So it seems I've done something right for once. Some of you actually seemed to enjoy my attempt at humour, so I'm going to keep going with this story. Thanks to all those who followed and reviewed. Thanks to all those who enjoy what I've done with the story. And thanks to all those who have reviewed (your the ones who keep me going).
Have a great day!
-Freedom
(o3o)
Once again something exploded.
And once again it sent two people flying.
However!
This duo would differ from a young Uzumaki and his trifling compatriot, the super perverted toad sage Jiraiya.
The slightly older yet still young Uzumaki now took part in such violent experiments and practices with his freshly minted, 'best student ever', Itachi Uchiha.
These two, would be the individuals currently coasting through the sky at an alarming speed.
"TRY AND LAND ON YOUR SIDE UCHIHA! ANYTHING ELSE IS PAINFUL!" Naruto commanded as the two sailed through the air, clothes slightly on fire, the ground getting closer and closer every second.
"HAI SENSEI!" Itachi called back, twisting himself in the air to adopt a position to protect his head and spine.
At this point in his training, he was two months in… and things like this were becoming a regular part of the day.
And while it did freshen up the shinobi lifestyle… it mostly increased the number of fresh hospital beds waiting for the two.
And that was the view Uchiha Shisui was greeted too as he walked through the village on patrol.
Two on fire shinobi shooting through the sky. And one of them seemed so familiar...
'Itachi-san?' Shisui thought.
The cousin of Itachi Uchiha blinked as his family member and a cloaked Shinobi went soaring through the air.
Some of the villagers pointed and others began to whisper.
"Back at it again"
"Those damn ninja"
"It's the masked one, I'm telling you. An Uchiha would never do something so silly"
"What the fuck?" Shisui muttered, before he dashed off in the direction they would be landing in.
The explosion was pretty impressive Itachi had to admit. He had been working on a seal with Naruto on the rooftop, the best possible place to work according to his strange Sensei.
Upon completing the outer ring of the third layered seal, Naruto had inspected his work immediately.
Naruto said everything seemed to be in order, but the masked teacher had said that 'something feels off though'
And of course he had to go and channel a metric ton of chakra into the seal.
To which Itachi had discovered he had created something called a 'Reciprocating Vampire Seal' rather than a two stage explosive note, and before the eldest Uchiha could ask what on earth was a Reciprocating Vampire Seal... the metric fuck ton of chakra that had been pumped into the seal?
Yeah…. it reciprocated.
"I SEE THE TREELINE MY PRECIOUS STUDENT! BRACE!" Itachi couldn't see his teacher, but he could feel the wave of fuuton chakra being expelled to slow their descent.
"HAI SENSEI!" Itachi tried to say this, but it came out as "HAI SENSAAAAAAH!" due to the amount of branches and trees he collided with.
Itachi landed in a crumple on the ground, his vision blurry from the impact.
He remained like this for what felt like an hour, but was actually a few minutes.
A presence began to approach him.
"You alright Itachi?" an obscure figure bent over Itachi, his face being indiscernible to the Uchiha's eyes.
Itachi groaned in pain and tried to sit up.
"Easy there" an arm wrapped itself around his back, trying to slowly help him up, "do you need a visit to the hospital?" the speaker half joked.
"N-no" Itachi spoke, shaking his head as he began to regain his senses. His wounds were minimal. "I should be fine… Shisui" Itachi addressed the man overlooking him.
Uchiha Shisui was a very talented Shinobi. A young one as well. His strength lay in his unique ocular genjutsu and his formidable mastery of the Shunshin. A personal Kenjutsu style was just icing on the Anbu Resume for the young Jounin when he signed up for the black ops group, four years ago.
"You flew pretty far Itachi" Shisui began to stroke his chin in wonder, "what caused your brief flight?"
"That would be me other Uchiha-san!" a voice came from above them almost instantly.
Itachi looked up calmly for his Sensei while Shisui's head swung around in panic.
'How'd this guy sneak up on me?' he was already reaching for the sword strapped to his back.
"Up here shit head" the same voice repeated now more annoyed in its tone.
Shisui looked up just as Itachi stood up.
"Can I get some help down?"
His sensei was caught in a strange predicament. Itachi didn't know how, but a grand amount of rope appeared to have ensnared his captain by the legs and arm, currently causing him to hang from the tree canopy.
"It appears I triggered a genin trap on my way through the tree's" the mask altered to mimic a smile, creeping Shisui out.
Itachi sighed.
Two expertly thrown Kunai and his masked teacher was free.
"OIIII!" Naruto shouted as he plummeted face first into the forest floor. He recovered instantly, pouncing at Itachi, "TEME!"
"Baka-sensei" Itachi said calmly, dodging under the swipe at his face.
The masked teacher landed on the other side of him, a glint coming from the eyes in the mask.
"Perhaps a spar then?"
"Huh?" Itachi responded intelligently. This came out of the blue. Why would his sensei want to spar?
"We are quite far out from my projected landing zone… but while we are here at the training grounds, wouldn't it be a good idea to stretch our legs and get down to a bit of bloodshed?"
Itachi didn't need to see his Sensei's face to know he was sporting a grin right now.
But if he wanted to spar… this would prove to be a good way to judge his teacher's abilities, as well as review his own.
"Perhaps the other Uchiha brat can join as well?" Naruto remarked offhandedly.
"Oi" Shisui called out indignantly at being called brat by someone younger than him.
"Fine" Itachi said, "Shisui will be on my side… but sensei, are you sure you can handle two on one?"
Shisui was still spluttering about how 'good friends don't drag other friends into fights with their crazy teacher', when Naruto began to laugh.
"I've built myself to deal with quantity… not quality. Itachi, this will be a good review of our skills for the both of us"
"Ara?" Setsuna looked up, her eyebrow raised.
"Eh?" Kakashi looked at his student who was staring off into the distance, "whats wrong?"
Team Seven was taking a break. After a very vigorous training session followed by a short lunch, the team had just broke down into simple socialising and small talk, idly passing the time until they would start the next bout of training.
"One of my traps triggered" Setsuna responded simply, before narrowing her eyes, "and there's a lot of chakra being thrown around" she held her arm out, pointing in a specific direction after finally being able to judge where it was coming from.
Kiba grumbled and sat up from his nap on the floor, "Akamaru went off in that direction earlier" the unasked 'can we go check it out?' hanging in the air for Kakashi to groan before looking at Sasuke.
The Uchiha was also fixed in the direction, a look of recognition flashing across his cool gaze.
"Fine" Kakashi huffed, "team seven, our primary objective is to recover Akamaru… the secondary objective is to watch whoever is sparing" he mumbled the second part.
"SHISUI! BACK UP!" Itachi's sharingan spotted the seal.
"Kai" Naruto muttered from the treeline.
"Shunshin no jutsu!" Shisui shouted before he disappeared.
In that instant, a second after Itachi's cousin vanished, the entire ground lit up in flames. They blasted into the air, tearing into the sky for as far as the eye could see. These flames continued to spit into the air for another 10 seconds before dissipating.
"Fuinjutsu: Devils Hotpot" the masked blond appeared in the aftermath, calming stepping across the singed ground.
"Fuck" Shisui whispered, appearing next to Itachi. Both of the Uchiha clansmen were worn out and tired, each of them having spent a considerable amount of Chakra and energy to get this far into the fight.
Itachi's sensei had one particularly annoying seal that allowed him to absorb jutsu and then a second later send them right back at the caster. The seals were engraved into the gloves that he wore.
"The mask prevents genjutsu, so our ocular powers are nullified" Itachi muttered taking every aspect of the blond that was slowly approaching them.
"It's almost like he's some kind of anti Uchiha specialist" Shisui growled, readying his katana.
"And this is why I'm teaching you in the sealing arts Itachi!" Naruto called to his student, stopping his movement towards the Uchiha.
Shisui growled, hating the feeling of uselessness, "nothing but cheap garbage" Shisui started, planning on saying more. Itachi of course realised this, and lunged at Shisui, "DON'T!" the heir to the Uchiha yelled comically… but it was too late.
"Your 'art' is complete crap" Shisui declared, pointing right at the masked guy.
"Oh sweet kami" Itachi breathed out quietly.
Naruto became silent.
Too silent.
He had frozen as well.
His body shuddered slightly.
Shisui had no idea the cord he had struck.
"...teme…" he whispered, "...you dare insult…"
Flames just seemed to appear around him, "MY ART!"
In the next couple of seconds, Shisui began to realise why he had made such a big mistake. Firstly, the masked shinobi in front of them performed a single seal, revealing his face and his casual grey and white shinobi attire.
Secondly, the now painfully blond shinobi drew a Kunai… a very familiar Kunai.
And lastly, Shisui connected the face of his opponent with the face of the blond haired, blue eyed Hokage who utilised those very Kunai.
"...you just had to open your mouth" Itachi droned out as he slouched while standing, looking up to the sky, "you just had to go and say it" he groaned.
"I-i-i-tachi" Shisui muttered, "he-e's n-n-not…" Itachi gave Shisui a blank look, one that read clearly, 'yes he is'
"Kunai Kage bunshin no Jutsu" the single tri-pronged Kunai became hundreds, each Kunai scouring the area.
Shisui had to dodge a few, but Itachi stayed slouched, watching lazily as his friend still tried to stop the inevitable.
"HIRAISHIN NO JUTSU!" the Jutsu coupled with an effective series of punches, kicks and the occasional smack subdued the two Uchiha.
After the maelstrom of beatdown was bestowed, Naruto dispelled the clone Kunai, teleporting to the original Hiraishin Kunai and retrieved it.
"NI-SAN!" Naruto looked up at the shout… and got decked right in the face by an angry black haired Uchiha female.
Sasuke clenched his fist as Setsuna punched the blond haired man in the face.
He had watched on with Kakashi and team seven as the man made short work of two Uchiha prodigies. And his big brother. His all powerful big brother.
Kiba was praising the masked haired man, until the mask was removed.
Kakashi face palmed as his team stared in shock.
"Minato-sama" Setsuna gasped, noticing the similarities. Her shock wore off quickly when he started to teleport… and her brother got caught in the crossfire.
And thus she had snarled, "Teme!" and charged forward with all her feminine fury.
Naruto didn't even see the punch coming.
Sasuke watched all of this happen with a sense of morbid humour and wide eyes. Kiba approached the quiet Sasuke, his eyes still on Setsuna giving the blond a piece of her mind.
"Dude… your sister has got balls" Kiba whispered from what he hoped was a safe distance from the irate Uchiha girl.
"I know" Sasuke admitted, disapproving of his sister's inability to hold back her anger.
"Massive balls" Kakashi muttered, watching as she punched Naruto in the forehead after shouting at him again.
"ITAI!" the blond called out, leaning back as he gripped his head in pain.
"And don't you ever let me catch you beating on my older brother! Ever!" she snarled, stepping past him and lifting Itachi from the ground, "Itachi?" she whispered to her brother, "you alright?"
"Maa, don't be so worried about him" she turned to the voice and blanched.
The swollen face of Shisui greeted her, completely robbing him of any charm he possessed, "how bad is it Setsuna-san?"
"Uh…."
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Kiba flipped back onto his rear, pushing himself away from the bruised Shisui. He had approached the downed fighters with the rest of team seven, but hadn't been able to control his fright upon seeing the ruined Shisui.
The bloated face of the Ninja was suddenly covered in a rain cloud.
"Fuin" Naruto suddenly said his voice lacking any real emotion, and a seal appeared on Shisui's face, a green glow emitting from it.
In an instant, the swelling began to drop away, and the bruises began to fade.
Naruto turned to all the surprised individuals and then bowed deeply, "I am sorry for putting Itachi in danger"
"What about me?!" Shisui was ignored.
"Please accept my sincere apology for hurting your brother… and cousin" the comment was mostly targeted at the Uchiha, but it was the depth of the apology that severely confused everyone.
"It's alright sensei" Itachi stood up from his half crouch and walked to his now depressed sensei, "I believe we are 'burning daylight' as you would say"
And like just like that, the positive Naruto returned… as well as his mask and clothes.
"How right you are my best student ever!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Am I not your only student?"
"URUSAI!"
"Hn"
"Ja ne!" Naruto grinned, the mask mimicking him and the two disappeared.
As soon as the students of Kakashi saw the mask, and recalled Itachi's use of the word Sensei. The genin began to put two and two together.
"Your little brother is teaching my older brother?"
"Why is he so strong?"
"Can you teach us that teleporting thing?"
"How does he do it?"
Kakashi was blown away by the large amount of questioning that was fired his way, slowly but surely working his way through them.
'Damn it Naruto' he thought.
"You shouldn't be afraid to keep your aces hidden from your allies, ya know?" Itachi turned to look at his teacher, finally beginning to notice how tired he seemed.
"What do you mean by aces?"
Naruto laughed.
"Don't play stupid you brat" his smile wavered at the end, "if ya can't trust your village with your skills, then who can you?"
Itachi hummed, "family" and turned back to his scroll.
"Isn't the village just an extension of your family?" Itachi met eyes with Naruto, "my dad used to say things like that. How secrets between allies lead to feuds between families"
A sad gaze leaked onto his sensei.
"You're acting too old for your age" Itachi scolded, but he was giving the words the blond said some thought.
"I bet that you would have won if ya went all out" Naruto huffed, referring to the spar, "what point is a review upon yourself if you can't test out how well your skills weigh up against another formidable opponent!"
"My 'ace in the hole' sensei, has a price" Naruto blinked as Itachi said this, noticing how the Uchiha went back to work.
"I begin to lose my eyesight for each ability that I use, eventually leading to pure blindness"
"Oi"
"All because the power that these eyes hold is something so corrupt"
"Itachi!"
"Something that no one should have to-" Naruto's hand gripped the one he had around the brush.
"It's alright" Naruto's mask was gone, "I understand if it's personal, and I understand if it's hard to keep a powerful secret" Naruto grinned at his student, "I've got a few myself that Jiji would kill me for if I told ya?"
"One of them being your heritage?" Itachi asked with a slice of humour in his voice.
"Well of course" Naruto said, rolling his eyes, "if I gave away the fact I was the only surviving son of Namikaze-" the blond stopped, his eyebrow twitching.
"Teme!"
Itachi smiled as Naruto fumed.
"To be fair, you were the one who talked, not me" Itachi claimed the innocent card as Naruto stomped off.
"Don't you have somewhere to be for dinner?"
Naruto said this neutrally as he marched up his steps to the second floor.
"Oh, yes! Thank you for reminding me" Itachi nodded at Naruto, wrapping up his own personal sealing kit, scrolls and brushes included.
A small object was tossed at him, upon which Itachi caught it.
Inspecting it, he pocketed the miniscule brush Naruto had thrown him.
"For editing seal work. We're going to be learning how to break seals in two months. If you haven't already finished the four books, go to the final chapter of the third edition, it'll have everything you need"
Itachi bowed with Naruto only watching out of the corner of his eye.
"Thank you Sensei!" Itachi stated firmly.
Naruto's eye twitched, "scram you brat!"
Itachi just nodded and left, leaving Naruto to have dinner alone in his complex.
"Itachi-kun" Mikoto mumbled as her son slipped into the dinner room.
"Kaa-san" Itachi bowed.
Mikoto frowned. Her eldest child had been showing up later and later on his way home, spending more and more time with his teacher. 'Dangerous teacher' according to her daughter.
"How was your lesson?"
"Sensei proves to still remain the pinnacle of all sealing knowledge. He retains his position as the most powerful Shinobi I have met so far"
Itachi was the most humble Uchiha there was. A quiet and reserved boy since birth, Mikoto wasn't sure weather to hurt or hug the maksed wearing teacher who was responsible for the development of her son's social life.
"Gomen" came Fugaku's voice as he appeared a few seconds after Itachi, "I was caught up with clan matters for longer than usual"
Mikoto didn't fail to notice Itachi's eyes linger on her fathers for longer than usual, with Fugaku returning the calm gaze.
"Can we eat now?" muttered Sasuke as the three oldest people in the room continued to stare off with one another.
The words from one of the twins facilitated a diffusion of tension. The three broke gazes and took their places at the table.
"How was your training today Sasuke-chan?" Mikoto smiled as her son frowned at the tease.
"It was fine kaa-san. Kakashi-san is putting us through the ringer… Kiba still thinks he is a challenge for me" Sasuke lazily stated the first half, but frowned when he spoke upon Kiba.
"He more than likely is going to be a challenge for you Sasuke" Fugaku added his input, stern expression dominate on his features, "frankly I can't imagine an Inuzuka today who wasn't forced into shape by Tsume-san… she is a very… formidable shinobi"
Mikoto ignored the comment, knowing of the brief fling between Fugaku and Tsume in their genin days, before she started talking, "in fact, at this age I would expect all of your friends and classmates to be on a similar level with a few discrepancies of course" Mikoto promptly summarized.
"Young Shinobi haven't reached their prime yet… they are bound to be weaker than a majority of the older shinobi" Fugaku stated sagely, thinking of all the Shinobi he had worked with in the past.
"Kakashi's baka of a brother is the strongest Shinobi I've ever met and he's only two years older than me… three at most" Setsuna grumbled, her rebuttal standing firm for a second.
"Well, that's because-" both the parents paused before they began to speak, glancing at one another than blinking.
"Kakashi Hatake has a brother?" Fugaku almost spat in surprise.
"Little brother" Sasuke corrected.
"What?!" Fugaku growled in shock.
"Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze... Hatake"
Shocked faces remained on Mikoto and Fugaku as they slowly turned their head to look at Itachi, the one who had said the name.
"It's quite a mouthful, and Sensei prefers Naruto Hatake anyway"
"Namikaze?!" Fugaku exclaimed, standing up and pointing his finger at Itachi. Mikoto burst out of her seat as well, pointing her finger at her eldest son while exclaiming in disbelief, "Uzumaki!?"
"You lie!" they both shouted at the same time with conviction.
"Blond hair, blue eyes, a bad temper, he's an excellent seals master and most importantly…" Itachi paused for dramatic effect, loving every second of this, "he can use the Hiraishin no Jutsu"
Mikoto's face hardened.
So Kushina's kid survived?
Wait till she got her hands on that old monkey of a Kage, she would-
"No" Fugaku's voice boomed in the sudden silence, "Mikoto, not now. We can deal with this tomorrow"
"But-"
"No" Fugaku repeated, his mind racing, "this is something more serious than I can imagine. We'd have to bring the council together just for this, and we'd be confronting the Hokage on a lie he has told all of us"
Setsuna and Sasuke were watching the conversation between their mother and father grow more heated and professional by the second, their faces blank and vacant.
Until their mother mentioned something.
"-and my promise with Kushina? We agreed that our kids would be-" Fugaku slapped his hand over her mouth instantly, eyes wide in panic.
"What promise?" Sasuke asked, his arms crossed over his chest. Setsuna had a glare in her eyes, her two tomoe sharingan already activated.
Itachi could already take a guess as to what his parents meant, but rather than interrupt, he felt this should be played out.
The eldest gently took a sip of tea as his younger siblings glared at their parents.
"What promise?" Setsuna repeated, her eyes beginning to spin slightly.
"It… it doesn't concern… one of you" Fugaku tried to begin diplomatically.
Itachi guessed exactly what this meant. He was right, he knew exactly what the promise was between Kushina Uzumaki and Mikoto Uchiha.
"Which one of us?" Sasuke asked. Itachi knew that his little brother had caught onto what his parents meant.
Itachi snapped his eyes to his adorable -yet violent- little sister.
She hadn't caught on yet… oh dear.
"This agreement has nothing to do with you Sasuke" Mikoto decided to just let it out. Sasuke blanched, looking towards his now confused sister.
"So it has to do with me?"
"Yes it does" Itachi responded, a grin being hidden by a hand brought up to his mouth as he faked a cough.
"Well what is it?" Setsuna calmly stated, folding her hands over her lap.
'Oh she's pissed' Itachi and Sasuke both realised.
'Oh dear' Mikoto sighed internally.
"An agreement was made between both Mikoto and the late Kushina… as well as an agreement made between Minato-sama and myself… we both planned to join our families to form a stronger bond with one another. So of course, it became more convenient when Minato and Kushina married. Which meant, that the only bond left to create was between the Uchiha and their clans" Fugaku's eye twitched as he spoke.
"So we made an agreement… that our children would marry once they became of age"
The bomb had been dropped.
"They had a son it seems" Mikoto reiterated, trying to make eye contact with her daughter, who now hid her eyes behind her bangs, "which means that it would be our daughter who joined with them"
Chakra flared.
"This is a trick isn't it?"
Setsuna was mad. Her pale face remained passive, but her eyes practically bled rage.
"We thought that since they were dead and the Hokage had not announced any children that the contract would be null and void" Fugaku didn't raise his voice, nor did he shout. He couldn't comprehend exactly what his daughter was feeling, but he still could understand the pain of an arranged marriage. He had been lucky to get Mikoto since the council of elders approved of her… Setsuna wasn't so lucky.
"This is no trick" Fugaku finally said, matching his daughter's gaze with his fully matured Sharingan.
Setsuna stood and left the room with strong and confident strides.
"Watch her" Itachi's father commanded him. The eldest didn't argue, he just vanished in a shunshin.
"So Setsuna has to married that over powered freak?" Sasuke asked out loud, his parents flinching.
"He is the same one who is teaching Itachi in sealing?" Fugaku responded.
Sasuke just nodded, closing his eyes in thought.
"She's going to want to meet him you know?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow at his parents, "she'll try and beat him up a bit... but if she really has to go through with this, she will. She's always put her faith in the clan"
"I think now is a good time to get to sleep" Mikoto decided to summarize, "boys take care of the dishes, I'm going to go join Itachi"
"Go run damage control mom" Sasuke mumbled and started clearing plates for the kitchen.
The matriarch of the Uchiha left.
"We didn't even get a chance to eat!" Fugaku complained.
So yeah. That's chapter two. Hope you all enjoyed! Please drop a review with any suggestions n what not, I'll try to add them in.
I got my exams coming up next week, so my content will be a little scarce for a bit, then after my exams ill be back full steam. I think...