Hey guys, it's Trake again, coming back to you for the next new great chapter of my Naruto story, "Of Mice and Men" hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: Don't own anything.
Anyways, on with the story. And, for some reason my page breaks didn't show up ;; so I'll have to think of something new.
Like this!
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It has been eight months since Naruto has begun his training with Soujuro. Naruto has progressed rapidly, and has mastered many jutsus. He is much more fit to be a ninja now than he was before. In the beginning of his training, Soujuro taught Naruto how to do deal with his gravity seals, and how to use the simple jutsu like kawarimi and bunshin no jutsus. After he was finished with these, he trained Naruto in charka control and charka capacity, and worked on his taijutsu while wearing the weights and having the gravity seals active. This took a little more than a month, before Soujuro brought Naruto into his previously hidden basement.
(flashback)
"Naruto, do you see those scrolls on the far wall? Every single one of those contains one or two of the jutsus that I know. I would like for you to start mastering them, but first look in the scroll that you brought with you. Learn those, and come back to me when you are done."
(end flashback)
Naruto learned the three techniques in the scroll with relative ease, and came back to Soujuro in one week. From there, Soujuro introduced Naruto to the elements, and taught him the basics. Naruto excelled in wind, and was pretty good in lightning, whereas everything else was just about average level. In the next five months, Soujuro taught Naruto every wind type move he knew, along with every lightning type and a few of the other types. After Naruto mastered everything he could, Soujuro said that Naruto was ready, and they sparred 16 hours a day, every day, had one hour combined for eating (and the occasional bathroom break) and slept for seven hours. We arrive right now, two months after they started this routine, outside of Soujuro's house in the field.
"Naruto, I think you're ready to move on to the second level of your gravity seals. You mastered the first level faster than I thought you could, and now look where you are! Before you advance to the next level, I need to give you a couple quick tests. First, jump as high as you can," Naruto complied to Soujuro's request instantly, and jumped almost 60 feet in the air. "Good, you've got that down. Now, lift up this boulder," He pointed at a large boulder next too him that was almost as tall as he was and just as wide, "and carry it over to the tree line."
Naruto walked over to the boulder, and, after some confusion as to how to get his hands under it, struggled a bit but managed to lift the boulder. Then, with much more ease than the earlier feat, carried the boulder over to the tree line and dropped it.
"Good, you pass. Now, to increase your gravity seals to level two, I'm going to do it for you, but after I do it your body will remember how I did it and you'll be able to do it by yourself!" Soujuro walked up to Naruto, who was sitting on a stump, and put two fingers to his head. Soujuro's fingers began to glow, before Soujuro encountered something strange.
"Hey, you, human, what are you doing in here? How dare you impugn on my sleep! I'd have eaten you if I wasn't trapped in this god-forsaken brat!" A growl and two menacing eyes in front of him notified Soujuro that this thing that was talking to him wasn't Naruto conscience.
"Who are you, and what are you doing in Naruto's body? I'm quite sure Naruto didn't mention anything about being a jinkuurichi," Soujuro stated, although he already knew now that Naruto must have held secrets even he didn't know about.
"I am the great nine-tailed fox, Kyuubi no Kitsune! I've been trapped in this kid for 13 years because of the fourth Hokage who sealed me in this infernal boy!" Kyuubi was growing noticeably angrier with every word he spoke, and Soujuro backed away quickly.
"Well, you know, as much as I'd like to stay, I only came here to increase this kids gravity seals. For now, you should take a look at your container's skills; he is becoming more and more powerful every day. Actually, I'm in a good mood, I think I'll give you a rare opportunity," Soujuro walked up to the cage the Kyuubi was in and touched the seals with chakra in his fingertips, and altered it. "There, now you can communicate directly with Naruto. Talk to him sometime, he seems very lonely."
With that, Soujuro removed his fingers from Naruto's forehead, and the gravity seals on his back spread further along his back. Naruto again fell to the ground, and could not move.
"Same thing as last time kid, when you make it inside you can have a break the rest of the day. For now, I have a mission from my organization, something about an Orochimaru fellow that I am supposed to check out. I'll be gone a few days, but you should be training while I am gone. See you later, kid." Soujuro jumped past the tree line and was gone in minutes, while Naruto lay stiff on the ground without moving at all.
"Man, this is even harder than last time. Although, I guess it should be because my weights are all almost 50 pounds now. Well, time to get to work." Naruto crawled about one foot after ten minutes and decided it was hopeless, before a voice startled him.
"Hah, that man tells me my vessel is getting stronger and all I've seen you do is crawl slowly across that ground. Come on you ingrate stand up and walk, it's not that hard." Kyuubi prodded Naruto from inside with a bit of charka and Naruto visibly flinched.
"Who the hell are you? And where are you? I can hear you and sense your charka, but I can't see you at all!"
"Wow, weak and stupid too. I'm the Kyuubi, brat, and you can't see me 'cause I'm sealed in your body!"
"What?! But…the Kyuubi was killed by the Fourth, everyone knows that."
"Look brat, that man couldn't kill me if I was blindfolded and stood stock still. Instead, he used this cheap trick to seal me into you! And by the way, you don't have to talk out loud for me to hear you, I'm inside you I can hear your thoughts."
'Oh. Well, I guess that's not horrible, but is that why all the villagers hated me? I could never understand why I had no friends, but I guess it's because all the parents thought I was a demon…' Naruto sulked on the ground, but continued to slowly inch forward.
"Yeah, well, we'll just kill them all eventually, ok? For now, you're pathetic. Hurry up and get used to this weight so I can start to train you." At this Naruto's eyes got wide, and then he smiled a bit.
'You're really going to train me? That's amazing, being trained by both you and Soujuro-sensei will help be even stronger! Thanks fox.' And, for the next few hours, the fox watched as Naruto inched, crawled, and eventually walked the last few feet into Soujuro's house before falling onto a couch in amazement. Looking at the table in front of him, Naruto saw an object of relative unimportance normally, but at the moment it had a note over it from Soujuro-sensei.
"Congratulations on making it inside, Naruto. Since I will be gone for the next few days, maybe even a week, I have left you this weapon to train with. There are some scrolls in the basement that will help you learn how to use it. Good luck, my apprentice."
Naruto looked quizzically at the object. It looked to him like a bottle opener, except the serrated edges came on the outside of the object.
(For anyone wondering, this particular object looks like this basically: -- and the serrated blades would be on the outside of the v shaped part instead of on the inside(If part of that image doesn't show up, it looks like (dash)(dash)(less-than symbol)))
"What is this?" Naruto asked himself mostly, but the answer still came.
"That is a wind-type weapon. It's like a giant fan for wind, but compacted. If I am right, which I always am, that one is the legendary Black Sickle that the second Kazekage used during the great ninja war. I wonder how that man got a hold of it," Kyuubi mused.
Naruto walked downstairs with it, and fetched the scrolls before returning upstairs to read through them. After getting any hand seal or chakra amount down, he jogged outside and used them, one after another. They weren't that hard to master, but with his current skill at them they probably weren't as powerful as they should be. After a few hours of exhausting work, he ran to his room, closed the door, and fell straight into a deep sleep.
'Heh, this kid really is something. He didn't even notice that in only one day he can already sprint with the second level of gravity seals on. Then, he goes and gets a legendary weapon, and can now use all of its techniques. This kid is either a genius, or incredibly determined. Also, I can feel that he has an evil presence in the bottom of his heart from how the villagers treated him. Something tells me that this is going to be an interesting life.' And with that, the great fox falls asleep as well.
Over the next few days, Kyuubi taught Naruto all about his true gifts as an Uzumaki and a Jinkuurichi. Naruto finds out through his heritage that the Fourth was his father, and that his father was the last Uzumaki alive aside from Naruto himself. He was then enlightened about the only bloodline limit that could only be unlocked by the user through hate and despair. Kyuubi decided that Naruto had enough of that, even if he didn't know it, and activated Naruto's bloodline limit by sending powerful demon hatred into the boys heart fro a couple of minutes.
After the change was complete, Naruto didn't feel any different, but anyone watching would notice that Naruto's hair had grown out a bit, Naruto had grown a couple of inches, and he had bulked up a little. However, if anyone didn't notice any of that, they would still surely notice his eyes. His eyes, instead of being a bright azure color, were lime green, with five triangular points coming in from the outer iris, coming to a point just outside of his still black pupil.
"The name of your bloodline limit is the Fuzengan, or Evil Eye. It has many abilities, but you will have to discover them for yourself. For now, I'm going to make you a scroll. I'll have to take over your body for a few, but I won't do anything drastic." Kyuubi does just as he said, and makes a scroll for Naruto with three different kinjutsu. After he was finished, he returned to Naruto's body. "It takes me a lot of strength to take over your body like that, so I'm going to take a nap. Learn those jutsu while I sleep and we wait for that man to return." Naruto did just that.
For one week, Naruto learned the first jutsu, and attempted to find the abilities of his Fuzengan. The only ability he found during this time was the ability to see through objects up to a certain distance, although that distance was only about 20 meters it was still useful. He went outside to train today only to find a peculiar unrecognizable man outside of his door. Naruto immediately noticed his forehead protector, which had the same symbol as Soujuro's.
"Who are you and what are you doing in Soujuro-san's house?" The strange man questioned of Naruto.
"I am Soujuro-sensei apprentice, Uzumaki Naruto. Now, who are you and what are you doing here?"
"My name is not important, but I am sorry to say that your sensei, Soujuro-san, was killed by Orochimaru during his last mission. I am here to collect his stuff, but if you are living here then I guess I do not have to."
Naruto's eyes went wide, and he ran out of the house into the forest to think about what he was just told
'Is sensei really…dead? No, I can't believe it, I won't believe it! He was way to strong to die to some random ninja! He said he'd be back, I know he'll be back! He has to come…back…he has to…' Naruto collapsed on a tree branch, and tears began to swell up in his eyes.
"Kid. Even if he is dead, why cry? Instead, use your rage and power and go kill that fool who killed him! We should go train, become as strong as we can be and go kill that freak!" Kyuubi cheered him on. 'Of course, then we'll be strong enough and he'll be evil enough to rule…we'll kill everyone! Nothing will stand in our way once he becomes as evil as me!' The fox thought in the background.
"You're right. Kyuubi, I need you to help me train. I'll become much stronger than that Orochimaru freak, and even stronger than sensei. Where should we go to train?"
"We're going to head off to the Land of the River, a supposedly non-shinobi country that holds the hidden hideouts of most underground organizations. There we will wander until we find an organization worthy of our power. However, to know that you aren't a village shinobi in disguise, you need to find a forehead protector and make a slash mark along its symbol. Got any ideas where to get one?"
"No…wait, back when I first met sensei, he saved me from some lightning ninja, and saved the forehead protectors. Maybe he still has them! Let's get back to his house and check it out."
When they reached Soujuro's house, the man from earlier was gone, and Naruto descended the stairs to the secret basement. He opened the door in the room he hadn't gone into before, only to find a small broom closet lined with forehead protectors from every shinobi he had killed.
"Well, I am most proficient in wind jutsu, so I should probably take one of their forehead protectors if I want to remain undercover. This one looks too new…this one is too beat up…this one is perfect! Time to head out," Naruto finally decided. He took Black Sickle and sliced a line through the wind symbol, before wrapping the forehead protector directly around his eyes, knowing he could see through it anyways.
"Ok brat, since we're on the border of Grass and Fire, head straight south and we'll come to River Country. Wake me when we arrive." And the fox's voice disappeared in a deep sleep.
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After a day and a half of slow paced travel, Naruto arrives in River Country and finds a cave to stay in. After he unpacks his stuff, he finds a few supplies hurriedly left behind by the last traveler.
'I wonder…did he leave when I got here? What's he running from? Maybe I should check it out,' the young shinobi pondered. He immediately took off from the cave, and his instincts guided him in the right direction through the forests. When he reached a large clearing, he sees the runaway ninja going a different direction, and he follows him at an increased speed. After avoiding traps the other nin had set, Naruto finally caught up to him, and tackled him off of a branch.
"Who are you?" Naruto questioned the nin.
"What do you mean? If you're from Akatsuki, you should know! Wait…are you even from Akatsuki?"
"No, what's Akatsuki?"
"Hah, yes! I'm still free!" A surprised Naruto was knocked back and the enemy ninja jumped away. Naruto watched as he moved one step, two steps, three steps, and was sliced in half down the middle.
"Aaaaaaaah!!!!" The enemy nin was dead before he hit the ground. Two other ninja's appeared next to him. Both ninja's wore black cloaks with red clouds at random places on the cloak. The one on the left was blue, and looked like a shark with a headband from the hidden village of the mist with a slash through it. The other wore a straw hat over his face, and had a bloody sword drawn.
"Well well, Itachi, look like we got a sand nin who tracked this guy down. What's your name, kid?" The tall Blue one asked.
"U…I don't have a name. What about you two, who are you?" Naruto stuttered, but regained composure sensing these two's amazingly high chakra signatures.
"Hoshigaki Kisame. My partner is Uchiha Itachi," Naruto flinched a bit at his name, wondering why anyone related to Sasuke would become a missing-nin, "and we're members of Akatsuki. Why were you after Aoi over here?"
"I wasn't so much after him as I was curious. I noticed he left some belongings in the cave I was headed to very quickly, and wondered what he was running from. I guess it was you guys, then? What about you, why were you after this guy?"
Itachi was the one to speak this time, "That is none of your concern. However, you seem to be unaffiliated, and a missing nin at the same time, although I doubt if you are actually from the Land of the Wind. How about you join up in Akatsuki's army? Truth to be told, me and Kisame were supposed to be finding people to be in our particular squad, but you're the first missing nin we've run across."
"Akatsuki…why should I join? What do you guys do?"
"Well, everything really. Our leader sends us off on certain missions, we don't know much about it all but we certainly get enough money for it. So what do ya say? If you try it out and don't like it, that's alright, you can just quit. Of course, if you do, we'll have to kill you, but it's no big deal for us." Kisame replied, a smirk coming to his face.
"Hah, sounds like you guys aren't real friendly with your disciples. But, I'm actually quite curious about this Akatsuki. I was planning on joining some sort of organization, running around by myself isn't all that it's cracked up to be." Naruto agreed.
"Fine, follow us. We'll get you your uniform today and give you a quick tour of the place. It's not too luxurious, but you learn to like it."
After a little over an hour of travel, the three landed next to a big boulder at a river. They looked around, and after confirming no one was there, Kisame walked up to the seal on the boulder and placed his ring against it.
"Kai!" Kisame backed away as the boulder split to reveal a huge cavern entrance. "This is the entrance hall…not really important, but any tournaments or ranking battles are held here. Come on, We got to get you checked up with the leader."
They walked through a set of wooden doors to find what Naruto called a throne room, with another person sitting on a high throne in the middle, wearing the same cloak as Kisame and Itachi.
"Who's this brat? Did you guys finally pick someone out for your squad?" the man had his face hidden by a half golden half silver theatrical mask with ornate designs on each side and two eye holes. The silver half was frowning, the gold half smiling.
"He doesn't have a name; he's a missing nin who wishes to join us. He tracked down Aoi before we could. We decided we should finally make a squad. Alright with you?"
"Fine. We'll call him…Hitokage(Soul). Get him to a room. You're dismissed." With that, Kisame and Itachi bowed, and Naruto soon followed. They got up, turned around, and left the room.
"Ok, kid, we're getting you a room in G pod. That's my pod, and it also contains the training room. Other things of interest, the scroll room is in B pod, Itachi's room is in D pod, and the library is also in D pod. The pool is in E pod, and finally our squad room is in F pod. We'll meet in F pod tomorrow at 0700 hours ok? Good." While they were talking, they had reached Naruto's room, Kisame went right after that, and Itachi turned around and went back the way they came.
"So…I've got time to explore. But, I think I might just rest it out, no use in wasting all my energy now." And with that, Naruto went to sleep. Little did he know, the next four months would be harsh at best.
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Four months later
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"Hito, we have your first mission as squad leader. Ready for it?" Itachi had begun to use Naruto's nickname a lot, and sometimes Naruto would forget that it was his name. After four months, Itachi and Kisame had gathered four more missing nins who would serve under Naruto, and they stood right in front of him.
On the right was a twenty year old missing nin from the mist who had green hair tied back in a ponytail, along with a thick scar along his left eye. The next one was a female from Cloud who had black hair and a nasty attitude. Standing straight and tall was the strongest of the four under Naruto, who was another missing Cloud nin who was about 16. His short spiked red hair was covered at the moment by his straw hat. The last nin was the only nin not from one of the top five shinobi nations, another black haired kid from Star Country.
"Your mission is relatively simple. Go to the chuunin exam finals and find Sabaku no Gaara. Sound is planning an invasion of Konoha, and that kid is a jinkuurichi. Make sure he lives. If he dies, our plan to gather all of the tailed beasts will fail completely. You are dismissed, leave immediately. Hitokage will be leading this mission. Oh, and if you see the other living Uchiha…Uchiha Sasuke, tell him his dear older brother says hello." Itachi formed a tiger seal in his right hand and disappeared.
"Well, you guys get your gear together and meet me in the entrance hall in 30 minutes. We'll move out immediately. I don't want to miss any of the action." Naruto smirked beneath his cloak and donned his straw hat. All that you could see of him between the cloak and the hat was his slashed forehead protector covering his eyes.
He headed back to his room quickly, and rearmed himself with kunai, shurikens, and the Black Sickle. He placed an empty scroll, some wire, and a few explosive notes in there as well. As a last thought, he slipped the ring he got for being a squad leader on his left middle finger. He looked at his room, and turned toward the exit. He found his way to the library and grabbed a copy of his favorite book and shoved it into his cloak. When he made it to the entrance hall, his squad had just finished gathering.
"Alright, you were all earlier than I expected. Now, we were given this mission as our first because none of us are from Sound or Leaf. This means there is to be no sentiment about killing. We're here for a purpose and we aren't going to let our feelings get in the way. Now, we're heading straight east to hit the Konoha dome. We are not to reveal ourselves in any way, so no fighting at all, got it? Good. Now move out!" All of his squad members dashed over his head out the exit and he followed right behind them as they headed to the former home of their squad leader without even knowing it.
Alright, second chapter done! I might be writing less from now on, I was hoping for like one chapter per day, but this was over the weekend so I can't really promise anything during school. However, I hope to get at least two more chapters out during the week, and next week is break so I'll have plenty of time to write. Review and let me know what you think!
-Trake
