New chapter! Just telling you, this one is pretty dialogue-heavy. It's also my first attempt at fight scenes, so expect cringeynessin those parts because I'm apparently terrible at them.
Disclaimer~ All characters belong to their respective creators!
As usual, Notes at the bottom!
Weeks came and went since he'd met the three younger boys. As much as he was eager to see them again, Naruto let them have their space. Sabo and Luffy seemed to be particularly protective of Ace after their meeting and the ninja wanted his words to sink into the older raven's mind. The next time they managed to meet, Naruto had used the transformation jutsu to look like his former self -he doubted anyone would react as well as Luffy had if they saw his true appearance- and make an official visit into town.
He had decided, since he was stuck whenever or wherever he was, he would make sure to live not only for himself, but for his precious people too. He missed them, but he doubted they'd want him to waste the rest of his existence doing nothing but mourning. With inspiration from his late sensei, Pervy Sage, Naruto took to writing. While he had no interest in porn, the blond couldn't deny his old teacher had some good things going for him in the income and the information chain. However, before he could begin, he needed paper and writing utensils that weren't his ninja supplies, which is why he'd gone into Goa. The journey there was quick and the retrieval of his objectives even quicker, but the way back was interrupted.
"Well, what do we have here? I don't think I've seen you before. You must be new around here!"
Lifting an eyebrow, Naruto looked at the thugs with disinterest and kept walking. They were looking for trouble no doubt, with their weapons on display. He'd seen them around before, and knew just what group they belonged to, but didn't care. They were too weak, their chakra levels being those of average civilians, and to fight them seriously would not only be a waste of energy, but an unnecessary slaughter.
"Awe, c'mon! What's with the cold shoulder? Pay attention!" the cocky one speaking raced at him with a sword.
Still unimpressed with them, Naruto caught the blade in his hand. Not a single drop of blood fell from his hand.
Bending the blade sideways, he said, "I have better things to do than play with you."
He really did, he wanted to start writing as soon as possible. These guys were getting in the way of that and irritating him.
The man's eyes widened as he looked at his sword, bent cleanly into a ninety-degree angle, "What? How!?"
He turned to the other men, "Well! Don't just stand there! If Bluejam finds out we were beaten by a kid, he'll skin us!"
That spurred the rest of them to take laughable fighting stances of course, but Naruto was getting impatient. Having enough, he glared at the ringleader of the group as he let his Killing Intent wash over them. He then sighed when they fell to the ground with foam frothing from their mouths.
"Pick up your friends and leave," the blond said to the other irritably, "And think of a better career choice while your at it."
The man nodded hurriedly in terror, a wet spot growing on his trousers, "Y-Yes, sir!"
With that, Naruto made his way back into the forest to find a comfortable place to suit his purpose. When he finally settled for a spot, he had a perfect view of the ocean from a steep grassy cliff. Looking at the scenery and hearing the waves crashing together erased all the tension from his body.
Sitting down, he yanked out one of the many notebooks and a pen out of the bag he'd "acquired" at an earlier date and began thinking of how he wanted to go about what he wanted to do. Did he want to do short stories? A long series? What did he want to include? Everything? Only the important things? Better yet, where would he start off? The beginning of his memories? When he first became a ninja? Slightly before the genin exam? Naruto had no clue where to begin.
"I told you! He went this way!" Luffy's insisting voice interrupted his thoughts.
"We get it, Luffy, you've told us who knows how many times now. Why are you so excited to talk to this guy anyway?" Sabo's voice asked curiously.
"He's like Shanks! He was surrounded by Bluejam Pirates, but he beat them all!" Luffy exclaimed, his footsteps getting louder.
Ace, now in Naruto's line of sight, lifted an eyebrow, "Really, how?"
"He looked at one of the guys!"
Ace snorted, "Just by looking at someone? I doubt that!"
Naruto smirked at those words; he'd make Ace eat them just like he had everyone else who doubted him.
"Guys...guys! That's him right over there, isn't it, Luffy? Ace, if you really doubt it, you can ask him yourself," Sabo said exasperatedly, fed up with their arguing.
Luffy cheered, running up to Naruto as his brothers followed behind with protests on their tongues.
"Hi! My name's Luffy! How did you do that thing you did?" he waved his hands around in his excitement.
"I'm Naruto," the ninja smiled, amused by the younger boy's enthusiasm, "What thing are you talking about?"
He already knew, but the kids didn't know that, so why not humor them?
"The thing you did to knock out the Bluejam Pirates!" Luffy said as Sabo and Ace walked up to him cautiously.
"Oh... that... That was a little trick a majority of my people can do," he explained vaguely.
Naruto honestly didn't know if any ninja resided elsewhere, or even if they still existed at all. He'd have to figure that out at some point, among other things.
"Really? What is it?" Sabo inquired with a tilt of his head.
"More importantly, where did you even come from? You're obviously not from here," Ace growled, glaring at the whiskered teen.
Sabo elbowed Ace for being rude, but Naruto answered anyway, "You're right, I'm not from around here. I moved here not too long ago."
"What for?" The younger blond questioned politely, "Goa Kingdom isn't exactly the most interesting place, you know."
"I was thrown out of my home," Naruto said lightly.
Technically, he was pulled out of his home, but that didn't change the fact he'd never see it again. He really didn't want to talk about it. Besides, it was highly unlikely that the kids would understand or believe anything if he told the complete truth. They would have to settle for half-truths for now because the blond teen knew out-right lying would bite him in the ass later. He was trying to make friends, not set himself up to lose them.
Luffy's eyes widened in astonishment, "What! Why!?"
The older brothers wore similar expressions, not having expected his answer.
"I had... a bit of a fight with some family," Naruto frowned in distaste.
While not entirely untrue, he didn't particularly like the thought of being associated -or even related- to the woman who nearly destroyed the world, much less saying it out loud.
Sabo nodded in understanding before holding out his hand, "Nice to meet you! I'm Sabo!"
The older blond flashed him his signature smile, taking the offered hand and giving it a shake, "Right back at you, Sabo!"
Still slightly shocked, Luffy asked, "Why would your family throw you out?"
He didn't understand why that could happen. Family was supposed to stick together, right? Luffy only knew of Sabo's Noble blood family being that mean, so we're they Nobles too?
"My... great grandmother was paranoid that someone would oust her from her position as head of the family. She felt that her own family was a threat. I stood up to her after she revealed her plan to kill everyone, but I... I don't know if I succeeded or not. I fell unconscious after dealing a killing blow, but doesn't mean anything since I didn't get to see her corpse before I was forced to leave," Naruto told them, giving a bitter smile at the end.
"Did your parents know?" Ace asked, his eyes sharp.
Naruto shrugged, "I wouldn't know. They were murdered on the night of my birth while protecting me from someone."
The three brothers didn't know what to think of that. They had gotten so much more than they bargained for when they first approached the orange-clothed teen. Having seen him take care of a group of pirates so effortlessly, Luffy was instantly enamoured by his strength. Hearing a bit of his past only added to the amount of respect he had for the blond ninja. Sabo hadn't thought much of him initially, but knowing of his struggle with his family -even if it wasn't his parents- brought a feeling of kinship he'd only ever felt with Ace and Luffy. He knew all too well just how unbearable blood family could be. On the other hand, Ace had only meant to see the guy and judge whether he was a threat or not, but ended up being surprised. Looking at the older blond, he hadn't ever thought someone could smile with so much happiness after losing everything. Naruto was a really strange person.
"Well, as much as this might be an... interesting thing to talk about, I'd rather no-" Naruto's words were suddenly interrupted by the echoing sound of trees falling over.
The reverberations of a male voice followed not long after, "Ace! Sabo! Luffy! Come out now! It's time for training!"
The three boys paled significantly at those words, going so far as to hide behind the tree Naruto was sitting against as the man calling out for them came ever closer. They spent the next several minutes there until Naruto finally saw the old man punching down the trees. Yes, punching down the trees because he certainly wasn't carrying any axe to cut them down.
"Oi! Blondie! You wouldn't happen to have seen a trio of kids around, would ya?" the scruffy man asked, pausing in his search.
Naruto grinned, "Sure have! They seemed rather terrified though."
The old man seemed to squint at him for a moment before cracking his knuckles, "So your the one I sensed earlier..."
"And what of it, Old Man?" Naruto tensed, getting ready to spring away from the tree, "I was just dissuading a group of thugs from attacking me."
"Since I can't seem to find my grandkids, you're gonna have to do. If they hear me fighting someone else, they're bound to come watch!" the old man swung a fist at him, "If you're strong enough to use Haki, you should turn out fine!"
Naruto jumped over the fist, using the man's arm as a springboard to land behind him, "What kind of logic is that!? Are you senile?"
Thankfully the force didn't collapse the tree, seeing as the kids were still hiding there. It did leave an imprint of his fist in the bark, however.
"Not only that, but what the hell're you talking about?" Naruto questioned as the grey-haired man readied his fist again.
The other man hesitated just slightly before taking a swing at him again, "You don't know what Haki is? Even though you use it?"
"I wouldn't have asked if I did!" Naruto dodged the fist, gripping the elongated arm connected to it and throwing him away.
"It's the manifestation of your will," the old guy grunted, pushing himself upright, "The kind you used, Conqueror's Haki, is the rarest."
Naruto scratched his cheek, humming, "Do you mean Killing Intent?"
Old Man rolled his neck as he stood, "Nope! Explain?"
The guy was awfully lax about fighting, though obviously extremely experienced. Naruto couldn't help but feel that the old man was just testing him, judging him. Sure, Naruto could fight him for real, but he'd said the three boys were his grandkids. He didn't know how well they'd react to seeing their grandpa get curbstomped.
Naruto tensed again incase the other decided to charge him once more, "Killing Intent is the influence a person's presence has on someone weaker than them."
"Eh, might as well be the same thing!" Old Man laughed before falling asleep.
"Did he really just fall asleep?" Naruto asked out loud, a look of disbelief firmly set on his face.
Luffy, Ace, and Sabo leaned out from behind the cracked tree, the little monkey whispering, "Yeah, he does this all the time."
Too bad the old man apparently heard him and woke up, "Ah! Boys! There you are! I've been looking for you all afternoon!"
The three brothers screamed and ran away as the old man made to move in their direction.
Before he gave chase, he turned to Naruto and called out to him, "What's your name again?"
"Naruto, yours?"
"Vice Admiral Garp!" he waved goodbye, "See ya around, Blondie!"
"I just gave you my name! Use it!"
Thanks again to all who reviewed, favorited, and followed! Your support is immensely appreciated! :)
Review Answers~
roy23: Thank you! Here it is! :D
BlackAnimeDemonWolf: Yeah, I have to agree on that part on their profile about authors and reviewing (I tend to stay away from NeonZangetsu's works, though. They have good writing skills, but they write harems and genderbend stories, and those are the kinds of fics that have always irritated me majorly and made me inwardly cringe. I tend to avoid NZ on principal because of that. The stories that don't fall into those categories are either from other fandoms I don't know or don't care for. Avoidance is better than starting something and making an ass of myself, right?(Just telling you right now that you won't find any harem or genderbend fanfics in my future collection of works)). Naruto is far from an average sized fox, it's just that everything in the Dawn Island mountain forest is incredibly huge. I wanted to make the first interaction with the kids as blunt as possible because you're right, people usually go for the secret get together. I wanted Naruto to be straight to the point though, like smashing away at the kids' walls swiftly, because when is Naruto ever vague with someone who's in emotional pain? Yep and yep, because I wanted to as different as possible. When it came to bringing him into the op universe, it was either make him a fox or nerf his power. I hate nerfing in general, so you already know what I picked.
FangTheWolf22: Thank you, here it is! As for Naruto, he is very much a lot more resilient to attacks, but his adversaries would have to get their hands on him first. Not just as a Bijuu, but as a ninja as well, Naruto is extremely quick on his feet. As for him being Juubi or Reibi, I'll have to say neither. Juubi is the product of Kurama and his siblings becoming one, but both they and Naruto would rather stay separate, and Reibi, as the name implies, has no tail while Naruto has nine tails like Kurama. He'll be staying as he is, though he'll grow much, much larger.
bladetri: Thanks again, Sweetheart! :)
ChunkyFunkyMunky: And that's completely fine! Thank you for being polite about telling me, though! :)
Ejammer: Naruto won't be sailing with Luffy. He'll be having his own adventures between visiting the brothers.
genjuki: Thanks for reading! :)
InfinityMask: Oh, I know! I'd like to read more fics with all the Bijuu in them, but so few have been written and done well! I wanted to give it a try! And don't worry, Ace will have his crying time, and the same can be said for Sabo and Luffy. The three of them will indeed be much stronger by the time they leave the Island, especially Luffy as he'll be leaving at a later date than his brothers. As for Sabo, I love him too much to "kill" him, so I'll figure something out for that...
gamelover41592: I can only hope you enjoy it.
KaixDecayx: Here it is!
Now, the answer to the question many have been asking, the one about Naruto's size... and keep in mind I actually did research and math to figure this out... to be able to pick Ace up like a toddler, Naruto would have to be at least 9'6'' tall. So, not counting his ears, which are an extra three and a half inches, that is how tall he is.