referring to the experiments you keep in the basement"
The temperature dropped significantly and the mask that the boy was still wearing slowly turned towards the war hawk.
"Careful now Elder-san. It would do you some good to not go snooping into other people's business"
Danzo was unaffected by the killing intent, "if it concerns the safety of the village, then it becomes my business as well"
"Nothing I do would harm the village!" Naruto spat, his chakra flaring, "what I do is for the good of the village!" footsteps echoed up the staircase from the second landing to the third floor of Naruto's complex.
"That was the excuse Orochimaru used..." the third Hokage appeared in the door of the office, "...a few days before he mutilated his first human experiment"
Four Anbu flickered into the room.
"Show us the basement Uzumaki-san" Danzo ordered, the Anbu each gripping a weapon.
The masked boy turned to face Hiruzen, but the old Kage had his eyes closed.
There would be no support from the third.
Naruto snarled but then bit out a sharp, "follow me!" and brushed past Hiruzen. The blond leapt from the third balcony, all the way down to the ground floor. The ANBU, Danzo and Hiruzen all appeared around him.
"Whatever you do... don't touch anything" Naruto made a hand sign and three clones appeared.
Each clone moved to the corners of the bottom floor, the training ground and technique practice area. It was a good 20 by 20 meter space with a dirt floor and metal walls. The clones each stood by a support pillar, with the original moving to the fourth pillar.
Naruto reached into his robe, pulling out a key with a strange four prong design. The handle of the key had four dials on it, of which Naruto turned each of them a different amount of times.
The clones as well dialed in the correct combination for the key before putting their Chakra into it, forcing the key to change to the shape that the dials set it to.
"A very intricate system Naruto" Hiruzen was taking the entire process in, reveling in the understanding of the extent as to which Naruto had kept the underground lab hidden, "how much protection have you put in your lab"
Under the mask, Naruto smiled.
"The first layer of security is the keys" Naruto began talking, "the key never leaves my person at all times"
"If the key was taken from you?" Hiruzen questioned, watching as the keys were inserted into different hidden slots of each pillar.
"Then the second layer of security comes into play. Each pillar has a specific random combination that changes based on the year, month and day. These combinations are seemingly random but can be calculated by a formula only I know"
"If you were caught by enemy shinobi? Their are those out there with the ability to make you talk" Danzo was all too familiar with the information extraction teams from Kumo and Iwa.
"There are two formula's for the key, one which provides the correct combination, the other sets the key to activate a detonation of this entire facility. Under duress, the shinobi won't be aware of which code I give them"
"What's your input on this Hawk?" the Sandaime turned to look at his Anbu guard captain.
"..." the Anbu thought for a moment, "the obvious conclusion would be to spy on Uzumaki-san up close, watch him for the code of the day, then open the lower floor after he is eliminated"
Hiruzen turned to Naruto, who was steadily turning his key in the revealed key hole, "you'd be correct Anbu-san... but that's when the third level of my security comes into play"
"Third level? You truly are meticulous Naruto… just like your father" Hiruzen praised. Naruto's paranoia had lead to one of the greatest protected facilities in all of Konoha.
The Uzumaki just nodded.
"The keys are only registered to my Chakra and my Chakra only, anyone else who tries to mold them with their own Chakra… they will automatically set the keys to active the explosive seals hidden in this facility"
The keys locked into place and Naruto's clones dispelled. A large seal appeared on the floor, an intricate seal.
"This is a 20 layered seal. The only one in existence. Please move to the middle ring"
Naruto strode to the center of the seal, where three intricate circles were coiled around one another.
"Stand within the circle" Naruto ordered, and the Hokage, Danzo and the four Anbu moved into the small space.
"Kai" Naruto dispelled the final seal.
There was a small rumble, like a tremor in the earth. Then the entire ground gave way to a bottomless pit. But instead of falling, the individuals now hanging in the air were slowly lowered down.
"Welcome to my lab" Naruto announced solemnly, seconds before they were all swallowed by the darkness.
"How did he get so strong?" Kakashi looked up from his book. He turned his head to the left to look at the Uchiha boy sitting beside him.
Kiba and Setsuna were sparing in front of them. Sasuke was taking a break after his duel with his sister.
Kakashi turned to look at the fight, watching Kiba's movements.
"Kiba has been trained as a shinobi by his clan-"
Sasuke growled, "you know who I'm talking about"
Kakashi sighed, physically drooping in a little depression as this conversation finally caught up to him.
'Perhaps it was dumb to force Naruto to test them?' Kakashi thought. The Uchiha male had been thinking about Kakashi's younger brother for a long time now.
What Kakashi had said about his younger brother being 'probably the deadliest ninja in Konoha' hadn't been forgotten by the Uchiha.
"He's an oddball. He has been since he was born" Kakashi began slowly, "he sticks to himself most of the time, but he's strong because he learns. When he turned seven it was like a switch was flicked and my little brother turned into a sponge. He absorbed every bit of knowledge that was thrown at him"
Kakashi watched on as the Inuzuka knocked the Uchiha girl into the air before barely side stepping a fireball.
"So it's all the knowledge? That's what makes him strong?" Sasuke was watching Kakashi now, looking for any tells or twitches to show he was lying. The boy even had his sharingan active.
"No" Kakashi frowned, watching as Setsuna tackled Kiba after switching positions with a nearby log, "it's how he uses his knowledge. His application of all the information is what made him so deadly"
Sasuke went silent, brooding as he turned to watch his sister knock the dog boy out.
"Call it Sensei" Setsuna said calmly, Kunai pointed at the dazed Kiba.
"Setsuna wins" Kakashi stated obviously, standing up from the ground with a lazy gait.
"You seem to be neglecting your Taijutsu… little sister" a voice stated calmly from behind Kakashi and Sasuke.
Sasuke whirled around with his Kunai out, only to be poked in the forehead with two fingers by his elder brother. Itachi Uchiha.
"Itachi-san" Kakashi greeted, raising an eyebrow as to why his ex-subordinate was here.
"Kakashi-sempai" Itachi greeted with a blank face, inwardly smirking at the rain cloud that appeared above his old captain's head.
"First Yamato! Now you too?" Kakashi hung his head in defeat.
"Are you here for clan matters?" Setsuna moved straight to the point, making a note for later to practice on her Taijutsu. Kiba had caught her off guard with his fang over fang technique.
"No. In fact I'm here to locate the best seals master in Konoha. Someone only Kakashi-sempai can lead me to" Kakashi raised an eyebrow.
'Hokage-sama approved of the Uchiha's lessons under Naruto? Perhaps this is another concession he had to make to attain peace' thought Kakashi.
"I know of who you seek" Kakashi spoke sagely, "but there's a price to pay"
"Hm?" Itachi was intrigued. A ninja that asked for fee's for teaching or perhaps a blood payment… were dangerous individuals.
"Oh no Itachi-san, nothing like that" Kakashi waved away the doubt as he eye smiled, seeing the calculative gaze slipping across the elder Uchiha's face.
"Then what?" Itachi asked pensively.
"How much coffee can you afford?"
Itachi walked up to the building calmly. Passers by watched in confusion as the Uchiha heir dropped a large cardboard box on the ground, before taking two steps back.
The doors to the strange building practically blasted open.
"Oi" a masked figure appeared out from the building, pointing an accusing finger at Itachi, "you the Uchiha?"
"I believe so ninja-san" Itachi already felt uncomfortable, "I brought your… fee" he pointed calmly to the box which contained a few hundred points of coffee beans that Kakashi had helped him select.
"Did Kakashi-san assist you in the selection of coffee?" the masked Ninja was still for a second. There was about 15 meters between him and Itachi.
And in an instant, there was only two feet.
Itachi jerked back slightly in surprise.
"Did he?" the masked man repeated quietly, now being much too close for Itachi's comfort.
"Hai" Itachi responded, forcing the waver out of his voice.
"I've tagged you with about three seals in the past 30 seconds" the masked boy suddenly said.
"I've attached them to you using only seals. Try accessing your chakra"
Itachi blinked. He called upon the chakra to his eyes. A physical punch was delivered to his stomach but the masked Shinobi hadn't moved. He hadn't attacked him at all.
"The first seal I attached to you blocks your use of Chakra. The second punishes you for trying to use it. It tricks your body into thinking it has been harmed"
"And the third?" Itachi wheezed.
"Allows me to teleport to you"
Itachi's eyes widened. He couldn't mean…. Did he use that jutsu…. He couldn't have... Could he?
"You will be learning a multitude of seals, and I will teach you in all the theory that you will need to become a comprehensive seals master"
"Hai" Itachi nodded again, thoroughly impressed in this 'demonstration' but he still had one question, "how did you administer the first seal?"
"I threw it at you"
Itachi's mind began to work. The lightbulb appeared above his head.
"When you pointed…" the masked boy nodded.
"You're very perceptive. That's good. A lack of foresight in this art can lead to your death or the deaths of others"
The masked boy turned on his heel, walking towards the laboratory, "come now! We haven't a moment to waste!"
Itachi followed behind, "Hai sensei" even with all his oddities, the boy was unique.
The eldest Uchiha felt like he was going to enjoy this.
Itachi wasn't enjoying this.
According to his teacher, he was doing everything wrong, or his hand posture was incorrect. Itachi was a perfectionist at heart, but it seemed that fuinjutsu was a whole new level of specific and meticulous.
"Lookup Uchiha" his teacher snapped, and Itachi's eyes darted up to his irate teacher, "you learn fuinjutsu through the hand, not through the eyes"
'As soon as you can do all fifty basic seals with your eyes up on me, then we can begin' Itachi remembered his teacher telling him this two weeks ago. He had managed to finish ten of the fifty in that time, the patterns becoming more and more intricate as the seal number went up.
"No!" the blond scrapped the paper for the 20th time that day, swiping out from right under Itachi, "that would have caused your sealing tag to explode and kill anyone who used the seal within a fifteen meter radius"
Itachi's hands twitched in rage.
"But you're making good progress" his teacher suddenly admitted softly, "it took me six months to learn the first fifty. It's been only a few weeks and you're already at number ten… excellent progress"
Naruto stood up from his crouch, finally getting out of Itachi's face, turning a complete 180 and walking to the flight of stairs.
"I'm calling it a day. Your hand is beginning to twitch from being in the correct brushstroke position. You will not be able to make any progress in that state… you'll just waste paper at this point"
The masked boy began to ascend the steps to the second floor, "it's almost sundown, if you're fast enough you'll be able to have dinner with your family"
Itachi stood up, nodded politely at his sensei, then dashed towards the main door.
Acting on instinct, the eldest Uchiha caught the four large books that had been thrown at him.
"Be back here two days from now. I want you to work on your theory tommorow" his sensei disappeared up into the second floor, "have a good night Itachi-san"
"And you sensei" Itachi responded, and to Naruto's pride, the Uchiha heir flipped open one of the books and began to read on his way home.
Sasuke was waiting by the entrance to the Uchiha compound for his older brother. After the first hour of waiting, Sasuke had decided to take a comfortable rest on the archway that held the gate.
It was getting incredibly late by the time he saw Itachi returning from his tutoring. And while he expected the training to take all day, he hadn't been able to ask Kakashi who Itachi was training under.
So what the second oldest Uchiha sibling didn't expect was his brother to arrive at the front of the Uchiha gate with three large books tucked under one arm, while he held open a fourth book and was avidly reading it.
"Ni-san?" Sasuke asked, looking down from his perch on the wall.
Itachi kept walking, his eyes darting over the page of the book, before he slowly turned it.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow when he noticed that his older brother had his Sharingan activated.
"Itachi?" Sasuke whispered, leaping down and walking alongside his brother whom still hadn't noticed him.
Taking the initiative Sasuke peaked over Itachi's shoulder, trying to get a look at the-
The pages snapped shut, and red tomoe darted towards the younger.
"Sasuke" Itachi finally noticed his brother, "I'm sorry. My mind was sidetracked"
'No shit' Sasuke thought, but said "oh"
"Has mother prepared dinner?" he asked, eyes shifting back to the regular black as he gazed out upon the various Uchiha houses.
"Yeah, I think so"
"Did you offer her any help?"
"What? No, I was waiting for-" a swift yet sure hit struck Sasuke in the back of the head.
"Baka!" Itachi growled as Sasuke whined in pain.
"What!?" Sasuke cried in indignation holding the back of his head with both hands, a scowl set on his features, "anyway, setsuna took my place for the cooking"
Itachi stiffened.
"That means neither of us has done any daily chores Sasuke" as Itachi spoke the shadows seemed to leak out from around the buildings, the sun seemed to sink faster beyond the horizon, "and Mother will make sure one of us does the dishes after dinner"
Both brothers stared at each other.
"Only one of us shall be free to sleep early" Itachi spoke.
"Yeah… seems that way" Sasuke adopted a serious look.
Sasuke blinked.
It was just enough time.
Suddenly Itachi smiled, "well, it seems like it won't be me! Boss has already made an escape"
Sasuke blinked again.
The clone dispelled as Sasuke's Kunai pierced it.
"ITACHI!" Sasuke roared, powering after his fleeing older brother in a race to the front door of their house.
"There can be only one!" Itachi shouted back at him, already a few meters ahead of Sasuke.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Sasuke's voice echoed out from behind him.
"That's cheating!" Itachi yelled at his now hawk riding brother.
And they raced off into the night.
So this is just a little idea of mine. A more mixed up world :P