Chapter 3: First Blood, Pact Written In Blood
Disclaimer: Insert standard disclaimer here
Naruto was trying to not think about how he might have to kill someone on this 'mission'. He had known he would have to kill people since the first day at the academy, Iruka told them that anyone who thought they couldn't do that to leave, but now it was part of the mission.
The others in the group were entertaining similar thoughts. Neji had never killed, he like Naruto had seen people die but never had he killed. In a way he wanted to know what it was like to hold someone else's life in you hands and then extinguish it in front of them. Another part of him dreaded the idea of it, he had watched many people die that day in Konoha many of whom he had known from the Hyuuga branch family.
Shikamaru had seen death, both in battle and in nature, hunting stray wolves that had killed some of his families' deer. He had killed some of the animals but never had he killed a human.
Sasuke had seen death, lots of death his entire family had died in one night and he had seen it over again in his mind. He didn't want to kill people; he had already decided to neutralize his opponents.
Chouji had mixed feeling, he didn't want to kill but he would if his friends were in danger. Kiba thought similar thoughts.
Shino had killed, through his bugs; he had killed ninja, including Konoha genin during the second chunin exam. This would just be more of the same.
They continued silently towards their destination.
Gaara had stayed behind with his brother and sister; they knew that the Konoha ninja did not completely trust them yet. While this was not unexpected, they younger ninja and children didn't care in fact they watched him eagerly as if they expected him to put on a show for them. Rock Lee stood nearby watching the children, for some reason this made Gaara feel a little jealous.
"Gai sensei used to say that the only person who you should compare yourself to is yourself. If you can run one more step today then you did yesterday then you have improved yourself. Never compare yourself to your teammates because they have different strengths then you." Lee was telling one of the children who were now talking to him.
The girls of the rookie nine had been listening and had taken that lesson in.
Hinata thought about how she had always compared herself to her cousin and to what her father wanted her to be like while he was still alive. She smiled a little and for once couldn't wait until she could train tomorrow.
Sakura remembered these words not only for herself but for Naruto and Sasuke who really needed them.
"Who are you?" Gaara asked looking towards the trees near the clearing they were currently in. A tall man with long white hair walked out of the trees.
"Me? I am Jiraiya the toad sannin." He made a pose which made many of the children laugh. "Where exactly is Naruto?"
"He is sneaking into the daimyo's stronghold as part of a seven man team." Gaara said answering in his ever calm voice. The man nodded and looked at Lee.
"Are you Rock Lee?" Lee nodded at the man. "Good, I have news for you." Lee looked up at him.
"I brought the best medic ninja in the world with me. If she can't help you no one can." Lee gave a surprised look at Jiraiya. "Come on, she's waiting for you, she already knows what needs to be done."
Gaara watched as Lee followed the man, he wondered why Lee was so trusting with a stranger perhaps all leaf ninja were like him.
They stood in front of the gate of the stronghold an army of Naruto and the other six evenly spaced out in a circle around the tall tree surrounded wall. Shino was the first to do something letting his bugs leave his body in massive swarms and fly into the well protected place to take out the guards on the walls and to plant others on the daimyo. Chouji went next growing his hands to immense proportions and slamming them repeatedly into the gate smashing it down. The first group of Naruto ran into the building and were quickly destroyed. The real Naruto ran in after his friends as the clones began to jump over the walls and throw kunai with exploding tags at all of the buildings causing general mayhem.
Sasuke stopped in the center of the courtyard, which was rather dull except for the explosions, armored guards with swords and spears started spilling out of the stone building in the center of the complex. Sasuke did the hand symbols, Monkey, Dragon, Rat, Bird, Ox, Serpent, Dog, Tiger, and Monkey. The chidori came alive in his hand and he jumped out at his opponent imagining his brother's face instead of the man who his arm cut into, he did this numbly six more times before being knocked to his feet. The sword was coming down at him at an alarming rate of speed, his heart was racing but time was so slow, his sharingan activated on its own, why had he forgotten to use it? Something jumped over him, the real Naruto with a kunai in his hand which was smashed into the fighter's skull with a squelching sound.
Naruto stood stunned looking at the body of the first person he ever killed, it was so easy but then he had to do it or Sasuke would have died. He pulled out a new kunai and jumped into the fray with the others and Sasuke soon joined them. It took only a few minutes for the trained shinobi to wipe out the entire contingent of soldiers. Soon the daimyo himself came out with his sword drawn, he looked like he had not had any physical movement in years and he held the sword like a novice. The blade itself was a true warriors weapon custom made twenty years ago when the daimyo was a kind and brave leader, not the man who bent to Gato's will so easily who grew fat and happy while his people suffered.
"Who sent you? I can pay more than they ever can! I own this land and all of the people in it!" He yelled, when Naruto heard this he felt his anger begin to rise, he used that to get some of the foxes chakra. He then focused it into his kunai which he held up pointed at the man.
"I sent myself, I noticed a few things wrong with was you just said. First you assume that I will tell you who sent me. Second the money is nice but it doesn't matter, the cause is far more important than that. And you can't own people; people are free no matter what!" He yelled the last part tossing the chakra charged kunai, it cut open the man's gut and he began to scream in pain.
"It burns! Why does it burn?" The man screamed in pain, Naruto thought about this he had no poison on the kunai so it must have been the chakra.
"This is your judgment…It hurts because you are an evil person." Naruto said grinning insanely but leaning close to the man so that the others could not see him. He grabbed the kunai and shoved it into the man's spine.
"Hmm, this was easier then I thought." Sasuke said grabbing the sword from the man's cooling hand and weighting the weapon in his hand then placing it in his belt along with the scabbard. "I think we should get what we can from the buildings then leave." Naruto made clones and they began searching.
"A fifty percent chance of life and death. Life as your body once was or dead." Tsunade told Lee in no uncertain terms.
"Do it…My life is a worthless without being a ninja, my friends need me now." He said somberly. Jiraiya watched as Tsunade looked at the boy confused, she still didn't think about it the way she use to. Your allies are the most important thing to you; your own life is meaningless compared to theirs.
"Mr. Jiraiya sir…Naruto is back." Sakura said from the other side of the tent. Jiraiya excused himself and left. He had to look twice when he saw him, his face was splattered with dried blood and his arm was covered in it as well.
"So you killed for your first time eh?" Naruto didn't smile…he was so much like his father now, to kill and feel no remorse it was odd because only a week before the boy was like a male version of his mother and his father at his most joyful times. Jiraiya knew why, the Third must have put him in charge and he took that seriously and it was effecting his jovial personality which was really more of a mask then anything real, something else he had in common with his father the ability to go from happy to serious in an instant always keeping those nearest to him guessing which personality they would be dealing with.
"I had to, Sasuke was in trouble, they were not going to surrender, and the last one deserved it." He said in a voice that didn't seem quite right coming from a child, a mixture of indifference, righteousness, and sorrow. He had hated killing those people but now it was becoming second nature quickly.
"I understand. So kid you're the leader of this band of children huh?" Jiraiya said in a more cheerful voice trying to bring a smile to the blonde's face.
"Yes, Lord Hokage told be to lead them and keep them safe not matter what." He took up a more cheerful tone and added. "I make a good leader don't I?"
"Yes, you lead them to a country where ninja rarely travel and the economy is becoming stronger and therefore slowly beginning to be able to support a ninja community." Jiraiya praised him earning a large grin. "Now on to business, I brought a few of the Anbu from the village only about twenty lived and they were the ones that fought along side of me. They will be staying with you along with Tsunade; she is a medic ninja and the third sannin. I think it would be better if she took up more of a leadership position, with her experience and all. Also only one other group of people survived the attack, a few of the ninja from Konoha had lead many of the civilians from the village out during the attack. They are lead by Asuma Sarutobi and Kurenai Yuhi." Naruto took this in very well…but then he thought about the Tsunade part.
"I'm not letting some old lady take control! Why wasn't she in Konoha when we needed her?" He yelled angrily, Jiraiya noted that that anger had lost much of its usual comedic edge.
"She left the village after…"
"Left! She shouldn't be able to lead if she left!"
"She left because everyone important to her died. Her brother and lover both wanted to be Hokage, but they died fighting." Jiraiya cut Naruto off before he could get any ruder.
"Don't worry about me taking over your position kid. I would just be wasting my time leading a bunch of kids and a few Anbu. I'll stick around and take care of the wounded and even teach some of those who want to become medics, but I'm not leading a bunch of snot nosed brats." Naruto glared at the woman who looked rather young to be one of the sannin.
"I thought you would want to stick around. Now if you don't mind Naruto and I have some training to do." Jiraiya stated drawing both of their attentions to him.
"What Jutsu are you going to teach me pervy-sage?" Naruto asked excitedly.
"Rasengan, a technique invented by the Fourth Hokage, the Rasengan was meant to be an example of nature manipulation as the Fourth meant to combine his chakra element with the Rasengan. However, he died before he could accomplish this. Despite this, the Rasengan is still a very useful, if difficult to learn jutsu."
"This kid will never learn that jutsu!" Tsunade laughed.
"I will too! I'll learn it in one weak just you watch!" Naruto said angrily.
Jiraiya nodded his approval and looked at Tsunade. "You should bet him." He suggested slyly. She smiled.
"I bet you can't learn it in two! In fact I'll acknowledge your power and give you this," she held out a small pendent, which drew Jiraiya's and Naruto's attention, "it was my grandfather's he was the first Hokage."
"Deal!" Naruto looked at Jiraiya who started walking towards where they would be training.
"So how did seven ninja get into a stronghold so easily?" Jiraiya asked curiously.
"Shadow clones, I made more than a thousand." Naruto answered proudly.
"A thousand! That's going to help you train kid." Naruto gave him a questioning look.
"You see, the shadow clone technique distributes the ninja's chakra evenly among the clones and creates a real copy with form and substance. The clone itself can also utilize any jutsu the original ninja knows. When the clone finally disperses, any new knowledge it has gained is passed back to the original ninja and any additional clones. This makes shadow clones an excellent training method if the ninja has the chakra capacity and stamina to maintain the shadow clones for an extended period of time. This allows the ninja to essentially reduce the time it takes to train and learn with each clone added." Jiraiya explained slowly, if Naruto trained like that all the time for several years he would be on Jiraiya's level within three years. "From now on you will train with at least three clones watching you and three helping you if not more."
Naruto took all of this in before Jiraiya began explaining the first step.
Sasuke, Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba, Shino, and Neji had decided to go to the bridge builder without Naruto who had gone off to train with Jiraiya. When they got to the house they were greeted by a cheerful Tazuna.
"You got rid of him?" He asked.
"Yes." Sasuke said in his condisending voice.
"Good, I'm going to town so the next step in my plan will begin." He began to walk off only to have Neji stop him.
"Our payment?" He said in his calm voice.
"Right, we found Zabuza's hideout a few months ago, that way where the forest becomes swamp its up in the trees. I'm sure you can build forts like his so you can all live up there." He said walking away.
"Ok we go tomorrow. Get everyone ready for the move."
"Actually Sasuke we can't leave yet. Tomorrow Lee is going to have an operation." Sakura said joining them. She explained who had joined them in their absence and what might be happening.
Failure. That was all it was, at least the first attempt, the second had made some progress but when only ten clones stood before Jiraiya Naruto had mastered the first step in two hours. He smiled and explained the second step and watched as an army of Naruto appeared before him.
It had been three day since their mission and already Tazuna had become leader of the country, apparently they had been planning this takeover since the day team seven had left. This had just hurried their plans.
The shinobi had asked at first thought of asking for help but one of the Anbu could create homes from nothing, they had a large hidden village by the forth day and where moving everything into the homes and storerooms by the fifth day. Lee was walking around on crutches under the watchful eyes of Tsunade when Naruto and Jiraiya approached her, laughing.
"I win!" Naruto said loudly drawing the attention of all of the nearby ninja, including Hinata, Neji and Sasuke.
"Impossible show me." She laughed at him
Naruto smiled held out a single hand and chakra began to spin in his palm and in a few second a fully formed Rasengan was in his hand. "I win." He said smugly. She blinked.
"How is it possible for him to have mastered that jutsu in such a short amount of time? Did you have something to do with this?" She looked angrily at Jiraiya who just laughed.
"No he is just a master of the Shadow clone technique, he created thousands of them each day and they learned it easily." He said smiling proudly. He was planning on teaching Naruto many more Jutsu this way very soon.
"So where is it?" Naruto asked. Tsunade smiled and pulled the pendent from her neck and hung it around Naruto's.
"You earned that, you really are stong."
A/N: Please review if you could. I hope you like the story so far, I am enjoying writing it so I hope you enjoy reading it. I'm retracting the first two questions from the last chapter, I have the pairings set already and I think I'm sure about what I'm going to do with the village. Either way you will know next chapter. I'm still looking for a beta however.