Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto nor Maken-Ki. This story is simply a work of fanfiction that's being written and published without any intention of making a profit.

Author's Notes

(Pairing spoilers below, skip to the title to avoid.)

Warnings: AU, Older (18), Powerful (God-like), Intelligent, OOC-ish Naruto. Story will follow the events from the Maken-Ki manga and anime with various characters and other elements of the Naruto-verse thrown into the mix.

This is a rewrite of my previous Naruto/Maken-Ki crossover that, as of very recently, I have deleted. If certain scenes or lines of dialogue within the first few chapters sound familiar, that's probably why.

Many things about Naruto's past will be changed to varying degrees in an attempt to rationalize changes I've made both to the Maken-Ki universe as well as Naruto's personality – particularly his increased intelligence, maturity, and how he views/interacts with women he finds attractive.

Expect errors or inconsistencies in character descriptions, ages, and all manner of other small details. I usually rely on the wiki for a given universe to double-check such information, but the Maken-Ki wiki doesn't include basic information on many of the characters.

Pairings: Given the perverse nature of Maken-Ki anime and the manga to a bit of a lesser degree, this will be a harem story. I'm comfortable confirming that Naruto will be paired up with Minori, Aki and Azuki by the end. I'll likely end up adding at least one or two more to that list before the end, but I won't confirm anyone one way or the other until my decision is set in stone.

Takeru will be getting a harem of his own despite the fact that the manga seems to be leading towards him being solely with Haruko. As it was with Naruto, I'm comfortable confirming that he'll be paired up with Haruko, Inaho and Shiria. We'll have to wait and see about any others.

I fully intend to write explicit sexual content for this story eventually and there will be strong insinuation of sex occurring that is included on this site. Any scenes that have actual sex occurring within them, however, will be published off-site (likely on Archive of our Own) due to this fanfiction's guidelines against such material. When I've omitted or otherwise censored such a scene, I will include a note and direct you to where you can go to read the uncensored chapter.

Tenbi's Shinobi

Prologue

The morning had dawned warm and cloudy. As the sun continued its slow rise from beneath the horizon, the streets of Tokyo were already beginning to fill with people making their daily commute to their workplace. Among one of the large congregations of said people, Naruto Uzumaki lazily strode along the sidewalk with half-lidded eyes as he pointedly ignored the glances or outright stares that were directed at his person. The bright orange fabric he often regularly attired himself in coupled with his bright, spiky blond hair typically made him stand out like a sore thumb amidst groups of people, so the attention currently directed at him was hardly an unusual occurrence.

Taking a sharp turn as he came to the door of a tall office building with a large swirl-like symbol jutting off of the upper portion of it, he waited patiently for the glass doors to slide open before he stepped inside. Seemingly going along with the building's rather typical appearance from the outside, the interior looked to be rather standardly furnished. A single plush-looking couch covered with black leather and numerous matching chairs rested against the left wall with a long, low table holding a wide spread of magazines in front of them. To the right was a notably larger table that held a spread of simple foods – crackers, cheese, small slices of meat and the like – along with what looked like a pot of coffee and numerous bottles of water. Straight ahead of the entrance, meanwhile, were two elevators shafts on either side of a large receptionist desk that looked as if it had risen up seamlessly from the concrete floor. Finally, engraved within the wall that was behind the desk was the same swirl-like pattern that was prominently displayed on the building's exterior.

Continuing to stride forward, Naruto idly reached up to the bridge of his nose and pulled down the skin-tight black mask that had been covering the lower half of his face. After failing to stifle a yawn, he forced his eyes to open a bit further and directed his gaze towards the black-haired woman typing away at something behind the receptionist desk. A smile promptly pulled at his whiskered cheeks.

"Hey Shizune."

"Hello Naruto-kun." The woman's gaze left her computer monitor for a moment to send him a small smile. "How are you this morning?"

"Tired. I had a late night."

"I can tell." Giggling softly, she raised a hand and pointed to her left. "Hokage-sama is expecting you."

"Any idea what he needs me for? It isn't like the lazy bastard to schedule me to come in this early."

"A long-term mission judging by the forms he requested to be filed earlier." Shizune's brow furrowed slightly. "Exactly what the mission entails, however, I'm afraid I don't know. Hokage-sama saw fit to fill out the paperwork for it himself."

'Huh…must be wanting to keep whatever it is somewhat under wraps then.'

"Alright, thanks. I guess I better head up there if it's serious enough that Kakashi-sensei of all people actually doing the paperwork for it on his own." Letting his eyes drift over the desk, a toothy grin crept across the blond's face upon noticing the corner of a green-covered book poking out from underneath a stack of papers. "By the way, if you're going to be reading his books while you're working, you might want to find a better hiding spot for them."

Slipping away from the desk as Shizune sputtered and her face began flushing, Naruto quickly called the elevator, stepped inside, and pressed the button for the top floor. As the polished metal doors slid shut and he started to rise, he glanced over his reflection and smiled.

'This really does look a lot more awesome than my old suit used to.' Reaching down, he tugged at the black hem of his long-sleeved orange shirt and idly brushed his fingers over the fine black fabric that was used to craft his pants. 'I'm really glad that girl at the store managed to convince me to buy a few of these; I'll have to thank her sometime if I ever see her again.'

DING!

The elevator doors quickly slowly slid open to reveal a large and spacious room that Naruto quickly stepped into. Sunlight beamed in through the large glass windows that served as three of the four walls while the only furniture to speak of was a large, u-shaped wood desk, several cushioned chairs in front of said desk, and a few bookshelves lined with scrolls tucked against some of the windows on the left.

Behind the desk, meanwhile, was a familiar silver-haired man who glanced up only briefly before turning his gaze back down and continuing to write. Despite the fact that a tilted headband covered one of his eyes, it didn't seem to impede his work in the slightest. A skin-tight black mask – one identical to the one now hanging loosely around Naruto's neck – rested over the bridge of his nose and concealed the lower portion of his face from view.

"You're late."

"Am I?" Naruto shrugged, moving forward and plopping down into one of the provided chairs once he had gotten close enough. "Sorry then, guess I got lost on the road of life."

Kakashi's writing hand suddenly stilled as he tilted his head back up. Though his mask concealed his mouth, the way the corners of his exposed eye curved upwards made it obvious that he was smiling.

"Really? I suppose I should be thankful that you aren't even later then." Kakashi chuckled softly as he placed his pen down. Reaching off to the side, he picked up a manila folder that had been laying on his desk and held it out towards the blond. "Your mission."

Taking the folder, flipping it open and letting his eyes drift over the page, the first thing that drew Naruto's attention was the image of a sizable school that was overlooked by a large mountain in the background. 'That looks oddly familiar…' Giving up on the idea of recalling the name of the place from memory alone, he glanced down to the text beneath the picture.

"Tenbi Academy? Isn't that off-limits for us?"

"Under most circumstances," Kakashi confirmed, propping his elbows up on his desk and lacing his fingers so that he could rest his chin upon the make-shift bridge they formed. "The Japanese government usually likes to handle issues that occur within Tenbi's special district either internally or contract the work out to their watchdogs at Kamigami. Even going back as far as the Second's files, I only found a handful of occasions we've ever received requests to send anyone there. "

"Uh huh…" Flipping to the next page as he read on while Kakashi spoke, Naruto's brow quirked upwards upon seeing brief profiles of several individuals next to what was presumably a picture of the person. The image of a busty redhead in an orange track suit caught his eye for a moment before he continued on. "Those few occasions being situations where the area was under a serious threat of some sort, I'm guessing?"

"Naturally."

"This time's no exception?"

"Of course not. Page eight should give you an idea of how serious this situation is."

Doing as instructed, the blond quickly flipped to page eight where his gaze fell upon an enlarged black and white picture of a pale man with long black hair sitting at a café. Despite the casual setting and the numerous people surrounding him at nearby tables, he was staring directly at the camera with a smirk on his face and a cup raised upwards as if giving a toast at the moment the still image had been taken. While such a sight wasn't anything ominous in and of itself, Naruto felt his eyes widen and rage begin to bubble up within his chest.

"Orochimaru." He nearly spat, the very name itself left a nasty taste in his mouth.

"That picture was taken two weeks ago outside of a café that was less than a kilometer away from the Academy. You can see why we've been contacted now, I presume?"

"Yeah." Naruto nodded and forcefully tore his gaze away from the image of one of the only people in the world that he genuinely despised. "I can't imagine Kamigami has many people who could handle him without destroying the entire area in the process."

"I was assured repeatedly that they would have the situation under control if so many of their operatives weren't already engaged in other matters."

"So they pretty much confirmed it then?"

"More or less." Kakashi chuckled, his visible eye curving upwards again for a moment before his expression quickly sobered. "Still, it's likely for the best that they've contacted us. If Kamigami were to become involved, they would likely deploy Minerva-san to handle the situation. Whatever Orochimaru may be planning, I have a strong hunch that it would be wise to keep her as far away from it as possible."

"Why? We both know she's more than capable of handling herself. Sure she would probably cause a lot of collateral damage, but still…"

"…Naruto, we've been actively pursuing Orochimaru for five years now. In all that time, how many times do you think we've caught him on camera barring instances of direct confrontation?"

"Uh…" the blond balked, feeling as if he was missing something obvious by the tone of his old mentor's voice. "I dunno, five? Ten?"

"One."

"…Including this one?"

"Including this one. Not only is that fact suspicious enough on its own, but he's looking directly at the camera without even a token attempt to obscure his face. He definitely wants to be seen to lure someone to him, the only question is who that someone is. I would ordinarily think it was you, but I'm inclined to believe that isn't the case this time."

"Why not? We know he wants immortality, wouldn't it make since for him to take over my body given…" Naruto trailed off and let his hand drift down to rest over his stomach.

"You aren't wrong, I'm certain he would be happy to take your body if he had the opportunity to." Kakashi sighed, his eye closing as he paused for a moment. "However, if he wanted to specifically lure you to Tenbi, I think it would have been someone else that was purposely caught on camera."

Upon hearing those words, the familiar image of a black-haired, onyx-eyed teen came to the forefront of Naruto's mind. Even as anger bubbled up within his chest again, he idly raised the hand that had been resting over his stomach to rest over the right side of his chest.

'Sasuke.' Snarling internally, his anger increased ten-fold as his eyes closed and flashes of a fight in a large, abandoned valley flashed through his mind.

"See what I mean?" Kakashi's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Opening his eyes again, Naruto quickly noted that the man's eye was once again open and gazing directly at him. "If I even hint at Sasuke's existence around you, you start getting angry."

"…They wouldn't know that."

"Maybe not, but I'm not naïve enough to believe that Orochimaru wouldn't expect it. If Sasuke described your personality to him in any real depth – something I fully expect has happened by this point – he would have a strong inclination that you would absolutely detest him after the Madara fiasco."

Naruto merely gave a stiff nod in acceptance of that point, purposely trying to turn his mind off to prevent bad memories from resurfacing.

"Maybe even more so than even immortality, we know that Orochimaru wants power. So, if his aim isn't to specifically lure you into whatever trap he may have set, I can only that his target is Minerva-san considering what her Maken contains."

"You don't think…"

"I do," Kakashi countered quickly. "I don't know what he could possibly be planning to do with it, but we've both learned to never underestimate how power-hungry that man is again."

Naruto nodded stiffly once more. "What exactly am I supposed to do at Tenbi then? We both know it's nearly impossible to actually pin down where he is to a tee, even…even the Pervy Sage couldn't pull that off."

"True; not to mention there's the fact that you aren't nearly as skilled at stealth or infiltration as Jiraiya-sama was. That's why I'm not sending you there to hunt him down."

"…Say what now?"

"It won't be your objective to track down Orochimaru." Kakashi's gaze suddenly moved slightly upwards and he inclined his head forward slightly. "It's his."

Blinking rapidly in confusion, Naruto turned his head back over his shoulder only to nearly jump out of his chair as he spotted a familiar pale figure standing directly behind him.

"Hello Naruto-kun."

"Sai," the blond greeted tersely, his hand resting over his heart in an attempt to calm it down. "Still a fan of sneaking up on people, I see."

"I have found it brings me some degree of amusement, yes, but I would not go so far as to say that I am a fan of it."

"That's…" Naruto began before pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing. "Nevermind."

"Take a seat, Sai."

Bowing slightly, the pale teen as ordered and eased into the chair to Naruto's right, shifting the sheathed tanto on his upper-back slightly to the side as he did so.

"As I was saying before, Sai is going to be the one attempting to track Orochimaru's location." Kakashi began, his gaze resting upon Naruto again. "Your part in this mission is to two-fold. First, you will be posing as a student within Tenbi Academy to both act as a deterrent for any potential plans Orochimaru may have involving the place and protect the students if he decides to be reckless and do something anyway. Secondly, you're there to act as Sai's back-up if he manages to locate Orochimaru's base or if he is discovered before he can finish the job."

"…You're sending me and Sai to pose as students? Does that not sound like a terrible idea to you? Do you not remember how awful my academy grades were?"

"You're the only one who will posing as a student; Sai will be posing as nothing more than a civilian." Kakashi's eye curved upwards again. "And while you raise a valid point about your grades, it hardly matters here. Not only is there no requirement for you to be a good student, but Tenbi Academy isn't quite like what our shinobi academy once was."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Hokage-sama is saying that Tenbi Academy is a location where young individuals who possess an Element of some kind go in order to train their abilities." Sai's voice, as per the usual with him, contained only the slightest amount of emotion. "Pages nine through eighteen of the folder you hold contain information about the academy's teaching methods, rules and regulations that I have been able to verify through various means."

"So a school filled with undisciplined kids, basically?"

"Untrained individuals ranging from the ages of fifteen to eighteen, to be specific."

"So undisciplined, horny teenagers. Great, even better." Naruto sighed and looked back over to meet his superior's gaze. "When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow." Kakashi paused for a moment. "Barring any objections on your part, I'd like Sai to use your parents' old house as a base of sorts to operate from. It's secure and secluded enough that I don't believe he'll be discovered there so long as he's cautious about being followed."

"That's fine. It's not like I intend to use it anytime in the immediate future."

"Good. You still have a few days before the school year starts, so I want you to help Sai get the place cleaned up and then set up a meeting with Rokujou Minori – the principal of Tenbi Academy. She will know who you are and why you're there, but I want you to discuss the rules you'll be expected to follow while acting as a student in her territory. Understood?"

"Understood." Naruto nodded firmly before looking down to the hefty folder he still held onto. "I guess I've got some reading to do."

End

Post Notes

Apologies to those of you who liked my previous Naruto/Maken-Ki story, but I was only two chapters in and already unhappy with it, so I elected to simply get rid of it and start over. Hopefully I'll be a bit happier with this one. I don't intend to abandon this, but given that I'm likely to publish a new Naruto/LoK crossover that I've been working on within the next few weeks, I don't know how much attention I'll be directing towards it either.

Not that it will really matter considering how infrequently I actually update anything I publish. *Cough*

Anyway, as I stated within the previous fic, I don't particularly enjoy Maken-Ki's storyline, but I really did find myself liking a few of the characters – Minori in particular – for some reason other than the gratuitous amounts of fan service the show had. Thus, this is a thing. Hope you all enjoy.