Thank you to all the people who fav'd and added my story to their alert lists at the last chapter. A big shout out to the wonderful reviewers, especially those that reviewed at Chapter 1 aswell. Two lovely reviewers inspired me to make my story plot even better- I eat a cookie in your honour.
Enjoy the newest installment (though I don't like it much myself I hope someone else will)
CHAPTER 3
Naruto decided he was hungry. It was nearly nine o'clock at night, and he'd just finished preparing for his team's first C-rank. He'd had to devise a method of carrying water, as Suna did not have the humidity or regular water sources that the Leaf Village has. Unofficially borrowing the Hokage's scrolls on sealing had proved rather profitable. Who knew you could literally seal a water dragon jutsu in a piece of paper? The boy headed to the kitchen, and found none other than the master of the house already there.
"Hokage-sama." He greeted.
"Naruto." The elder blonde replied. "There's another plate in the fridge, if you're hungry."
The two ate in silence for a while. Unsure of what to say during the first meal they'd actually had together.
"You finished up early today?" Naruto eventually broke the silence.
"Yeah, new processing system one of the desk guys came up with means that the council has to deal with all the civilian stuff, so I only have to work on the important things." Minato explained."Having the old fogies busy with building approvals, and the maximum profit margins on rice keeps them out of my hair. Especially that Danzou creep." Both occupants of the kitchen shuddered.
"Talking about Danzou, gotten rid of ROOT yet?" Naruto asked sweetly.
"You always know more than you should." The elder sighed. The boy nodded enthusiastically, grinning.
"Well, there's a kill-on-sight order among the ANBU and jonin," The man relinquished. "So now it's just a matter of finding where the hell he's hiding them all. A solid link between the two would be helpful."
Another few minutes of silence followed as Naruto finished eating. Minato would have thought the boy was spacing out as he ate, but he knew that the glazed expression meant he was merely talking with his tenant.
"Did you know that Danzou has Uchiha Shisui's sharingan eye? The arm from his corpse too." The boy piped up.
"What?" Exclaimed the Fourth, alarmed. "He stole a sharingan? That's bad."
"Yep. Father told me, so I could tell you." Naruto replied evenly, "And as for the usual 'why would the demon care about this' question; Danzou was working with Madara at one point, so to Father, it's guilty by association."
"Well, I'll look into it. That demon hasn't been wrong yet, though I do wonder how it knows all this stuff." Minato raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"Ask no questions and I'll tell you no lies." The young Namikaze smiled innocently. "Goodnight."
As soon as he was once again alone in the kitchen, the man leaned forward, forcefully impacting the table with his forehead. The Fox had secrets, which the boy refused to tell. His own child had more respect for an imprisoned youkai than his own flesh and blood, it seemed.
On the boy's list of importance, after the Kyuubi there was Kakashi; the ex-student he would have killed, if the man wasn't such a damned good ninja. He knew Naruto had yet to forgive him for his jealous impulse, trying to claw his way back up the child's influence hierarchy. He was not proud of himself for it.
Minato had caught the young jonin's hints at having received threats from Danzou; and he had to admit, it was a stroke of brilliance. Targeting someone who knew next to nothing about the goings on inside Konoha, Kakashi being swallowed by ANBU for the past six years, wouldn't know what threats were legitimate or not. The Hokage didn't think the man even knew that eight out of the nine newly graduated genin were clan heirs. And yet, he was still trying everything he could to keep Naruto as happy and safe as possible. How he envied the man's determination and selflessness in regards to meeting Naruto's needs; keeping his own distance to protect the boy's other friends.
Well, now was the time to corner Danzou, with both Naruto and Kakashi on an escort mission to Suna. And with new information provided by a scarily accurate demon fox, flushing out the old war monger and his subordinates might just be doable. Besides, Naruto might like him better if he got rid of the over-ambitious old coot.
Kakashi decided that his current predicament was simply a result of his over-stressed mind, and thinking of his blonde student too much before bed. Or so he fervently hoped. It was just not right to have dreams like that. The man looked to the clock, and figured he might as well get up anyway. He could waste some time later. He mused on what to have for breakfast later as he stripped off his sleep pants.
Standing under the cool spray of the shower, Kakashi felt his muscles relax, except for the one he wanted to. Figuring he might as well just get it out of the way, the jonin reached down one soapy hand, and began gently stroking the inappropriately hard muscle. It had been quite a while since he'd had the energy and inclination to pay any attention to his baser needs. Close to six years, to be exact. One advantage of finally being off active ANBU duty he guessed; though it was a bit of a debate as to whether that really was an advantage, or just a one way ticket straight to hell. As he sped up the movements of his hand, Kakashi's brain took an unintentional detour back to dream he'd had.
Soft honey coloured skin, lithe legs wrapped around his waist, and bright blonde hair tickling his chin. That distinctive scent of ramen, autumn leaves, and the slightest hint of his father's cologne filling his nose. Taut, young muscles under his finger tips. Hot, deliciously tight heat surrounding his member. But that wasn't the best part. No, the best part was at the pinnacle of the moment, that innocent, angelic voice screaming his name.
Kakashi knew it was wrong. Wrong on so many levels that if he were ever to act out anything remotely close to that dream, he'd be dead before he knew it. As the man slumped against the cold wall tiles of the shower, he knew it was wrong, but he was pretty sure he'd never come so hard in his life.
So far, the trip was uneventful and Naruto was bored. Luckily the new ambassador was a retired ninja, so at least they didn't have to move at a civilian pace. If they'd had to have moved any slower, the blonde jinchuuriki would have been even less entertained than he was now.
Kakashi had taken point, the ambassador right behind him, Sakura to the left, Sasuke to his right, and Naruto as the rear guard, thanks to his automatic defence. The team leader called a halt just before the thinning trees gave way to open sand.
"Alright, we'll take a break here. The less time we spend in the open desert the better." The jonin stated briskly. The ambassador and the three genin nodded gratefully. They may not have left the forest behind, but the scorching heat was already making an appearance, and Naruto was only able to dredge up just enough water for the group to refill their water bottles. The small group rested for an hour or so under the shade of the last trees, Naruto and Sakura using the time to nap a little. It was during the brief respite that the attack came.
Some low level missing nin from suna. Maybe low chunin level at best, however the group of leaf nin was outnumbered two to one. And that was including the ambassador. The genin and jonin jumped up from their resting, instantly on the defence. Naruto pulled out one of his special scrolls he'd so painstakingly created the day before. Swiping blood along the intricate seal, a dragon made of water leapt from the paper. The blonde wrested back control over the liquid forcing it to wrap around the client, creating a seamless protective dome. He flipped and landed on top of the dome, using one hand in contact with water to continually pump chakra into the structure to resist the absorbency effects of the dry ground. In the other hand he held a kunai to black incoming projectiles.
Though his team mates had a stable back, surrounding Naruto's water dome, only Kakashi was having any success against his opponents. Sasuke and Sakura, however, were barely managing to defend themselves; unsurprising as they had three opponents each to contend with.
Naruto, still in his crouch to maintain the dome, threw his kunai at one of Sakura's attackers that would have otherwise driven a ninjato through the girl's skull. The man dropped dead with the kunai in his throat.
Seeing his two team mates being over-run by their attackers, and Kakashi-sensei currently still engaged in battle with his own, the jinchuuriki did the only thing he could to break through the attacking line. Drawing on the Kyuubi's chakra, Naruto's eyes shone red, his nails lengthened into claws, whisker marks deepening. In his first release state, the boy threw back his head and let out a harsh scream. Demonic chakra flew from his body, rushing like a wave just over the leaf nin's heads, colliding with the rouge nin, throwing them forcefully away from the group.
Those that were weaker or already injured died on collision with the corrupted chakra. Those left alive were quickly despatched by the silver haired jonin before they could gather their wits and go back on the attack.
"It's alright Naruto. They're all dead now." Kakashi reassured the demonically charged child. Naruto's eyes flicked to his teacher's face. The red faded out, replaced by normal sparkling blue. The blonde's chakra flow cut out, and the dome dissolved, as the boy surrendered to unconsciousness.
Team seven and their client continued their journey through the land of wind, towards Suna. The jonin himself had suffered no injuries, together with Sakura, who had merely had a good length of her hair singed by a flame jutsu. Sasuke had suffered a laceration to his face, beginning at his right cheekbone, crossing his mouth and ending at the peak of his chin. Luckily the ambassador had been a med-nin, and was able to stop the bleeding and heal the injury, leaving the boy with merely a raised pink scar. Naruto, through his actively resisting the natural pull of the water to his own defence, was suffering from chakra exhaustion. Thus why Kakashi was carrying the unconscious genin as the group dashed across the sands.
He had made Sakura carry the sealing scrolls that contained the dead nin as his hands were full. Well, that was his excuse anyway. Really the girl just needed to get used to these sorts of things if she really wanted to be a ninja. Besides, her hanging onto the blood covered scrolls seemed to keep her from running her mouth about Sasuke's new scar and fussing over her hair.
Upon reaching their destination, the group was immediately escorted in to the Kazekage's presence. Kakashi couldn't figure out for the life of him why the man would want to be blocked off from any possible breeze, in this heat. They delivered the unharmed ambassador, who was all praises, and the scrolls contained the group of missing nin. Sakura was visibly relieved to have the things taken from her hands.
"Is your comrade in need of medical assistance?" The masked and curtained-off kage inquired, gesturing vaguely towards the blonde boy.
"It is merely chakra exhaustion, Kazekage-sama. A good night's rest and he will be fine for the trip back home." The jonin replied as politely as possible.
"Of course. My aide will escort you to your accommodations." And with that, they were dismissed from the village leader's presence.
Gaara was sitting in his quarters, watching the people below from his window seat. He did not want to join in their frivolous actions, they merely amusingly resembled ants from his current perspective. A tentative knock sounded at the door.
"Enter." The young jinchuuriki commanded. A blonde girl in her mid teens cautiously peered around the doorframe.
"What is you want, Temari?" The young red-head asked.
"The new ambassador from Konoha has just arrived." Temari tentatively began. "Their jinchuuriki Naruto was one of the ninja escorts." Gaara turned his dead looking eyes from the window finally.
"Why should I care?" The boy demanded. The girl fidgeted a little under her younger brother's unblinking stare.
"You know," She nervously began, "Naruto never did stop writing. The post was intercepted, both ways."
"What?" Gaara snapped, standing from his seat. Though his face remained expressionless, sand began to circle around the boy's feet, demonstrating his agitation.
"Who did it?" He hissed, the sand sped up its movements.
"I-I don't know. I only managed to salvage one before they were destroyed." The girl squeaked. She may be older than the red head, but she was sure there wasn't a power on earth that could rival her brother in a bad mood.
Temari practically threw the envelope at the angry jinchuuriki before departing at high speeds. If the boy ever found out that it was their father who had ordered the disruption of correspondence between the two boys, the little red head wouldn't hesitate to commit patricide. And then wipe out anyone else who had ever agreed with the man. The girl was very pleased that she didn't agree with her father terribly often.
Gaara looked down at the aged envelope in his hands. The post mark dated it to around the time the two jinchuuriki were seven years old. It smelled like dry sand, rather than the fresh damp scent that permeated anything from the leaf village. It must have been stored or hidden for a while then. He carefully opened the envelope, and retrieved its contents. There was a letter addressed to him, two pages covered in small childish handwriting depicting events of the blonde's home village five years ago. After that, there was an unlined piece of paper. On it was a drawing of what was obviously supposed to be Gaara and Naruto fighting side by side, crushing the bad guys. For some reason that the red head had never been able to establish Naruto had always drawn the 'bad guys' with funny black cloaks with red clouds on them. When asked, the blonde had always just assured his friend that they were 'bad-guy cloaks' that all the bad guys wore.
Studying again the colourful drawing in his hand, the young jinchuuriki disappeared from his room in a swirl of sand.
Kakashi watched in amused fascination as his blonde student ate. Once the boy had finally woken up he had proceeded to demand food from the Inn staff, and was now scoffing down what must be close to his own body weight in rice, vegetables and barbeque. At least Naruto's ability to eat hadn't changed much over the years. The jonin was rather used to the boy's crazy metabolism. Even as a baby, being fed formula from bottles, it had taken seemingly insurmountable amounts of the stuff to fill the kid's stomach. The other genin, however, were stunned speechless at the sight. Although Sasuke and his blind mother had been living at the Namikaze estate since the Uchiha massacre, the two pre-teens obviously had never dined together before.
Suddenly, a mini sandstorm began in the centre of the room. Automatically, all sources of water moved to create a barrier between Naruto and the anomaly. That included Sakura's soda, which she would later complain about.
The swirling sand quickly took the shape of a boy dressed in red dessert clothes. He had fiery red hair and blank green eyes; the kanji for love tattooed on his forehead. Two of the genin were immediately on the defence. The small blonde, however, launched himself from his seat. The water/soda barrier losing form to splash on the ground as Naruto performed a flying tackle hug on the newcomer.
"Gaara!" The blonde shouted, large grin in place. "I thought you'd forgotten me."
"I did not. Our messages were intercepted." Gaara replied stoically from his position on the floor, still being hugged furiously.
"Really? That sucks. But you're here now. So how have you been?" Naruto enthused, getting up and assisting his friend to stand.
"Things have not changed here." The red head replied mysteriously. Only Naruto would know the meaning of that, Gaara was unsure of the others currently in the room.
"Yeah? Same in Konoha. Let's go talk on the roof." The blonde replied happily, dragging the taller boy out the window by one hand.
"Umm, Sensei, who was that?" Sakura asked of her teacher. Sasuke regained his seat, and looked on curiously.
"Subaku no Gaara, the Kazekage's youngest son, jinchuuriki of the Ichibi no Tanuki and Naruto's first friend." Kakashi chuckled. "They met when they were four. I remember they used to send drawings and little hand-written letters to each other."
"That's so cute." Sakura giggled.
Naruto had convinced his friend that night to wait until the chuunin exams. Gaara wanted to defect to the leaf village to be with his only friend, and the promise of skilled seal masters.
"The events of the Chuunin exams are that important?"
'Yes. I cannot show you yet, so just follow my advice. I have not steered you wrong yet, have I?' The demon responded.
"Of course not Father. I am merely worried about Gaara. The Kazekage makes him suffer so much." The boy replied.
'He will be fine. His participation as a ninja of Suna is important to the timeline.' The Kyuubi growled. 'I expect you will go hunting upon our return to Konoha, yes.'
"Of course." Naruto happily replied, reassured of his old friend's future.
The boy returned his attention to the outside world. Team seven was headed home, running across the sands towards the border of Wind and Fire country.
Since the attack during the mission, the team dynamics seemed to have changed. Kakashi was able to freely talk to his favourite student after the sand jinchuuriki had departed. The jonin apologised for ignoring the blonde, explaining about the threats from ROOT. Naruto had been immensely relieved upon hearing that; cheerfully explaining about the clan heirs, while describing his life over the past six years. And although the man was embarrassed at how easily he had been bluffed by a one eyed, senile old man, he was immensely relieved to know that Naruto still wanted him to be around like he had been in the past. He had happily hugged the small blonde, before clearing his throat and trying to regain his composure. Said blonde had laughed out loud while his demon prisoner had sniggered.
Sakura seemed to have been doing some soul searching during the night; her whole demeanour changed since that morning. Her hair was now pulled back into a thick braid, voice toned down, and no hint of fan girlishness in sight. She offered no explanation for the change.
Sasuke seemed to be the only one who was not showing a positive improvement, as a result fo the mission. When he was offered a mask to cover his newly scarred face after dinner, he had refused, claiming that it was a fan girl deterrent as 'the weak creatures would only spread their weakness to him like a disease'. Naruto believed that comment was a catalyst for Sakura's apparent change. Further, the brunette boy's feelings towards his blonde team mate had gone rapidly downhill. The Uchiha seemed to be absolutely livid that the jinchuuriki had been the one to kill most of the missing nin, out of the genin of the team. No amount of talking or reasoning seemed to get through to the boy; he was too focussed on his thirst for power. Naruto decided that he should go see Mikoto-san again once they got home. Sasuke would hopefully listen to his own mother, if no one else.
Up next: The Chuunin Exams; And why the hell does Gai have a sword?
