Hello everyone and welcome to my second Naruto story.
Okay, now, first and foremost, I think I should tell you all that I plan on making two versions of this story. The first being set in a much happier AU setting where...not many people had died...and the second being set in the more canon setting.
Now, take note that all AU factors shall be explained in due time either in the chapters themselves or in the author's notes.
Another thing to take note is that I'll be refering to the moon mission...so spoilers...also this is set one day after the moon mission so expect some NaruHina fluff, folks!
If you're all okay with that, then by all means enjoy! :-)
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Chapter 1: The world-traveling Uzumaki comes to Konoha
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Standing before the gates of Konohagakure was a 14 year old boy with milky-white skin, dark red hair that flowed down in unruly spikes, dark red eyes glinting with excitement and a wide grin that threatened to split his young teenage face in half. He wore a dark-red long-sleeved male cheongsam and black pants with black chinese shoes. Hanging from his lower back was a big and thick dark red scroll that looked like it would weigh a ton, but the young teen didn't seem to feel any of its weight at all. The most striking detail of all, however, was the very large symbol for Uzushiogakure's Uzumaki clan embroidered on the back of his cheongsam.
"I finally got here!" Cheered the young man with a slightly pubescent voice that sounded with excitement and joy, before laughing triumphantly. "Look out, Konohagakure, cuz Magano Uzumaki has arrived" he cheered loudly once again before running full tilt towards the village with a loud cakle...and particular direction or destination in mind...
Magano, however, only realized this after five whole minutes of aimless running around the village who earned him more than a few odd stares from the passersby, not to mention, the double-takes and wide eyes from the more-informed shinobi of the village who happened to see the symbol behind his back.
Alas, I digress...
After realizing that he was getting nowhere at all he finally stops to consider his options and decide his course of action as he stood in the middle of the street with closed eyes, furrowed brows, a thoughtful pout, and crossed arms.
"Hmmm...where should I start...I could always visit the dojos around here to see if this village has any unique taijutsu and martial art styles that I haven't learned yet...afterall that's what I came here to do anyway..." Magano ponders to himself out loud, clearly considering the option with much thought (...or lack there of).
His next course of action was decided and he was brought out of his reverie...by the loud grumbling of his stomach, of all things...
His expression drooped as he looked down at his stomach sadly with comical tears streaming down his face.
Before he could continue moping, a very delicious aroma suddenly wafted into his nostrils. The aroma startled him, before he started sniffing the air and followed the scent, almost like it was beckoning him to come closer, which Magano gladly did, if the smile on his face was any indication.
Eventually, he reached his destination and he looked up at the name of said establishment.
"Ichiraku...RAMEN!" Shouting the last part woth excitement, Magano runs right into the ramen stall and takes a sit, while cheerfully ordering a bowl of pork ramen.
"coming right up" said the cheerful old man Teuchi in reply as he looks at the boy with a curious expression...that almost looked nostalgic...he laughed to himself before engaging him in some small talk.
"You're not from around here, huh?" Teuchi asked and in reponse Magano merely chuckled sheepishly while scratching the back of his head.
"Yeah, I'm sort of going from place to place and traveling, but just because I'm not from around here, doesn't mean I can't smell high quality ramen from a mile away!" Magano said with a cheeky grin, while Teuchi laughed heartily.
"A world traveler, eh?" Teuchi asked and Magano confirmed with a wide grin and a nod.
"That's right, I started two years ago and now my journey leads me to the village hidden in the leaves!" Magano said cheerfully before flashing the man a 'V' sign with his hand. Teuchi simpmy chuckled in good nature.
"Really now? Aren't you a little too young, to be a world traveler?" Teuchi asked with a fond smile. The redhead's enthusiasm reminded him so much of a certain blonde boy when he was this age.
"It's never too early or too late to start reaching for your dreams and my dream is to master and preserve every martial arts and fighting style in the world!" Proclaimed the redhead cheerfully with a bright smile and Teuchi simply nodded fondly.
"So, that's why you're traveling the world? To find new styles of martial arts?"
"That's right, I also wanted to taste the different kinds of food all over the world, which is why I started traveling and this right here is the first I'll ever have in Konoha" Magano announce cheerfully, while Teuchi chuckles fondly.
"Well, then I sure hope my cooking can rival the food of all the places you visited"
"Don't worry, if what I'm smelling is even half as good as what I'm about to taste, then you'll place right in the top 10 for the noodle dish category!" Proclaims Magano and Teuchi smiles, before handing him his order.
"Only one way to find out, enjoy." Teuchi said with a smile and Magano nodded, placed his hands together and cheered:
"Itadakimasu!" With that he started chowing down on his ramen, easily slurping down a quarter of the bowl.
He only paused to look at Teuchi with stars in his eyes with a wide smile.
"So good~" He said in bliss. "I'd like to say top 1 for the noodle dish category, but that spot belongs to my Onee-chan, so I place this on the top 2 spot" Magano said with a toothy grin, which made Teuchi laugh heartily
"Hahaha, well that's a big enough honor as it is!" Cheered Teuchi before turning his attention to the other customers who just arrived.
For a while, Magano simply continues devouring his ramen when all of a sudden he hears hurried running and panting, mixed in with the very distinct sound of...growling...
Curiously, albeit confusedly, Magano reluctantly tears his attention away from his meal to look at the direction where the noise was coming from...only to see a trio of...genin being chased by a huge wild bear...and from the looks of things they were heading right this way.
How did he know that they were genin? Simply because no self-respecting chuunin or jounin would be caught in a situation as embarassing as this.
He blinked once. Twice.
He grinned a feral grin in his excitement. To him, this was a typical chance to show off infront of a lot of foreign people, who's never seen him before. With that in mind, he let the three genin pass and as soon as they did. He stuck out the stool he was sitting on...despite the fact that it was welded onto the floor and tripped the bear, causing it to land face first on the ground.
Th bear was definitely angry, if its red eyes and the fire in the background was any indication.
Magano only grinned again before kicking the stool up and kicking it towards the bear's face...with a surprising amount of force behind it because when it made impact, the bear lolled from side to side before hitting the ground with a loud thud.
"Hehehe" Magano only chuckled in the aftermath of his little intervention.
He walked over to the bear with a gentle smile on his face before reaching into his sleeve and taking out what appeared to be...a golden stylus pen, which emitted a blue glow every now and again.
"Let's get you a bit more relaxed" Magano said to himself before drawing a seal on the bear's back that glowed blue. Sure enough, after that little seal was put into place, the bear visibly relaxed and its ragged breathing turned even..."There we go" said the young boy before petting the bear softly on its head.
"Whoa...how did he do that?" He heard the awed voice of one of the genin from before as they slowly approached. He turned his head to look at the genin.
The first thing he noticed was that they were more or less the same age as him and the second thing he noticed was that they were in fact shinobi. Magano didn't really know for sure before, but since the three of them had forehead protectors...its safe to assume that they were indeed ninja...the first one had brown hair and was grinning widely, while looking at the bear in awe.
The second one was a girl, who was looking at the bear with an awestruck expression as well. Seh had orange hair...and what appeared to be twin blushes on her face...or were those face markings? Magano didn't really know.
The third was a brown-haired boy with glasses, who was analyzing Magano's seal with intrigue and wonder. He was completely fascinated by the fuuinjutsu that he used, but Magano didn't really mind. In fact, he was happy whenever anyone took interest in his skills.
Since Magano wasn't from Konohagakure, he had no idea that these three were Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon respectively.
"Hehehe, well I'm sort of...good with martial arts and taijutsu, since I travel all over the world to master known fighting styles, so it was sort of natural to me to do that" Magano said to answer the earlier question with a gentle grin; taking pride in his accomplishments.
"H-how old are you exactly? No offense, but you look like the same age as us, aren't you a little to young to be traveling?" Inquired the orangehead, to which Magano gave them small smile in reassurance.
"It's never too early to start aiming for your dreams" came the cheerful reply of Magano as he grinned at them widely.
"This seal...I don't believe I've seen it before" asked the glasses wearing boy with fascination in his tone. "And why is it glowing blue...?"
Magano simply shrugged. "Probably because I made it myself and I used my own chakra as ink" he answered with a wide grin. "I sort of learned sealing techniques from the scroll my onee-chan gave me two years ago" He said, while eying the scroll on his back pointedly.
As to why he was divulging so much information to people he didn't even know by name...well he just saw no problem in doing so...also because he's a bit air-headed...and careless.
"So you use Fuuinjutsu, huh?" Konohamaru said while eying the bear with wonder before turning to Magano with a grin. "Well, my name's Konohamaru, that's Moegi and that's Udon" he pointed to his friends respectively, who all nodded in return.
"Thanks for knocking out the bear for us, though we did have the situation under control from the start" Konohamaru said with a nervous laugh in the end, while Magano sweatdropped.
So...them being chased by a deranged bear was them having the situation under control. He thoight skeptically and outwardly he replied "I see, well forgive the unnecessary intrusion then, my name's Magano, by the way, Magano Uzumaki."
Almost instantly, the three genin forgot all of their previous activities and looked at Magano with wide eyes as he smiled at them with closed eyes. Even Teuchi was more than a little surprised when he heard the young teen's last name.
In hindsight, anyone close enough to hear what the young teen had said was wide-eyed in surprise.
"No way...are you related Naruto-nii-chan and Kushina-nee-chan?" Asks a suddenly overexcited Konohamaru. "Naruto-nii never told me that he had a world traveling relative before, are you his younger brother? Wait, no, that's not right, you don't look like him, but you're an Uzumaki, so you must be related to him, plus you have dark red hair, just like Kushina-nee" Konohamaru said to himself at a rapid pace to the point, where Magano couldn't even tell one question from the other.
"I don't really think so...my Onee-chan and Jiji adopted me, so I don't really know my blood relatives. They only told me about my last name and clan heritage, two years ago..." Magano said, while looking really deep in thought and pondering in questions. He then smiled at them. "But if there's someone else with a last name like mine, then he probably knows something about me."
Before they could reply he took out a Vajra dagger with glowing markings on the hilt. "My path's decided then, I'll go meet this Naruto and ask him about my heritage, thanks for the tip Konohamaru-sama!" He said before throwing the dagger up into the air. "That seal will wear off in one hour." He informed them before he suddenly disappeared and floating in the air where he once stood were glowing fragments.
The Konohamaru corps blinked once. Twice. Three times.
"There you guys are" came the familiar voice of their jounin sensei, Ebisu. The man with sunglasses approached the three of them and looked at the bear with wide eyes, before smiling at his students. "Impressive, your first C-rank mission as Genin and you managed to complete without my help, I'm impressed" Ebisu clapped his students on the back before letting out a chuckle.
Still, the three did not move.
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On top of the nearby building where the vajra dagger was thrown, Magano appeared directly in front of said dagger and grabbed it mid-air before it could land on the rooftop.
Only then did he realize something important...
...he had no idea what this...Naruto Uzumaki looked like.
True, he had heard stories that five brave ninja saved the earth by stopping the moon from crashing, but those stories never included a body description. People in the land of fire or even the five great just said his name and they instantly know what he looked like and who he was.
Hero of the fourth shinobi world war, savior of the Earth, Naruto Uzumaki was a very well-known name in the land of fire...maybe even in the five great ninja nations...
Magano felt silly and stupid for not having any idea as to what this person, who was quite popular and world-renowned, even looked like.
"I suppose, I should've asked those three about how he looked like..." Magano said with a sweatdrop and a sigh. "Well, if he really is as popular as people make him out to be, I suppose I won't have any problems figuring out where he is and how he looks like"
Magano said before jumping from rooftop to rooftop...and as to WHY he didn't just go back to the three below to ask for Naruto's appearance...maybe he just didn't realize that was an option.
At any rate, Magano's search shouldn't be that hard, considering the fact that Naruto STILL has a flock of fangirls following his every move, not that he knew that, but he decided to search the market place and ask around the locals from the village.
The way he saw it, the local villagers would be less...reluctant to share information about their ace ninja to a complete stranger, than one of the shinobis roaming around.
And he was right, the locals were more than happy to tell short tales and anecdotes of his fellow Uzumaki, which he was more than happy to listen to. Magano knew that this other Uzumaki was quite popular, but he had never expected for nearly every villager he asked to be so...well-informed of his life story.
The villagers told him grand tales ranging from the time he went after his best friend to how he had ended the fourth shinobi world war. It was only then did Magano Uzumaki finally believe just how amazing this...possible relative of his was. He thought that the stories he heard from his hometown in the island of dance were a bit...overexaggerated, but hearing it from the villagers who share the same home with him...
He still thought they were exaggerated, albeit more credible. The mere fact that some of the village girls that he asked squealed, squeeked, and swooned during the retelling was enough of a testament to that fact.
A few more hours of 'intel-gathering' and it was already lunchtime and he was planning to enter the dango shop, which was a short walk from him.
"I supoose I should try some other local delicacies" Magano smiled to himself gently, before walking into the establishment, which was quite modest, but very well-known if the surplus of customers were any indication.
He walked in casually, ignoring the curious stares and fervent whispers he got from the gathered customers, and took a seat before placing his order. He waited patiently, while looking every which way. This was just a habit of his that he developed throughout his years of travel. He always made sure to familiarize himself with his surroundings because...during his travels, he learned that some places...weren't exactly welcoming to strangers that stroll casually in establishments.
Luckily, Konoha wasn't one of those places.
With that being said, he just did this out of habit absentmindedly and nonchalantly, he rarely expect to find anything worth noting.
This was one of those rare occasions.
The waitress was busy serving one table with a tray filled with dango and a cup of tea for another table, when he noticed a shady looking man pour somesort of liquid into the cup of tea. The movement was subtle, so subtle and well-hidden, that if he had blinked or looked at it from a wrong angle, he would've missed it entirely, but he didn't.
His eyes followed the shady looking man leave the shop, before he turned his gaze to the waitress who was serving the tray of dango and tea to its destined table.
The occupant of said table wore a short brown kimono with red flame designs on the edges, she had brown hair and white pupil-less eyes, which made Magano blink more than once in disbelief. From the looks of things, she was about the same age as him.
Now, Magano's first instinct was to approach the girl and inform her of his suspicions, but he quickly pushed that thought down and shook it away.
What was he gonna do? Walk to the local village girl who has never met or seen him before in her life and politely say "Excuse me, miss, but I just saw a shady-looking man pour something in your drink, which I suspect to be some sort of drug, so I would advice you to not drink your tea" that maybe the most awkward situation he'd ever be in, but he couldn't just sit there and do nothing while a potentially harmful substance was probably going to be ingested by a local.
Nevermind the fact that he had no clue as to who she was.
Quickly, taking out his Stylus pen he drew a seal on a piece of paper, turned it into a paper plane and threw it towards the girl eating dango
Just as she was about to take a sip of her drink, the plane softly poked her temple, which made the girl in question place her tea down on the table and unfold the innocent little creation confusedly. As she was doing so, however, she couldn't help but imagine a few cliché romance scenes where the boy writes his confession inside a paper plane and throws it to the girl he likes. She chuckled to herself and rolled her eyes, before unfolding the paper plane carelessly...only to blink in confusion, when she saw some sprt of glowing blue seal on it.
She blinked once. Twice.
"What's this all about?" She couldn't help but ask herself. She looked around the dango shop to search for the source of said paper plane.
Luckily for Magano, he had already busied himself with eating his dango, which had arrived shortly after he threw the paper plane. This, of course, made him look like any other customer in the store...well maybe not like any other customer, since she probably wouldn't recognize him at all, but he looked less suspicious.
Shrugging to herself, the girl placed the paper on the table, grabbed her cup of tea and raise it to her lips...
"What the?"
...Only to realize that it was currently devoid of any sort of tea, which, as you may all know, was the work of seal that Magano threw to her; an evaporation seal.
Confusedly, she muttered to herself. "I could've sworn I had a full of tea just a second ago" the girl pouted before ordering another cup of tea. She then turned her eyes towards the paper on the table...
"...huh?" Only to find the distinct absence of any sort of seal, when she was more than a lityle certain that it wasn't blank before.
On another table, Magano sighed in relief to see that his plan to evaporate the tea with one of his seals had worked flawlessly.
He took comfort in the fact that he had prevented such a mishap as he continued eating his dango.
He left the shop shortly after the white-eyed girl and proceeded to tail her until said girl met with an older girl with similar white eyes and long iris-colored hair.
Probably her sister. He thought to himself as he saw the younger girl tease the now-blushing older woman. He smiled nostalgically, remembering his own older sister, before politely averting his gaze and continuing his travel through the village.
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"That's him, alright" Hanabi Hyuga said to her sister after she used her byakugan to confirm that the boy in the cheongsam was out of their hearing range. "I saw him in the dango shop and he's been tailing me since I left" Hanabi said to her sister with a suspicious pout as she turned around to look at the boy talking to a fruit store owner. "I sure hope I don't have some sort of stalker" She thought aloud, which made Hinata giggle breathlessly at her sister's antics.
"He doesn't seem to be from around here." Hinata observed as she examined the boy's features. Hinata looked at the boy's hair and eye color curiously. It looked like the same hair color as Naruto's mom. She also noted the fact that he seemed to dress in a similar style as Tenten.
"Yeah, we probably would've noticed him if he was, not a lot of people have hair like that" Hanabi pointed out with crossed arms as she deactivated her byakugan. "Now that I think about...doesn't that hair look kinda...familiar?"
"It's the same color as Naruto's mom" Hinata pointed out kindly. Hanabi simply looked at her sister teasingly.
"Naruto's mom? I thought you would be calling her 'Mom' by now~" cooed Hanabi teasingly, much to the embarassment of her big sister. "As a matter of fact, I think she told you more than once to just call her mom, right?~"
"HANABI!" Yelled her sister in embarassment and Hamabi just giggled mischievously.
"What? It's true isn't it? Even before you saved me from that moon freak and Naruto-san finally confessed to you, she had already insisted." Hanabi pointed out while waggling her kunai mischievously. "Makes you think if she can see the future or something"
It was true, even before the moon mission yesterday, Kushina had insisted that Hinata and Hanabi call her 'mom' since she was great friends with their late mother, Hitomi. Hinata was a bit more hesitant...for the obvious reason the she loves Naruto and calling...Kushina 'mom' was a bit premature. Hanabi, on the other hand, was very casual in referring to Kushina as such, which delighted the redhead.
Hinata still remembered the fretting and worrying Kushina had showed her and her sister when they had safely came back, the memory made her smile.
"At any rate, I really think we should check him out, I don't want to have some stranger following me all day, even if he does look kind of cute" Hanabi made sure to grumble the last part softly with a smile, so that her older sister wouldn't hear.
But Hinata did hear, if her soft smile was any indication.
"Alright then" Hinata said as she turned her gaze to the boy who was now walking away with his back towards them, exposing the symbol that caused more than a few curious stares from the people around them.
Hanabi looked at her sister with a raised eyebrow and she nodded.
They were going to find out who that boy was.
...
They had managed to follow the boy inconspicously and from a safe distance using their byakugan. The boy seemed to be randomly chatting with the local villagers, which the sisters thought was a very logical course of action.
What else would a foreigner in a village he's never been in before do?
They followed him around for a few minutes until the young man went to a nearby bench by the lake.
"Onee-chan, there's ten rogue ninjas hidden all around him" Hanabi whispered to her sister as they saw this a good kilometer away from the boy. Hinata only nodded in agreement, while getting ready to spring into action.
"Let's a get a bit closer to them, just in case, we don't know if he can protect himself yet" Hinata said cautiously.
"Yeah, those missing nin won't know what hit them against the two of us" Hanabi said mischievously and excitedly, while Hinata simply smiled fondly.
"Right."
With that the sisters silently ran towards the boy, but before they could reach him the 10,missing ninjas suddenly sprung up and surrounded him in a circle.
The two sisters crouched down from view by a nearby bush to launch a surprise attack and in doing so, they heard the conversation that happened.
"I assume that you are the gentlemen who tried to poison that white-eyed girl in the dango shop?" The boy spoke casually with a carefully neutral expression on his face.
"You're pretty sharp, aren't you? So I suppose you know what this is all about?" One of the missing nin said angrily before raising his kunai, while the boy remained seated.
"Obviously, you're here to try and kill me for ruining your attempt to poison the girl" he stated calmly and casually, like he was commenting about the weather, which made the sisters pause in confusion.
They neither heard nor saw any fear or fright from the boy's voice or his expression. It was almost as if he didn't consider them a threat.
"That's right, you just spoiled what could be our only chance to get that girl's Byakugan and use it for our own" answered the missing nin and almost instantly, Hinata's hands curled into fists, while she pulled the wide-eyed Hanabi close to her.
They saw the boy narrow his eyes, before he stood up calmly and brushed off some dust. He took off the scroll behind his back and looked at each and every one of them calmly.
"You are all idiots if you think it would've been that easy." He said in an eerily calm voice, much to the anger of the missing nin. "Even if I had not interfered, I'm willing to wager that that white-eyed girl is quite well-known in this village and that there are very few in this village who would turn a blind eye on her if she ever needed help, not to mention the fact, that her clan would not leave her in such a vulnerable state."
He shifted into a fighting stance, that the sisters were not familiar with. (A/N: Just look up a picture of the Wing Chun fighting style). They also saw the faint blue glow near the boy's wrist that was obscured by his sleeves.
The ninjas all charged at him and the sisters watched in awe as the boy effortlessly parries and counterattacks the rogue ninja's assaults. Regardless of the fact that there were ten of them, none of the missing nin could get through his defense and before the rogue nin could even attack he had already countered them. One by one, slowly but surely, the rogue ninjas began falling on the ground, while clutching various parts of their body in pain.
Until there was only one rogue ninja left, who was currently looking at his fallen comrades in disbelief and at the boy in fear.
"W-what the hell?" The rogue ninja said in disbelief.
"Would you care to join them?" The boy asked with a raised eyebrow and in a fit of rage, the rogue ninja let out a battle cry and charged at him with kunai in hand.
The boy parried the kunai, grappled the rogue ninja to the ground and as the ninja started to sit himself up, the boy started bombarding the rogue nin's face with short ranged but rapid punches in quick succession; driving the ninja's head back down, until the rogue ninja laid down on the ground, unconscious.
"Whoa" Was all Hanabi could say, while her sister simply settled for wide-eyed surprise. The two of them had planned to take down the ten rogue ninja to protect the boy...and yet...here he was...standing before ten incapacitated rogue ninja, which he took down effortlessly, without taking a single hit, not even a scratch on his body.
"Incredible, though I don't think I've ever seen that fighting style before..." Hinata thought out loud as she replayed the scene in her mind.
"Must be some sort of traveler, I bet he picked up those moves from one place or another because I definitely haven't seen anything like that around here" Hanabi said as she turned off her Byakugan and watched as the boy hung his scroll on his back. She saw him take out somesort of...pen...and began drawing on the backs of the rogue nin, before walking away from the scene casually, albeit cheerfully.
Having found out the reason why the boy had followed him and having heard th previous comversation from the rogue nin, Hanabi realized something belatedly.
"So, he was the one who sent that paper plane" Hanabi thought out loud as her mind was filled with images from the dango shop and how her tea magically disappeared.
He barely knew her and he risked injury just to keep her from harm.
"Hanabi?" Hinata spotted the distant look on her sister's eyes and promptly tried to catch her attention.
Without changing her gaze, she smiled a wide grin. "We gotta thank him somehow" she stated and Hinata merely nodded in agreement with a gentle smile.
...
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And this is where this chapter ends. To picture, the stylus pen...just look up a picture of a galaxy note 5 s pen...okay?
Yes, I'm keeping Kushina and Minato alive. So we're still on the fourth hokage...and Hiruzen sacrificed himself to the shinigami instead of Minato...
Anyways, see you in the next update.