Chapter 2: The Catalyst

Sasuke groaned as he slowly woke up and sat up in his bed. He immediately grabbed his head with his right hand when it started to throb in pain.

'Damn, how much did I drink last night?'

He blinked his eyes a few times to get used to the light, and once he was okay, he slid his legs over the side of the bed and sat there for a moment. He pushed himself up slowly, and shuffled his way into the kitchen, where he grabbed a pill and put it into a glass of water, dissolving it instantly. He gulped the water down, and placed the glass back on the table in a matter of seconds. Since the pill would take a few minutes to kick in, he decided he would go shower and get ready for the day. He had the day off, but he still wanted to get out of the house, after all, he wasn't allowed out past eight. Last night was an exception, seeing as it was a special occasion, and Tsunade had let it go, but he would have to go back to the way things were before now. He stripped himself of his clothes, realizing they were the same ones he wore last night, and turned the water on. He waited until it started to steam, and climbed in. As the pill started to kick in, and his head ache slowly became more bearable, he let the hot water flow down his back. He stood there for a few minutes, just letting the hot water soothe his body, until eventually he grabbed his body washed and poured some into his hand, and lathered it all over his body. He rinsed all of that off, and shampooed his hair next, and after that was clean he shut the water off. He grabbed a towel and dried himself, starting at his hair and working his way down. He stepped out of the shower and walked into his bedroom, and changed into his casual clothes; a black short sleeve shirt, navy pants, and his usual ninja sandals. It was still pretty warm, so he figured he could do without the jacket. He was about to leave when he saw something weird on his nightstand. He walked over and looked at what it was, and his eyes went wide when he saw them. There, on his nightstand, were four or five photos of him dancing with Ino. He shuffled through them and he groaned as he saw each one. He flipped the last one over, and there was a note on the back.

Hey Sasuke, looks like you had a hell of a time last night. Looks like you and alcohol aren't a good combination, although I'd say the opposite for you and Ino. And I'm surprised that you can control yourself that well when you're drunk. You looked like you were having a great time, so I figured you would want a keepsake of the event, so when you and Ino grow old together you can laugh at this. Oh, and by the way, I have extras.

Sasuke seethed as he read the sarcastic note. He quickly burnt them in his hand with his chakra as he stormed out of his house.

'Naruto, you better fucking hope I don't find you.'

XxX

Naruto was walking down the street with a huge grin plastered on his face. Early this morning, he had snuck into Sasuke's apartment and put his extra copies of the photos on his nightstand. Normally, Sasuke would have sensed him and almost killed him for breaking in, but he was in no condition to do that this morning. So he walked along and whistled, just waiting for the Uchiha to come and find him. Today, like most of the other ninja, he had the day off. He was going to find Sakura and bother her like he usually did, but she wasn't at her apartment. He figured she was at the hospital, so he decided to head there, and he was casually making his way there, enjoying one of the last warm days the Leaf Village would get this year.

"Naruto!"

Naruto winced as he heard he heard the angry shout behind him. He quickly bolted into an alleyway next to him, until he was cut off by Sasuke. He turned to run back, but another Sasuke was blocking his way.

"Damn, I shouldn't have taught you the Shadow Clone Jutsu."

"Where are they?" Naruto smirked.

"Where are what?" Sasuke threw a kunai at Naruto, who ducked under it quickly.

"Don't play fucking dumb with me loser, where the hell are they? You have about three seconds before I use my katana to cut your balls off." Naruto gulped, he could see that Sasuke might actually go through with his threat.

"C'mon Sasuke, I was just joking around, you don't have to freak out-" Naruto was cut off when Sasuke appeared in front of him with his katana, blade up, positioned under his manhood.

"Where are they?" Sasuke asked again impatiently. Naruto quickly pulled a few photos out of his pocket and handed them to Sasuke, who immediately burned them with his chakra. "Hn, thanks again loser." Sasuke turned to walk off, and when he jumped away, he never saw Naruto go poof. A few streets away, the real Naruto smiled and continued his walk to the hospital, humming a random tune as he strode down the path.

XxX

Sakura sat at her desk lazily. It was a slow day at the hospital, and she felt like she didn't really need to be there. But, Shizune had taken the day off, and it fell on her shoulders to run the hospital as Assistant Chief of Staff. She sighed as she filled out more troublesome paperwork, and she finally understood why Tsunade was appalled by it.

Knock Knock

She jumped as she heard the knock on her window, and turned around to see Naruto at the window, smiling and waving. She smiled as she got up and opened the window for him.

"Idiot, you scared the hell out of me." Sakura said as she smacked the back of his head. He laughed and rubbed where she hit. He looked at her outfit' it was her usual hospital outfit. She wore a long white coat with a Leaf Village symbol stitched on the right breast, and her name stitched on the left. Under that she wore her normal shinobi outfit, which consisted of a tight black sweater, short black shorts, and two black belts that lossely hung on her waist. Her weapons pouch was strapped to her bare skin on her thigh. "Haven't you ever heard of a door?"

"Aww c'mon Sakura-Chan, you love my spontaneous window visits." Naruto said as he sat in her chair and put his legs up on the desk. She walked over and gave him a second whack on the head.

"Get your feet off of my desk! This is my office Naruto, not a lounge. What are you doing here anyway?" Naruto took his feet off the desk and grinned widely.

"I just came to see my best friend! For the past ten minutes you've looked pretty damn bored, so I decided to come and cheer you up!"

"You've been spying on me?" Naruto shook his head.

"No, I was coming to visit you, but when I saw you doing work I stopped to see if you were too busy. You looked really bored, and then that's when I knocked on the window!" Naruto explained with a smile plastered on his face. Sakura smiled back and sat down in her chair.

"Yea, it's really slow today. And I have to do all of this paperwork because Shizune-Sempai isn't here today. Now I know why Tsunade-Shishou drinks sake." Naruto laughed as he flipped through some of the paperwork.

"Well then let's go out. This stuff doesn't look all that important anyway."

"Naruto, I can't just go out in the middle of the day. I have a job to do."

"Sure you can! Right now, you're the boss right? So go make someone else do the paperwork."

"I can't do that Naruto."

"Why not?"

"Because it's my job to do it. If I could give it to someone else I would have pawned it off as soon as I got here this morning."

"Well, then at least come get breakfast with me."

"Breakfast? It's eleven-thirty."

"I know, but I got up kinda late, and then you weren't at your apartment, so I decided to walk here, but then on the way I had a run-in with Sasuke, and boy was he pissed, and now I'm here. So, let's go." Naruto was about to jump out the window when Sakura grabbed his arm.

"I told you already, I can't just leave."

"Don't you get a lunch break?" Sakura nodded. "Okay, then c'mon! And hurry up, I'm hungry." With that, Naruto jumped out the window and landed on the ground, surprising the citizens that were near him. Sakura sighed as she shut her window. She organized all of the paperwork into a neat pile, and walked out of her office, shutting the door behind her. She exited the hospital to see Naruto leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and head down.

"You look like Sasuke when you do that." Naruto looked up and frowned.

"That's not nice Sakura-Chan. I don't look like the bastard at all." Sakura giggled as Naruto got off the wall and started walking. Sakura fell into step by his side.

"So let me guess, Ichiraku's?" Naruto nodded with a smile. "Of course, where else would we go?" Sakura said sarcastically.

"Nowhere, Ichiraku's is the best!" Naruto exclaimed. Sakura shook her head as they continued walking. When they reached the ramen bar, Naruto held the flap open for Sakura, and she stared at him in surprise.

"Since when do you have manners?"

"What, I'm not allowed to be a nice guy for once? I'm not as heartless as the bastard." Sakura laughed as they walked into the stand and sat down at the bar. Ayame smiled as she saw the two sit down.

"Hello Naruto, Sakura what can I get you."

"One miso and one vegetable." Naruto said. Ayame nodded and walked back into the kitchen to make it.

"How did you know I wanted vegetable?" Sakura asked.

"Because you always get vegetable." Naruto said with a smile.

"Do I?"

"Yep. I don't know why though, I mean even though it's ramen, it's still vegetable ramen." Sakura scoffed.

"Because it's healthy you idiot."

"Who cares about that?"

"I do, and you should. You're a ninja for crying out loud. You need to have a healthy body."

"But Sakura-Chan, I am healthy!" Naruto exclaimed with a pout.

"Naruto, your diet is ramen and occasionally milk. That is absolutely NOT healthy." Ayame came back with the two bowls of ramen, and Naruto dug in immediately. Sakura shook her head at started eating hers in a more civilized way. After about ten seconds, Naruto brought his head up and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. Sakura didn't bother to stare at him in shock; she had seen this many times before. However, this didn't change the fact that it was ridiculous he could finish a bowl of ramen that quickly. "Idiot, one day you're going to choke and die, and I'm going to have to be the one to save your ass."

"But you would want to save my ass. Imagine a day without me in your life. You would be so bored!" Sakura thought about it for a second, and she realized that Naruto was probably right. The blonde did make her day a lot livelier. Back when he was on his training mission all those years ago, the Leaf Village was insanely quiet and boring. Sure, she would occasionally meet up with her kunoichi friends for some girl time, but that was rare. Most of her time was devoted to training, missions, or the hospital. Without Naruto her life would be woefully dull. So instead of retorting like she usually would by calling him an idiot, she just smiled.

"Yea, you're probably right Naruto." When she said that, he actually did choke on his ramen. After a small coughing fit, he looked at Sakura, who was just eating her ramen silently.

"You really mean that Sakura-Chan?" He definitely wasn't expecting that answer. He was expecting the usual 'idiot' followed by a bonk to the head.

"Yep." She replied curtly, after finishing her bowl. She reached into her pocket to fish out her wallet, but Naruto grabbed her wrist.

"No Sakura-Chan, I got it."

"But-"Naruto shook his head and pulled out his frog shaped wallet. He gave Ayame the right amount, and stuffed the novelty wallet back into his pocket. Sakura shook her head as she waited for the blonde to pay. "You really didn't have to do that." Naruto looked at her and frowned.

"Of course I did. What kind of guy doesn't pay for his date?" Sakura shook her head.

"It wasn't a date idiot."

"I know, but I still wanted to pay for you." He replied as he put his hands behind his head. They walked back to the hospital mostly in silence, and when they reached the entrance they said goodbye.

"What are you going to do now?" Sakura asked. Naruto shrugged.

"Not sure. Ero-Sennin gave me some scrolls on Fuinjutsu, so I figured I would study that. He wanted me to learn it. He said it was my birthright, whatever the hell that means." Sakura was a little surprised. Fuinjutsu was one of the toughest things to learn, let alone master. Jiraiya was the only seal master that the Leaf Village had at the moment, the last one being the Fourth Hokage.

"Fuinjutsu is tough Naruto. Do you think you'll be able to get it?" Naruto shrugged again.

"I dunno, but I've already figured out how to make simple things like exploding tags and storage scrolls. Right now, I'm working on putting seals onto my arms that store kunai and shuriken. It would be really convenient to be able to fight without a weapon pouch."

"You can do that?" Sakura was shocked at the knowledge Naruto had about Fuinjutsu. He seemed a lot more sophisticated when he talked about it.

"Ero-Sennin says you can do almost anything with seals. It's really complicated stuff, and I'm having a hard time with it because he can't be here to actually teach me. The only things I have are a few journals and notebooks written by both Ero-Sennin and the Fourth Hokage."

"You have things written by the Fourth? How?"

"He was Ero-Sennin's student, remember? He said that he took the notes when he left the village after the Nine-Tails attack because he wanted to learn all of the things the Fourth had learned. Apparently the Fourth was better than Ero-Sennin."

"That's incredible. I had no idea you were even studying it." Naruto scratched his head.

"Well, I haven't been for that long. But Ero-Sennin says I'm a natural at it. It's really tough though, and I haven't gotten passed the simple things. Hopefully I can make some progress today, seeing as I have all day. Although, I do want to get some training in later. Do you think Kakashi-Sensei would mind?" Sakura marveled at Naruto. His work ethic was so intense, and he always wanted to make himself better. She would have never guessed he would be studying one of the most, if not the most, complex forms of Jutsu out there. And on top of that, he still wanted to train.

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind. And, I bet he would know something about Fuinjutsu too. After all, the Fourth was his sensei." Naruto had a blank expression, until his eyes widened and a huge grin stretched across his face.

"That's a great idea Sakura-Chan!" Naruto hugged Sakura quickly, and sprinted down the street towards his apartment. Sakura sighed as she stepped back in the hospital, for what was sure to be a boring and slow day.

XxX

Naruto burst into his apartment, excited about his training. If he was lucky, Kakashi would decide to not be lazy and actually train him, for once.

'The chances of that happening are the same as Shikamaru thinking Ino is manageable.'

Naruto snickered at his thought, and quickly grabbed his Fuinjutsu notes, some blank sealing paper, and his sealing ink. He sealed them into a storage scroll, put it in his pocket, and eagerly exited his apartment. He ran to his old training grounds, expecting to see Kakashi at the memorial stone. He was right, as he landed on the ground, his sensei staring at the memorial stone blankly.

"Naruto, what brings you here?" Kakashi asked without turning his head. Naruto walked up next to him, staring the stone as well.

"I was wondering if you would help me with something." Kakashi turned to Naruto and gave him a quizzical look, or what was considered one for him, with three-fourths of his face covered.

"What is it?"

"Fuinjutsu." Kakashi's eye widened for a moment, until he smiled.

'Just like his father.'

"Well, I'm no seal master, but I guess I could try and help you. What do you need help with?" Naruto pulled out his sealing scroll, and quickly unsealed the contents. "Did you make that yourself?" Naruto nodded.

"Yea. Ero-Sennin gave me a bunch of his and the Fourth's notes, and told me I should look into Fuinjutsu. I've gotten the basics down, like exploding tags and sealing scrolls, but I can't seem to get anything else. It's all really confusing."

"Well, what else were you planning on doing?" Kakashi asked in interest.

"Well, I was thinking of maybe putting seals on my arms for kunai and shuriken, you know kinda like how Sasuke does it with his snakes. But I don't understand the chakra mechanics, and I'm really not sure what symbols to use." Kakashi nodded and took one of the notebooks.

"Well, this is some pretty complicated stuff. Have you tried doing what you did on the scrolls onto your arm? That usually works." Naruto shook his head.

"The scroll has a pretty small storage capacity, definitely not enough to hold kunai or shuriken. It barely had enough room to hold all of the stuff I brought."

"I see. Do any of the notebooks say anything about body seals?"

"Not that I've seen. Body seals are some of the most complex, at least that's what Ero-Sennin told me. I even tried studying my seal a little, but I didn't want to really mess with it, you know for obvious reasons."

"The seal on your stomach is highly complex. Not many people know the details of how the Fourth created it."

"Yea, Ero-Sennin said the same thing. He said that he didn't really understand the whole thing, and he's a seal master. I've been able to analyze it a little, but not anything that could be helpful. Like for instance, I know that this is the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style, and that it's ridiculously complicated. I remember when Orochimaru used the Five Elements Seal to completely screw up my chakra control, but other than that, I have no way of analyzing it. I really want to be able to make the seal stronger, in case I ever lose control. But I can't as of right now." Naruto explained. Kakashi was a little stunned Naruto had so much knowledge, but he wasn't the son of Minato and the student of Jiraiya for nothing.

"Yes, that is all correct. Not all seals are compatible with each other, like how the Five Elements Seal reacted with your seal. The reason that the Five Elements Seal isn't compatible with the Eight Trigrams Style is because in sealing, even and odd numbers don't mix." Kakashi explained. "Maybe, if you experiment with other seals, you may be able to find one that is compatible with the Eight Trigrams Style. As for what I can teach you, I know a little of body seals, along with storage seals, element seals, very basic Eight Trigrams Style."

"Didn't you seal the curse mark on Sasuke's back too?" Kakashi nodded.

"Yes, that was the Evil Sealing Method. It can seal off Jutsu induced marks on a person's body. It takes a lot of time to set up for the seal, as the person who is being sealed must be in a circle of seal drawings." Naruto nodded.

"I never got to see what you did with him; you took him away right after his match. Wait, so the Curse Seal is a style of sealing right?"

"Yes it is, although I do not know how it works. Orochimaru is the only man I know of to use the Curse Seal." Naruto scowled, but quickly changed his expression.

"Whatever, all of that stuff is really complicated. I'll get to it eventually. Right now, I need help with this stuff." Kakashi nodded, and they got to work. For the next two hours, Naruto and Kakashi went over their options in how to make a working storage seal on Naruto's forearm for kunai and shuriken. They had finally figured out that in order to make the storage capacity larger, they needed to insert a few more specific seals into the drawing, as well as make it a reverse summoning seal, which increased the chakra amount used, therefore increasing the storage space. Before they put it onto Naruto's arm, they tested the seal on some sealing paper, and they were successful. So, for the last half hour, Naruto carefully drew the seals onto each forearm, the left for shuriken and the right for kunai. He even figured out how to unseal them without making hand signs, which would become most useful in a battle.

"Hey Kakashi-Sensei, you wanna spar. I could use a workout, and I would like to test my seals." Kakashi nodded, and they moved away from their position on the memorial stone, over to the training field. Kakashi drew a kunai, and Naruto immediately summoned three shuriken and launched them at Kakashi. He deftly deflected all of them, while Naruto made three Shadow Clones, each summoning a kunai. They charged at him head on, and engaged him in hand-to-hand combat. Kakashi easily kept up with them, and dispelled two after a few precise slices, leaving only two Narutos left. He slashed one in the arm, causing it to dispel, and he clashed with the second one, believing it to be the real Naruto. He got in a slash at Naruto's chest, but that Naruto vanished in a puff of smoke. Kakashi's eye widened as two more Narutos jumped at him from behind grabbing his arms. A third Naruto, this time the real one, came flying in with a punch aimed at Kakashi's face. When he made contact, Kakashi puffed into smoke, and a hand reached up from underground, grabbing the real Naruto's ankle. Naruto yelped as he was pulled underground, with only his head above the surface. Kakashi jumped up and gave Naruto an eye smile, to which Naruto huffed at.

"You're good Naruto, but you still can't beat me. Although, Naruto, you did almost manage to get me with the Shadow Clones. And the seals were a success." Kakashi interjected as he pulled Naruto out of the ground. Naruto rubbed his neck and nodded.

"Yea, they did work pretty well. That makes things a hell of a lot easier for me. I think I'm going to go home now Kakashi-Sensei, thanks for everything." Kakashi nodded, and shunshined away with a swirl of leaves.

'I wonder if he ever just walks around like a normal person.' Naruto thought as he shoved his hands in his pockets. He walked away from the training field and made his way back to the village at a mild pace. It was still nice out, and he was content with enjoying the weather on his way home. He was satisfied with the progress he made on his Fuinjutsu today, and he felt like he was really starting to get the hang of it. Naruto decided that he deserved a good dinner, so he made his way to Ichiraku's. Walking down the all too familiar path, he ran into two of his friends.

"Choji! Shikamaru!" The two ninja turned around to see the blonde ninja waving at them. He quickly ran up to them and fell into step beside them.

"Hey Naruto, what are you doing here?" The Akimichi asked as he munched on some potato chips.

"I was on my way to Ichiraku's after some training. You guys wanna join me?" Choji nodded furiously while Shikamaru said it wouldn't be too troublesome. So the three men made their way to the ramen stand. When they arrived, Naruto announced his presence.

"Hey Old Man, I'm back!" Teuchi looked up from his pot of noodles and smiled.

"It seems you are Naruto, oh and you brought friends. How are you Choji, Shikamaru?" The friends greeted Teuchi, and they all placed their orders; Naruto's and Choji's significantly bigger than Shikamaru's.

"So, what were you two up to today?" Naruto asked while waiting for the ramen.

"We just came back from a mission today." Shikamaru answered lazily.

"Really? It must have been tough if they sent both of you out."

"Jiraiya-Sama had located another one of Orochimaru's bases, and we were sent to destroy it. As of now, Orochimaru has one less base than he did a week ago." Naruto nodded.

"Wow that sounds like a great mission. I haven't been on a tough mission in a while. In fact, the last decent fight I had was against Sasuke. Missions are just too easy nowadays." Naruto complained.

"That's because you are insanely troublesome." Shikamaru quipped with a grin. Naruto pouted.

"You know, you'd think after five years you would have grown out of that word." Choji laughed at his friends bickering, and then Teuchi came back with the ramen. Choji and Naruto dug in immediately, while Shikamaru took the more civil approach. After ten minutes the ramen stand held three full Jonin and a substantially larger amount of money. After paying, the three ninja split up and went to their respective houses for some rest.

XxX

A man with a black cloak that covered every inch of his body stealthily made his way through the streets of The Village Hidden in the Mist. Evading the simpletons of Hidden Mist was all too easy for the Jonin, and he made it look like child's play. He snuck past a lazy guard who stood at the entrance to the highest security prison in the Mist Village, and quietly descended to the lowest level of the prison, where they kept their S-Class criminals. It was supposed to be a fortress no one could breach, but the man had just easily proved that wrong. He was here to free a man who was at one point one of Mist's more dangerous Missing Nin before they caught him. With this man, he could fan the flames of war across the land, and his master would take over the ninja world. He approached the door that was the only obstacle between him and his target. There were no guards posted, as the Hidden Mist didn't think anyone would be able to get this far.

'Hmph, Mist is getting soft. It's all the Godaime Mizukage's fault. She's too soft to be a ninja. She needs to be…removed.' The man's hands glowed blue with chakra, and he cut the door open in one slice. Upon entering, he saw his target chained to the wall, with chakra suppression seals surrounding him. The cloaked man disabled the seals and cut the chains, freeing the man.

"Zoronmaru Mizushi. My master would like to make a deal with you." The man known as Zoronmaru stood up and rubbed his wrists. He stood at a towering six foot nine inches tall, and was only clothed in a ripped up robe.

"Hmm, I guess I will speak to your master for freeing me. But first, tell me your name." The cloaked man pulled back his hood to reveal his face.

"I'm Kabuto Yakushi."

XxX

A/N: Oh damn! Orochimaru is at it again. It seems he has plans for this Zoronmaru character, who is an OC by the way, although I'm sure you could have guessed that. His last name loosely means "water death" although it really probably means something like "death of the water". At this point I'm babbling about a language I know absolutely zilch about, so I'll shut up. Anyway, he will be elaborated on in the future, and he will play a substantially large role, but we just have to wait and see what that is eh? Also, I hope the stuff I said about Fuinjutsu made sense. I tried researching it a little to get to know it better so I didn't sound like a complete idiot, but I dunno how well that's gonna work. Anyway hoped you liked the chapter. I would like to say that if you have any questions regarding the story leave them in your reviews and I will respond to them here. But I won't respond to individual reviews, too troublesome 8D. Peace.