I couldn't help but be astounded by the sheer number of people who like this story. Maybe it's because it's a rewrite of my most popular story, but I feel that this will eclipse that one pretty easily, which, admittedly, was the intention. A lot of people love the way I redid some of the things, letting go of some of the humor in order to create a better presentation of the characters. Thank you all. Without further ado, here is the second chapter of Rage of The Maelstrom (I learned how to spell! Who's a good boy?)
Disclaimer: Caution, Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto, henceforth known as the asshole that kills all the hot chicks, but Rage of The Maelstrom has taken his world and run it through my diseased mind. Viewer discretion is advised.
Nearly three years can change anyone, that much was fact, but the change wrought on Naruto was one of particular note. Sitting in the back of the classroom as Iruka Umino lectured them all on what was expected of them now that they were genin of Konoha, the adolescent boy absentmindedly fingered the hitiate lung around his neck. From an outsider's perspective, Naruto's changes were noteworthy, at least in the physical sense. At Anko's behest, he had ditched his old orange jumpsuit; instead, he had donned normal shinobi pants, the ankles taped in red bandages, a zipper front mesh shirt tucked into his pants with sleeves that ended at his elbows, a dark, indigo blue vest worn over it, and a pair of crimson bracers on his forearms. The most glaring change was the sword worn slung on his back. With an actual blade length of twenty inches, it was shorter than the average katana, while maintaining a very slight curve over the length of the blade. Many had ridiculed Naruto the first time he had worn it to class, but had grown tired of it quickly, as all Naruto would do was stare blankly at them.
A smile crossed Naruto's lips as he thought of the week prior, when the graduation exam had taken place. Unable to do the Bunshin, he had failed for the third time. Without missing a beat, he had challenged Mizuki to a no holds barred sparring match, with his right to be a genin on the line. It only made sense, he had reasoned, that if he beat Mizuki, a well-seasoned chunin, that he at least be made a genin. The man had seemed oddly eager, but Iruka had only caved once a few legalities had been observed, mainly signing hastily drawn up legal documents absolving the other of any blame should the worst come to pass and they die. It was a change that Mizuki had pushed for, making his eagerness for the dual even stranger. Still, Naruto could only hope he accepted the gift basket he had sent the man. Mizuki had been very skilled, forcing Naruto to draw his sword. Mizuki had, unfortunately, lost his right hand along with much of his right forearm, as well as two fingers on his left hand. Naruto couldn't help but feel that Mizuki's career as a shinobi ending as his began was a bad omen, but he shrugged it off.
Naruto rolled his neck as Iruka began to call off names, listing the teams one by one. Naruto was only paying a minimal amount of attention, enough to note his old friend Kiriko Sanegawa being placed on the same team as Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha, to which he winced in sympathy, but when Iruka evidently came to the end of the list in his hand and his name still hadn't been called, he raised an eyebrow.
He was not the only one to notice the absence of his name. "Ha, take that Naruto; you're getting placed in the reserves!" Sakura Haruno, a pink hared girl with an uncomfortably loud voice, screeched.
Naruto sighed. He had once liked the girl, he really had. His interest had been known to everybody around them, but Sakura had shot him down time and time again, usually with her fist. It wasn't like he had been asking for much, at the time all he had wanted was somebody to play with him. It seemed though, that Sakura was a selfish person at heart, and didn't want to take the risk of befriending the outcast in their class. Shortly after he had met Anko, all interest in Sakura had left him; something that the girl seemed to think was a personal slight against her. Naruto shook his head. He'd never be able to understand woman. If she had liked the attention, she shouldn't have acted like that. Granted, he'd lost count of the number of times Anko had cut him, but there was a pleasant camaraderie and genuine care from both sides, which had been missing between him and Sakura. He was pulled from his musing by Iruka.
"Thank you for reminding me Sakura," Iruka said, subtly admonishing the girl before he turned his attention to Naruto. "Naruto, you have been apprenticed. Your teacher should be here soon." As soon as he finished talking, he walked out of the room, whispers breaking out immediately. Naruto didn't blame them, being apprenticed was no small thing. Only jonin, and generally only the strong ones at that, could take apprentices. Whatever newly minted genin they were going for had to either be affiliated with a clan, or be supported by one of the clan leaders of Konoha. It spoke a great deal of an academy graduates potential if they were apprenticed straight out of the academy. He already knew who the jonin in question was. Anko had passed her Jonin Exams last year, with a little political maneuvering on Naruto's part. She had already had the skill, Naruto had just guilt-tripped the Hokage into helping her promotion go through.
Naruto was trying to remember just what clan-head he was in the good graces of when somebody sat next to him. Looking out the corner of his eye, he smiled slightly as he took in the taller form of Kiba Inuzuka. Realization struck him and he growled. "She did it, didn't she?"
Kiba nodded, already knowing what he was talking about. "It's more than that Naruto. She publically named you Pack Friend to the Inuzuka."
Any retort Naruto had been about to say stopped in his throat at Kiba's words. She had named him Pack Friend? The simplicity of the title was belied by its importance. A Pack Friend was somebody who, without being an Inuzuka themselves, had shown absolute selflessness for the betterment of the Inuzuka Clan, holding its wellbeing far above their own. Rumor had it the Nidaime had been a Pack Friend, and the Inuzuka had joined Konoha because of that fact. If there was any truth at all to that statement, it showed very well how the Inuzuka repaid loyalty shown to them.
Kiba took Naruto's silence to continue on. "They both miss you. They know why you left, and they don't care anymore. For that matter, I don't care anymore. No matter where you go or what you do…" he began
"..You'll always be family, pack through and through." Naruto finished, fighting to swallow the odd lump in his throat. "Well, since it's out of my hands now, I should probably visit then, huh?"
Kiba grinned. "Just so you know, when you do, she's going to kick the ever living shit out of you."
Naruto answered with a grin of his own. "Looking forward to it." Oddly enough, he actually was. A good intentioned ass kicking never hurt anyone, well, at least not permanently.
Kiba said his goodbyes as he left with his team to eat lunch, leaving Naruto to stew in his thoughts. Naruto smiled softly as he realized that at long last, he'd finally be able go home, at least for a time.
Scene Break
As soon as lunch was over, the new genin filed back into the classroom. The last person had barely sat down before everyone, outside of Naruto, who only smiled fondly; dove for cover as a large black ball came bursting through the window. Four kunai were throw as it unfurled, pinning the corners to the wall, allowing the class to read the writing on it 'Behold the sexy, single, and epically awesome Anko Mitarashi, Jonin of Konohagakure No Sato!' There, standing proudly in front of the banner, was Anko herself, dressed as always in her normal fishnet bodysuit, rust orange skirt, tan trench coat, and a pair of grieves, hitiate proudly donned on her forehead and hair in its normal spiky hairdo. The overall effect was very entertaining as Naruto stood and applauded his best friend, leading Kiba, Choji, and his old friend Kiriko to do the same, Kiba and Kiriko with a pair of identical smirks, and Choji with an astonished grin.
A.N. We break to give you this exclusive speech from the author!
My pet peeve about Anko in fan fictions. JoninTokubetsu/Special Jonin
A special Jonin is somebody who has jonin level skills in some areas, rather than all areas. People always describe her as outranking Kakashi, when it's quite the reverse. Also, there is no such rank as Elite or High Jonin. Some jonin are better than others, but the rank is the same.
Mini A.N. over, back to the show.
Pretending to be demure, which she didn't do very well, Anko bowed, smiling at her friends, having met Kiriko before, and grinning at Choji and Kiba. The moment was interrupted by an astonished voice that was two parts screech, three parts useless. "Who the hell is this whore!" In a flash of movement, several people's positions had changed, much to the surprise of everyone on the classroom. Anko was standing in front of Naruto with a kunai to his throat, with Kiriko having locked both his arms behind his back. Ignoring the kunai as it began to cut into his skin, Naruto jerked his head to the side and locked rage-filled eyes onto Sakura's gaze for a split second, effortlessly communicating just how lucky she was, before he relaxed, making Anko nod, allowing Kiriko to let go of his arms.
Turning, Naruto grabbed Kiriko's shoulder, locking eyes with her. Kiriko nodded, the message all too clear. Either she would handle her teammate, or Naruto would. Naruto had no mercy for those who belittled his friends, his personality completely flipping as he became violent and bloodthirsty. If he was to fully handle the situation presented him, Sakura would likely be crippled, assuming she survived at all. It was one of a few marks left on him from previous years.
Seeing Anko perched on the edge of a desk and staring pointedly at him, Naruto sat at that desk, preparing for his scolding. "You over-reacted. I know how I look, and I do it on purpose. Her reaction is the fall-out I get for catching idiots blushing when they should be fighting. You know I don't care, so you shouldn't either, " she scolded lightly, making him wince a little. He didn't like disappointing those closest to him, and he could tell he had disappointed her by attacking a loyal comrade.
"I'm sorry," was all that he could offer. "I'm working on it." Anko locked eyes with him, before nodding minutely. The fact that she and Kiriko had been able to stop him at all was proof of how much effort he had put into his self-control. Two years ago, he'd have torn into the girl in spite of them. But then again, he had been so different then, both from the Naruto she had met, and the Naruto he had become, lashing out at all but a few, like a wounded animal trying to nurse its wounds. Seeing Naruto like that had been more painful to her then she would ever admit, made worse by the fact that it was ultimately her fault he had ended up like that, and no amount of persuasion on Naruto's part could convince her otherwise.
Shaking her head, Anko pulled herself away from those distressing thoughts. "Anyway, were going to hang around here for a bit. We need to meet with the other senseis."
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
Anko grinned. "Because I refuse to be the only one you kick the crap out of on a routine basis. Besides, if I set you loose on the other brats, I'll get all kinds of kudos for training you when you beat them."
Naruto's grin was almost as vicious as Anko's was prone to being. "They don't need to know that me and you have technically been training each other for the last few years, do they?" he asked rhetorically, making Anko smirk. Naruto, while never outright hiding his skills, never drew attention to them either, doing just enough to score well in the academy. While others thought he was just a talented genin, Anko knew that without even using his best combat-oriented skill he was a solid chunin level, but once he drew his blade, Anko could count on one hand the number of people she knew who could go up against him and come out unscathed. Outside the battlefield, Naruto was scarily intelligent. Seeking to understand more about what it was to be a jinchurriki, Naruto had delved deeply into fuinjutsu over the last three years, finding himself to be an absolute prodigy of the art. So confidant was she in Naruto's skill, Anko would lay a night in her bed on the line against anybody who thought they could beat Naruto, though she was sure that a body would need to be buried after Naruto got through with them.
That was the only hiccup in hers and Naruto's relationship. She knew that he only scared off potential boyfriends because he was worried about her, but damnit, she had itches that needed to be scratched and no desire to die a virgin, something that proving more and more likely, as she wasn't going to lose her virginity on a one night stand, and Naruto scared any guy that might be interested away. It was irritating and had made her want to kill him on more than one occasion, but still, it was nice that someone cared.
Moving from her perch on the desk, Anko took a seat next to Naruto, the pair reclining as they waited for the other genin to be collected by their senseis. Whenever one came in, Anko would go and exchange a few words with them before taking her seat. Only a few really stood out, those being Asuma Sarutobi, a former member of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, and an easygoing man if rumor was to be believed, and Kurenai Yuuhi, an admittedly beautiful kuniochi who seemed to naturally try to mother those around her, something Anko had personal experience with. Anko was fairly sure that she would be an amazing mother someday. The two of them had come in one right after the other, with Asuma's eyes giving Kurenai's body near continuous once-overs when he thought no one was looking, and going by the slight smirk to Kurenai's lips, she knew about them, but was paying it no mind.
Finally, there was just Anko, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kiriko left as all of them waited for team sevens sensei. They waited, and waited, and waited. Anko was dozing, using Naruto's shoulder as an impromptu pillow, when Kiriko ambled over, having spent the last two and a half hours trying to get Sasuke to talk, and to get Sakura to talk about anything that wasn't Sasuke. Not an easy task. Getting sick of it, she walked over to her friends. Seeing Anko drooling slightly on Naruto's shoulder, she grinned. Taking a deep breathe, she bent over to shout in Anko's ear, giddy at the prospect of her prank. "Do it and I'll cut off our breasts." Anko said without opening her eyes.
Kiriko let out her breath with a lame whooshing sound, grabbing her chest protectively. She was a bit of an early bloomer, something that annoyed her to no end, and as such had a large chest for her age. Kiriko was the tallest girl in the class, with deeply tanned skin, violet eyes, and chestnut brown hair that was held back in a ponytail that hung to her lower back. Her attire was at once practical and provocative, consisting of shinobi pants, taping the ends with violet combat bandages to go with the purple skirt she wore over the pants. She also had a black, skin tight, tank top that rode high enough to reveal her flat stomach, an enticingly eye catching view that had helped her win more than a few sparring matches. She had her hands wrapped from the middle of her fingers back to her elbow in yet more violet combat bandages and a pair of black, fingerless, gloves.
The most unique part about her appearance though was the set of fang like tattoos running across her forehead. Resembling the upper jaw of some carnivorous beast, the smallest tattoos were an inch long, with the two largest, one on either temple, going down to her cheekbones. Some of Naruto's experiments in fuinjutsu were very delicate, as she had found, especially those dealing with his studies into Anko's curse-mark. While looking for Naruto, she had gone into his apartment and started poking around. She had found herself at the focal point for a massive amount of energy, and had quickly passed out. When Naruto had arrived at his home three hours later, it had been to find Kiriko's unconscious body, along with her new additions. Anko had been far from pleased with him, but Kiriko thought it was awesome, so she had let it go. The experiment Kiriko had upset, while a stab at replicating the curse mark, had very few of its hallmarks. The seal that resulted, which Kiriko had dubbed the Feral Seal, had none of the addictive qualities of the curse mark, nor did it break the body down. What it did was unconsciously enhance chakra potency and reserves, and when consciously activated, enhanced strength, dexterity, and constitution, leading Kiriko to be far more effective at close quarters. After further study, they had dubbed her seal the Wolfing Feral Mark and left it at that.
Cracking her neck, Kiriko looked at Naruto. "Shiki says I should have let you tear her apart, and after two hours in Sakura's company, I'm inclined to agree." she said. Another change wrought by Naruto's seal had been the birth of a second mind within Kiriko's own. Shiki was vindictive, bloodthirsty, and enjoyed subtlety, as opposed to Kiriko's normally kind demeanor and penchant for the obvious. While Kiriko was the dominant personality, the two could switch out who was in control at a moment's notice, resulting in a wildly changing style of battle.
"Well, tell Shiki Anko said no." Naruto replied, making the girl grin as she took her seat.
"She heard. I didn't know that I knew all those words," here she paused, head cocked to the side. "Is it even possible for a human spine to do that? Huh, that could actually be fun." she muttered to herself. Kiriko's only fault was that she and Shiki were both a little boy crazy, though not to the extent of the fan girls. No, rather than change who she was, if she saw a boy she liked she was more inclined to molest them than change herself for them, not that that had ever happened, but Naruto was sure that if Kiba didn't get his head out of his ass, it would. How that boy missed the sheer amount of pheromones the girl put out when she saw him he'd never know. If he could smell them, then he knew damn sure that Kiba could smell them, though like a true kuniochi Kiriko never gave away the slightest amount of attraction in her body language.
Finally, Team Seven's sensei came. For a legendary shinobi, Kakashi's appearance was very underwhelming, though Naruto and Anko both knew that was probably what he was aiming for. When Anko told him of the situation with her and Naruto possibly training with them, he had simply eye smiled and told her that he was likely going to be sending them back to the academy, but thanks for the heads up. Naruto couldn't help but laugh at the glare that Kiriko had leveled at her new teacher, tattoos glowing with a sickly green light. If it had been anybody else, they'd have probably shit themselves, but all Kakashi had done was widen his eye at the sight. Naruto genuinely pitied him, because he was reasonably sue that Kiriko had given Shiki control.
Scene Break
"Come on gaki, you're going to love this." Anko whispered gleefully as she dragged Naruto through the expanse of the jonin library. The jonin library was the culmination of almost all of Konoha's non-forbidden jutsu's, and generally required one to be of jonin rank to enter. The exact location was changed bi-weekly, making it hard to pin down for anybody attempting to infiltrate it. This was the last day that it would be in its current location, which was the only reason why Naruto had been allowed entrance, despite having his sensei for a grand total of five hours.
Naruto sighed. "Anko, what in the hell are we looking for?" he asked. He was tired, achy, and wanted to either sleep or for Anko to get to the point. Besides, he had to finish Anko's gifts, and convince her to be there when he returned to the Inuzuka clan hold.
Anko just latched onto his arm a dragged him faster. Naruto lost count of the number of objects he hit with his head, but he knew without a doubt that Anko had done it on purpose. Finally, she deposited him on the ground in front of a mostly empty shelf with just one large scroll on it. "Okay gaki, listen up. Originally, I wanted you to sign the snake contract. Generally less hassle, but I can't get a hold of it from the snake that's keeping it for the moment, so I was a little bummed out. But then I came through here and saw this little beauty here," pausing, she gestured at the scroll on the shelf. "It may only be a tracking summon, but don't let that fool you. Tracking summons can be dead useful in combat, whether as distractions or active attackers. It's usually an idiot that discounts a tracking summon in combat, and they usually wind up being dead idiots."
At Anko's gesture, Naruto grabbed the scroll, holding it almost reverently. Genuine summoning contracts were a big deal, seeing as there was only so many to go around. What bugged him was why this one didn't have a holder at the moment. Seeing his face, Anko guessed rather accurately what he was thinking. "This one in particular hasn't had an active holder in nine years, since its last holder died. The summon in question lost popularity when you were born, but why let such an asset go to waste, not to mention all the mental scars you'll be causing for other Konoha nin!" she started seriously, finishing with a gleeful chime in her voice.
Understanding dawned on Naruto immediately. "Foxes." he muttered, looking at the scroll with an appraising eye. Anko didn't miss the mischievous gleam, and almost crowed with delight. She loved it when Naruto was like that, it made for some of the most amusing days that she could remember.
Nodding enthusiastically, Anko was almost vibrating with excitement. "Normally summoning contracts wouldn't be in here, no matter what it summons, because they are a sensitive material, but I convinced Hokage-sama to allow you to sign the scroll. It just had to stay in here until you did."
Nodding, Naruto unfurled the scroll,, and following Anko's instructions, bit his thumb before writing his name on the scroll with the bloody appendage, finishing with the bloody imprints of all the digits on his right hand. Sealing the scroll into a smaller one he kept on him, Naruto stood up and looked at Anko. "Hey, I have a favor to ask."
That caught Anko's attention. Naruto never asked for favors unless it was very important. "What's up gaki?"
Naruto shuffled slightly. "There's a couple people I want you to meet tomorrow, so If you wouldn't mind?" he asked, the look on his face somewhat hopeful.
Somebody that Naruto wanted her to meet? Anko smiled before nodding at her young 'student'. That thought still gave her a kick. Naruto could likely beat her if her really wanted to, though the effort would cost him a lot of blood in the process, but she was sure that he'd only scratched the surface of his potential, potential that would have been stunted by anybody else. Rubbing his head fondly, and laughing at the scowl that crossed his face, Anko exited the library, sure that interesting times were ahead.