Naruto and Kakashi spoke at great lengths about the sharing of non-classified information amongst the five nations, they had discussed various ways of sharing information between villages though it seemed the best way to do so was to make copies of everything that the various collected and seal them in scrolls for transport.
Kakashi rationalised that the missions to take information between the villages would be mid C-Rank to low B-Rank, just because of the path that they would all have to take to share the information and collect new scrolls if needed. It was Shikamaru who had come to deliver a report that made the breakthrough they needed.
"Why don't you have a small group of ninja that work just within that branch, or just have a small group from the villages T&I handle it, they'll probably want to check the seals and information first to make sure that all the information they're receiving isn't trapped or something." He suggested as he gave Kakashi the report.
Kakashi blinked and stared at Shikamaru.
"You know for someone that finds it troublesome to do things, you're really useful Shikamaru." Naruto said as he placed a heavy hand on Shikamaru's shoulder.
"Maybe you should have Shikamaru handle the ground work for you Kakashi-sensei."
Shikamaru just sighed and body-flickered away.
"On that note Kakashi-sensei, I better get going. I have a few things that I need to take care of." Naruto smiled as he vanished.
Kakashi, finally alone, sighed and hung his head.
'Now what do I do, it was fun having someone to talk to…' he thought just as the door to his office opened bringing with it the bane of the last three active Hokage.
Paperwork.
Naruto reappeared outside one of the greatest places in all of Konoha. Ichiraku ramen.
The one place in the whole village that had stood by him through thick and thin. Sliding open the door Naruto was greeted by the smell of pork, beef and noodles.
"Hey Naruto, about time you made it!" Yamato grinned as he waved Naruto over.
Naruto started walking towards his sensei. "What brings you here Capt. Yamato?"
"What do you think? I came here to eat." He said, pointing to the half-eaten bowl of ramen.
Naruto sat in the empty seat and waved at Ayame-chan, the daughter of the owner and head chef of Ichiraku's.
She came over smiling. "Hey Naruto-kun, the usual today?"
"Yeah, a bowl of the Naruto special and keep 'em coming." He grinned.
Unseen by many leaping across the rooftops of Konoha was a small group of ninja. Aiming to take advantage of the currently rebuilding village, it had come far since the war finished and there were an excess amount of shinobi who were looking for work there was a sudden influx of labours to assist the builders to get the building done.
The four infiltrators landed in the shadow of a rooftop and looked out at the scene before them. One of the four gave off a few hand signs.
"Fools. A village of Ninja and we were able to sneak in undetected." He signed.
Another just shook their head and signed back "Don't get ahead of yourself, things will just get harder from here."
Without another sign they took off. Mistakenly they moved close enough to Ichiraku for Naruto to detect them with the ability had gained from cloaking himself in Kurama's chakra for so long during the war.
"You feel that kid?" The fox asked.
'Yeah I did' Naruto replied to the fox mentally.
"Thanks Ayame-chan, but there's something I need to take care of. I'll be back soon." Naruto called out, leaving a few Ryo notes on the counter next to the unfinished bowl of Ramen.
Yamato knew something was happening. Naruto never left a bowl of Ramen unfinished, even when he was late for something. It just didn't happen. So he took off after Naruto.
Once they were outside they took to the roofs, following Naruto's keen senses. Yamato needed to know what was happening once he realized that his senses weren't wrong, Naruto had a serious look on his face. Putting out a bit more chakra he was able to move beside his teammate.
"What's happening Naruto?" He asked.
"Four people infiltrated the village, they're not part of the village." He reported to his captain.
Nodding he started to flair his chakra, alerting the ANBU.
"Where are they going?" he asked once he had finished the code.
Naruto waited a moment before answering "it seems like they are heading towards the Hokage's mansion. Kakashi would still be at his office this time of night, he had a meeting with the council. There aren't many guards and by the chakra and emotions I was detecting they won't be strong enough to fight them off for long."
Yamato clicked his tongue before sending out another burst of chakra to relay the information to the ANBU nearby.
"One's broken off, the others are still heading for the mansion. You head there and deal with those three, this last one is mine." Without leaving any room for discussion Naruto used Hiraishin no Jutsu to get closer to the intruder.
Naruto Hiraishin'd to the closest mark that he had to the Intruder after he saw, or sensed, where he was going. It seemed that the intruder was heading for the rebuilt academy. He thanked Kami that he had placed a mark there the other day when he taught the newest students his shadow clones, although none had the ability to learn it he did teach them that they were able to use different clones to pass at their exams which gave several students a bit of hope.
"What are you doing in my village?" Naruto called out when he arrived at the Academy rooftop just as the intruder had landed.
Spinning around the intruder threw several kunai at Naruto, though none hit him.
"I'll ask again, what are you doing here in my village?" He asked tapping into Kurama's chakra, resulting in a red aura to surround him.
The intruder instinctively took a step back. "Heh, just a kid with a large chakra pool. Don't you know to conserve chakra when you're in a fight, poser."
Naruto smirked "There are people like you who need to conserve chakra, but then there are people like me that don't need to worry too much about it."
"Be careful, there's something strange about the way this guy's acting." Kurama told Naruto. Agreeing with his companion he slipped into his Taijutsu stance.
"Pooh, looks like the little boy wants to play." The strange Ninja pouted. "It's a shame that when I play, I play for keeps."
The stranger suddenly launched themselves at Naruto, kunai in both hands and eyes searching for a weakness. Getting closer and closer to Naruto the stranger, seeing that Naruto hadn't moved, cracked a wicked grin.
"Your gonna die." He cackled.
Thrusting the kunai in his hand at Naruto's eye. Just as it was an inch away from his eye Naruto dropped back, the kunai and the stranger going above him, using a hand to stabilize himself Naruto kept moving bringing the leg he lifted up and pumping chakra into it, slammed his knee into the stranger's rib. Hearing the dull crack Naruto grinned slightly as his enemy went flying off the roof.
Naruto Shunshin'd close to where the intruder had landed, the dust had barely settled when the intruder leaped from their small hole and onto the practice field that the academy students had been using a short while before.
'Damn a broken rib' the stranger thought as they touched their side.
"You still didn't answer my question." Naruto said.
The stranger slipped into their own Taijutsu stance and winced as it sent a wave of pain down their side. Naruto blinked when he saw the stance they were using, taking a moment he recognized the stance and let out a low growl.
"Where did you learn that stance?" he snarled.
The stranger looked at Naruto. "What's it matter to you?"
Naruto moved into the same stance.
"It matters to me because that stance is used by my clan and I know you're not a part of the Uzumaki clan."
The stranger grinned madly "When you're hunted by monsters you learn how to fight like them. When using the same style as your opponent you learn where the weaknesses are and how to take advantage of it."
The stranger moved into the first steps of the Uzumaki clan's dancing whirlpool style. Naruto launched himself forward.
"When you learn your clan's techniques after learning different styles you also learn what their weaknesses are and the best way to use them." Naruto growled, throwing a right hook at the stranger.
The punch was deflected and countered with a grapple, sending Naruto sprawling on the ground. He was just able to move out of the way before the stranger stomped on his head, after he moved away Naruto flung himself towards the stranger's injured left side.
'Going for the opponents weakened side, classic tactic.' The infiltrator thought as he turned, following Naruto with his eyes.
"You should really have done your homework on the village, or at least the big names of it." Naruto said seeing that there was no way for him to move closer while the opponent's eyes were locked on him.
The man scoffed "Why would I want to know about some random losers that had their village trashed so badly that it's been rebuilding for so long."
Now Naruto laughed "Because of who's in the village. Didn't you wonder why I said that you were using a clan technique or how I knew the name of the clan?"
"Well enlighten me before I kill you." The stranger roared launching themselves at Naruto, not really caring about what he was saying.
As soon as the stranger was close enough to Naruto he swiped with his kunai.
Naruto ducked under the tool.
The stranger used the spinning whirlwind strike. Sending a boost of chakra into his foot which gave it an accelerated boost, aimed directly for Naruto's jaw. Seeing that there was no chance for him to dodge Naruto Hiraishin'd away, making his way back to the roof of the academy.
"I have to admit that you're pretty good at Taijutsu." Naruto said as he stood on the roof of the academy looking down.
The stranger shook his head and chuckled. "Should have known you'd use some kind of fancy Jutsu to run away."
Naruto nodded "When you can't block or counter an attack the best way is to dodge it or move right away from it."
The man scowled "Just like you foolish Konoha ninja, when it get tough run away like little babies. Can't take the pain so they just hide in the trees instead of taking the hit."
Suddenly Naruto knew where the man was from.
"I know you!" He shouted loudly.
The sudden outburst throwing the strangers train of thought.
"Huh?" was the only intelligible thing that he was able to say.
"Yeah Yeah Yeah!" Naruto clicked his fingers trying to remember where he knew the man from. "You're from Kiri… Uh… something like… socha or something…"
The man just sweat dropped as he looked at the foolish blonde.
"Sora…no…sotta…" he still couldn't figure out the name.
"Ugh… It's Sotora you idiot!" he shouted then clamped a hand over his mouth.
Naruto grinned madly "yeah that's it. Sotora Matatsuo, A-ranked missing-nin from Kirigakure. With a bounty of two hundred thousand."
The now named Sotora flinched as Naruto named him and dropped onto the ground before continuing;
"Specialising in Kanton, has a variety of C-rank and B-rank, also uses Raiton, that's what you use for your finisher and to make sudden movements like that kick just before." Naruto smirked.
"S...So, what about it?" he asked, visibly shaken.
"Nothing much, but I memorized your record in the bingo book the other day. I'm just surprised that I met you so soon." He said scratching his head.
Naruto suddenly vanished. Sotora looked around, shocked that he couldn't see the blonde. There was a small pinch against the back of his neck, he barely touched it to know what it was.
There was a senbon in his neck, sitting in just the right spot to render him unconscious.
"Fuck"
He collapsed.
Naruto sighed. He didn't like ending fights like that, it was depressing.
'At least the reward for this guy will help me replace that broken training gear.' He mused as he created two clones.
"Take him to the T&I department, talk to whoever's there and see if we can get the reward for him." He instructed.
"Duh." Clone 1 said.
"We're you, we know what you were just thinking about." Clone 2 told him.
Naruto rolled his eyes as the two Shunshin'd away with the Nuke-nin. Closing his eyes Naruto focussed on all the energy around him, trying to find any of the other Nuke-nin that infiltrated the village.
Finding two Naruto was happy that he could sense ANBU and other Jonin were handling it.
Naruto looked at the damage he caused to the academy during his fight. The field was a mess. When he launched Sotora into the training ground he didn't realize just how much power he had put into his strike.
There was a gaping hole where the wall of the academy, just a few meters shy of the gate. The tree that Naruto had used a few weeks prior to show the students some of the things they will be able to do as ninja, had somehow been uprooted and was leaning against the gate, threatening to break under the weight of it.
'Damn Iruka-sensei's gonna have my neck for this' Naruto groaned mentally.
"That's what you get for playing around, you should've just kicked him into the sky and used clones to restrain him." Came Kurama's familiar judgemental tone.
'I don't need this from you Kurama.' Naruto chided the beast.
Kurama chuckled "You always do things the hard way, it'll be your downfall one day kid."
Naruto rolled his eyes and started making his way to the other intruders, even though there were ANBU and Jonin fighting them there was a chance, a small one but a chance none the less, that things could go badly and he had just fought the weakest of the bunch.
He Hiraishin'd towards the closest fight just in time to grab a child and roll out of the way, avoiding a stray kunai. Naruto moved the child out of the way but was a split second slow, resulting in his sleeve getting cut by the Kunai.
Ensuring that the child was alright Naruto clicked his tongue and was ready to jump into the fray when the opponent the Jonin and ANBU were fighting leapt into the sky.
Naruto watched his hands as he made different hand seals.
Tiger dog Dragon Snake
"Water Release: Water Suicide Bomb" he roared.
Naruto watched as the nuke-nin started releasing steam from his body, his skin turned red and blood poured out of his eyes, ears and mouth. Naruto was thrown back by the sudden explosion that followed the seals.
He slammed into the wall behind him and all went dark.
The next time Naruto opened his eyes he was standing in front of Kurama.
Groaning Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "What happened?" he asked.
Kurama opened an eye and looked at him.
"Looks like your unconscious." Kurama stated.
Nodding Naruto looked around.
"Has it always been like this in here?" he asked, changing the subject.
Kurama lifted his head and looked around before looking at Naruto.
"What do you mean?"
"Well has it always been this dark and gloomy in here?"
Kurama let out a small sigh "I shouldn't have expected you to learn anything about mindscapes, you never learnt anything to protect your mind even after you saw how strong that Ibiki guy was or even when you spoke to that Yamanaka girl."
One look said it all. Everything that he had just said went right over Naruto's head.
"This place, the whole dark and gloomy thing, is how the inside of your mind looks. Even though you're such a happy go lucky kid on the outside, inside your mind it's as dark and cold as a sewer, which is also why you can't use that brain of yours."
Naruto was shocked.
"So this place looks like this because I'm the one that made it look like this!" he gasped.
Kurama grinned widely. "He finally gets it!"
There was someone shaking Naruto outside in the real world.
"We're not done talking about this!" Naruto shouted as he regained consciousness.
Groaning Naruto opened his eyes and blinked to clear his vision. It took him a moment to recognize where he was. He was staring at sterilized white roof tile, white walls and had a white blanket over his midsection.
Turning his head he saw Sakura, Yamato and Kakashi were all looking at him.
"Hey guys" he rasped "What happened?"
Sakura placed a hand on his arm and smiled softly.
"You've been unconscious for the last two hours, just rest for now and you'll be fine." She told him.
Yamato stood next to the bed before speaking "Naruto do you know what happened?"
Naruto gave a small nod. "I had just finished my fight and made my way to where some ANBU and Jonin were fighting, there was a small girl nearby I was able to move her out of the way as a stray kunai went flying for her, after she got away I turned back to look at the fight when the ninja used a suicide Jutsu. When he exploded I slammed my head against the wall and now I'm here."
"Well at least his memory's working." Kakashi said giving one of his classic eye smiles.
Looking at Sakura Naruto asked "How long till I'm out of here?"
"We just need to make sure there's no concussion and you'll be good to go." She told him.
They made small talk while they waited for the all clear from the doctor.
Once the all clear was given Naruto was told to forgo training his Ninjutsu and anything that required the use of chakra for at least a week, to make sure that everything was ok. Tsunade had detected something strange with his Chakra network, originally they thought that it was just growing to accommodate the flux of Biju chakra that he had been using lately.
He agreed with Tsunade's command and spent the next week, with the approval of Kakashi, leading a small group of Genin, whose team leader was on a mission, on several D-rank missions and assisted with their training. Even though Naruto wasn't that good without being able to use chakra he was still able to help them get down their basic Katas.
After a week had passed he returned to the hospital for a final check from Tsunade.
"Hey Baa-Chan, is this going to take long?" Naruto whined "I want to keep training, I'm close to getting this new Jutsu down and I've still got to work on my new Taijutsu style."
Tsunade just smiled and shook her head "Why can't you be like everyone else Naruto?"
Looking at Naruto it was clear to Tsunade that he didn't understand.
"Why can't you just take one style and fit it to your own purpose? A Taijutsu style based on your clones would be perfect. So why are you trying to make a whole new style?"
Naruto smirked before giving his answer.
"Baa-Chan I need to do something so that I can be remembered for something before I became the Hokage."
Tsunade stopped working. She hadn't heard Naruto say anything like this before, the only thing that he said was that he'd get everyone in the village to respect him and then become the greatest Hokage the village ever had. But he was now saying that he wanted to make a whole new style just so he would be remembered for something before becoming Hokage.
Finishing her work checking Naruto, and finding nothing wrong, she grabbed a seat and spoke to Naruto about the style he was making, in response he pulled out a storage scroll and unsealed all the notes and information he had compiled about the style.
"I've been calling it the leaves dancing in the storm." He began.
They spent the rest of the night talking about it and developing it.
Sadly peace was unable to remain within Konoha, that's something that everyone knew, but no one had seen it come like this.
Shortly after Naruto had returned to training it seemed as though he was taken over. His whole demeanour changed, he stopped visiting Ichiraku's, rejected all teaching opportunities and refused to take any missions other than what he was needed to, or ordered by Kakashi. Sakura, Tsunade, Hinata, Shikamaru, Shino and Lee had gathered in Kakashi's office to talk about their growing concern about Naruto's wellbeing.
"He hasn't been seen in the village, when people see him around it's always a clone and they won't talk." Sakura told Kakashi.
"When he does speak to someone, like Lee or myself it's been about his new Jutsu or about that new Leaves dancing in the storm style." Hinata said.
Kakashi knew more than anyone in his office how Naruto was, and this wasn't Naruto not in the slightest "Shikamaru has he been talking to you?"
Shikamaru nodded "The only things he really talks to me about lately have been strategic, mostly asking about how to lead troops and things like that. I think there's something going on behind the scenes that he's not telling anyone."
"Like another war?" Lee burst out
Shino glared at Lee, which was hard to do when no one had seen his actual eyes behind his glasses "Calm down Lee. The nations are recovering from the last one, there wouldn't be any war now not until at least one village has recovered and if they did then all eyes would be watching them to make sure they'd behave."
"Oh" Lee shrunk back.
"Though it seems that Naruto hasn't been in his home for the last few days, as far as my bugs can tell." Shino said.
"Then where is he staying?" Tsunade asked, concern for Naruto only growing more as they spoke.
Kakashi shook his head "I don't know. The ANBU that I sent to find him returned saying that they searched around the village and he wasn't found anywhere."
This grabbed everyone's attention. There was no doubt that Naruto was still inside the village but there was no reason as to why, or how, he was avoiding people. There was no reason for him to not show himself and keep acting like the reckless upstart that the village had come to love and respect.
Suddenly there was a light knock on the door.
"Enter" Kakashi called out, thinking it was his assistant with the reports that he asked for.
The door opened revealing the most unexpected person that they could have expected to show up. Naruto was the person that had knocked on the door.
"NARUTO!" they shouted in unison.
Sakura, Hinata and Lee were the first to move, dashing towards him. The two girls to grab him and squeeze him tight. Lee because he was happy to see his friend. Before they could touch him Naruto vanished.
Reappearing in front of Kakashi's desk Naruto pulled out a storage scroll and unsealed the contents. Now sitting on the previously cleared desk was two large scrolls. Accompanied by a few small scrolls. All the scrolls were different colours, the two large ones were Blue and yellow respectively, there were two green scrolls a grey and a purple one.
Naruto picked up the purple scroll and handed it to Tsunade.
"This should help heal anyone that was injured during the war, Including Bushy brow sensei" Naruto said turning back to the other scrolls.
Tsunade broke the seal and read the contents of the scroll, her eyes widening as she read the contents. Sakura looked over her shoulder and saw what her Sensei was reading.
"How the fuck!" Her surprise getting the better of her, Sakura swore.
Placing a hand on the grey scroll he tossed it to Shikimaru. "That should help to bring the level of Fuinjutsu up in the village, when you open it you'll be taken to my workspace, there are plenty of scrolls there for you to look at."
Without a second of thought Naruto turned back and passed the two green scrolls to Kakashi.
"These are plans for the village, not just Konoha but all of them, all five of the hidden villages."
Kakashi didn't know what to say, no one did.
Naruto patted the large blue scroll.
"The blue scroll contains all the Jutsu that I have been able to improve or create, it's filled with information. Make sure that it's copied down and several scrolls are made from it, it should help everyone." Naruto gave a sad smile as steam started billowing out from his hands and clothes.
"Not much time left. The yellow scroll contains all my knowledge of Taijutsu, it should help people like Lee, who can't mould chakra. It also has my completed large scale Taijutsu."
Kakashi had a clear look of surprise on his face "You completed the leaves dancing in the storm technique?"
Naruto gave a slow nod as more steam filled the room, Hinata grew concerned and used her Byakugan, what she saw shocked her so much that she let out an audible gasp and fell to her knees and trembled.
"Looks like the genjutsu has worn off. Sooner that I had hoped but it did its job." Naruto mused, not even batting an eye at Hinata's reaction.
"This formation will help to protect the leaf should another war breakout, there are formations for ANBU and a new method of recruiting them, amongst everything else inside the scroll it a list of Ninja, of all ranks that you should look at for increased training, if all goes well then you will have the strongest ANBU to ever serve the hidden villages."
"What are you talking about Naruto? Forget the scrolls, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN THE LAST THREE MONTHS?" Tsunade roared, dropping the scroll she had been looking at and pulling Naruto roughly by the collar.
It was then that the Genjutsu Naruto had mentioned wore off. Once the chakra smoke cleared they saw the worst thing that they had ever thought they would see, when they saw it they realized why Hinata was shaking so violently.
There in front of them all, held by the collar of his stained white shirt, was a decrepit old man with limbs as thin as twigs, with muscles so worn out that you could clearly see the bones in his arms and legs. He wore no shoes and had his boned feet showing. His once pale skin now a horrible grey tinge, teeth as grey as the lips that hid them. His hair was pale white with barely the slightest of reminiscent yellow in his hair and his cerulean blue eyes proving it wasn't an imposter.
His hand touched the side of her face, she could barely feel the warmth from his hand on her face as it touched her.
"Sorry…Baa…Cha…n~"
There was nothing but silence. Tsunade didn't need to check his pulse, perform any medical Jutsu there were none that she could use, bar Tenei Ninjutsu or Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei that caused so much strife during the war.
Tsunade collapsed like Hinata and wrapper her arms around Naruto's fresh corpse, no one in the room was able to move. Sakura was stunned, Shino was confused, Lee and Shikamaru were horrified at what they were seeing and Kakashi's heart had stopped.
No one moved. They were all staring at Naruto's body in disbelief. Thinking, begging that this was just some elaborate prank that he had planned against them all. None of them wanted to consider the possibility that he was dead.
They prayed for him to jump out at them with one of his cheesy grins, the same one that they had hated when he ran around the village.
They gave up hope when Tsunade threw her head back and wailed. Crying like a banshee in despair.
The sudden outburst summoning squads of ANBU and Jonin to the Hokage's office. When they saw what happened none made any movement to remove Naruto's body from the mourning Sannin. When the ANBU saw Naruto's body they dropped to one knee, hung their heads and placed their blades on the ground in front of them, something that the ANBU only did when they were saying farewell to fellow comrades that had passed away in the line of duty.
That night the Village will always remember the night that Naruto Uzumaki, Hero of the Leaf, the last of the toad sages, heir of Clans Uzumaki and Namikaze, beloved godson of Tsunade the slug princess, died.
Three weeks later.
Following the passing of Naruto the Five Kage gathered in the leaf village along with Mifune, the leader of the Samurai from Tetsu no Kuni. They were joined by small groups. Killer B came to pay his respects with the Hachibi, Gyuki.
Also in attendance was the various Daimyo of the elemental Nations. They had come to pay their respects to the young man that had fought to protect the world and their respective nations.
Even Sasuke returned to the leaf for the funeral.
It was the largest funeral ever held in the hidden leaf village. Within the hidden leaf it was discussed that there were people in the various villages around the Elemental nations that knew or were allied with the nations during the war so they broadcasted the funeral across the nations.
Thanks for reading my story thus far.
i would like to ask people to submit any ideas or thoughts that they have about my story. Whether that's you having a go and me, abusing my work or just offering me some tips. Let me have it.
If people have any ideas about skills, pairings, ULTIMATE QUESTS!, what his team will be, and things like that LET ME KNOW!
I want people to tell me how they think the story will go so i can live up to the potential that you have seen in this story.
Many thanks.