Naruto: Blade of the Eternal Damnation

background, this takes place after the Chunin Exams, after Naruto fights and wins in a battle with Gaara, and the funeral for the Hokage, Naruto and Sasuke are put under rigorous training excersises under Kakashi while the ninjas of Komoharu Village try and talk Jiraiya into becoming the new Hokage.

(Style note: This may feel like it moves very fast, but the style of this writing is to build more on action, and leave the building of the scene up to the imagination, if asked, you may find that many people build the same image in their head, as this style is to prove that the emotion and the scenery of the scene can be built entirely out of the action, this Fanfiction, once it enters the action, is supposed to move at a fast pace, so don't think that it is rushed, as a lot of thought and editing went into it. You will find that the majority of the speed that the story develops comes from the emotion of the individual themes, and that some parts may actually seem longer, as the action lessens to develop itself later in the story. Also, you will find that I "as a narrator" Will give you very little explanation, like in the series, all the information that you need to know will be given to you in dialog, this has to do with the style more than it has to do with trying to capture the feel of the anime itself, as dialog is considered a part of action. In fact, you may find that dialog takes up around 85-90 of the story, this is intentional. Now that this is out of the way . . . the basic concept of this particular Fanfiction was at the request of my girlfriend, so . . . Enjoy. )

"Hmm . . . Try again Naruto, the Shadow Dagger Fall is a low level move. It shouldn't take you so many tries." Kakashi put a hand to his face in embarrassment for his student.

Naruto threw his Shirukin into the air again, this time when it fell, three copies hit the ground.

Sasuke threw his into the air, a barrage of at least fifty daggers pummeled the ground around Naruto, who was too busy dodging them to worry about the location of Sakura, who was standing off to one side, until her plowed her into the ground. "I'm sorry Sakura . . . I swear that idiot is trying to kill me . . . I . . . " He stopped as he realized that his face was smack in the middle of Sakura's chest, and his face turned bright red "Sakura's . . . chest . . ." was all he was able to murmur before sakura planted a fist between his eyes.

Sakura stood ready to strike another blow. "How DARE you Naruto! Why can't you be more polite, like Sasuke?" she swung her fist but Souke caught it. She blinked in astonishment. "Sasuke?"

He didn't even look at her, his eyes staring over Naruto to three figures in the distance. "Don't, Sakura, its not necessary." He looked at her and then at Naruto, "Besides, he isn't worth the effort."

"Damn you, Sasuke! How dare you try to make yourself seem better than me!" Naruto stood up and faced off against Sasuke. "Why do you think you are so much better than everyone else?"

Sasuke uttered a "huu" and turned his head away from Naruto. This only angered Naruto more.

As Naruto opened his mouth to speak again, Kakashi cut in, "It would appear that we have guests"

Neji was standing directly behind Kakashi, and Kakashi was standing directly behind Neji. "Don't you know its impolite to sneak up on people, Neji?" Kakashi said as he turned around to look at himself.

Neji looked unsurprised. "I still don't understand why the Hokage put me with the likes of Gai instead of under the tutelage of the great Clone Ninja Kakashi."

Kakashi tapped Neji on the shoulder, and this time he did start as Kakashi was no longer in front of him, and only the Kakashi behind him remained. "Never doubt the Hokage's decisions, he knew what he was doing, even if we did not." He stretched and pulled out his favorite manga, "Ichi Ichi paradise" "So? What is it you came here for?"

Neji waved his hand as if the reason he was there didn't really matter. "Gai has been so worried over Lee that he has neglected the training of the rest of the team. Its such a bother having such a one track minded sensei."

Kakashi looked over the edge of his book for a second before continuing to the next page. "Well, I suppose I could talk to Gai, maybe i could help until this whole mess blows by. What a bother."

Naruto stared at Kakashi "But what about my training?"

Kakashi scratched his head for a moment before responding, "I'll think of something."

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Naruto was dragging a sack behind him as he walked to his house. Mumbling to himself about "Selfish Sasuke" and "lazy Kakashi." He set the sack down in front of his door and kicked it a few times before taking it inside. He emptied the contents of the bag on the floor of hi house, revealing a training dummy with the appearance of Sasuke.

He took a few minutes to set it up in one of his rooms before giving it a good kick to the face. He gave a smug grin and pointed to himself. "I look forward to the day I can teach you that I am the next Hokage."

continued on.-------------------------

The next morning, Sasuke and Naruto were waiting near the entrance to the ninja School, where Kakashi had told them to wait for him. Naruto stared holes in Sasuke, who merely napped lightly in the spring breeze, until Konohamaru showed up and started pestering Naruto.

"Hey big brother! Why are you hanging around here? You were just in the Chunin exams, so I know you aren't to go back to school!"

Naruto waved his hand in the direction of Konohamaru. "Not now Konohamaru! I'm doing important ninja things."

Kakashi casually walked up beside him and leaned down to Naruto's eye level. "Ninjas don't stand around in the open." Naruto Started at Kakashi's sudden appearance.

"AH! Sensei! You shouldn't scare me like that . . . . I mean, Konohamaru like that."

Konohamaru blinked at Naruto, "Big Brother is worried about me?" He rubbed the back of his head "I appreciate it . . but I wasn't startled at all."

Kakashi turned to Konohamaru. "How are you, Konohamaru?"

Konohamaru became silent for a few seconds before turning away. "I'm not doing bad at all, My Grandfather was strong . . . and so am I!" A tear fell to the ground before he ran off to his classes.

"Konohamaru," Naruto whispered to himself.

Kakashi turned back to Naruto and Sasuke. "Well . . . ," he reached up and scratched his head, "Sorry I'm late. It would appear that Gai likes to take long walks around the village. I'm just glad he didn't challenge me to any of those silly games of his."

Sasuke looked around and noticed for the first time that Sakura wasn't with them. "Why is Sakura not here?"

Kakashi pointed back the way he came with his thumb. "Oh, that, yes well. I have a separate task for her. She will be staying here and helping with the training of Neji and Tenten."

Sasuke looked at Kakashi with a look of surprise across his face. "What? Why would you put some one as weak as Sakura in charge of training someone as powerful as Neji?"

"Be quiet Sasuke! Sakura may not have much Chakra, but she is smarter than both of us!" Naruto shouted angrily.

Kakashi laughed. "Naruto seems to have hit the nail on the head." He plopped his hand on Naruto's head. "That is precisely the reason that I am keeping Sakura here. Neji has power, but after losing to Naruto in the Chunin Exams, he is starting to learn that it isn't enough."

He looked at Naruto and Sasuke before looking at the sky. "As for you, I have something different in mind."

Naruto looked to Kakashi, "A . . . Task?"

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"WHAT!"

"Naruto, you shouldn't be so loud." Kakashi, was waving his hand at Naruto to quiet down, they were walking toward the Ninja Center to pick up their assignment from the village assignment center.

"But I don't understand Sensei! Why are you sending me to another village with Sasuke? Why aren't you training us?"

"Because, you need experience, and . . .I had actually planned to take you guys out on assignment anyway, but things are such a bother."

Naruto made a face and crossed his arms. "I get it, you're just lazy."

Kakashi sighed, "Naruto . . . . " He then turned to look at Sasuke. "Is something wrong, Sasuke? You've been even more quiet than usual."

Sasuke looked at Kakashi with a completely blank expression. "What is there to say?"

Kakashi ran a hand through his hair. "Well . . .I guess I can't argue with that." He looked at the building in front of him. "Ah . . . Here we are."

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They stood in front of the Ninja Council while the council went through a list of possible assignments for C rank ninjas, and finally Instructor Iruka (who was filling The Hokage's seat until the fifth Hokage is named) stood up and held out his hand with an envelop labeled "Property of Fumo Be-ru Village." As Kakashi took the envelop he nodded to Iruka. "This is the assignment that we have decided on," Iruka said.

Kakashi started to open the envelop. "Artifact recovery?"

"Yes, Fumo Be-ru Village has asked that we recover a sacred artifact for their village." Iruka pointed at the Envelop that he had handed Kakashi. "We know very little about the artifact itself, but we do know that it was a dagger used in ritual sacrifices over 200 years ago. All the necessary maps and observations are enclosed in the document you have Kakashi."

Sasuke looked at Naruto and then back at Kakashi. "Ritual Sacrifices? I have a bad feeling."

Naruto crossed his arms and glared at Iruka. "We have to recover a rusty old dagger? What kind of mission is that for a ninja? That's something one of those old people who dig stuff up is supposed to do."

Kakashi looked at Naruto and sighed "You mean an archeologist, don't you?"

Naruto gave Kakashi a confused look. "What's an Are-keo-log-ist?"

Kakashi looked back at the envelope, "Never mind."

Iruka looked to Sasuke and Naruto. "The reason why the local museum there hasn't begun its on excavations on the site that it is believed to rest is because it is guarded by evil spirits. Or so the village believes."

Sasuke looked at Iruka, "Evil spirits? You mean like ghosts?"

Iruka shook his head. "No, according to our reports, they are more like people possessed by Oni."

Naruto looked confused again. "Oni?"

Kakashi laughed, "Naruto, you really are behind the rest of us in your studies aren't you. Oni are a kind of demon, they are very powerful, and are usually the ones to guard unholy places, although they also exist to desecrate the living . . . . " he turned to Iruka. "But the thing that bothers me is, they don't usually use the powers of possession unless they are bound, but that means that someone had wanted them to possess him."

Iruka shrugged, "Like I said, we got very little information about the mission itself, I almost had it classified as an A rank mission, but due to the lack of evidence that it will be a very dangerous mission it was classified as C."

Kakashi, "Usually, Oni automatically get classified as B, why so low?"

"One of the reports in here said that one of the Oni was hurt with a regular carving knife, this has lead our staff to believe that they might just be ninjas guarding the dagger, pretending to be Oni to scare off the villagers."

Kakashi scratched his head with one finger, "Ah, I see. How interesting." He turned to face Naruto and Sasuke. "Lets see. You two will need to focus on exploration, you need to take care about these 'Oni,' only engage them if absolutely necessary. since we are certainly not sure about them, it would be best to play it safe."

"But why are we not going as a group, I think that Sakura would be very useful on a mission like this." Naruto started waving his hands in the air, and generally making a fool of himself.

"Naruto!" Kakashi scolded, "I need her to stay here, on top of that, if the Oni turnout to be real, she would only get in the way of you and Sasuke, while she is very intelligent, what this mission needs is a strong arm, not mind, anything that you and Sasuke come up against, you two should be more than capable of handling, but, just in case . . . " he pulled something out of his jacket and handed it to Sasuke, "Here, take this."

Sasuke looked at the scroll in his hands. "What is it?" he unrolled it to see a single large Kanji etched across its surface.

"Its a messenger Kanji, place a small amount of blood on the scroll and speak the words 'Record,' 'fly,' and 'relay' and it will automatically return to me with your situation. That way if anything happens, I will be able to come and help." Kakashi waved his hand at Naruto and Sasuke, "Now its time to get ready."

Iruka sat back down in his seat. "We have already arranged a room for you. Go to the Green Flower inn, it is a little less . . . um . . .reputable, but it is low key, and shouldn't attract to much attention. The keyphrase is 'I've come as the gardener, is the worker's room ready?' . . . of course, you will be participating in some gardening, but nothing to major, just water a few plants, and trim a few shrubs everyday, and nobody should suspect anything."

Naruto put his hands behind his head in a relaxed pose. "Maybe this won't be so bad after all."

Sasuke gave him an odd look and walked towards the door.

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