Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach. It is respectively the propriety of Kishimoto and Tite Kubo.
Hello everyone, I am back with the third chapter of Shinigami. I know some of you have been waiting for this for a while now, so I'm happy to oblige.
First though, I thank you all for reviewing the last chapter and hope you'll keep doing it. It pushes me to write quickly and give you the next installment of the story. Like I said in the previous chapter, this one start at the end of the training trip. But don't worry, any important part will be detailed in flashback or the like.
Also I'd like to congratulate Slifer1988 and shadowmaster for correctly guessing the ability of the mercernary leader, in last chapter.
Finally, for those I haven't replied yet for their review, I'll do so by PM. It is much easier this way, instead of doing so in the chapter.
Chapter 3: Home, sweet home
2 YEARS AFTER THE START OF THE TRAINING TRIP -
The elemental countries have always been home to impressive, somewhat mystic sights. This day was no different. At the edge of a clearing stood two persons, ninjas to be exact. The clearing was surrounded by a green scenery made of trees and short grass. Yet, it seemed to be repulsed by the clearing, barring any path for anything other than short grass.
The first of the two ninjas was a woman of medium height. She had a delicate figure and harbored the strangest of hair color: blue. A plain white flower seemed stuck on the side of her hairs. Lastly, she wore a large black cloak with red clouds trimmed on the fabric.
She looked intently at the second ninja whose backside was facing her.
Weird was the appropriate word to describe the second ninja. Like the woman, this one, obviously male, also sported a black cloak with red clouds. Though that is where the similarities ended. His hair colour was a vibrant orange and an Ame headband held his hairs in place. He also had several black piercings upon his face. Lastly his metallic grey eyes held concentric rings surrounding the pupils.
The two ninjas stood in front of a structure they'd never seen before and considering their experience in this world, that was saying something. The structure resembled a large cube and seemed to stretch so far away it wholly covered the clearing. Made of a yellow-like energy, it concealed whatever was inside it, only allowing the curious to see the yellow wall of the cube, but not beyond.
The woman observed her companion's analysis of the barrier. 'Obviously it is a barrier to prevent anyone from interfering with whatever is happening inside.' The orange haired man, his eyes gazing intently at the structure, appeared more confused than anything. And that was a strange sight to her.
'Usually, nothing seems to escape his grasp with those eyes of his. I wonder…' she thought while gazing at his back.
"Anything?" She finally asked the man.
"Nothing conclusive. Whatever that thing is, the energy it uses is out of my grasp. Familiar… yet foreign at the same time." He tentatively tried to explain but a simple look at the woman and he knew she understood nothing.
"Can you break it?"
With but a look, the woman knew he couldn't. This was shocking to her, yet she only raised a curious eyebrow.
The man's gaze seemed to shift to the side, which prompted her to follow suit. Not a second later, two large venus fly-traps dramatically rose from the ground. At first sight, it looked like a human body was caught within the fly-trap, but upon careful observations, the protuberance looked melted to the body and acted like an extension.
Once again, the sight didn't seem to bother the two. Instead they seemed bored by it.
"Konan! Pain!" the newly arrived man called.
"Zetsu!" Konan replied, holding his gaze for a few second before shifting it back to the barrier in front of her.
Pain didn't do the same. Instead he blatantly looked at zetsu, the gaze was so intense it seemed to be peering at the man's soul. The latter could only look back in apprehension. 'I wonder what you see with those eyes of yours?' He never voiced that thought. Finally Pain stopped starring and concentrated on the barrier again.
"I see you have finally arrived." Zetsu continued, shifting his gaze to Konan.
"Unfortunately, as you can see, it's too late…" He continued but was interrupted.
"What exactly is that barrier?" Konan had shifted her sight back to him again
"Your guess is as good as mine. When I reached this place, the target was resting in the clearing. After I contacted you to pass on the information, I waited for your arrival. Then he came and sealed the clearing with the target inside."
Pain's gaze abruptly shifted back to him, his emotionless face conveying nothing.
"This is his work?"
"Yes. It happened so fast I had no time to react or do anything. One moment, I was observing the target, next the only thing I can see is this barrier."
Konan skeptically looked at him. "Are you implying what I think? That, shinigami is responsible for this?" Her voice was hard as she questioned Zetsu.
"Not many people dress in complete black and a white mask with a skull etched on it these days, at least not with a short sword on their back. So I stand by my words, it is shinigami."
Konan didn't comment on that, and instead looked at Pain with worry etched on her face. She knew just how much shinigami — that monster — affected her companion. 'Their last encounter has been nothing but tortuous to him. Pain almost razed Takigakure to the ground if it wasn't for Tobi's untimely intervention.' She looked at him, fearing the worst.
And she had been right to fear.
Without warning, a violent shockwave rippled through the barrier after Pain uttered the words Shinra Tensei. The barrier seemed to contract on itself for a while, as if it would break, then like a roaring animal, the shockwave was sent back at the attacker.
"What the…" Zetsu didn't finish his words and quickly fused back with the ground, escaping the dangerous repulsive power.
Pain looked in shock as his attack was sent back at him. 'Only 2 seconds have passed, I can't use that attack again'. He dug his feet in the ground and took the hit head on, while Konan's body was scattered in thousand of folded papers.
A few moments later, the attack was over. Zetsu rose back from the ground and observed the area. As expected, a good chunk of the forest behind them was reduced to splintered woods. 'What power!' He thought before looking at the still standing Pain.
While obviously affected by the attack, somehow, he had survived it wholly. He was about to look for Konan when a storm of paper quickly reformed her body. She looked at Pain, just as surprised as Zetsu was, to see him still standing.
She'd have commented on it if the barrier in front of them didn't abruptly vanish.
Acting as one, the three ninjas rushed through the clearing looking for their target.
They found no one there.
Stopping at its center, they checked their surroundings, tried to sense any chakra residue, looked for a trail left behind. They found none.
"That's impossible. You sure he was there Zetsu?"
"Positive."
"Then how come there is no trace of either his or the target presence? He couldn't have erased everything so fast, could he?" Konan wondered, frustrated by this turn of events.
"Twice!" Pain snarled, prompting Zetsu and Konan to look at him. They were surprised to see him shaking in anger and clenching his fists, hard.
"Twice already that he beat us to a jinchuuriki and took him away. That cannot go on anymore. Zetsu!"
Snapped out of his thoughts, he quickly looked at Pain's eyes.
"I want you to dig up everything you can about shinigami. I want to know where he is from, where he lives, what are his abilities, even what he eats in the morning, I don't care. If it concerns him, I want to know. This is your top priority, understood?" Pain barked at him, forcing him to nod his head furiously, clearly frightened by the man before him.
Pain whirled around and gestured for Konan to follow him. "Come! We'll have to consider the six tails Utakata, lost for now!"
Silently, Konan followed him, wondering just how far the animosity between Pain and shinigami would go. And what consequences it'd have on the world.
Two years had gone by, two years since Naruto left Konoha with Jiraiya, two years since he started a training that would hopefully help him defend himself against Akatsuki. Now that the training trip was over with, they were going back to the village.
The two were walking through the path that led to Konoha. On the middle of the road, Jiraiya laughed, more like giggled loudly, while writing on his notebook. Once in a while he would check the road to ensure they were in the right direction, then he'd go back to his notebook giggling perversely. He peered behind him and spied on Naruto carefully scribbling in his own notebook.
He noted the changes the boy went through. From a short little boy to a man, I'm awesome like that, turning my students into women candy. He giggled once again already picturing the village reaction to this new version of Naruto.
Naruto, standing now at five feet seven, had indeed changed a lot. Gone was the little boy. Now in his place was a man with a body wired like a machine. Prominent muscles all over his body, angular face showing his maturation, not an once of fat, that was the new Naruto. He wasn't bulky but he definitely wasn't skinny either, more like a mix of the two.
Like Jiraiya, he was writing in his notebook but unlike the sannin, it wasn't about another perverse story to be published. The object he held in his hand was more like a treasure to him. Because it held every Kido techniques he ever used, from their uses to the mechanics behind it.
Once in a while, he would read it to perfectly recall every spell. He also used it to write ideas of new spells.
"Are you happy to be back?" He heard Jiraiya says in the distance.
"You bet I am! First thing I do, is to go to Ichiraku ramen." He exclaimed while closing his notebook and having it disappear in a poof of smoke.
"Really? Two years away from the village and the first thing you do is eat ramen? Why do I always get the mental ones!" Jiraiya cried to the heaven, sniffing loudly.
"You're gonna play that card again? Seriously ero — sennin!"
"Shut up. You don't know the hardships I've endured with you and the yondaime."
"Yeah yeah! We don't understand the depth of perversity, we are not worthy! Bla bla." Naruto mocked the sannin who huffed in exasperation and looked in front of him.
"I can see the village looming in the horizon. Wanna race?"
"Not this time. I've been training for so long, I got to rest sometimes you know? And you call yourself a teacher? Pff"
Jiraiya grumbled at his student remark, yet he only smiled at the boy. Yes he has definitely changed. He told himself. Before their trip, Naruto would have taken any chances to show off his supposedly awesome power. But now he didn't held much interest in doing so. He knew his capabilities and needed no one to tell him if he was strong or not.
Like the boy once said, stop bragging and let's our fists do the talking.
Before long, they stood at the village entrance. People seemed to freely walk in and out the village but they paid them no mind.
"This is it then!" Jiraiya put his hand on Naruto's left shoulder. The latter just smiled as he looked at the village, admiring his design and committing to memory every details he could.
"Yeah, home, sweet home."
"Ok, first stop is Tsunade's office. We're already late as it is, better not make her wait any longer." Jiraiya shuddered as he imagined the reaction of the tempered woman. A ghostly feeling surged through his body as if remembering all the pain Tsunade ever inflicted upon him.
Though, when he looked at Naruto he found the boy running inside the village, and not in the right direction.
"See you later sucker! I've a ramen stand to raid." Naruto's yell reverberated through the place, forcing everyone to look at his direction. At once they were reminded that Naruto was scheduled to be coming back soon. A ghost of a smile appeared on most of their faces as they recalled the pranks the boy used to play to get attention.
They all had the same thing in mind: Konoha was gonna be very lively for the next few days.
The ramen stand hadn't changed much over the years. Still a small restaurant, it was a rather plain looking building with chairs visible from outside. Several white curtains served to hide the customers upper bodies as a way to give them privacy.
When Naruto reached the stand, he noticed that some of the chairs were filled but he paid no mind to it. He moved the curtains away as he got inside the stand.
"Teuchi oji — san, Ayame nee — chan, your favourite customer is back!" His shoot sounded like a gong in the small piece and attracted attention to him.
Naruto? With eyes wide, Ayame — who was in the kitchen — swiftly sneaked a peek at the entrance to confirm she wasn't hearing things. But when she saw the boy she considered her little brother, she quickly ran at him.
Naruto seeing this smiled happily and opened his arms wide to the running girl. Without hesitation, Ayame hugged him as if her life depended on it.
"Naruto you are back! I missed you so much!" The girl rambled as she checked Naruto from head to toes, like a mother would do to her son. She pushed Naruto away to get a better look at him and smiled.
"My gosh! You have changed so much! I wouldn't have recognised you if it wasn't for your whiskers and hairs."
"Of course I changed. I'm not the little boy that ran around the village playing pranks you know?" Naruto grinned as he hugged his sister figure once more.
"How have you been Naruto — kun? Did your training trip goes well?"
"It was awesome nee — chan. There is so much I gotta tell you. We travelled all over the countries. We visited amazing places I wouldn't even known existed."
As he talked, Naruto took a seat while Ayame listened to him with rapt attention. He told her of the places he visited with Jiraiya, of the adventures they had while travelling. He recounted everything to her. After a while, the other customers got caught up in his stories and listened too.
"Hey I forgot to tell you, I made chuunin a year ago." As he said this he grinned, obviously proud of his accomplishment. She could tell Naruto had changed a lot. He seems more lively and genuinely enjoys his life. She told herself with a smile on the lips.
"So how long have you been back in the village?" Teuchi asked his favourite customer, having joined the group when Naruto was counting his trip.
"I just came back and I decided to visit you first."
"Visit us or have a bowl of ramen?" Ayame grinned as she said that and soon the whole stand erupted in laughter.
Naruto sheepishly scratched the back of his head, his face red in embarrassment. "Well, that too!"
They laughed even more at his expense but he just smiled at them, happy to be back home after so long.
An hour or so, and several bowls of ramen later, Naruto left the stand, promising himself to come back as soon as he could. As he turned the corner leading to the stand, a voice he hadn't heard in a while stopped him.
"Naruto?"
Slowly turning around, he faced the owner of the voice and widened his eyes as he saw who it was.
"Sakura? Is that you?" He stuttered a little but that was to be expected. He certainly wasn't prepared to see a mature version of his old teammate after all. Appraising her for a while, he finally spoke what he had in mind.
"You've definitely bulked up, haven't you?"
WHAM!
He was slammed on the opposing wall courtesy of an angry Sakura who looked at him her fist raised.
"You on the other hand haven't changed much. I'll show you how bulky I've become."
Naruto backed away from the enraged woman, wondering why his mouth always betrayed him. A short while later Sakura had calmed down enough for the two to talk.
"I didn't know you were coming back so soon. I thought your training trip would last a few more weeks or so?"
Naruto grinned as she asked him that question. "That's because I'm just that awesome. They finally recognised my power and now I'm back ready to kick ass."
Sakura found herself grinning at his enthusiasm. This is certainly refreshing. Seeing him so happy, I've really missed him, haven't I? She kept observing the blonde as he gave a short version of his training trip.
"I heard you made chuunin, Sakura — chan. I am one too. How awesome is that?" He finally asked her a question to which she was too happy to respond.
"Yeah, Tsunade — shishio told me of your promotion. Something like you didn't want to be left behind by us." She teased him but Naruto just pouted.
This went on for a moment, the two recounting their respective experience with a sannin, Sakura being the most talkative one. However, she quickly noticed that Naruto remained tight-lipped for some reason about his training. This of course shocked the hell out of her because, as far as she remembered, Naruto had always been a show-off. She put it at the back of her mind for now, all too happy to have her teammate back.
While she was talking, Naruto abruptly shifted his gaze to a small post a few meters away from him. Wondering what was going on, she did the same and not a second later, an anbu appeared on it, directly looking at them.
"What can we do for you anbu — san?" She heard Naruto said.
"Naruto — san, hokage — sama requests your presence immediately in her office." His job done, the anbu vanished again, not even waiting for Naruto's acknowledgement of his request. He knew the boy would go to the hokage's office. It was common knowledge that when you received instruction by an anbu, you followed it.
While Naruto discussed with the anbu, Sakura looked at his back in shock and wonder. Did he just sensed that ninja before he appeared? Even I with my impressive sensing skills didn't notice that anbu until he was right here. Just how much have you improved Naruto?
Naruto looked at her again and smiled. "You heard the man. Better go and meet Tsunade baa — chan before she gets angry."
Sakura absentmindedly nodded and unconsciously formed a ram seal before she disappeared in a swirl of leaves. If she had stayed longer, she'd have noticed Naruto looking above her shoulder toward an incoming Temari and Shikamaru.
While he should have been looking at Shikamaru — having been friend with him for a while now — he looked at Temari dead in the eyes. Tension seemed to build between the two as Temari shot him a dirty look, which he shrugged off, knowing exactly what this was about. He promptly vanished the same way Sakura did, leaving behind a bewildered Shikamaru.
"Was that Naruto?" He asked out loud to Temari who shrugged noncommittally and went on her way. Shikamaru looked at her a little confused, but he quickly deemed the matter too troublesome and left it at that.
TSUNADE'S OFFICE -
When Naruto pushed open the door to Tsunade's office, he didn't expect to fight for his life. The office was supposed to be one of the safest place in the village after all, yet here he was, dodging flying furnitures left and right.
"YOU DITCH OUR MEETING FOR RAMEN?" Tsunade yelled at the boy as he ducked a flying chair that ought to be classified as lethal weapon. It came too dangerously close for comfort.
"You haven't met any of us in two years and the first thing you think about is food? I'M GONNA KILL YOU GAKI!" Naruto sweat dropped as he observed Tsunade enraged form. Jiraiya stood behind, trying his best to calm her down.
"Calm down Tsunade — hime, he just wanted to sneak a peek at Ayame." If that was supposed to calm her, it did the exact opposite, as he received a back hand for his efforts.
"I'll deal with you later Jiraiya. As for you…" She looked at the fearful Naruto who was backed against the wall once again. This seems to be happening a lot these days. He told himself while closing his eyes expecting the beating of a lifetime.
Instead he felt someone envelops him in a crushing hug. Opening his eyes, he saw that it was Tsunade.
"You idiot, I missed you so much."
Sighing and a little disappointed at himself for making her sad, he hugged her back. "Sorry Tsunade baa — chan. I missed you too."
The two stayed like that for a while, under the watchful gazes of Jiraiya and Sakura. They had assisted at the rather comical scene and couldn't help but smile at the happy reunion.
Though, the happy scene was over quickly when Tsunade smacked Naruto's head, hard.
"This is for making me wait." She grumbled while moving back behind her desk. Upon sitting on her comfortable chair, she gazed at Naruto sheepish form.
"You didn't have to hit so hard baa — chan."
"And you didn't have to make me wait. I'm the hokage after all." She finished smugly to a grumbling Naruto who muttered 'not for long'. Fortunately it wasn't heard and everything went back to normal, as the tension in the room was lifted.
"So Naruto, how was your training?" Tsunade finally asked, a little too eager for Naruto's taste.
In an instant, the rather jovial ambience was drained. Naruto held a guarded stance as he looked at Jiraiya then at Tsunade. He didn't need to look at Sakura to know she too was eager to learn about his training trip.
"I'm sure Jiraiya already filled you in on everything you needed to know. So why are you asking me this?"
"Because I want to heard it from you. Jiraiya has a tendency of exaggerating things." The hokage replied to Naruto who didn't seem that moved by it.
"I trained non-stop for 2 long years and I don't really want to think about anything related to training right now." He smiled at Tsunade, with a touch of pleading in his eyes.
Tsunade understood perfectly well his reasonings and it was true that she already had the necessary information about Naruto's current level. 'It is just so unbelievable that I wanted to hear it from his mouth.' She thought while observing a frowning Sakura.
"You seem very careful about everything related to your training trip. You don't have to be ashamed if you didn't improve as much as you wanted Naruto." Sakura said playfully at Naruto who just smiled at her.
"Oh it's quite the contrary Sakura. Going by Jiraiya's report, his training brought unexpected results."
Sakura looked at her sensei in wonder. "How so?"
"Simple really, among your generation, only Neji has been made jounin. And Naruto's own jounin exam will be tomorrow. Suffice to say I wouldn't even consider him jounin material if that wasn't the case."
Sakura widened her eyes upon hearing it. 'Jounin already? Just how much has he improved?' She wondered, stealing glance at the boy who seemed oblivious to it all.
"Tomorrow? I thought I had something like a week to rest before the exam? That's not fair baa — chan!"
"Life isn't fair gaki, so deal with it." Tsunade shot back to an annoyed Naruto.
"What are you complaining about anyway? Think about all the girls that'll chase you once they heard you made jounin." Jiraiya added his own cent while giggling perversely.
"Trust Jiraiya — sama to think about women at a time like this." A new voice was heard coming from the balcony.
As one, the occupants of the room whirled around to face the speaker. With a book held on his left hand, Kakashi read it nonchalantly in front of the two sannins and his late students.
"Kakashi — sensei, I haven't seen you in a while!" Sakura exclaimed happily. She hadn't seen him for almost a year now because she was busy with her training and hospital duties. Adding Kakashi's re-entrance in the anbu black ops, seeing each other was simply not possible.
"Ahh Sakura — chan, looks at you. You've grown. With this, almost all members of Team 7 are reunited." Kakashi replied but quickly cursed himself for mentioning Team 7 when he saw Sakura's depressed look. Expecting an outburst from Naruto, he quickly faced the boy hoping to placate him.
But that wasn't necessary.
"You resumed your training!" Naruto asked, more like affirmed to the jounin. The latter was a little taken aback by Naruto's impassive attitude about their missing teammate. He chalked it up to Jiraiya having found a way for the boy to deal with the betrayal.
"You noticed? Maybe our fight tomorrow won't be as boring as I thought, then!" He smiled at the boy, trying to stir him up. Rattling the boy had always been so easy, what with him being so self conscious of his flaws.
But the room became still as Naruto's body stance completely changed. He looked at Kakashi with his blue eyes. Eyes that usually were full of mischief and inner cunning.
They were blank now.
If the eyes are mirrors to the soul, then Kakashi could safely affirm that Naruto had no soul in him.
He saw nothing, not even a shred of emotion behind those blue pools, only the promise of death.
"Na…ru…to?" He slowly uttered.
The look was gone in an instant and the usual happy Naruto was back, smiling happily at his former sensei.
"You'll be my opponent Kakashi — sensei? That's great, I have loads of new moves to show you." The blonde grinned happily, completely oblivious to Kakashi awkwardness.
Later on, the jounin would learn that the interaction only lasted a second.
"Yes you will gaki and I hope you're ready." Tsunade said to the boy before ushering Naruto and Sakura out as she had another meeting to attend to.
Once Naruto and Sakura left Tsunade's office, Jiraiya moved to close the door behind them. Then he applied several paper seals on the walls and the door.
"The room is sealed. Now we can speak freely." He said to the two other occupants of the room.
Kakashi was the first to go as he looked at the toad sannin with a troubled look.
"Was I dreaming?" The question was vague but the recognition look on Jiraiya's face showed that he understood.
"So you noticed?"
"Notice what?" Tsunade inquired, not really sure if she followed.
With a sigh, Jiraiya moved across the room and sat on a guest chair, facing Tsunade and Kakashi. The expression on his face seemed resigned, like he didn't want to talk about something but was forced to.
"What I am about to tell is NOT something to take lightly. It all started…"
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Tsunade interrupted him, clearly not seeing where this conversation was going. " Am I missing something there?" She never liked to be out of the loop. Usually she'd react, violently, to being ignored. Jiraiya knew this, so he quickly filled her in what he was talking about.
"It's about Naruto's second personality."
While Kakashi had a look of understanding, as if piecing an illusive puzzle together, Tsunade wasn't fairing so well. Jiraiya knew this so he added. "Everything will be explained, so hear me out first, ok?"
The two Konoha ninjas nodded before Jiraiya started again.
"A few weeks after our depart from Konoha, I tried to teach Naruto how to use the Kyuubi's chakra…"
Tsunade's widened her eyes at that, before narrowing them.
"Don't look at me like that. You certainly guessed I'd teach the gaki how to use the Kyuubi. It was the only solution I had to get him where he needed to be skill-wise."
"Yes I knew you'd do that, but I thought it'd be later on in the trip, not so soon."
"I had my reasons. Can we move on now? Good!"
Not waiting for her agreement, he continued. "As I said, I tried to teach him to use Kyuubi's chakra… but he refused. He didn't want to rely on that energy and wanted to be strong by himself. So we had a fight of a sort. Afterward I refused to teach him anything new until he accepted to learn it."
He could see Kakashi and Tsunade indignant stare but at this point he couldn't care less. He had wanted to make a survivor out of Naruto and he'd have done it again.
"So for a while, the boy trained by himself. At first it was only meditation, but later on it changed to something else. I can't tell you what because by that time I couldn't spy on him anymore."
Jiraiya raised his hand at the incredulous look he was given and to stop any further interruption. He understood well why they were shocked. He was an infiltrator and stealth expert. Also it was very difficult to stop him when he wanted to spy on someone. To learn that a genin could elude him was shocking to say the least.
"I don't know how, even to this day, but Naruto is somehow able to block anyone from sensing him. But that doesn't apply to him apparently. If he wants, he can find you no matter what. Before long, it wasn't me that decided when we saw each other, but the opposite. If he felt like it, he'd vanish for a time and only when he had finished whatever the hell he was doing, would he appear again."
"You are saying you couldn't watch over him? What if something happened to him when he vanished like that? What if Akatsuki attacked at that moment, what'd have happened then?" Tsunade almost yelled at her fellow sannin. Almost being the key word, yet her voice was loud enough to stop him dead on track.
"Don't you think I know that? You weren't there when I had to wait until the boy came back, hoping nothing had happened to him. Fortunately I talked with him about a year or so ago. He agreed to at least give his position and health state to the toad. That way, the summons can warn me in case something bad happens."
Chastised, Tsunade slowly nodded, ushering him to continue.
"Anyway, it was during that time that he started doing C-rank missions to gain experience and to become chuunin at least by the time he came back."
"Does this story lead somewhere?" Kakashi lazily wondered. Not that he was bored. He certainly wanted to learn of his student adventures but he felt that they were losing the point here.
"I was getting there! Youngsters these days." Jiraiya grumbled at being interrupted once again.
"I don't know what exactly, but something happened during his first mission. Something shook him so much that he thought of humans as no better than animals."
The admission shocked Tsunade and Kakashi. But this time they waited for an explanation.
"We had a discussion about that, and I think I was somehow able to stir him away from that negative thinking. After that, he continued his mission and we didn't have any more issues for a few months."
A pointed look from Jiraiya was enough to reassure them that the matter was dealt with.
"After six months, I couldn't wait anymore for him to change his mind about the Kyuubi chakra, so I confronted him. That is when I learned that in only 6 months he was able to go from subpar genin to low jounin." He ignored Tsunade and Kakashi stunned looks.
"But I wasn't satisfied enough so we made a deal. Every six months we'd have a spar to determine if he was making progress or not. In the off chance that he wasn't, he'd learn how to draw on the beast chakra."
It was then that Jiraiya sighed. "For a time, everything seemed fine, but when I went with him on one of his mission, I witnessed something very frightening."
"What was it? What happened?" Tsunade inquired.
He looked deeply inside her eyes, seemingly crushed by an invisible weight. "Naruto's second personality happened!"
Seeing their confused gazes, he elaborated. "You remember I told you Naruto almost broke after his first mission, but that I was able to patch him up, right? Well, that wasn't the case apparently. Whatever happened made him create a personality strong enough to do what he has to. Someone able to see the world for what it is and deal with it. Someone whose core his geared for hell. Someone whose sole purpose is to deal with whatever Naruto deems abnormal. This is the second personality Kakashi saw earlier, even for the briefest instant."
He finished ominously. The other two could only look at the sannin bewildered.
"Is it gonna be a problem later on?" Tsunade inquired.
"It depends. That personality surfaces mostly during battle or when Naruto sees something that goes against his morals. So basically, I doubt you'll face it anytime soon."
"So it's harmless to us?" This time Kakashi asked the question.
"I wouldn't say so. Let me make this clear for the both of you. Should you ever face that personality, under no circumstance are you to confront him, even with words. He is not human! He has no emotion whatsoever. His only purpose is to eradicate whatever caused Naruto to enter this state in the first place."
"But what about our fight tomorrow?" Kakashi wondered, already regretting suggesting himself to test the boy.
"That wouldn't count. Despite everything, Naruto completely controls that personality. If he has no grudge against you…" Jiraiya smirked at Kakashi. "…then he'd know when to stop."
Somewhat reassured that he wouldn't be in a life or death battle the next day, Kakashi asked the question he and Tsunade had in mind for a while now.
"Did he learn how to draw on the beast energy?" He uttered softly, as if afraid to ask.
Jiraiya stared at him with an intense look, before answering.
"He never did!"
If they weren't shocked before, they were now. They couldn't imagine what level Naruto needed to be, for Jiraiya to deem the use of the Kyuubi unnecessary. A beast whose power was so great he could topple mountain with a flick of his tails.
In the end, only one question remained in their mind.
How strong had Naruto become?
TRAINING GROUND 7 -
The next day found Naruto and Kakashi in training ground 7. They were here for a reason, Naruto's evaluation and possible increase in rank.
The jounin exam was something closely kept secret for every village. They couldn't afford to let their enemies know what was required of their jounin. If they knew, then they could easily guess what kind of abilities Konoha elite ninjas had and this would be bad.
People have speculated that a ninja needed to master two elemental manipulations to reach that level. That wasn't completely true. Obviously if a ninja had such ability, it was an asset but nothing more. There were jounins in Konoha who even had difficulties controlling one element, yet they were strong enough to be granted the title.
In the end, it was all about a ninja level. If a ninja was strong enough to beat or compete against any jounin out there, then he was granted the title. It was that simple.
The silence in training ground 7 was so heavy the flapping wings of a fly could easily be heard. Naruto and Kakashi stood twenty meters apart, mentally preparing themselves for the battle to come.
On the sidelines, Tsunade and Jiraiya, along with the three acting judges for this proceeding – Asuma, Kurenai and Gai – gazed at the two ninjas. Beside Jiraiya, they knew nothing of Naruto's skills, but based on the sannin recommendations, they expected a huge improvement on the boy's part.
Kakashi, taking a deep breath, looked at his one time student. "This test begins when I give you the start, ok?"
Naruto, with a smile on his lips, nodded before closing his eyes. When he opened them a moment later, it was like a different person replaced him.
Gone was the goofy Naruto, in his stead stood an emotionless human, a war machine devoid of feelings.
This didn't go unnoticed by the audience, as the air around them seemed to freeze as if hell had been brought on earth. While before they could feel Naruto's presence through his chakra, now they felt nothing.
It was like his chakra had been erased from existence. They knew he was right in front of Kakashi, as they could see him. Yet they got the feeling they would lose sight of him the first time they blinked.
This was a strange sensation for them, one that didn't bode well to whoever fought the young chuunin.
"Do any of you feel his chakra?" Kurenai questioned her fellow judges in wonder.
"I don't. Whatever the hell he did, somehow erased his chakra presence." Asuma replied with a serious expression on his face.
"If that's the case…" Gai continued with an uncharacteristically hardened expression. The situation demanded no less from him, because no one had ever erased their presence in such a way, at least none they knew of.
On the training ground, Kakashi narrowed his eyes as he looked at the new Naruto in front of him. Be very careful with the other Naruto, Kakashi. He's ruthless with his opponents. He recalled Jiraiya's words and couldn't help but shudder in anticipation.
"Go!" With but a word, he gave the start of the battle.
Not wanting to wait for whatever Naruto had in store for him, he created an earth clone, twenty meters on his left and replaced himself with it before starting the handseals for a fireball, all in less than a second.
Like a comet, Naruto charged the clone and rammed a kunai in its gut. Without stopping he rushed toward the original Kakashi and delivered a straight kick on the jounin, forcing the latter to stop his sequence.
Acting on autopilot, Kakashi pared the attack with his crossed forearms. Yet the blow was strong enough to push him back a few meters. He recovered just in time to dodge a kunai that flew by his face.
But at once, Naruto was upon him again, delivering a flurry of punches and kicks, never giving the jounin the chance to come to his senses. Whenever Kakashi tried to get some distance, Naruto would throw a weapon at him and use his phenomenal speed to close the gap.
Not used to such fighting style, Kakashi was quickly overwhelmed and dropped his guard, long enough for Naruto to take advantage of it. Getting inside Kakashi's guard, Naruto punched his ribs, almost cracking them, and face-palmed his kidney before finishing with a powerful two-fisted punch on the abdomen.
"Sokotsu!" Naruto cried out upon making contact with Kakashi.
The attack was so strong Kakashi was propelled several meters away, until he came to a stop, having used his hands to get a grip on the ground.
Coughing blood, he looked at Naruto, eyes wide. He's ludicrously fast. I can barely follow his movements now. To hell with Jiraiya's advices, I gotta use the sharingan if I don't want it to get any worse. He told himself as he lifted his headband covering his sharingan eye.
With his trump card now available to him, he searched Naruto's gaze until he made eye contact with the blonde. Got you! He thought as he immediately ensnared the boy in a genjutsu.
As he expected, Naruto's body froze immediately afterward. To the boy, it felt like his body was being constricted by an invisible force.
Using the distraction, Kakashi went through handseals and put his fingers beside his mouth, "Katon : Gokyaku no jutsu" expelling a huge fireball at the unmoving Naruto.
The audiences could only widen their eyes as the attack collided with Naruto. They would have rushed on the field then and there, if it wasn't for the smirk Jiraiya sported.
They looked at Kakashi just in time to see him parry a kunai strike from Naruto. The boy had appeared out of nowhere, standing behind the jounin, as if he had always been there, which made them wonder just what happened.
Unlike them, Kakashi didn't have time to guess, as he was expertly countering Naruto's kunai strikes. With his sharingan on, he had an easier time defending against Naruto's onslaught. Once again their kunai clashed, with Naruto holding his own in a reverse grip.
Twirling the weapon in his right hand, the boy used his left to launch a shuriken at close range. Kakashi moved his head aside, dodging the weapon, while snaking his hands around Naruto's, capturing the appendage in a vice grip.
"I got you now!" He exclaimed in triumph while jumping backward.
'Now he'll either follow my movements and expose himself or risk breaking his hand by staying put.'
But Naruto had other plans as he muttered under his breath. "Bakudo 8: Seki"
A small sphere of blue energy formed between Naruto's hand and Kakashi's grip. Upon touching the two appendages, a violent force repulsed the two, at the same time freeing him.
Kakashi having already jumped, was completely vulnerable to Naruto who put his kunai horizontally in front of him, his other hand touching the base of the weapon. Then a yellow energy gathered the length of it before being fired at Kakashi in a wide arc.
"Hado 32: Okasen"
Kakashi looked in shock at the attack, having never witnessed a technique of the sort, yet his instincts prevailed and he flew through hand seals. He finished just in time for his thrust right palm to meet the attack head on.
"Raikiri." A thunder sound was heard as his right forearm was covered by blue lightning.
The two attacks collided and battled for a second, before Kakashi's cleaved through the yellow blast.
At the same time, he finally touched ground, putting him out of harm way. Not wasting a moment, as he saw Naruto blurring toward him again, he moved his lightning covered arm in front of him. 'You won't get close this time.'
"Raiju Hashiri" – Lightning Beast running
In a blink of an eye, the lighting covering Kakashi's hand was transformed into a hound that covered the distance between the two, in an instant.
Seeing the approaching beast, Naruto widened his eyes before backpedalling, dodging the attack. But to his horror, the beast seemed to pursue him. While retreating, he looked at Kakashi and saw him guiding the attack with his hand.
With but a short observation, he already knew the specific of the technique and stopped at approximately forty meters away from Kakashi. In front of him, the beast stopped too, as if unable to move forward.
Tsunade looked at the battle with a look of surprise. "He was able to deduce the range limit of the attack that fast? Just what the hell did you teach that gaki?" Despite talking to Jiraiya, she never once looked away from the battle, not wanting to miss anything.
Jiraiya did the same while answering. "This is all him or that personality of his. In combat, it's like he dismiss everything unimportant around him and focus solely on the battle at hand. Because of such concentration, his observation skills are top notch."
On the battlefield, Kakashi grumbled under his breath as he looked at the impassive Naruto. 'Not only did he figure out the range limit of the attack, but it looks like he also knows I can't move while using this technique. Keeping it active is only draining my chakra reserve. I just wasted it for nothing.'
Ready to dispel his attack, he was surprised when the Naruto in front of him exploded in a puff of smoke. Simultaneously, another appeared about 10 meters to his left with his palm outstretched in his direction.
"Hado 33: Sokatsui" He heard the boy whispers just as a veritable torrent of scorching blue flames was sent his way.
Even from the distance, he could feel the heat of the flames. Already blisters were forming on his hand. With a last desperate move, he launched the still living hound at Naruto, while disabling his connection to the attack.
As the flames finally reached and engulfed him, Naruto was forced to make a somersault to escape the lightning beast. Landing safely out of harm way from his own attack, he observed the flames slowly recede, leaving behind an unrecognizable ground… but no traces of Kakashi.
'He escaped the attack then!' Naruto thought dispassionately.
The ground grumbled under his feet, before hands caught them. Naruto looked down and saw kakashi smiling face, as he pulled him underground.
Or he would have, if not for Naruto quick reaction. The chuunin leaned toward the ground and thrust his palm toward it. Just before the moment of impact, a blue ball of swirling energy formed on his palm.
"Rasengan!" He voiced as the attack collided with the ground in an explosion.
'To be able to materialize that attack instantly… he definitely mastered the Rasengan, that's for sure.' Jiraiya observed with a smile on his face.
When the dust settled down, Naruto stood alone on the field, implying that the Kakashi he hit was a clone. Noticing a shadow that covered him from the sky, he quickly looked up to see a falling Kakashi with a lightning coated kunai.
He deftly sidestepped the attack, letting the jounin attack slam on the ground. Not deterred, Kakashi rose with an uppercut lightning fist.
Time seemed to slow down for the two as Kakashi's fist passed a few centimeters from Naruto's face. The latter having slightly moved his head aside. While Kakashi slowly rose from the ground, he locked his gaze with Naruto's, hoping to see even an ounce of feeling…
He saw none.
Though he felt Naruto's palm touch his unprotected ribs. Dread came over him as he knew he was done for.
"Hado 63: Raikoho"
Even Jiraiya widened his eyes upon hearing the name of the attack. He never got the chance to warn Kakashi as a violent yellow lightning struck him mercilessly, propelling him an hundred or so meters away from the impassive boy.
At once, Tsunade had reacted and was already beside Kakashi slumped and unconscious form, administering first aid. She left behind a stunned group of jounins who couldn't believe their eyes.
"He beat Kakashi?" The words seemed foreign to Asuma's mouth, his cigarettes long forgotten on the ground.
None of them had any answer to him, being as shocked as they were.
Author's Note:
I hope you liked the chapter. You can review to either comment or ask any questions you may have.
See you soon for the next chapter.