[Konoha, again]
Right now, the remaining Konoha 12 were sitting in the Akamichi restaurant in various states right now. Aside from Sasuke who was being heavily monitored, and Kiba who was out celebrating with his family, the gang was all there. It had been a week and a half since Naruto was banished and they all felt the impact that had on them all.
For Sakura, she had lost her teammate and friend. She had begged him to bring Sasuke back no matter what and was glad when she heard that the both of them made it back home. She wanted to go and see him, but was told not to by her mother, a council woman. Now she knew why. She cried for a few days at the revelation that no matter what she did to him back then with the insults or the hitting was nothing compared to what the villagers did to him. She missed her friend.
Hinata hadn't stopped crying this entire time. She never had the chance to tell Naruto her true feelings to him and that tore her apart inside. She couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, couldn't train, it took Neji over an hour to convince her to at least come out of her room to meet up with the others. She looked terrible.
When Neji was finally released from the hospital and heard of Naruto's banishment, he was outraged. The mission was a success and the fact that no one on the retrieval team died was a miracle. So why had Naruto been banished? When Neji found out, it took all the willpower in his body not to march over to the Uchiha's room and end him with a strike to the heart right then and there. He cried that day. Not just because he lost a friend, but because he lost the person that changed his life forever.
Lee was heartbroken to hear that his youthful friend had been banished for doing the right thing. He screamed out to the high heavens how unyouthful it was for the powers that be to banish someone with a heart of gold. He was so distraught that he ran around Konoha over 1000 times on his hands until he collapsed from exhaustion.
Shino, even though he was stone-faced when he heard the news, was furious at the news. He wanted to march into the council room and let his bugs have at them all. Especially his own father that was on the Shinobi side that voted on Naruto's banishment. How his own father could do something like this.
Ino, like Sakura and Hinata, cried at hearing the news. She may not have known Naruto all that well, but she knew how much of a good person he was. She vowed that she would follow his example to never give up.
Shikamaru and Choji felt awful after the mission, but that paled in comparison to how they felt upon hearing of Naruto's banishment. Once word got out to them, Choji refused to believe that this could be real. That it was all some elaborate prank by Naruto, but Shikamaru knew differently. He always had this sinking feeling as to why the villagers hated the blond, but never had it crossed his mind that it would be something like this. That the hatred would be so great as to banish a loyal shinobi that accomplished his mission over a traitor that abandoned them for his own selfish means. It made sense now that they all knew that he had the Kyuubi sealed inside of him, but it still hurt like hell to lose his friend.
Ten-Ten may not have known Naruto all too well, but she respected his grit and determination. She also respected the fact that he had such a heavy impact on her teammates as well. Her only regret was never talking to him herself.
They all sat and talked as they reminiscence over their friend, unaware that they were being watched over.
[Unknown location]
Since most of them were from a clan and those clans were on the council, said clan heads were watching over their children to see if they had given up on the demon. The original Ino-Shika-Cho, Shibi Aburame, civilian councilwoman Mebuki Haruno and even Danzo watched the group through Hiruzen's old crystal ball. They all wanted to know if the group had reacted like say Kiba who was celebrating. They were all sorely disappointed to find out that the group of children still held the demon brat in such high regards, even with the knowledge that he was the Kyuubi.
"I don't believe this."
Mebuki nearly shouted as she heard her daughter actually joke about the time her and Naruto had to catch Tora the cat.
"How can they not see the truth behind that demon brat?!"
"It is a shame they do not see the logic in what we have done for them."
Shibi spoke in his usual tone.
"It seems that we will need to re-educate them, wouldn't you all agree?"
Danzo spoke up as they all continued to watch and listen to the group speak of Naruto in high regards.
[Hokage office]
Back at the Hokage's office, Tsunade was an emotional wreck. Even after a week and a half she still felt terrible about what she couldn't stop to the boy she considered like a younger brother. She sat at her desk, head in her hands, tears still streaming down her face, and not even caring that her Anbu were present to witness this from their leader.
"Naruto."
She whispered in a hoarse voice, signs of constant sobbing.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."
She had tried to have the decision to banish Naruto overturned many, many times since it happened, but always had the same result. Both councils, with the exception of Hiashi, would out vote her no matter how hard she tried.
Her grieving was interrupted by the familiar voice she hadn't heard from in almost a month.
"I see you're still upset."
Tsunade looked up in time to see Jiraiya leaning on the window frame with a smirk on his face.
"Jiraiya?"
"I'm here hime."
He spoke up as he went over to her.
"I'm sorry about what happened, but I swear to you, I'm using my spy network to comb the Elemental Nations for him."
He saw the hopeful look in her eyes and smirked deviously in his mind. Just one more push, and she would be putty in his hands.
"I will find him Tsunade, and I will make sure he is safe. That is my vow to you."
That was the final push. Tsunade sobbed as she threw herself at her closest and oldest friend. Hopeful that he would keep his word and find her little brother. She wanted so badly to find any comfort from this nightmare she found herself in that this just felt natural to her.
Unbeknownst to her though, Jiraiya was grinning at how his plan had come to full circle. Now all he had to do was find the gaki and make sure that he died so Tsunade can truly be his.
[Uzumaki Village three months later]
Right now, Naruto was being shown around the West by a fairly tall man with his long red hair tied in a ponytail. He wore mainly all black, had black tattoos all over his body, a sword at his hip and a red piece of cloth tied around his forehead. He told Naruto to call him Renji.
Naruto had changed up his outfit in those three months. He still wore orange, but he also had red, black and even a hint of blue on him. He wore a tight black shirt that hugged his body closely without restricting his movements. An orange, cargo style pair of shorts with red lining down the sides and pouches for his equipment. Black sandals with a blue trim along the toes and heels, a dark crimson jacket, and lastly, a red headband with a black Uzumaki seal on it. The headband had no metal plate like all ninja villages in the East had and instead opted for the color scheme and seal.
Renji was tasked by Medusa to show Naruto around as well as being his Kenjuutsu teacher. Aside from Kenshin and Erza, Renji was one of the best in the way of the sword, but for now, he was tasked with teaching the basics. Naruto was very intrigued by just who would be teaching him what.
Renji was teaching him the basics then Kenshin would follow up with the advanced steps later on once Naruto was ready. After that, he would be taught by Erza herself.
He would learn be learning of medicine and healing techniques with Shirayuki. The girl may not look it, but she was one of the best healers in all of the West. Naruto was learning a lot from her little by little and was getting better at healing himself after training with his two taijuutsu teachers.
Speaking of that, Naruto was also tasked with learning better hand to hand combat. The teachers assigned to him for that were two women named Kate and Barbara. Kate was another fairly tall woman with long red hair that she kept tied up. She wore a black body suit with red gloves that went to her elbows and red boots that went to her knees. She had this 'I don't give a shit what you say' attitude about herself, but she was kind at times. She was one of the villages best had to hand fighters. Barbara wasn't as tall as Kate, but she was just as skilled. She wore, for the most part, a purple suit with yellow gloves and yellow boots. She was a lot more forgiving than Kate was, but still strict when she needed to be. The two would run Naruto ragged with drills and intense physical practices.
After that was learning how to control his demonic energy from Kurama and Yoko Kurama. The former showing him how to regulate it in small dosage for an edge to his fights, while the latter taught him how to embrace the power. Akane was fine with this method, especially since Yoko Kurama was trustworthy to no fault. Naruto and Akane had been on better terms now thanks to the training and Naruto was even able to achieve the same one tailed form he used in his battle with Sasuke. Only this time he could actually control it and even expand it to two tails.
Another teacher of his was Gwen in the mystic arts. She was the best in the village, but knew that there were others out in the West better than her. She taught him of the natural chi in everyone and the energy all beings possess within themselves. Naruto didn't really understand this all too much, but was slowly picking up on it day by day.
Aside from that, Naruto had gotten along rather nicely with the rest of the Uzumaki family. They were loud, prideful, honest, and had many strange quarks to them, but they were also loyal and trustworthy.
Right now, Renji was taking Naruto to one of the major cities in the West. Yes. Cities. Thanks to Medusa teaching Naruto on the cities, landmarks, villages and dangerous areas, the blond leaned much on the West.
The city the two Uzumaki's were headed to was the Citadel, the most powerful of the three cities. The Citadel is a military city with strict rules, harsh punishments and hardened warriors. Naruto learned that the city was also where missions were most fruitful to receive and paid the most. It was one of the reasons why the Uzumaki Village had more wealth than normal villages despite the high mortality rate of said missions. Fortunately for the blond Uzumaki, they weren't going there for a mission.
As they walked along the forest, Naruto was making small talk with Renji.
"And after that, they threw me out of the hospital."
Naruto finished a story on the many times he was thrown out of the hospital in Konoha.
"Damn."
Renji sighed as he crossed his arms.
"You'd think after the first several times that spineless leader of yours would've done something."
It was real difficult to irk Renji, or any of the Uzumaki's for that matter, but every time any of them hear of what one of their own went through, it made their blood boil.
"I never got it back then."
Naruto spoke as he had his hands behind his head.
"Got what exactly?"
"How I thought Konoha was a good place for me."
Renji grinned at hearing that and ruffled up Naruto's hair.
"That's because you were a knucklehead!"
Naruto tried and failed to stop the much taller of the two from playfully messing with his hair. Though, they both stopped when Renji noticed that the grassy forest path had turned into a concrete one. Naruto noticed the serious look in Renji's eyes and turned to only stare in awe at the massive structure in front of them. The Citadel was definitely a military city. Large towers loomed overhead, casting shadows all across the various gray building rooftops and antennas. The towers in question were large. Larger than the Hokage mountain and towering over the city. There were four large towers, each varying in size, and they all had golden windows to each of them. The Citadel was also protected with a massive wall made out of some type of metal Naruto had never seen before. The gate was one wall covered in some kind of markings and made out of a different type of steel all together. Naruto just stared at the intimidating site before him. Hearing about the Citadel and seeing it in person were two very different beasts all together as the stories did this place no justice.
"Hey, Naruto."
Renji spoke up, bonking the blond on the head to get his attention.
"Stop gawkin and lets go. We have a mission to get to."
"R-Right."
Naruto stuttered out a little bit as he followed Renji towards the gate were there was a checkpoint.
As they approached the rather empty looking checkpoint, Renji stopped abruptly and raised his arms into the air. Naruto had no idea what he was doing, but one look from Renji told the Jinchuuriki to do the same as him right now. It was very fortunate for him as he didn't even notice a red dot on his or Renji's chest. After a few seconds, three men came out of the shadows, literally. Naruto was shocked at first and calmed down, until he actually got a very good look at the men. They were definitely not ninja.
The men wore these strange outfits that, aside from one in the middle of them, all matched. They wore all black suits that left no visible skin on them, these strange, tactical-like vest with an assortment of items on them for easy reach, black gloves and combat boots, and the most nerve-wracking piece of clothing were these black masks. That doesn't sound too creepy though, right? Well these mask had some sort of white face like design on it, almost like a ghost of forts. Naruto also had zero clue just what the hell they were carrying. They looked like some kind of machine of sorts with long barrels and scopes on the tops of them. The two to the side had these machines pointed at Renji and Naruto, while the one in the middle lowered his weapon, which was the where the red dot came from, and stood in front of them. This one had the same outfit on as the other two, but his mask had a red ghost face to it.
"Identification."
He spoke in a authoritative tone, spooking Naruto a bit.
Renji didn't even flinch as he steadily reach into his robes and pulled out a small booklet. The man snatched it while Renji put his arm back up. The man opened it up and read for a few moments before stopping to look at Naruto. Said blond felt a growing anxiety that something bad was about to happen, but a reassuring nudge from Renji calmed him for a moment at least.
The man in the mask just continued to look Naruto up and down before turning to Renji.
"I thought you Uzumaki's had red hair?"
He spoke in a calmed tone.
"We do."
Renji started in a stern tone.
"But Naruto here is a special case. He's an Uzumaki through and through, just has his fathers hair instead of his mothers."
"And who in the hell's his father?"
The man asked.
Renji shook his head a bit.
"Not important. His mother on the other hand is."
"And she was who exactly?"
"Kushina Uzumaki."
Renji spoke up as he saw the man and the other two visibly gasp before looking to the blond. Renji lowered his arms as did a nervous Naruto did before speaking again.
"You'll find that Shepard is waiting for us, so can we proceed?"
The man looked to Renji before motioning for his men to lower their machines. He turned and raised his right arm in the air, giving a twirling motion for a few moments. He turned back to the two Uzumaki's and gave a salute of sorts where his right hand went to the side of his temple.
"Apologies are in order then."
The man spoke while lowering his arm.
"It has been a long time since that name was heard around these parts."
"No problem."
Renji looked up to the wall and grinned as it was slowly opening upward.
"We won't be long."
"Understood."
The man answered as he stepped aside.
"Welcome to the Citadel."
The gate fully opened and Naruto was once again in awe. The streets were filled with people going about their days despite the tight security. The people were dressed in some pretty interesting outfits. There were the same kind of guys with those strange machines walking around in groups of two, they were stationed outside of certain buildings, and some were actually on top of some of the buildings. Some of them wore armor of some kind that covered their entire bodies, some had on green camouflaged based outfits. It was strange to say the least for the blond, but he decided to leave his questions for later.
He followed Renji through the bustling city and noticed that the people looked genuinely happy and calm despite the numerous guys with those machines of different types patrolling everywhere. Naruto found himself smirking at this though. This was already better than Konoha in terms of technology and the people. Now he just wondered why the history he learned from books spoke of the place being a 'harsh' environment.
His answer? A man running away from a building in a panic. People got out of the way while the man ran their way. Renji, knowing what was going to happen, pulled Naruto out of the way quickly and stood on the side of the road.
The man was screaming out something in his panicked state.
"I'M SORRY! IT WAS JUST A SMALL PIECE OF-"
BANG!
His words were cut off when he was hit by something that made that loud sound. It caught him in the back and went through his body. The man screamed in pain as he fell in front of Naruto and Renji. While the older of the two was unfazed by what he was seeing, Naruto was freaking out. He had no idea what just happened or why this man was just all of sudden down by whatever hit him, but he wanted to help. He went to take a step forward only for Renji to roughly push him back. Naruto looked up to him and saw Renji giving him a serious look while shaking his head. Naruto looked confused but nodded to him.
"P-please."
The frail voice of the man spoke as he tried to crawl to someone.
"H-h-help me."
He didn't get to say much after though as a man walked over to him with one of those machines in hand. He wore a black suit and had a gruff look to him. He had shaggy brown hair and had a smaller version of those machines in hand. He stood over the man on the ground.
"It was just a fucking apple-"
BANG!
The gruff man stopped the others words as he pulled a trigger on the machine and something flew out of the barrel, striking that man in the back of the head. Naruto saw the result of what just happened. The man on the ground stopped moving as blood pooled out of the wound and below his head, seeping into the ground.
The gruff man placed his machine in his jacket and turned to walk away. As he did, he raised his right arm and three of those men from the gate came out of the shadows of buildings to take the body. As they did, Naruto saw that an apple fell out of the now dead mans hand and landed on the ground.
That was when he realized the way the man looked. He looked pale and malnourished, like he had been starving for days. He was just hungry.
As the shadow like men left, the people went about their day once more like it was normal, avoiding the area where the blood was.
"Well then."
Renji started.
"We should get going now."
As he said those words, Naruto was brought back to reality. He quickly realized that that was the 'harsh punishments' he read about. If this was the case, then he would have to get stronger to evoke change to this place as best as he could.
The two continued walking on for a few minutes until they reached a building that was heavily guarded. The building was as big as the Hokage's building if not larger and also looked the most militaristic. They went up to the doors and went inside to the receptionist desk.
"Hey there."
Renji spoke in his usual tone at the man at the desk.
"Name and mission request."
The man all but demanded.
"Uzumaki, Renji."
Renji spoke up in a more professional tone this time while keeping his smirk.
"Not here for mission. Here to see General Shepard. He's expecting me."
Them man at the desk looked over to Naruto.
"And the kid?"
Before Renji could speak, Naruto beat him to it.
"Uzumaki, Naruto."
"An Uzumaki?"
The man raised an eyebrow.
"Nice try kid. All Uzumaki have red hair. Nothing else aside from variations of red. Now get ou-"
Before the receptionist could kick signal for someone to kick them out, another man stepped up and spoke.
"Renji Uzumaki. It's good to see you're not dead son."
All three turned to the voice. The receptionist stood at attention and saluted while Renji smirked and nodded to him. This man must be this 'Shepard' that they were looking for. He was a fairly tall man with a regular build. He wore an all camouflaged outfit of pants, a sweater and sand colored boots along with a black beret on his head. He had gray facial hair along with gray hair and had two men behind him.
Shepard extended his had to Renji.
"How was your last mission?"
Renji extended his own arm and shook his hand.
"Rewarding sir. It's good to see you doing well."
Shepard let go and nodded. He then looked to Naruto and raised a gray eyebrow.
"Is this him?"
"Yes sir. He is."
Renji answered as he turned to Naruto.
"Naruto Uzumaki, this is General Shepard. Leader of the military of the Citadel, and a personal friend to the Uzumaki clan."
Naruto nodded and extended his own hand as Shepard did the same.
"Nice to meet you."
Shepard shook his hand.
"Hmm. Strong grip, but not as strong for what comes next."
Shepard saw the look of confusion on the blonds face and smirked.
"It's good to see you. Renji has told me a lot about you. I'm interested in seeing how this turns out."
"How what turns out?"
Naruto asked as he let go of Shepard's hand.
"Your weapons training, of course."
Shepard answered him.
All Naruto could really do at that point was one thing.
"Huh?"
Alright. So that just happened. Hopefully Naruto learns how to use guns fast, Lol. There'll be another timeskip in the next chapter. In that one, we'll meet another pretty awesome character in my opinion that's gonna help teach Naruto what he needs to fulfill his destiny.
Crossover characters in order of appearance:
Renji Abari - Bleach
Kate Kane(Batwoman) - DC Rebirth
Barbara Gordan(Batgirl) - DC Rebirth
Logan Walker(Man at the front gate) - COD: Ghost
John Wick(Gruff man in the suit) - John Wick
General Shepard - Modern Warfare
Hope ya'll enjoyed this pretty lengthy chapter. Till next time.
Ja Matane