A Step To The Future
As the sun rose over the sides of Sunagakure Naruto felt the wind whistle by along with some sand that had been lifted off the desert surface outside the protective walls. As the shadows receded the warm sun rested upon Naruto's still body.
Naruto slowly slid off to the right side of the branch before beginning to fall down to the ground below. As Naruto fell he slowly yawned and rotated himself so that he would land on his feet. With a bounce Naruto looked around, still sleepy his tail scratched the back of his head and he couldn't help but let out a small purr like sound at how good it felt.
It then donned on him where he was and he pulled his tail back into his cloak, glancing around to make sure that no one saw Naruto walked out of the home grounds and dug his fingers and toes into the sand beneath him.
For a while he was still but in actuality he was focusing his energy to his limbs. As his eyes burst open Naruto vanishes from all sight, although a large dust storm is kicked up behind him with the strength in his take off.
XXXXXXXXXXX – 3 hours later -
Naruto finally arrives back at the house covered in sand and some dirt, walking straight to the dinning room the occupant could hear him coming thanks to Naruto's claws scraping off of the marble flooring.
Entering the dining room Naruto's nose was tackled by a variety of different smells some were sickly sweet, others weren't as bad but there was one that was very spicy. Naruto made a note to stay away from that one.
"Hi there Naruto-san," came a cheery voice from the side of Naruto "how are you?"
"Temari, today is just the same as before, they're all the same." Naruto replied honestly.
"Well I doubt that, you were smiling when you came in." Temari announced after she had put down a dish of pasta.
"I smiled?"
"Yes you did. Now what would you like to try before sensei arrives?" Temari asked innocently.
Naruto turned to look at the selection of food that was on the table, most of it was very... different from what Naruto thought people could make. It was fancy as hell as well. "You put a lot of effort into these." Naruto stated flatly, Temari nodded in response. Walking over to the table Naruto looked about for anything that took his fancy.
Nothing did.
"Got any meat?" Naruto asked not even looking at Temari.
Shaking her head "You love meat don't you? Yeah we have some I'll go prepare it for you." after saying this Temari walked off into the kitchen and left Naruto alone in the room.
XXXXXXXXXXX
Kankurō had been tinkering with one of his new puppets he was dubbing it "Sparrow" for now. It was to be his mostly full combat puppet.
"Now for me to attach this arm and..." Kankurō mused to himself as he clicked the arm into place.
When the arm stayed in this time Kankurō couldn't help but punch the air in satisfaction. "We'll show Baki-sensei who can be a boss right Sparrow!" Kankurō cheered only for Sparrow's head to fall off. A look of horror crossed Kankurō's face as he quickly set about repairing his puppet.
Taking a step down off his ladders Kankurō walked a good five paces back from his creation and concentrated heavily and allowed his chakra to branch out and connect with the different limbs and other features of his contraption. The seven foot steel giant stood before him shaking slightly as the chakra threads connected with different body parts. The fingers slightly bent and stretched.
The steel giant lurched slightly. Sweat poured from Kankurō's body.
Kankurō screwed his eyes tightly as he felt his chakra dip dramatically with the sheer cost of his puppet he guessed that, at his current chakra levels he'd only last twenty seconds at maximum.
'Damn I need more chakra!' Kankurō shouted at himself, 'I'll need to train even harder urgh!'
XXXXXXXXXXX
Gaara had finally stirred and walked out of his room after changing into a more fitting attire rather than that one he wore yesterday. Opening his wardrobe Gaara looked at what he had, a full black body suit with three quarter length sleeves, and an open neck. With this, he saw a white cloth that he decided to wrap around his neck in a scarf type manner and a wide leather band system over the left shoulder and right side of his hips that he could use for his sand gourd that tied around his waist for extra support.
Stepping out into the hall way he could smell the food that Temari was making, he would never admit it but he wouldn't have any one else's cooking.
Walking down the corridor Gaara could sense that Naruto was down stairs already and Kankurō was in the basement no doubt tinkering with another one of his creations.
There was someone nearing the house and as a precaution Gaara had his gourd dissolve into the sand and surround the door.
Gaara had gotten to the bottom of the stairs by the time the person had arrived so sitting down on the bottom step Gaara watched the door handle turn and his sand slowly inching closer. By the time the door opened and the man took his first step into the building Gaara's sand had cocooned.
"Gaara please release me." the man stated confidently, even if half his face was covered by cloth. Gaara gave him a quick squeeze before complying and headed towards the dinning room.
"Naruto, Temari Baki is here." Gaara states once he opens the door to the dinning room and he allows some of his sand to fly off to get Kankurō.
Baki then walked into the room after Gaara and sat down near Naruto who didn't even acknowledge that the man was even there. "So you're Naruto then, I'll be your sensei from now on." Baki stated clearly only to be ignored by Naruto who continued to devour the meat that is in front of him.
Annoyed Baki flares his KI at Naruto who glances over at Baki and pushes his plate away. Getting up from his seat Naruto stands before Baki and flares his own KI which stops every sound in the room dead even the gravity in the room seemed to increase as Baki is forced out of his seat and onto his knee's.
As quick as the pressure had came it vanished and Baki takes in a deep breath that he didn't know he was needing. "I'm sorry!" Baki calls out instinctively as he gathers as much oxygen as he can before standing up.
XXXXXXXXXXX
The group of siblings head out of the house and into the training grounds out the back Baki turns to see Naruto at the far left with Gaara beside him while Kankurō is hiding at the other side of Temari who is standing in between her two blood brothers.
Reaching into his pocket Baki pulls out a slip of paper and hands it to Naruto saying "This is chakra paper it will inform us of your elemental affinities such as fire, wind, water, earth and lightning. All you need to do is let your chakra flow into the paper."
Naruto stared at the paper and began to mold his chakra in his gut before passing it towards his fingers the paper instantly separated into two before beginning to crumble into dust. 'I wonder what element Tou-san has?' Naruto asked himself before forcing some of his Tou-sans chakra into his fingers and igniting the remaining paper.
Baki was shocked that the boy had not one or two affinities but three! He could help him with his wind as that was his own affinity but he'd need to ask some of the other Jōnin for tricks with fire chakra control as the earth one was simple to do along with wind.
"Well Naruto," Baki began "it's very rare to have that many affinities in one person -"
"The last one was Tou-sans" Naruto interjected.
"Well I can help you control your chakra better," looking around Baki saw a rock next to him passing it to Naruto he said "I want you to crush that rock." and Naruto did with a quick squeeze the rock became dust.
Sighing Baki shakes his head "This is a chakra exercise so you need to crush it with your chakra. Here try it again."
After getting a second rock Naruto closes his eyes and channels his chakra up to the rock and then into the centre of it. Opening his eyes slowly Naruto could see that the rock was slowly shaking and vibrating eventually the top of it caved in to reveal that the centre of the rock was now completely hollow.
Kankurō couldn't help but whistle at what he saw and probably no one else. Naruto wasn't just emptying out a rock he was destabilising it and quickly but what made him whistle was that just behind Naruto a section of the ground had begun to dip in, Naruto was feeding the same kind of control unknowingly into the ground behind him.
"Okay Naruto can you try making a hole in it?" Baki asked and Naruto continued to stare at the rock in his hand. He commanded his chakra to become thin yet sharp. He then pictured holes in the rock and as he was staring at the rock, his images became reality as the rock soon had a hole passing through it horizontally, after five minutes that is.
Nodding at Naruto's capabilities Baki was very impressed not many six year old's had that much control of their chakra but then his eyes drifted to Gaara. He surprised him when he gave him a wind exercise for cutting a leaf as he had managed to do it uncannily quick. 'Could they be?' Baki mused to himself he'd need to look into the matter further.
Baki then turned to Temari who had brought out her Tessen and was leaning against it. "How his your Sickle Weasel jutsu coming along?"
"I've got it down to a tee." Temari replied as she covered her mouth before she yawned.
"Then seeing as Naruto has basically got that control exercise down would you mind sparring with Naruto so I can see his Taijutsu abilities?" with a shrug Temari walked to the other side of the area, while Naruto crushed the rest of the rock in his hand. Walking across from Temari Naruto dug one hand into the ground as well as his toes before bringing himself low to the ground. Temari on the other hand unfolded her Tessen and brought it up.
Baki brought his hand down for the two to begin their spar but as soon as his hand had dropped Naruto had vanished and reappeared before Temari, she narrowly avoided getting slashed by Naruto's claws by bringing her Tessen in front of herself. The force behind Naruto's attack sent Temari flying backwards but as she was sailing through the air she managed to send off a few Wind Blades at Naruto who dodged them with little space in between each one.
As Naruto stood there he felt that something was off looking behind him confirmed that suspicion. Temari had cut off his cloak revealing his tail. Sighing Naruto untied the remainder of his cloak and let it fall only for him to vanish and slam his fist into Temari's side launching her into his tree which shook heavily but didn't go down.
Temari was heavily winded, confused and pretty certain that last attack caused some internal damage. She struggled to get to her feet but she did so none the less calling on all her chakra she knew the next set of attacks would probably do her in but she chose to do it anyway. As she steadied her breathing Temari opened her fan to reveal three purple moons concentrating Temari brought the Tessen up to her right ear and forced all her chakra into the Tessen itself before bringing it down and yelling "Great Sickle Weasel!" and once the Tessen was down a massive blade of wind tore the ground apart as it made it's way to Naruto who dug his hands into the ground and flipped a large chunk of earth into the path of the jutsu destroying them both.
With Temari slumped over on her Tessen and grinning wildly Naruto nodded once realising that, in a few years she would give him a fun for his money at his current level.
XXXXXXXXXXX – A month later in Konohagakure -
A white haired man had bounded into the village and straight towards the Hokage's tower in search of Sarutobi Hiruzen. Entering the way he always does, through the window, he landed with a barely audible click of his wooden shoes against the wood of the room.
The Hokage turned to face the new arrival and turned back quickly. "What is it Jiraiya, and what's wrong with the door?" he asks quite clearly annoyed.
"Is it true?" Jiraiya asks as he leans back against the wall.
"Is what true? I know a lot of things." Hiruzen replies as he takes a draw from his pipe.
"That Minato's son left the village and is wandering around somewhere unprotected with that demon in him?" Jiraiya spits out barely holding back his anger.
"That is true, yes." Hiruzen replies as he continues his paperwork that needs to be finished by the end of the week.
"Why?" Jiraiya spits out not even trying to hold back his anger.
That's when Hiruzen turns on his former student lunging out of his seat and across the room and slamming his fist into the wall mere inches from Jiraiya's face. "Because WE left him to the villagers. They tortured him and broke him down so far that he listened to the Kyūbi and slaughtered forty members of this village. That number includes ANBU." Hiruzen spits back at his only loyal pupil.
Jiraiya soaks up all the information like a dry sponge in water and he doesn't miss the bad Genjutsu that is on his sensei's face. "So the kid attacked you before he left then," Jiraiya states undeterred by his sensei's actions "judging by the shit D-rank Genjutsu you're using."
Turning away from his pupil Hiruzen nods slowly "I can remember how he tore the heads off of two of my ANBU then bit out the thirds neck."
Jiraiya couldn't believe what he had just heard what a six year old had done to ANBU personnel. Jiraiya couldn't take any more information and left via the window. He just wanted to get out of this corrupted village as quick as he could. Not even his 'research' would stop him leaving quicker.
XXXXXXXXXXX – A year later -
Naruto awoke in the dead of night and looked up into Gaara's room he could feel more chakra signatures in there than just Gaara's and his Kaa-san rising slowly Naruto silently said "Fox Art: Fox Form One." A quick crack of bones and Naruto's face had shifted into that of a muzzle while his visible hair darkened and became thicker. Launching himself into the room Naruto landed on an ANBU who had a kunai out and was about to attempt to stab Gaara. Pinning the man down Naruto bit out the man's throat before turning on one of his team mates, as Naruto tackled another ANBU he heard sand swish by him turning to see Gaara behind him with his sand rotating him whilst holding two more ANBU aloft. They couldn't scream because the first that tried got sand forced down their throat which was desperately trying to leave by every other means necessary.
Pinning the ANBU to the ground Naruto waited till Gaara had offered the others up to his mother before he had joined him with the remaining ANBU. Sand slowly covered the ANBU and let Naruto move away now that it was safe to do so. Sitting down both boys looked at the ANBU before Naruto slammed a paw into the porcelain mask shattering it. "Who sent you?" Naruto asks coldly as he traces the ANBU's jugular with one of his claw's.
The ANBU remains quiet resulting in Gaara crushing the man's testicles with his sand. The man whimpers in pain and coughs out a name "Rīdā."
Both Naruto and Gaara had heard enough by this point and Naruto transformed back into his mostly human self and brought his fist down onto the ANBU's face caving the man's skull in with the strength behind the blow. Gaara's sand quickly swallows the body and sets about cleaning up the bloody mess that is his room.
"Another tail?" Gaara asks as he sees Naruto.
Looking back Naruto sees his second tail swaying in the breeze of the open window "I guess." Both boys then go back to their previous positions before returning to how they were before.
XXXXXXXXXXX
The next day Naruto, Gaara and Kankurō all walked towards the Kazekage's tower for what they would be doing today. As the trio of brothers walked through the streets every civilian glared at the two red heads while ignoring Kankurō completely, while he wasn't to bothered by it he still didn't like being cast aside so to speak.
One butcher had thrown a slab of meat in Naruto's direction and like a animal he jumped up, spun in the air, and caught the slab in his teeth. This particular butcher had been having trouble with a local gang forcing protection money out of him until Naruto appeared and slaughtered them. Naruto couldn't have cared less that he had saved the man from them, Naruto was just subsiding his blood-lust.
Most people still stayed away from the boys even if they were the Kazekage's children, Kankurō however got the questioning looks for simply being near them.
XXXXXXXXXXX
The three brothers walked into the office and stared at the Kazekage. The ageing Kage didn't even look up when they entered he simply pushed forward three Haiti-ate and carried on with the work that was building up around him.
A scroll was underneath Naruto's Haiti-ate taking it Naruto ripped apart the lock and began to read the document.
"Naruto,
My adoptive son, you have kept your surname a secret yet I think that you could use it for your own proposes as I have found out that the Uzumaki clan were highly gifted with Fuinjutsu and Ninjutsu, maybe you could master it yourself if you saw fit as there is a wide range that can be created with... varying affects.
Rīdā."
Naruto looked up to see the man push another scroll towards him this time however Naruto pocketed the scroll and left leaving the man alone in his office.
XXXXXXXXXXX
Once back at the compound Naruto leapt up into his tree and sat down, twirling the scroll in his hand. 'I should just incinerate this, but then I would miss out on some things,' he mused to himself 'what do you think Tou-san?'
"Well I doubt it would harm you to look inside it. Even if it was rigged to blow up you'd heal from it." Kyūbi stated confidently.
Getting an acknowledgement form his father Naruto opened the scroll and began to read it. The first jutsu on the scroll was called "The Shadow Clone Jutsu" reading over the description Naruto picked out that all the information from the clones would return back to the user after the clones had dispelled. After reading into the jutsu Naruto dug his clawed toes into the tree trunk and began to walk down it whilst forming a cross shape with his first two fingers.
Once on the ground Naruto poured as much chakra as was noticeable to him and said "Shadow Clone Jutsu." in a bored tone. The surrounding area was awash with smoke but as it cleared slightly Naruto could notice figures standing in the smoke looking around, dropping to the ground Naruto darted at the nearest figure before slamming them into the ground only for them to disappear. Naruto's head then snapped behind him 'I could have swore some one grabbed me then...' Naruto looked back at the spot where the figure disappeared and a smirk crept onto his lips as he licked them. 'Who better to hunt than myself?' he thought before dropping onto all fours and saying "Fox Art: Fox Form One." Naruto then began to dart between all his clones dispelling them by means that would leave real people to bleed out. The first clone had his leg tore off as Naruto darted by it the next got a tail through the heart, another received a resounding crack from a sweeping leg which would have shattered the legs of anyone.
The field was now barren with the exception of a panting fox with a large grin. The last few clones had time to notice that Naruto was hunting them down so they put up a fight, managing to tear his shirt. Naruto looked down at his tattered shirt after he transformed back and ran a claw down the middle of it digging into his skin slightly only for it to fizz and heal instantly. Casting the shirt away Naruto walked over to the basement hatch opened it and dropped into the hole.
XXXXXXXXXXX
Kankurō was working on 'Sparrow' again but this time it was for the contraptions that Sparrow could use. He'd already installed the mini-cannon in Sparrow's forearm thanks to one of the shinobi's trips to Iron Country, he'd also set up a torture like system of pointy things inside Sparrows chest. Sparrow was made out of a rare type of metal that had the ability to regenerate itself once it came in contact with blood, the more blood Sparrow had the harder it was to destroy him.
This however came with the downside of the massive reserves of chakra that would be needed needed to manipulate him, unlike Crow who was a beginner puppet but it was made by Sasori of the Red Sand. He was a legendary puppet master who had the ability to turn corpses against the enemy, a very powerful ability in a war.
Kankurō was sitting across from Sparrow while getting Crow to fetch him a sandwich, 'Why do I still struggle to control you?' Kankurō pondered 'My chakra has doubled but you still want more...' Kankurō cast a look down 'how much more though?' looking over he saw that the basement hatch had been opened and Naruto had dropped in very elegantly landing on one finger while he allowed his tails to close the hatch doors.
"Hey Naruto," Kankurō said weakly, while he was still afraid of Gaara and, more so, Naruto he did have a level of respect for him. "been training I take it."
Naruto simply flipped over and walked towards Kankurō not breaking eye contact Naruto had never seen Kankurō without that stupid cat hat that he always wore. Sitting down next to him he noticed that Kankurō sat more upright "I won't kill you," Naruto said flatly as he let out a sigh and looked towards the steel giant before him "what's that?" Naruto asked as he pointed at Sparrow with his tail.
Looking up Kankurō smiled "That, Naruto, is Sparrow I've been working on him for nearly two years now and he's nearly done soon I'll be able to use him in combat, but..."
Naruto now turned to the brown haired boy beside him with a raised eyebrow "But?" Naruto responded.
"But I don't have enough chakra." Kankurō admitted before he noticed something and looked straight at the boy beside him "Since when did you get chatty or care?"
Naruto's eye twitched when Kankurō made that remark and unleashed half a tail's worth of KI and Kankurō froze which was odd considering that Baki was forced to his knee's with the same volume of KI. "Temari has MADE me learn how to interact with others instead of killing them. Gaara is taking to it better than me." Naruto then dug into his pocket and unravelled the scroll that Rīdā had given him which resulted in Kankurō reading it over his shoulder.
The rest were simple seals and designs for them, after a while of reading Kankurō went off to his work station picked out a bottle of ink and a brush and tore off a bit of paper before returning and looking over Naruto's shoulder so he could see one seal in particular.
A chakra storage seal.
Kankurō quickly mimicked the seal on the paper before closing one eye and pouring in chakra through his brush which resulted in the seal glowing a light blue colour. "Yes." Kankurō said quietly to himself and quickly set about making small seals on Sparrow then covering the seals with smaller plates of steel. With a sigh after a good half hour of painting and reattaching limbs Sparrow would, or should be, functional.
"Naruto could I use you for a second?" Kankurō asked his brother without turning around. Naruto soon appeared and looked disinterested as always. "Can you pour about a C-level jutsu into Sparrow for me?" Kankurō asked, to bored to do anything else Naruto walked forward and placed his hand on Sparrow's shin and forced his chakra into it.
It took an hour before the glow of red began to recede from Sparrow and in that time Naruto had left to do something else. Kankurō had ran out to buy a book on sealing and was in the process of finishing chapter three when Sparrow's steel changed from the shining silver to that of near midnight black. Kankurō chalked that up to the potency of his brothers chakra because of the pact that 'they' had.
Standing up Kankurō cracked his fingers before straightening his arms and allowed his chakra threads to join up with Sparrow. At first there was a little strain but that was all physical due to Kankurō's body adopting the same weight of Sparrow. Once he had his breathing under control Kankurō stretched out and smirked when Sparrow copied him. When Kankurō leant to the left Sparrow would go the left as well, when Kankurō controlled Sparrow it felt more like he was giving him directions instead of actual commands.
He was just happy that he could finally use his own puppet instead of someone else's.
XXXXXXXXXXX – Six Months Later -
Both Naruto and Gaara had been on a team with Kankurō for nearly nine months now although they had their Haiti-ate revoked when the council had requested that they go through the correct route. Both Gaara and Naruto now hardly saw Kankurō any more since he began his training with Lady Chiyo after she saw how well he moved Sparrow or as she called him 'A Dark and Dangerous Giant' as Kankurō had built a sword from the leftovers of metal that he had and had Naruto burn it with his chakra to get the same affect on it.
Today Naruto and Gaara had been called to Rīdā's office. Upon entering it both boys had seen that there was a shinobi with a missing arm with a Haiti-ate from Takigakura.
As soon as the shinobi saw them he turned to Rīdā "I asked for help in our war effort and you give me two boys?"
Before Rīdā could even speak Naruto began chuckling sending shivers down their backs, the shinobi turned back to see that Naruto had one full tail swishing behind him as he barred his razor sharp teeth at him. This caused him to gulp audibly before turning back to Rīdā "Forget what I said."
Rīdā then nodded. He turned his attention to the boys before him and smiled a fake smile "Boys as you possibly have heard Takigakura is in the middle of a war and has came to us for help, there will be plenty of enemies. What do you say?"
Gaara was the one to answer as he faced the shinobi "When do we leave?" the look on the shinobi's marred face was undeniable shock.
"Now if you're ready."
"I will need my sand, Naruto." Gaara said and Naruto vanished and reappeared with a massive gourd on his back while he handed one off to Gaara.
The shinobi took a better look at the boys and noticed that Naruto had slight marks on his face which looks like whiskers, his eyes were also different one was a dull blue and the other a vibrant crimson with a slitted pupil. He had no ears either. Naruto was also a lot taller than his brother being roughly 5'5 while Gaara would be 5'0. Naruto also seemed to be the more combat ready one and the more savage one if the series of muscles and claws were anything to go by. The boy only wore trousers which seemed to have had been past their date considering how worn they looked.
Gaara on the other hand had a thin build which would mean that he was an assassin type but the gourd made no sense then or the talk about sand. He wore a full body suit with mesh sticking out from the short sleeves. While he had a silk scarf wrapped around his neck that came up over his face slightly but what drew his attention was the tattoo for love on the boy's forehead.
"Okay boys we'll leave now then and hopefully get to Takigakura by the end of the week. I'd suggest bringing provisions." the shinobi stated before walking out of the office.
"Boys!" Rīdā called as they turned to follow the shinobi. "Don't kill any Takigakura shinobi please we need all the work we can get after that dynamo decided to give Konohagakure our work." Naruto let out a growl when the other village was mentioned.
XXXXXXXXXXX
It took the boys some time to get to the village exit because Naruto and Gaara had agreed that it would be beneficial for them to pay a visit to the dynamo to get him to 'reconsider' getting missions to Sunagakure. Naruto had sent a Shadow Clone while Gaara decided to send a Sand Clone that had a refill supply of sand with it to make sure that it would survive after the journey.
When Gaara arrived at the gates the shinobi couldn't see Naruto anywhere "Where's the other one?" he asked making it quite clear how quickly he wanted to get back.
Gaara continued to walk as a larger than normal fox with a white tipped tail walked beside him with a gourd on it's back. If the shinobi had paid attention to it and the area he would have known that foxes prefer cooler area's and that it's eyes were different yet the same as Naruto's.
Having eluded the shinobi Naruto couldn't help but grin and let out a small yip in congrats to himself, this caused Gaara to laugh which was something that Naruto had never heard before and something stirred in his chest. It felt odd yet pleasant at the same time. He'd have to ask Temari about it when he got back from the mission.
"I can't wait any more for the kid we need to go now!" the shinobi stated and quickly ran off ahead.
Gaara had conjured up a sand creature, which looked like a scorpion, which he sat upon and patted the space beside him and the fox jumped up and sat beside him. As the creature sped up to the shinobi Gaara began to scratch the back of Naruto's head. Naruto's first instinct was to bit Gaara but then once Gaara's fingers hit a point just behind his right ear a shiver ran down Naruto's spin straight to the tip of his tail. Gaara however didn't stop there he moved his fingers to the tip of Naruto's ear and began to trace the edges with his thumb and forefinger and once he done that Naruto blanked out.
XXXXXXXXXXX
To lordGhostStricker, bijū are embodiments of chakra and do not have a gender. However in this story, anyway, I have made Kyūbi male because I feel Naruto would progress well with a male model while Gaara, who has linked the Ichibi with his mother, would be comforted to think that the Ichibi is female and because of how fragile his mind is the Ichibi has accepted the role as 'Mother'.
ALSO can I thank yoai's of Naruto for beta-ing the story. And for inspiration at times of my troughs. Thanks again!