R-2-R time! Again, thanks to everyone who reviewed. If u have not been replied 2, most likely if u reviewed previous chapters, my bad :S.
Imgonnadie, tapass123, manticore-gurl071134, Lightningblade49, Bubbajack (x3), SSJ3 Kyuubi Gohan, sheltie: Thanks!
waterdragonrai: I'm glad that even though my writing style is not up to our expectations or wateva, ima b honest, English is my worst subject, so I'm surprised dat I'm doing this well. The random spelling errors, well dats jus spell check failing on meh, but to the point, I'm glad that the story is interesting enough for u 2 read, so read on :) I guess.
bankai777: :D not so fast mr bankai :P, if I did dat, den the story won't have any length, *spoiler* dey will get 2gether in Konoha (if he stays (trollface)).
VenRaider, Jfitzgerald: Well, here ya go!
KakaSaku Chan: Oh trust me, u will be very happy if wat I plan goes on the paper :) oh and, for the last part, mayb :P
roboguy45: yep dat will b happening.
Agato The Venom Host: I have a feeling dat we would be very gd friends :D, I like how u think, thanks and things will speed up soon enough. (Next chapter, read the A/N at the end)
blueexorist: I'm glad u enjoy it, while I do prefer to make my own moves and not 2 steal anyone's content, to be honest, I haven't read Kaze no stigma, hmm something to do.
So I hope everyone is enjoying the story and again, thanks for the reviews!
A/N: First of all, I wanna say that I would have posted this chapter sooner, but I had final exams, (which were a bitch and a half to do) and I had other obligations to fulfil, therefore I didn't have time to write, but never fear, chapter 4 is here! Waw im stupid…
Plus, all previous chapters will be grammar proofed soon, so dem typos can disappear.
Naruto: The Wind Sage
Chapter 4: Questions answered and the return.
Settling down into a comfortable position, and making sure she could see the camp, as she was still on watch, Tenten began.
"Well, first of all, what happened last night?"
Naruto sighed as he thought of what to say. He couldn't tell her about the scroll, or where the men came from, so he decided to tell her an edited version of what happened. (A/N: not gonna repeat it)
Minutes passed by as Naruto told her his experience. At the end Tenten was silent as she thought of all she heard.
"Naruto, I got a bit of a confession to make." She said shortly after Naruto finished his story.
Naruto was surprised. "What?"
"Well, when I woke up and found myself tied up and gagged and saw you, I thought you were the one who took me."
Naruto remained silent. The thought had crossed his mind when he had gone to loosen her bonds the night before, but he didn't know how to respond to Tenten's words.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is; I'm sorry for thinking that you would do something like that. You're not a bad guy."
Naruto remained silent as he watched up into the sky, before giving a short chuckle.
"You know, I've never been in this situation before." Naruto began.
Tenten looked at him questioningly.
"You're probably the first person to ever say that to me, so if I'm a little weird then that's why."
Tenten was surprised. She didn't think that she would be the first to say something like that, especially to someone like Naruto.
Naruto lay his back on the trunk of the tree, smiling at the thought, but then his face turned to a frown, something Tenten noticed.
"What's wrong?" Tenten asked.
"Tenten," Naruto said, "Do you know what I hold?"
Tenten looked at him questioningly.
"What do you mean?"
"Never mind, that can be saved for later."
Tenten was confused at Naruto's words, but decided that she would find out about it later.
After a few minutes of silence, Naruto spoke up.
"So, do you have any more questions? We still have a lot of time."
Tenten thought for a moment before responding.
"Ok, why did you leave Konoha?"
Naruto sighed; this would bring the conversation back to the very topic he wanted to ignore.
"I was tired of being cooped up in the village, and I wanted to go travel the nations and train, so I took a training trip."
"Ok, fine, so what did you do? How many different countries did you travel to?"
"Well, besides the Land of Fire, only to the Land of Wind."
Tenten was surprised.
"You were gone for what more than two years?"
Naruto hummed in agreement.
"I was actually gone for three years, but the only reason I didn't travel more, was because I found a place of training that lasted the rest of the time."
Tenten was now intrigued by this.
"Where is it?"
Naruto laughed at this.
"It can't be found." He replied simply, a hint of amusement in his voice.
Tenten was getting a bit frustrated at all this secrecy.
"Why not?!" Tenten almost shouted.
"Shh, quiet down." Naruto said as he looked towards the camp to make sure that no one woke up.
Tenten blushed as she realized what she had just done.
"And to answer your question, it can't be found because it doesn't exist anymore."
"How come?" Tenten asked, having calmed down.
"Because it was destroyed," Naruto said, "By me."
Neji's eyes opened as he looked around his tent.
'Was that Tenten's voice?' he thought.
Sitting up in his sleeping bag, he activated his Byakugan.
He scanned the forest around him looking for Tenten, when he saw Tenten and Naruto sitting in a tree talking. Thanks to his training, which all Hyūga had received, he could read lips, and he began to watch, or listen, or whatever to the conversation. They were talking about a place of training that Naruto apparently destroyed because of some corruption when all of a sudden Naruto turned directly to him and mouthed some words. Neji's eyes widened and he immediately shut off his Byakugan.
"Huh?" Tenten exclaimed, "What do you mean you destroyed it?"
Naruto sighed and looked up at the sky.
"Well, I guess it doesn't matter who I tell this to." He said out loud to himself.
Naruto turned to Tenten and looked directly into her eyes.
"What I'm about to tell you, I haven't told anyone else, and should this information get into the wrong hands, many lives will be at stake, so I trust that you will keep this to yourself?"
Tenten seemed surprised for a moment before giving a firm nod.
"Okay, well, when I left Konoha, I went to Suna to visit Gaara, as he is a very good friend, he wasn't the Kazekage yet but when I told him that I was looking for somewhere to train, he told me of a temple far in the middle of the dessert. Only a few people in Suna knew of its existence, and fewer could train there, because the requirements to be able to even begin to train in the arts that where taught there was so high that barely anyone could even reach the temple."
Tenten was wide eyed as he listened.
"But why would you destroy it?" she asked.
"The temple and those in it made up an evil, corrupt organisation, but of course, I didn't know that then, but I'm getting to that. It was very hard to get to the temple, but I finally arrived there after five days of travel under harsh conditions. When I arrived, I met my, former, sensei, and five other persons who also trained at the temple. We became very good friends, and I was trained in the Wind arts. It was very hard, but a year passed and I continued to train and get better. It was six months before my final test that would mean that I completely my training that I started to notice some strange things happening."
"What kind of things?" Tenten asked.
"Well, we were a group that was linked to Suna; persons that would do the hardest missions, kind of like Konoha's root. We were supposed to- oh hold on a second."
Naruto turned away from Tenten to a random direction for a moment before turning back.
"Okay, where was I?" Tenten stared at him in confusion at his strange actions. "Oh yeah, so like I was saying, we were supposed to be the good guys, but before long, we were taking missions for new and shady groups and I began questioning who we were working for."
Naruto sighed as he adjusted himself to a more comfortable position on the branch before continuing.
"The missions we got where to fight strange bad guys, well that's what he thought, but we didn't question any mission we were given, as we knew, or thought that we knew, that it was for the good of some nation, but anyway my final test had come, and it was held in a large arena type place. Everyone else was in the stands and I alone walked out to the field, where my opponents waited."
*Flashback*
A/N: Just a note, I was listening to this and I think this fits perfectly with the flashback, so if yah want take a listen 2 The binding of Isaac OST basement theme while u read :)
Naruto walked out onto the open aired field. At the opposite side was a cage full of people, and strangely, there weren't cursing and even looking at him, if one looked closer, it would look like they were starved and crying.
Naruto was shocked as he looked up in the stands to see his sensei and the five other students, who had by now completely their training and had passed the final test.
"What is this?!" Naruto shouted to his teacher, what where these people his opponents?
His sensei just looked at him with hard eyes and then turned away.
"Young Naruto, I've been waiting for this a long time." An unfamiliar male voice echoed through the stadium.
"Who's speaking?" Naruto asked angrily.
"Who I am is none of your concern, now you know why you are here right?"
Naruto again looked at his sensei, silently asking if this was what he was supposed to do; he got a nod in reply and answered the unseen person.
"Yes, I'm here for my final test."
The voice laughed.
"Yes, yes you are, oh how naïve this generation is, but in any case, Naruto you have been sheltered from the real reason of this organisation. Now we have come to see if you can perform its real task. Your opponents are in the cage."
"What, this crying people?" Naruto asked in disbelief.
"Yes, well no, you'll see." The voice said as a dark shadow encompassed the cage and black lightning struck it out of nowhere.
In the place of the crying skinny humans, was a cage full of angry, muscle bulging…things. They looked like humans, but that was only a shell left, everything else was a mindless monster, but the kicker was that these seemed very familiar to Naruto.
The monsters (as I'll from now on refer to them) began pulling and banging on the cage, trying to break loose and kill Naruto.
"Here you see the true purpose of this organisation." The voice proclaimed with pride.
"These…look like an upgraded version of the guys that we get missions to kill." Naruto said in shock.
"So you see, these are your enemies, kill them and complete your training."
Naruto knew that these were innocent humans turned into almost zombies, but as the cage broke, he had no choice but to pull out his sword and fight.
He began tearing through the monsters, his blade, which was glowing blue, sliced through everything and before long, all were on the ground.
"He has learned well, eh 'sensei'" The voice said.
Said man nodded.
"But maybe a bit too well," the voice continued as Naruto suddenly found himself surrounded by his sensei and the five other masters, as they were called when they finished their training.
"The time has come," the voice proclaimed, "now that you have seen what we do, will you stay with us, or will we have to kill you?"
Naruto gritted his teeth as he contemplated what to do. This was an evil and twisted place, if it was to continue, nothing go would come out of it.
Naruto pulled out his sword and pushed his chakra through it, again making it glow blue.
"So that's your answer, too bad, we could have used someone like you, Wind masters, dispose of him!"
*Flashback end*
"That began a long, drawn-out battle in which I killed all six of them and destroyed the temple." Naruto finished quickly with a grin on his face.
Tenten's mouth opened and closed before slowly reopening into a fish face, letting out a slow 'oh'.
"Wait, six? Wasn't there seven of them?"
"…Yes, the unseen voice. I never caught him, so he's still on the loose, but, I will find him, and when I do, I will kill him." Naruto said firmly.
Naruto stayed silent as he knew this would be a lot for Tenten to process.
"Okay, I get that the guys you trained with were bad, but what exactly where they doing?"
"They were kidnapping innocent civilians from various villages and turning them into monsters, which they then unleashed to random villages which would call us to deal with them. The entire thing was a scam to make money, all while killing innocents." Naruto responded in an even voice.
Tenten's eyes widened at the plain explanation, but that wasn't the biggest thing that would surprise her.
Tenten suddenly noticed that Naruto was trembling.
"What's wrong?" Tenten asked.
"Nothing," Naruto replied, "It's just that when I think of all the work I've done for that organisation, and all the innocent life I've taken, well, it sucks."
Tenten's eyes widened. This was something that she didn't except. From the events told to her from the night before, here was someone who could kill enemies in cold blood, but still have guilt over innocent spilt blood. It seemed that there were still some sane human ninjas.
But as Tenten turned to Naruto to say something, she found that the trembling had stopped, all signs of sadness disappeared and Naruto was normal again.
"Well," Naruto said in a bright tone while glancing at his watch, "It seems that your shift is almost up."
Tenten could only nod in return, head almost spinning with all the new information.
"We'll reach Konoha tomorrow, and I'll be sticking around for a while, so we will see each other again and talk. See you tomorrow then?"
Tenten hummed in agreement.
"Okay, goodnight Tenten" Naruto said as he got up.
"Goodni-wait." Tenten said.
Naruto looked down at her sitting on the branch questioningly.
"What do you hold?" Tenten asked.
Naruto sighed heavily as he thought if he should tell Tenten.
"I'll tell you after we reach Konoha, deal?"
Tenten nodded in defeat, knowing that again she would have to wait to get her question answered.
Naruto smiled at her and jumped off the tree, disappearing as soon as he was about to hit the ground.
Tenten watched in astonishment, and was about to jump off herself when she by chance caught a glimpse of Naruto across the forest lying down on a tree branch, seemingly already asleep.
Tenten marvelled at his speed, before sighing.
"Goodnight Naruto." She said softly as she jumped off the tree to go wake Kakashi.
Naruto's lips twitched into a slight smile as he heard it, thanks to his wind training, and he settled down to sleep for the night.
The next day found our traveling shinobi bounding in the trees silently.
Tenten's mind was set on the night before and Naruto's on finally seeing his hell again.
Sakura was busy wondering how Naruto became like this, after her last time seeing him a couple years ago.
Kakashi was reading his por- I mean, Icha Icha, but in the back of his mind, pondering about the blond of the group.
But Neji was fuming. How did Naruto know that he was spying on them? And why were he and Tenten in a tree last night talking? Neji couldn't wait to confront Naruto.
The village walls finally came into view. Everyone dropped from the trees to the ground, and Naruto pulled his hood over his face which effectively made him unknown to anyone who didn't know who he was, an action that did not go unnoticed by all members of the group.
Reaching the gate, Kakashi stepped up and handed the mission scroll to the guard.
"This mission only involves four of you, what business does the hooded one have here?" the guard asked.
Kakashi opened his mouth to respond, but a firm grip to his shoulder made him snap it shut. Kakashi turned to see the hooded Naruto. Now normally someone doing that wouldn't have caused sure a sharp reaction out of Kakashi, but the intensity of it cause great pain, it was just enough for him to be on the verge of crying out, but it got the job done.
The hooded Naruto walked forward and produced a scroll and handed it to the guard.
Said guard's eyes widened as he saw the contents.
"I trust that you won't spread the word without the Hokage's permission?" Naruto asked.
The guard nodded almost scared as he handed back the scroll to Naruto.
Everyone raised an eyebrow at this except Sakura who instead chose to scoff as they all walked through the gates before again returning to the rooftops, bounding towards the Hokage's office.
And END.
A/N: Well that was poopy. Let's see, my internet is giving me problems and this chapter sucked to write, the flashback didn't turn out the way I wanted it to but oh well. This one is a major filler chapter, but it had to be done. I'm itching to write the next chapter, there will be confrontations, we'll see how much Konoha changed since Naruto left, deception and secrecy from Tsunade and I will finally introduce this story's main 'fighting move;' Meaning the fighting style and a bunch of new original jutsu, so now you will all see how this Naruto fights.
Wow, ranting spoiler, but I'm actually going to begin writing the next chapter right now, so as to make up for this late post, I will try to post the next on ASAP.
And random challenge: what movie did I use to write about the temple and the people there? (hint: bullets (and no, that's not the name of it, jus wat the main gimmick of the movie was))
So, read and review!
Ja ne!
-T.H.K. (Rewritten: 7/7/2014)