People don't seem to understand... A lot of you guys are mad at me for making Naruto so out of character from his original, annoying, loud and moronic self. Let's fact it, many times I wish that Naruto could just get kicked in the head throughout the series because sometimes I can't stand his stupidity.
But since this is fanfiction, he won't be like that. But I'm not just changing him without explanation. The explanation is in front of you; Naruto lived his life without ever knowing the past, he lived for the future (especially in the manga/anime). Now, through time traveling he's found everything he's missing. If you've ever lost a parent, you know how hard it is to let them go, especially when you have the choice to let them go or to stay with them. Its enough to make anyone depressing. That's why he's so...mellow.
"He's dangerous..."
Quiet voices echoed into deep murmurs against the Hokage tower's corridors.
"But it's not like—"
"—afraid its not your decision, Tsunade-hime—"
"—the council—"
And then, a bang.
"The council can suck my—"
The first voice again, with shock; "Tsunade-hime!"
"Well I don't give a shit what you and your council think, neither did the Sandaime, or the Yondaime. All you ever do is pull bullshit ideas out of your asses all day and think they're worth my time—"
As Sakura moved closer, the sentences stopped overlapping like choppy unclear waves against a dark sea, and into actual literate sentences. She noted two things from the bits she heard.
One; they were inevitably talking about Naruto. The council was never so bold as to confront Tsunade on anything as much as they did her teammate, and Tsunade usually never rose to such ire.
And two; she was drunk.
The woman paused outside the door, deciding that it wasn't her pace to eavesdrop (even though it was hard not to, seeing as the open door did nothing to keep the voices in) nor to interrupt. As much as she'd like to. Naruto held a dear part of her heart—not the romantic part, as much as he would have wanted many years ago—and it hurt to see that many people still hadn't gotten past their hatred for the beast inside him.
An elder woman huffed, and stepped outside, a just as wrinkly man accompanying her.
They sniffed as they walked past her, and Sakura, miffed beyond belief, glared daggers as they made their way down the hall. She'd never liked them very much, all stuffy and moronic, never seeing past their goals. Or perhaps, that was the problem. They thought too much for the greater good of Konoha and not for the individuals.
And more importantly, they depended on Naruto to carry their missions, even though they despised him.
Growling, she pushed herself into the Hokage's office, that was rather clean considering its usual pigsty-esque layout.
Tsunade leaned into her chair, looking ridiculously sullen for such a drunken person. Her brows were furrowed, and for once, Sakura could see past the Genjutsu that masked her Sensei's age, and she looked almost as old as she was. Her hair was limp, as if she hadn't recently combed it, and the sake next to her looked dreadfully empty.
"Shishou?" She asked tentatively.
Tsunade hummed in response, but the answer could have simply been a grunt.
Her eyes wavered back to the hallway, where she assumed the two elders were still tottering along. "What was that about?" She tried to word tactfully, but it didn't seem to have come out right.
Luckily, Tsunade was too inebriated to notice.
"They don't want Naruto to be Jounin." She hiccuped sorrowfully.
Sakura blinked; shocked. Her first words were, "But that's not fair!"
Tsunade sent her a deadpan, and Sakura flushed. Even though Tsunade hadn't said a word, she had conveyed it thoroughly with her eyes. "When was anything ever fair with Naruto?" It was true. The world enjoyed working around him, and watching him clamber his way up through the mud and dirt, pushing him with childish immaturity as he struggled to achieve the heights he wanted. Sakura understood this, but the unfairness in its entirety never stopped making her head reel. Why did people always make his life so much harder then it needed to be?
Sakura paused for a moment in her thoughts.
Yet, wouldn't stripping Naruto's rank do nothing but foil there plans?
She didn't have to be in the ring of Konoha politics to understand that Naruto played a crucial part in the protection of Konoha. As a Jounin, he was susceptible for the more dangerous missions that most Chuunin weren't allowed to take (or, persay, they were allowed but it was highly unrecommended) and that was just what the council wanted. Naruto would be one step closer the weapon they had always molded him into, and demoting him to Chuunin would only wedge their plans to a halt.
So why would they do that?
"Shishou, I don't understand. I thought that the council wanted Naruto to be Jounin, so that he could take the dangerous missions that they wanted him to." She voiced her opinions cautiously.
Tsunade huffed.
(the alcohol wasn't working)
She'd love to tell Naruto all about Danzou's ROOT, and the fact that Danzou was seriously considering recruiting Naruto into his circle of shinobi that were supposedly disbanded (seeing as though Tsunade had no proof of her accusation that they were still around, she couldn't argue anything) but Sakura couldn't be told. And more importantly, it would only spur her to snoop about Konoha with her catlike curiosity, inevitably leading her to her fellow teammate Sai. The whole point was moot, seeing as though Sai couldn't say anything even if he wanted to.
The closer Naruto got to become ANBU, the last chance that Danzou had of enticing him. Hopefully Naruto would use his mulish qualities to stubbornly refuse, but there was always the chance that Danzou's enticing and fake offers would sway him. Tsunade was very sure that some of her ANBU already belonged to ROOT, but having Naruto as one of her main subordinates meant she could keep closer tabs on him, and keep him away from Danzou's conniving hands.
Sakura shifted her wait uncomfortable from foot to foot, unsure as to what to say while her Sensei stayed quiet.
"Naruto is in a very delicate position," Tsunade decided upon, omitting the fat that Naruto's time traveling didn't help matters in the slightest. "One that both the council and...other leaders wish to sway."
Sakura furrowed her brows in confusion, but didn't press the matter.
"Where is Naruto now?"
Tsunade abruptly opened her mouth, but then closed it. Wryly, a grin spread across her face.
"I suppose he's arriving as we speak."
And Tsunade was sure the meeting wasn't going to go well. Sakura took this as the moment to leave, ducking away quickly and leaving Tsunade to deal with Naruto's ire. He'd been in such a morose mood lately, only being spurred out of it by deep seeded anger. It was strange, to see her optimistic and joyous teammate warped into such a shadow of himself. It had all started when he began time traveling...while she walked out, Sakura supposed that perhaps something had happened while he was in some other time that had made him this way.
"What?"
The blond hissed, seeing red.
Tsunade groaned aloud, and fisted a hand into her hair, running it back until her bangs pushed out of her face.
"I'm sorry, Naruto. There was nothing I could do. They were going to demote you entirely to Chuunin but I argued your case until they decided upon partial-Chuunin status."
"But," Naruto sputtered. "I mean... what does that even mean?!"
"It means that the council is pushing back your promotion on the terms that I had falsely judged your talents. In other words; favoritism."
"You would never do that!" He shouted, but it didn't help much to release his anger.
Tsunade frowned. "Naruto, they don't actually think that at all. Its the only legally reasonable accusation they have at the moment to demote you."
She had hoped he'd understand why they'd want to demote him without having to explain it, but thinking and connecting links was never something that Naruto had been particularly good at.
"I don't get it."
"They want to demote you, because they don't want you to be ANBU. Because then you would be my ANBU, and their hold on you would lesson considerably."
Naruto growled, and his anger lessened into deep irritation. Tsunade supposed it was because he was simply so used to the council's machinations that he simply didn't get as riled as before.
He wedged a finger into his ear, and Tsunade was sorely reminded of the habit from his Gennin days, one he carried even as he first began his trek into time. She noted that he'd abruptly stopped the habit after closing off the portal.
"But I don't get why. I mean, people have been promoted to ANBU from Chuunin, right?"
Tsunade nodded. "However, to do so would require a council's recommendation. If you were a Jounin, you wouldn't need one."
Naruto groaned. He didn't know about that.
"So what do you mean, 'hold on me' anyway?"
Tsunade looked to the side, an irritable look crossing her face. "Naruto... Have you ever heard of ROOT?"
--
Naruto heaved a sigh as he leaned against the towering cement wall.
It had been a while since he had thought about Minato. The wispy shades of his father's face obscured by his memory he had so eagerly tried to wash away with the futile effects of alcohol. His final picture of Minato stayed the longest, festering in the back of his mind like summer skin fouled by the lust of mosquitoes, the sky dawning above them like a dome made from tender blues, Minato's hair a smudge of lemonpeels and buttercup-petals in the corner of his sight, and his eyes wide and shocked. They were so blue, just like his, a torn emotion ripping through that sky in confusion and realization.
The same eyes.
They had the same eyes.
Naruto had avoided mirrors lately.
The dying sun turned the clouds above Konoha's towering canopy of trees into slashes of blistering orange and peach, and stars eyed him from their omniscient spot above him.
Tsunade was worried; it was Naruto's only explanation as to why she'd put him on guard duty.
(But then, he was considered part-Chuunin as of now, and it was nearly part of the rank description)
He snorted anyway. It was such a waste of his talent. He flexed his hands as he mused, the veins bruised blue and pulsing beneath a thin line of skin, traveling from under his glove to the crook of his elbow, two intertwining like the Euphrates and Tigris, between them; life.
There were so many better things he could be doing right now.
For one, Naruto had never noticed how absolutely stupid his younger self was. How Kakashi put up with them was something that Naruto couldn't begin to fathom, and right about now if his silver-haired Sensei was here he'd surely worship the ground the man walked on.
Sensei had always been cool like that. The way he was so elusive seemed to brandish itself with the word shinobi entirely, and appealed to Naruto in its vague, distant sort of action. He was sure that he thought of "Furu" like that as well.
His younger self was coming along nicely, though.
While the Suiton jutsu he had proposed for the boy was something more to keep his interests at bay and excite him a bit—not really for him to every perfect—the boy had exceeded his expectation and had created a wall, however thin and dripping it had been, of water for him the next time he appeared. The swell of pride in himself made him want to be a teacher (he quickly disseminated that thought, seeing as though he'd be one of the worst teachers by far considering his patience)
Speaking of which, perhaps his younger self could use a little checkup...
Naruto took a peek around.
The other Chuunin were lounging about the gate, and no one was approaching them from the dense forestry.
With a quick handseal, a Kage Bunshin was waving at him giddily and he took off into the forest.
–
--x--
–
Uzumaki Naruto near rolled on his heels.
He couldn't wait to tell Sensei about the mission.
He let his thoughts carry away from Haku for a moment, and rather to the entire fast-paced action of the entire mission that he was just dying to tell someone.
Iruka had listened patiently, genuinely interested on the blonde's shinobi development. A C-class turned A-class was a very dire situation indeed, but from what the teacher had heard from his young graduate the blond had handled himself rather well. Iruka was proud of him. The Academy teacher had scolded him though, interrupting him to say that he was worried for the boy's health. Naruto had brushed it off as Iruka simply being motherly, but the Chuunin was very concerned for the boy's mental health. Even though it was simply part of the shinobi way of life to experience death first hand, it was something he had hoped to protect Naruto from for as long as possible.
The blond was sunshine, so naïve to the darker parts of the world, even though he had lived so long in their inky, shadowy depths for so long.
Iruka had hoped to preserve that.
"Well, I gotta go, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto beamed at him, smile wide enough to crinkle the bottom of his eyes.
Iruka waved him off, Naruto stopping their chat in favor of running to the training grounds to practice some more. Iruka didn't know what had gotten into the blond lately, he had never taken training so seriously as he did now.
Naruto pushed past the crowded streets of Konoha, making his way to the training ground with the lake.
Furu hadn't been there for a while, but Naruto had shrugged it off to the other blond simply being out on a mission.
He jumped once he noticed the sunshine spikes near the water's edge.
Furu looked sullen today, morosely staring out into the waters choppy surface, the crisp verdant edges of the tree's leaves refracted onto the lake's rivulets in a kaleidescope of dots and smudges, as if a child had fingerpainted them and blurred them about with an eraser.
Naruto jogged up behind him, wondering what had his 'sensei' so sad.
"Oh, Naruto." The flaxen-haired man turned around before Naruto could even open his mouth.
"Furu-sensei!" He grinned. "Where ya been?"
The man chuckled weakly, before rubbing the back of his head, as if a bit sheepish. "Hmm, well, I had to deliver a scroll to the Hokage the other day..."
Naruto rolled his eyes. "You're just like Kakashi-sensei! Always making up excuses. I bet you're lying. And anyway, it wouldn't take so many days to deliver a stupid scroll!"
Furu had to laugh at his younger self's antics. They were so humorous at times, such a comedic relief in the near Shakespearean comedy his life had taken, which is to say, not much of a comedy at all and more of an ironic, sad little anecdote.
Although, he had actually taken the scroll Tsunade had given to Naruto to hand to Sarutobi.
It had seemed to quell the man's amusement at Naruto entirely, and the elder man seemed to take him a bit more seriously now.
A bit, being the key phrase of that sentence.
"I got a life, you know." Furu frowned at the boy below him, who only blinked meekly.
"Like what? Going grocery shopping and reading nasty porn novels?"
The cheeky brat...
"No, think more along the lines of kick as S-class missions including a whole bunch of injured teammates on a one on twelve fight with action packed jutsu."
Naruto's jaw dropped, and he seemed to look at the Jounin now part Chuunin as if God walked in and said to him; "young child, take that beautiful woman over there and procreate."
"Really?!"
"Yes, that did really happen." He intoned solemnly, before he opened his eyes to smirk viciously to the younger boy. "But not recently."
"Awhh..." Naruto sighed. "I wanted to hear all about it. Oh! Yeah I was gonna tell you about my mission?"
Furu's brows raised. "Oh?"
"Yeah! I went to Kirigakure with my team for a mission! This old guy wanted us to escort him to his bridge or something dumb like that, and when I first met him I thought he was just some stupid drunk who didn't know how to tell north from east, so I thought it would be stupid. But then it got awesome! These creepy dudes came out of nowhere—"
Reminiscing on the days of his very first A-class mission, Furu's mouth quirked into a wry smile.
Watching his younger self only seemed to make him relive those moments even more.
For some reason, it was unbearably hard to connect between his present and his past. Seeing the boy in front of him made him miss all the whimsy and unknown of the shinobi world, remembering the days when he only brushed the surface of the death and carnage, his exuberance near tangible and the memories he was reliving so palpable that he could taste the desire for greatness on his tongue, sweat-slicked and hardwork driven. Strange, month after month of brutal training and frantic pulse-rates conglomerated into the man he was now, a shadow of the passionate man he once was.
The young boy's mouth sped up quicker as he recalled the beginnings of the bridge fight, faltering a bit with a wavering stutter as he bypassed the ending of his fight with Haku, eyes downcast and wedging his feet into the dirt.
His fists clenched at his sides.
What had time traveling done—this knew adventure in his world, one he anticipated so greatly it was like his dream of becoming Hokage—but warp himself into a strangled creature of himself?
The knowledge washed upon the troubled shores of his mind.
Perhaps ignorance really was bliss.
"Are you even listening to me?!" Naruto demanded, put his hands on his hips.
No, but he could guess. "You had just gotten past the part where you and your Sensei scared the bad guys. And you were saying something about the bridge's name..."
The young blonde immediately brightened. "They named the bridge after me! Isn't that great? It's called the 'Great Naruto Bridge'. Hehehehe...I bet Sakura likes me tons now that I have a bridge named after me!"
"I'm sure," He said condescendingly, but Naruto didn't seem to pick up on the sarcasm.
Furu tapped his chin thoughtfully.
He would have gone with a wind jutsu, but he'd have them covered by the time he was sixteen and it would be a moot point to teach it so early. He tried to think about something he didn't know. Obviously the Rasengan was out of the question, he needed to keep his time with Jiraiya. Looking at the way Naruto was impatiently staring up at him he figured the boy would whine continuously if he taught another Suiton jutsu. Well, a Katon jutsu would certainly do the trick...
"Alright," He clapped his hands. "Today we'll try, Katon; Housenka no jutsu—
"No way!" Naruto yelped.
Furu looked down, puzzled. "What's wrong with it?"
Naruto sputtered a bit, pushing his headband up as he did so in what looked like irritation. "There's so much wrong with it! First of all, Sasuke-teme knows that technique, I'd look like I copied him if I did that! And anyway, if Sasuke-teme knows it the jutsu is obviously not cool enough for me." The boy with lemon colored hair finished with a bit of a haughty sniff.
Furu resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Hey, be thankful I'm even teaching you, let alone solely teaching you ninjutsu! I must be out of my mind!"
Naruto didn't do anything but pout and fold his arms, and Furu wondered just how much of a menace his younger self really was.
"Fine, fine!" He huffed in annoyance. "I'll teach you a really cool technique."
Immediately, Naruto bounced and leaned closer.
Furu mused that it wasn't really changing anything. If he did teach Naruto an A-rank Katon Jutsu it's not like he'd be able to learn it in time for the Chuunin exams, right? And anyway, it was much too difficult for Naruto to learn at this point. Furu was counting on the fact that Naruto was ridiculously stubborn in his practicing, and usually didn't think unconventionally when training and wouldn't think to do otherwise. Hopefully that would offset the boy until he learned it later in life, with a proper teacher. Not a time-traveling older version of himself that really didn't have the time to explain the mechanics of the technique.
"Well," Naruto snapped after long moments of waiting. "What is it?"
With a triumphant smirk, he said, "Katon; Karyuu Endan."
And, rather anticlimactically, Naruto snorted.
"What's that?"
Furu abstained the idea to ram his head into a nearby tree, and instead smirked even wider and began to make hand seals.
Naruto watched wide eyed as he suddenly shouted the incantation, and a monstrous molten dragon erupted from his mouth in large, hot streams of fire, and twisted around in the air in practiced whorls of flames, entwining in the sky like grappling hands of red.
As the dragon died into embers, target-less, Naruto whirled around with eyes the size of saucers, near gleeful.
"I get to learn that?!" He near shouted.
Furu grinned. "Yup. But its up to you to figure it out yourself, because I'm leaving the country for some business."
"That's fine!" Naruto interrupted hurriedly, bounding closer to inspect the hand seals.
"Now, it starts with..."
–
–
Uzumaki Naruto near skipped to the red bridge to meet his teammates.
Sakura was already waiting, hands placidly behind her back and bottle-green eyes skyward. She leaned against the bridge with her legs crossed, and didn't seem to notice the amassed exuberance that tailed about the blond like a puppy...or, perhaps, a large monster would be a better analogy to the size of his happiness.
She looked at him quizzically, noting the burns on his cheeks.
"What happened to you, Naruto?" She questioned, voice laced with annoyance. Naruto always got himself into trouble...
Naruto's hand immediately flew to his cheek, grinning sheepishly. He was sure that Kyuubi had healed most of them, or at least, the really horrid ones. True to Furu-sensei's word, he left in quick, hurried paces and disappeared for the better part of the week, only coming to deliver more scrolls to the Hokage. When Naruto had asked why the Hokage needed so many of them, Furu had evasively told him they were correspondences with one of the Hokage's old, dear friends, and hadn't said much else. Naruto thought that Furu must be a very in-demand kind of shinobi, judging from how he never had free time, and he wanted to be just like that when he was older, always doing something cool and interesting all the time. Except, what he didn't know was how much Furu was beginning to despise that.
Naruto didn't have much lecturing on even the basics of fire techniques...nor did he know anyone who did...
At least, he didn't recall any, until Sasuke carried his brooding self up the bridge.
"So the dobe's done some training." Sasuke snorted derisively, crossing his arms.
Naruto, contrary to usual, near gaped at his teammate.
Sakura wavered her gaze between the two of them, both confused and worried for the lack of banter.
After a few moments of silence, Sasuke opened his eyes to see the blond staring at him in a new light.
He shriveled his nose. "You're not falling in love with me, too, are you dobe?"
Sakura blushed furiously.
There was some sort of dawning realization in the blond's eyes, and his thoughts began to cork into gear to summon up a plan worthy of his pranking days.
Naruto let the implied insult slide off his back. "Please Sasuke, even if I was gay, I don't do the brooding, annoying, idiotic losers like yourself—
The Uchiha snarled and Sasuke whipped out a kunai and pinned it to the wooden pillar near Naruto's left ear.
The blond only smirked. "What? Struck a nerve? Sorry that your so stupid, I can't really help you there. I bet if we took the Gennin exam again, I'd pass and you'd flunk out like a dumb ass!"
Naruto flipped onto the railing behind him as he taunted. Just as he'd expected, Sasuke lunged towards him, and the two toppled into the grass on the other side of the bridge, mere inches from the river's edge. He threw the Uchiha off of him, and distanced himself enough to be able to dodge a katon justu by diving into the lake. He grinned cockily, wiping some dirt off of his chin and watching Sasuke clench his fists in anger.
"Is that all you got?" He mocked...just a little more... "And here I thought you knew some fancy jutsu—
"Katon; Goukakyuu no Jutsu!!"
Naruto dodged just as Sasuke spit out an enormous fireball, watching as he made the hand seals closer to his chest and farther away from his face, as to dodge the burning hot flames.
Sasuke kept his hands in the dragon seal far longer then normal jutsu, and his mouth was open akin to a smoker's, open enough to allow puffs of smoke, or in Naruto's case, a massive fire dragon. He supposed what he'd have to learn how to control on his own was the form of the dragon, and the dragon itself. The more Naruto pondered this, the more he realized that this was going to be a lot harder then anything else Kakashi-sensei or Furu-sensei had ever tasked to him.
But he was determined.
Not only to show Sasuke and his stupid fire Jutsu up, but to impress Furu-sensei.
I don't know if a council recommendation is actually needed for a Chuunin to become ANBU. But oh well, I'm not even entirely sure that Chuunin can become ANBU at all.
I've already got a fic where Naruto is freakishly powerful, so I'm trying to keep him...well, as surprising as usual (I mean, he finished the Rasengan in a week in cannon) nut not too powerful. So if you think he shouldn't start learning that A-rank jutsu, just keep in mind he's not supposed to learn it at all, Furu is doing so to keep him occupied. But he doesn't know that Naruto wants to impress him by learning it.