Hey everybody, I'm back and for those wondering, I'm not dead, I've just been busy with sports and all that, so I haven't really had time to write any new chapters for any of my stories, but my season is over I'm back to writing whenever I can, so enough with the explaining, ON TO THE STORY!

Chapter 2: And so the war begins

The sun rose up lazily over the morning sky, but nearly everyone in Seito missed it, except for one blonde man, who was wearing a white T-shirt and shorts and had two magatamas around his neck, in a nearby field that was training with his sword. Naruto stopped for a moment to look up at the rising sun and wondered how long he had been training for as he wiped his sweat from his forehead and sheathed his sword, which he had named Juryokukoa (Gravity core), due to its two abilities.

"How long have I been out here?" he asked himself as he observed the surrounding area, which was basically a pile of torn up earth which was caused by Juryokukoa's power, and it still surprised the blonde shinobi how destructive the sword could be when he unleashed its power.

"It's been about three hours since you started training, Naruto." came a calm voice from behind him. Naruto turned towards the voice to see its owner, Chou'un Shiryuu, a girl with long silver hair that reached down to her lower back and had her eyes closed constantly. She wore a different version of the school uniform, which overall complimented her excellent figure, and in her left hand she held a sword.

"You were watching the whole time, Chou'un?" Naruto asked as he scratched the back of his head.

The swordswoman nodded, "Yes, I had to make sure you didn't forget about the party, after all we are celebrating the six months you've been here since you first arrived at Seito." she informed him, to which the blonde looked away in embarrassment in response.

"I keep telling you all, you don't have to do that," Naruto muttered sheepishly, while thinking, "I've been in this world for a while, haven't I?" it really had been six months since he had been sent here by the Rikudo Sage. Since then, while Ryūjin basically crammed into him as much information about the war as possible, he had steadily gained the trust and admiration of everyone at Seito, as well as becoming one of its more powerful students.

"I know, but Ryuubi and Chouhi were adamant on having a party," Chou'un said with a light smile on her face, before she gripped her sword's hilt, "What do you say we spar a little to past the time?" she asked, knowing full well what the blonde's reply would be.

Naruto face instantly split into a wild grin as he drew Juryokukoa, "Your on!" he shouted as he lunged at the silver haired girl, clashing his blade with hers. The two quickly separated and went into a series of strikes that would have defeated any low-ranked toushi easily, but to Naruto and Chou'un, they met the attacks head on and deflected each one of them with ease.

The blonde then stuck his sword into the ground and made an upward slash; the force of the blade destroyed the earth around it and sent giant mounds of it at the silver haired girl. Chou'un reacted instantly and sliced through the opposing rocks as if they were made of paper and narrowly avoided a punch that was aimed for her stomach, which only resulted in Naruto grazing her.

Chou'un quickly countered with a spinning kick, but Naruto ducked under it and nailed the butt of his sword against her stomach, sending her backwards a little ways and lunged at her only to receive a backhanded swing that was strong enough to make him do an entire cartwheel in place, but Naruto charged at her again as soon as his feet touched the ground.

Naruto spun himself around Chou'un as soon as their swords clashed and the two ended up with their backs to one another and as one, turned to face each other with their swords resting inches from the other's necks.

"You've improved since we've last sparred Naruto." Chou'un observed with a small smile as the two sheathed their blades.

"What can I say; I've had some great teachers while I've been here." Naruto complimented her as his trademark fox-grin quickly adorned his face and he scratched the back of his head.

"No, it's not just that, you were already an A-rank toushi when you first arrived here, but you seem to improve your skills by leaps and bounds between every time you fight Kan'u or I, how do you do it?" Chou'un commented as she gave the blonde a curious look, only to have Naruto give her a sly smile as he put his right index and middle finger to his mouth and gave her a wink.

"Nin nin, it's a secret." he said with a chuckle, only to receive a cute pout from the silver haired swordswoman, but it made no difference to him. Naruto had chosen to keep his identity a secret from the others, not wanting any of his new friends to get caught up in his war while they had their own to deal with, even though he had to put up with Kyubi's arguing that they would be a valuable asset to him.

"I'm heading back Naruto, you coming?" Chou'un interrupted his thoughts and brought his attention back to her.

"No, you go on ahead Chou'un, I'll meet you there," he told her and watched as she walked out of the field and left Naruto to himself; "...It really has been six months, hasn't it? And I still haven't found any of the jinchuriki, my comrades, or the Akatsuki." he thought with a sigh. He really couldn't help it, his magatama was supposed to lead him to the other jinchuriki; the only problem was he didn't know how to activate it or what the exact range was for its detection ability.

Then there was the other matter of the four comrades the Sage had sent here to help him, for one thing, the Sage had neglected to tell him who exactly he sent over here although he was pretty sure it was most likely the members of team Kakashi, and then the other problem was that he had no way of contacting them.

Naruto let out another sigh as he made his way back towards the school while thinking that for all of the Rikudo Sage's brilliant ideas; he was just plain stupid to leave out something as important as those.

"Then again, maybe he was expecting me to think of a way to improvise when I use this thing..." Naruto mumbled as he held up the crimson jewel while it flashed a bright red against the rising sun.

"Personally, I think he's crazy, I mean he didn't even tell you who he had sent to help you which doesn't really narrow your choices, and not to mention that he gave you a powerful tool that can help you, but he didn't explain how to activate it. All he said it would do was that it would sense the others when they were within its range." Kyubi voiced his opinion.

"I'd say you're both right on all accounts, but the least he could had done was have the thing react when you channel Kyubi's chakra, that way we could at least learn how far a jinchuriki could be from you." Ryūjin chimed in, causing a collective sigh from the three as they remembered their past attempts to get the damn thing working.

"Yeah, but what makes it worse is that I've even made my own information network like Pervy Sage did and I still haven't been able to locate any of their whereabouts, it's so damn frustrating!" the blonde shinobi retorted bitterly as he thought about all the connections he had made in the past six months. Naruto had started it the first week he had arrived at Seito, immediately finding nearly over fifty informants and new friends within most of the other schools, excluding Rakuyou and Kyoshou for obvious reasons, and had even befriended a person who would play a huge part in the future and her teacher.

By using this network to its fullest potential, Naruto was able to constantly gather info on what the other schools were doing by showing his informants what to do to send information to the six key people who he appointed as the lead informants and they would give him the information when he visited them. However, it all nearly amounted to nothing, seeing as they were unable to find any of the missing eight, not to mention the four others the Sage at sent here.

When Naruto finally arrived back at his current residence, he found Chou'un, Kan'u, and Koumei Shokatsuryou, the youngest member in all of Seito, and arguably the smartest, who had jade green hair that was tied into two pigtails and bright blue eyes, were the only ones currently up and eating breakfast.

"Good morning Naruto." Kan'u and Koumei greeted.

"Morning." Naruto said as he went into the kitchen and made his usual morning breakfast, some instant ramen and sat down and began eating, while the other occupants, even after six months of knowing the blonde, still wondered how he was able to eat ramen so early in the morning.

"So Naruto, are you excited about the party tonight?" Koumei asked as she watched the blonde eat with his normal vigor.

"I guess so, but like I told Chou'un earlier, you all don't have to do this," Naruto told them as he sat his bowl down on the table, "More importantly, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Naruto-niichan, Koumei-chan?" Naruto said as he began pouting like a child, which amused the three girls.

"I'll start calling you that when I think you've matured enough." Koumei teased the blonde, who clutched his heart as if he was in pain and began crying anime tears.

"Oh, you wound me so Koumei-chan," Naruto declared as he continued to cry anime tears, causing the jade haired girl to laugh as someone new entered the rooms wearing pink pajamas while she put on her glasses, "Good morning Ryuubi-chan," Naruto greeted the leader of Seito, before spewing out some of his ramen as he looked at how the brown haired girl was wearing her clothes, "Uh...Ryuubi-chan, did you look at yourself before coming out?" he asked curiously as his face began turning red

"No, what are you talking about Naruto-kun…" Ryuubi mumbled as she let out a tired yawn and looked down at her attire to see what the blonde was referring to and instantly went bright red. Her clothes were practically about to fall off, with her top revealing a good portion of her breasts and her bottom falling between her thighs, showing off her white panties, "Waah, don't look!" Ryuubi yelled in embarrassment as attempted to cover herself with her arms and took one look at her blonde friend before fleeing the scene to her room, while Naruto quickly finished his breakfast and went into his room to get change and came out in a white t-shirt and jeans.

"Well I better be off, I've got some things to take care of," Naruto announced as he grabbed his orange and black jacket from the coat rack and said his goodbyes to the girls as he went out the door and onto the patio.

"Where do you think Naruto always goes to when he has free time Kan'u?" Koumei asked the raven haired fighter her usual question whenever the blonde left in a hurry while her eyes were still locked onto the door she saw the blonde exited to.

"...I have my suspicions, but knowing him and his ways, he is probably up to no good..." Kan'u answered before taking a sip from her tea, completely aware of the other girls nodding their heads in agreement, they had seen the disasters their friend had caused before with his pranks, and they had all agreed never to try and get on the blonde's bad side unless they were prepared for some major punishment afterward, especially after they had saw what Naruto did to Chouhi when she had taken a couple of his ramen packets without telling him.

"Yo Takashi!" Naruto greeted the young man that was currently working in the local antique shop. Takashi Kurosaki, a junior student and a solid B-ranked toushi from Youshuu Private School and was probably one of the few from that school who had any honor, was a boy that was a few inches taller than the blonde and had shoulder length raven black hair that was spiky at the end and wore glasses that hung low on his nose.

The boy simply nodded his head in acknowledgement as he readjusted his glasses and continued to dust some of the shop's possession. He had expected the blonde to come and pay him a visit soon enough because he knew that out of his chosen six, Naruto always came to him first before he would see any of the others.

"You here for the usual, Naruto-san?" Takashi asked, knowing full well that the blonde was here to hear the latest information that he had, and then he quit dusting the antiques and went over to the counter.

"Yep, so anything new?" Naruto asked as his cheerful expression turned slightly more serious.

Takashi, however let out a sigh as he took off his glasses and began cleaning them off with a his shirt, "I'm sorry to have to say this Naruto-san, but we've still haven't been able to gain anything on the twelve you are looking for, we've searched every possible location in the city, checked to see if anyone fit their descriptions, and have searched all of the schools, but we still haven't found them." he told the blonde.

Naruto was silent for a moment before he let out a tired sigh as he ran his hand through his hair, "I figured as much, but it can't be helped if a guy needs to finds his friends," he told his informant wearily, then gave Takashi a serious look, "But we still haven't searched all of the schools, now have we?" he asked, knowing that Takashi would get the meaning.

Takashi began shaking his head before he voiced his response, "And I still advise against that Naruto-san, it's too dangerous for you to infiltrate Kyoshou and Rakuyou by yourself, you'd be undertaking a suicide mission," he paused for a second to let the information sink in before continuing, "And I know what you're thinking about, and I still disagree even with that, if you tried finding informants from both schools, they're highly likely to turn on you and sell you out just to reap the benefits."

"I know, I know but for all I know one of them could be in either of them." Naruto argued.

"I know there's that possibility, but unless you've got a better idea on obtaining that info, I'll keep saying no," the raven haired boy said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose, then looked at the blonde dead in the eye, "We all owe you a great debt Naruto-san, you saved us, protected us, and gave us a purpose to live on when nearly all of us would have gladly just wanted to die. Even though you don't want us to, we would whole heartedly give our lives in order to protect you." He calmly stated.

"…Fine, we'll have it your way…for now, but if I get an opportunity I'm taking it." Naruto told him, then said goodbye to Takashi and left the store.

"…Heh, even though I'm against it, it was that same impulsive attitude of yours that ended up saving me." Takashi muttered as the memories of when he first met Naruto came flooding back to his mind.

Flashback

"You okay kid?" came a voice from above the badly injured Takashi who laid down sprawled over on a pile of trash, his dark brown eyes focused in on someone who was wearing a pair of torn up jeans and made their way up to see an orange and black jacket over a black shirt and went even father to see blue eyes staring back at him, a sly grin on his face with three whisker marks adorning each, making him seem more like a fox, and spiky blonde hair.

"Wh-Who are you?" Takashi managed to say before he winced in pain.

The boy let out an amused chuckle, "Me, I'm just the guy who saved your life from those Rakuyou punks." was his response, causing Takashi to look around and saw that it was true.

Sprawled around everywhere on the ground were the thirteen B-ranked toushi that had jumped him only a few minutes ago, each of them knocked out cold and looked heavily injured by the looks of them, while the blonde didn't even have a scratch on him.

"Wh-Why did you help me, you don't even know me and we aren't even from the same school, so why would you go out of your way to help a complete stranger?" he asked.

"Why? Well I couldn't just stand by and watch them kill you, now could I," the blonde stated as he crouched down and offered his hand to Takashi, "The names Naruto Uzumaki, what's your name?" he asked curiously.

Takashi looked at him for a moment before he took the hand and the blonde helped him up, "I'm Takashi Kurosaki, and thank you for your help Naruto-san." He thanked the blonde with a bow, only to get a flick to the forehead.

"Don't call me 'san', I'm only sixteen years old and it makes me feel old." The blonde shinobi told him as he made his way to leave the alley.

"I'm sorry but I won't, you saved me, and I owe you a great debt now." Takashi told him stubbornly as he followed Naruto.

At that, Naruto let out a sigh, "Fine call me whatever you want, but tell me why those idiots back there decided to jump you?" Naruto inquired.

"I've been trying to gather allies to rebel against Rakuyou, and apparently they found out about it, so they sent some of underlings to shut me up." the raven haired boy answered.

"So you're trying to defeat Toutaku too, eh?" Naruto asked as he suddenly stopped and gave the taller boy a calculating look and Takashi could only guess what he was thinking about.

"I was, but I should have realized that I was just being foolish, I should have never attempted to usurp Tou- "

"Hold your horses there Takashi," Naruto cut him off, "You had a great idea, you just went about it the wrong way, and you should keep trying, but do it more discreetly." He told him, his sly grin returning to his face.

"And how do you propose I do that?" Takashi asked.

"Join me," Naruto simply stated, "I creating an information network so I can find my friends and take down Rakuyou, and I'm thinking you'd make an excellent addition to it. So you in?"

Takashi just stood there, staring at him in bewilderment, the blonde had only just met him a few minutes ago and he was already acting as if they had been friends for a long time, not to mention he was asking him to join his organization even though they knew nothing about each other. Takashi had two thoughts come to his mind, either this guy was insane or he was a trusting idiot.

Still, Takashi couldn't help but smile, "You can count me in Naruto-san." he said.

Flashback end

Naruto walked through downtown as he thought over his plans about sneaking into Rakuyou or Kyoshou, and he didn't see what was so bad about it. Hell, none of the students could be at Nagato's level and Takashi was seriously underestimating his stealth skills when Naruto could hid from even Jonin level ninjas while he was wearing his orange jumpsuit.

Naruto was so lost in thought that he wasn't aware of his surroundings and accidentally bumped into a girl who was trying to run passed him and knocked her down. Naruto was instantly brought back down to earth and helped the girl back.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," he quickly apologized as he helped her up, taking notice that she was about his age and had long, orange hair with part of her bangs framing her face, green eyes, had a green magatama, and was wearing the uniform of a Nanyou Academy student's, which seemed to show off her rather large bust quite well, "She's pretty cute." the blonde thought, and he could've sworn he heard Ryūjin and Kyubi laughing from inside him.

"No it's fine, I wasn't really paying attention either," she said, then held her hand, "My name is Hakufu Sonsaku by the way, what's your name?" she asked as she looked the blonde over and couldn't help but blush a little, thinking was very handsome.

While on the outside Naruto looked completely calm, but on the inside he was more than a little surprised, "Well this is certainly a surprised, I wasn't expecting to meet Hakufu Sonsaku, but I might as well go along with it." he thought, while he shook hands with her, "Nice to meet you Hakufu, I'm Naruto Uzumaki." he introduced himself.

However, before either of them could continue with their conversation, someone new came up to them. It was a boy with short black hair, violet eyes, had a white magatama and was wearing the male uniform for Nanyou.

"Hakufu, what are you doing," the boy asked as he past them by, "C'mon, or we're going to be late for school." He told her as he kept running.

"Alright Koukin, I'm coming," Hakufu said before turning back to Naruto, "It was nice meeting you Naruto." She told him before she chased after the now identified Koukin.

Naruto just smiled as he watched the girl follow after her companion and turned around to make his way back to Seito, or he would have, if something hadn't noticed something happening out of the corner of his eyes.

Naruto watched as he saw a group of Rakuyou students dragging one of their own into a deserted alleyway and watched as they threw her to the ground and started kicking the poor girl while she curled herself up in a feeble attempt to protect herself.

"Why would they be attacking one of their own?" Naruto thought as he stealthy made his way up to the rooftop of the small building next to them and listen in on what they were saying.

"You think you can say whatever you want about Toutaku-sama and think you can get away with it, you bitch!" a bald guy with multiple piercings on his ears shouted at the her as he stomped on her stomach and listen to her gasp in pain.

"He's trying to put a stop to this endless cycle of war; you should be helping him in his conquest so that way we can all be free from this curse." A boy with dark brown hair stated as he watched his comrade continue attack the girl.

"Not to mention that it is our duty to follow as Rakuyou students to follow Toutaku-sama's orders no matter what," a black haired girl said while the last three guys of their little gang hovered over her, and from what Naruto could tell, she seemed to be the ringleader of the group, as she crouched down and roughly grabbed onto the girl's head before slamming it into the ground, "And we don't need anyone who doesn't want to follow orders, do we boys?" she asked in a sickly sweet voice that made Naruto want to gag.

"Right boss." the middle of the three said while the other two simply nodded their heads. All of them had shaved heads and wore white sleeveless shirts with black pants and they each had a white magatama.

"It seems that even a fraction of Rakuyou's power is shifting towards revolting against Toutaku, maybe I can use it to my advantage." Naruto thought, before turning his attention back to the group of six and what he heard them say made his blood boil.

"Hey Miyako-san, it'd be waste just to kill her like this, so can I have some fun with her before we kill her?" the guy with the piercings asked as he licked his lips while the girl only let out a whimper in response.

The girl, Miyako only smiled in response, "Go ahead and enjoy yourself, Hayate-kun." she told him, to which the now identified Hayate let out an evil cackle and began moving closer to the fallen girl.

However, before he could even touch her a yellow flash suddenly caught everyone's attention and Hayate was on the ground instantly and unconscious. Everyone looked up to see a figure with spiky blonde hair wearing a orange and black jacket with a red swirl on the back standing right beside the fallen Hayate, and that was when they felt an ominous aura coming from this person, like a predator who was about to lung at his prey.

Miyako was too stunned to even utter a single word. Hayate, who was one of the higher C-ranked toushi in Rakuyou, had been taken down by some unknown boy in one simple attack, and they weren't even able to see it. She was about regained her composure and yell at the others to apprehend the boy when she saw his blue eyes staring coldly at her with no hint of remorse and only pity in them. Then another yellow flash appeared and all of her had been taken out before she had even realized it and the last thing she knew before everything went black was a sharp pain that had suddenly came from her neck.

Naruto looked over the small group to make sure they were knocked out properly before he crouched down and tried to pick up the injured girl, although he had to put up with her feeble attempt to fight him off, "Don't worry, I'll take you somewhere safe." he told her in a soothing tone which caused the girl relax a bit, and weakly nod her head in agreement.

"W-Wh-Who ar-are you?" she managed to ask her savior while he picked her bridal style and placed her arms around his neck to give her more support.

"The names Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto told her, "Now let's get you out of here." and with that, the two disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto carefully laid the girl onto his bed as they suddenly appeared inside one of his safe houses in a swirl of leaves and looked over her too see how bad the injuries she had were. Thankfully, none of the wounds were life threatening, but the girl would have to stay in bed for about a couple of weeks, or at least she would have had to, if a certain blonde jinchuriki wasn't with her.

"Alright guys, you know what to do," Naruto told Kyubi and Ryūjin, with the dragon and the biju complying with their host and sending their energy to him, "Okay, don't go to fast and control the amount going in her and she'll be fine." Naruto thought as his hand hovered merely a few centimeters from the girl's chest and his hand began to glow a mixture of white and red energy.

While Naruto had learned a few things while he had been here, he still found this ability to be his best one hands down. He would combine Ryūjin's chi with Kyubi's chakra and would mix them into a sort of healing jutsu, with the chi directing the chakra over the parts of the body where Naruto wanted to heal and the chakra sending the appropriate amount to heal the wounds without potentially killing the patient.

One by one the wounds began to disappear and Naruto ended up getting a better look at the girl. She had long brown hair that went to the middle of her back and a part of it was tied to the right side of her head with a pink ribbon, and her eyes would flutter from time to time, revealing that they were a dark shade of blue. Height wise, she was maybe a few inches shorter than he was and was wearing the Rakuyou uniform, which showed of her excellent figure quite well and finally she was wearing her white magatama as a necklace like he was.

When the last of the wounds had vanished from the girl's body, Naruto retracted his hand and watched as her eyes began to open completely and focused in on the first thing she saw, which was him, "Yo, how ya feeling," he asked casually as she tried to sit up, but Naruto prevented this by placing his hand on her shoulder, "Woah there, I may have healed you, but give some time before you sit up." he advised her.

The girl gave a nod in understanding before let out a small cough, then watched as the boy who saved her get up and go to the refrigerator and take out a bottle of water, then came back and handed the bottle to her.

"T-Thank you Naruto-san, for s-saving me and t-taking care of me." she said with a slight stutter that reminded the blonde shinobi of Hinata.

"It was no trouble at all, especially when it comes to saving a beautiful in her time of need," Naruto said with a bright smile, which he immediately regretted saying because it sounded like one of Jiraiya's corny lines in his books, but it seemed to have an effect on her since her cheeks turned bright red and she began fiddling with her fingers, "So what's your name?" he asked.

The girl was silent for a moment before she took a deep breath to calm down and get her blush under control, then said, "I-I am Momona Amamiya, but everyone calls me Momo."

"Momo-chan, a cute name to go with a cute girl, eh," Naruto commented, which only caused Momo's face to turn a deep shade of red again because from being called cute and by the 'chan' suffix, while Naruto's expression turned more serious, "So tell me Momo-chan, you were trying to revolt against Toutaku, but why exactly?" he asked as he gave her his undivided attention.

"Because Toutaku doesn't care about breaking our fate in the slightest, he's only concerned about saving himself from the magatama's fate while he uses us like simple puppets for a means to an end," she stated bitterly as she remembered how she tried to convince her fellow students to abandon Toutaku, "I tried telling everyone that, but you saw firsthand what their reaction was." she said as she fiddled with her magatama.

"You'll need a lot more than just talking to them to make them believe you," Naruto told her, then gave her his trademark fox-grin, "But I can respect the fact that you are willing to fight against him, most people would've pissed themselves if they even thought about that." he said, which only caused Momo's blush to darken.

"T-Thank you, Naruto-san." she thanked him as she adverted her eyes from his gaze.

"It's nothing to thank me about, what I said was true because there aren't many people willing to stand up to Toutaku," Naruto told her as he leaned forward and laced his fingers together, he figured now was the time to ask her "Hey Momo-chan, there's something I want to ask you," this brought her attention back to him, "Has there been any new students that have transferred to Rakuyou in the past six months."

"Huh, why are you looking for someone Naruto-san," the brown haired girl asked, to which she recieved a nod in response. Momo began remembering if there was anyone new to Rakuyou, she knew there was someone, but she couldn't remember much and that was when she suddenly recalling that person's description, "I remember now, he was someone who transferred suddenly, and there was a lot a gossip about him because of his belongings and that his magatama was a really unusual one that no one had seen before." she told him.

"Really, tell me more about him, what does he look like, how does he normally act, and do you know his name?" he asked urgently and listened closely as Momo began describing the person and his grin slowly widened the more she told him, and when she told him the name, his only thought was, "Found 'em!"

Meanwhile, inside Naruto's mindscape Kyubi and Ryūjin looked at one another with big smirks on their faces as they said simultaneously, "And so the war begins..."

Well I hoped you liked it, I tried making the little cliff-hanger interesting for everyone, but I think I might have downplayed it a bit, but since it was actually my first one, I tried doing my best.

Onto characters, I'll be honest, I'm making up characters as I go along because I have no idea who all is in this manga, but I'm trying to fit them in here quite well, and I sort of got the inspiration from playing Assassin's Creed Brotherhood when Ezio recruits Assassins.

Pairings still indecided, but I'll try to fix that by the next chapter, see you next time!