Chapter 4: Revelations
The shinobi around Neji were stunned. No chakra? What did that mean?
"YOSH! NARUTO-KUN, HAS FOUND A WAY TO OVERCOME THE INABILITY TO USE CHAKRA! THROUGH HARD WORK, HIS FLAMES OF YOUTH BURN BRIGHTLY!"
Hinata spoke up, to the surprise of the group. Although her stutter had almost completely vanished since Naruto's execution, she was still a quiet and reserved girl.
"That's not quite right, Lee-san. You are simply unable to mold extra chakra beyond what your body naturally produces. You still have chakra running through your coils, which allows you to move around. Naruto-kun has no chakra at all. He shouldn't be able to move around, much less defeat Father in a battle."
They looked on as Naruto put his cloak and hood back on before slipping his two swords the folds of his cloak.
Naruto turned to the crowd and grinned. "I know you all probably have a bunch of questions for me. I will be at Tsunade's office in three hours to answer any questions that anybody may have for me. Until then, I have some business that I must attend to."
With that, Naruto turned around and walked away with an attitude that left no room for rebuttal.
Three hours passed, and Tsunade sat in her office, waiting for the blond to arrive. She looked over the assembled group in her office. The people were milling about and idly chatting, but the anticipation in the atmosphere was clearly evident.
A knock was heard on the door, and the room instantly fell silent. All eyes focused on the group that entered the room- Team 7 lead by Kakashi. Tsunade's eyes narrowed. An escort mission to Suna should take more than a day to complete.
"Hatake, report."
"Yes, Hokage-sama. The escort turned out to be a spy for Sound, who attempted to capture Sasuke. We subdued the enemy and brought him to Ibiki for interrogation."
"Good job Hatake, Team 7."
Sakura spoke up. "Um, Hokage-sama? Why is everybody gathered here? Is something happening?"
Tsunade smirked, 'Naruto might be upset, but it will definitely make things much more interesting.'
"Yes, Haruno. Something is going to happen soon. Team 7, stay here for a while."
Team 7 complied, and the group of shinobi continued to wait, this time in complete silence. Finally, the doors swung open once more, and Naruto casually walked into the office.
"N-n-naruto?"
Naruto glanced at the pink-haired kunoichi and walked went over to Tsunade's desk without a word.
Finally, he turned around, "I know that many of you have questions, so ask away."
Hinata spoke first, to the surprise of many, "How did you come back to life, Naruto-kun?"
Naruto smiled mysteriously, "A gift from Kami."
Shino raised his eyebrows, "And your eyes?"
Naruto nodded, "Gift from Kami."
"YOSH! YOUR FLAMES OF YOUTH ARE BRIGHTER THAN EVER! WE MUST TRAIN TOGETHER IN ORDER TO RAISE OUR COLLECTIVE YOUTHS!"
Naruto grinned, and everybody held their breaths. Was Naruto going to join the infamous Green Beasts of Konoha?
"It's good to see you too, Lee. I'm afraid I have to decline, however, because my training schedule is fundamentally different from yours. We would be holding each other back. Instead, we can have a spar some time."
Lee nodded with flames in his eyes.
'Has he finally unlocked a doujutsu?'
The copy-nin asked a question that had been on his mind for a while.
"What have you been up to over this past year?"
Naruto silently looked at Kakashi, empty blue eyes gazing into Kakashi's lone uncovered eye. Kakashi nervously shifted.
Finally Naruto responded, "Training."
A tick mark formed in Sakura's forehead, and the pinkette exploded in fury.
"TRAINING! THAT'S ALL YOU'VE BEEN UP TO? WHY THE HELL DID YOU HAVE TO ABANDON KONOHA AND TEAM 7 IF YOU JUST WANTED TO TRAIN, YOU STUPID IDI-"
Sakura suddenly stopped when she locked eyes with Naruto. She felt a chill course through her body as Naruto's icy blue eyes seemed to peer into her very soul. At that moment, Sakura finally realized that the Naruto that she thought she knew didn't exist anymore.
'What have I done?'
The room was silent in the wake of Sakura's outburst for a while.
Hiashi finally spoke up, "Naruto, during our fight I noticed something unusual about your body."
Naruto smiled at this, knowing where the question would lead, "You saw that I have no chakra, right?"
While Hiashi nodded his head in confirmation, there were gasps of surprise from those who were not around Neji and Hinata during the earlier battle.
"Pft, dobe."
Most of the shinobi glared at the Uchiha, but Naruto simply ignored Sasuke before continuing on as if nothing had happened.
"It's true. I found out soon after I came back to life that I no longer possess any chakra of my own. Apparently, when Kyuubi was released from my body, the stupid fox burned away both of our chakra supplies. As it left, it managed to permanently ruin my chakra core, which prevents me from generating any chakra. Once I used up all of my chakra reserves, that was it."
"So how are you able to move around, much less fight without any chakra?"
"I don't quite understand it myself, but somehow it works. Chakra is supposed to enhance movement, not initiate movement, so movement without chakra is possible, even if it's extremely difficult."
"On the plus side, jutsu and bloodlines that use the enemy's jutsu are completely useless against me. The Sharingan, which reads chakra flow, cannot copy anything and the Byakugan is completely blind to my presence. I used to suck at genjutsu, but now I'm immune."
Tsunade gaped, "That was… intelligent and well-thought out…"
Naruto smirked, "Not having a bloodthirsty demon whispering in your ear, constantly trying to get you to go on a violent killing spree anymore did wonders for my reasoning capacity."
Tsunade scraped her mouth off the floor, "I… see"
"Still, that doesn't explain that strange jutsu that you used during the match."
"Always the smart one, aren't you, Shikamaru. Then tell me, what are the basic chakra element types?"
"Tch, how troublesome. Fire, water, wind, earth and lightning."
"That's right. During my training, I… discovered some hidden elemental manipulation abilities."
Tsunade raised an eyebrow.
"So, which elements can you control, or do you have control over multiple elements? Or can you control them all?"
"None of them, actually. However, I can control two other elements… light and dark."
"Huh?"
Naruto lifted his right hand and after a moment of concentration, a pure-white aura enveloped his hand. He then lifted his left hand, and it was quickly shrouded in darkness.
"What about your swords? I bet this new chakra of yours has something to do with it."
Naruto looked over at an eager Tenten. He grinned and reached into his coat, pulling out two sword hilts. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed them over to Tenten, who had stars in her eyes as she inspected
the hilts.
"So you channel this chakra into these sword hilts, which materializes the chakra into blades, right? And that chain too, right?"
Naruto nodded, and Tenten pouted.
"Hmph, that means that I can't try out these blades. That sucks."
She returned the hilts, giving them final wistful look.
"Actually, pure elemental manipulation is different from chakra elemental manipulation, but that's a discussion for another day. Anyways, I think we should call it a day."
Before he could leave, Tsunade called out to Naruto.
"Hey Naruto, catch."
She threw a small object at the blond, who caught it without looking. Naruto opened his hand and glanced at the golden key and a slip of paper with instructions before walking out with a faint smile on his face, followed closely by Team 7.
With that, Tsunade turned to the remaining shinobi with a smirk, "Well, we have to hurry and prepare for the party now."
On his way out, Naruto heard a familiar voice drifting out.
"My, Naruto, is that that the proper way to treat your teammates after all this time? You could at least say hi."
'Shit, not now,'
"What do you want? I've got things to do, so hurry up and say what you want to say."
"Naruto, listen to us. What we did back then, we did what we thought was best for the team."
"…"
"We didn't want it to happen, Naruto."
"…"
"Naruto, please return to Team 7."
"…"
"Damn it, say something Naruto!"
"Is that all, Hatake?"
With that, Naruto started to walk away from a shocked Team 7 when a hand on his shoulder stopped him.
"Fight me, Naruto."
Naruto turned and saw Sasuke glaring at him.
'Is the teme checking me out?'
"No thanks."
"Dobe… I said fight me… NOW."
Sasuke activated his Mangekyou Sharingan and stared Naruto in the eye with an arrogant smirk. His smirk quickly turned into a horrified grimace as Naruto's icy blue eyes bore through Sasuke.
"Very well…"
Naruto raised a hand shrouded in shadow and thrust his hand in Sasuke's face.
Devil Technique: Vision of Darkness
Sasuke stumbled backwards, clawing at his eyes and howling while Naruto walked away, hands in his pockets.
"OI, NARUTO! WHAT DID YOU DO TO SASUKE-KUN?"
"Ah, give it a rest Haruno. I used a jutsu that temporarily blinded Uchiha. He'll be fine tomorrow."
With that, Naruto continued on his way, leaving a quiet Team 7 in his wake.
Sai broke the uncomfortable silence, "It appears that Naruto-kun has a bigger penis than Sasuke-chan."
Naruto stood in front of his new house and took a deep breath… and narrowed his eyes. There were noises coming from within the house. He quickly unlocked the door and burst inside, kunai in hand.
He was met with the sight of a frantic Tsunade barking orders at shinobi left and right. The shinobi were desperately hanging up various party decorations.
"What the hell is going on?"
"Uhh…"
Naruto sweat dropped at the scene.
Slightly red-faced, Tsunade explained, "Well, we were going to hold a welcome back party for you, but some of us got a bit… distracted."
"Huh?"
Kiba shouted out from the bar, "Dude, Naruto, your place is fucking awesome. I mean, some of the stuff is a bit outdated, but once you pimp this shit up, your house will be where it's at."
"Ehh?"
"Don't pay attention to Kiba. He can't hold his sake like a man. Why don't you just take a tour of your new house while we get things ready?"
As Naruto walked through his new home, he was impressed with the efficient elegance of the Namikaze household. There was a small training dojo that was clean with plenty of training equipment. Next to the dojo was a well stocked armory. Naruto looked around the armory, lightly fingering the katana, kunai and shuriken neatly packed in their respective containers. His glance fell on a box marked 'Hirashin.'
Naruto walked over to the box and pulled out a three-pronged kunai.
'Hirashin no Jutsu, huh… must have been one hell of a technique, father.'
With that thought, Naruto replaced the kunai and left the armory to continue his self-guided tour.
He noticed the jutsu library and made a mental note to study some of the scrolls. Although he could no longer use normal shinobi jutsu, it couldn't hurt to understand the nature of the various techniques that he could encounter.
Naruto passed by through the kitchen, office and bedroom with a smile on his face. Finally, he had his own home.
He passed by a door marked 'Hot Springs', and his smile widened. He walked through the door, intent on checking out the onsen. He was so eager to see the onsen that he failed to notice the basket of clothes in the changing room containing a pink Chinese-styled shirt and blue pants.
"Whoa! It's awesome!"
Naruto's gaze swept over the hot spring with stars in his eyes. He loved his new house: it was clean, it had its own training dojo and armory, as well as a jutsu library and an onsen. Most of all, it felt like home, the place where his parents had lived and the place where he would have grown up.
An indignant feminine voice broke through his musings.
"HEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"
'Shit, what should I do… hold on…'
"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU IN MY ONSEN? HE, AND WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?"
A figure stepped through the steam, and Naruto could clearly see Tenten's towel-clad figure. In spite of himself, Naruto couldn't help but stare at Tenten—her warm chocolate eyes, her cute button nose, her luscious red lips, her delicate neck leading straight down to her developed-
"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU LOOKING?"
Tenten summoned a kunai out of thin air and waved it threateningly in front of Naruto.
'Ehh? Where the hell did she summon that kunai from? I didn't see any summoning scroll, and she doesn't have pockets or a pouch to hold that... Maybe…'
Naruto flushed red as he contemplated a possible storage unit for Tenten's kunai, and a tiny dribble of blood fell from his nose. Tenten noticed and narrowed her eyes dangerously, freezing Naruto in place.
"YOU STUPID PERVERT!"
Naruto screamed in terror and bolted from the onsen faster than Lee with five of his gates open while Tenten looked on in surprise.
'Did he really think that I would attack him?'
The rest of his tour passed without much incident, and by then, Tsunade and the shinobi had finished preparing for the party, so Naruto headed over to join the group.
His smile upon seeing everybody slightly faltered when he saw Kakashi, Sakura and Sai huddled together in a corner. Kakashi and Sakura were anxiously glancing at a brooding Sasuke.
'How did they get here?'
"Well, what are we waiting for, let's get this party started!"
With a cheer, the shinobi began to party.
Naruto was about to head in the direction of the ramen stand set up by Teuchi and Ayame, but a hand grabbed Naruto and forced him to the bar.
"Oi, brat… I've waited too long for this. You and I are having a drink now."
Tsunade pulled out a bottle of sake and two saucers and began to pour the sake into the dishes.
"Hey, where's Ero-Sennin at? I haven't seen him around."
Tsunade finished pouring and sighed, placing the bottle on the counter before taking a sip of the sake.
"Jiraiya hasn't been doing too well recently. He took your execution pretty hard, and I think he regrets not being there for you when you were younger. He drowns himself in his work, barely spending any time in Konoha before heading out on another mission."
Naruto took a sip of the sake before downing the rest of the sake in one gulp.
"I see, I guess I should talk to him when he gets back."
Naruto pulled out another bottle of sake from the bar and started to drink directly from the bottle. Tsunade raised an eyebrow.
"Been working on your tolerance recently?"
"Hmph, I don't get drunk. Alcohol inhibits the flow of chakra to your vitals. Since I don't have any chakra, I don't need to worry about feeling the effects of alcohol. Well, at least the taste is good."
'Lucky bastard.'
Naruto left the bar to mingle with the others, leaving a jealous Tsunade slumped over at the bar.
As Naruto walked away, he bumped into someone, sending her sprawling to the ground.
"Umm… are you okay?"
The figure turned to face Naruto, bringing him face to face with a snarling Tenten.
"GAHH! I'm so sorry, forgive me. I'm begging you!"
Tenten got to her feet and Naruto flinched, expecting the worst. Instead, Tenten merely spun on her heel and stalked away.
"Watch where you're going next time, baka."
Naruto breathed a sigh of relief.
"OI, Naruto! Come over here and join us for a bit. We're singing karaoke. Give it a try."
Naruto looked over and saw Lee and Gai singing a surprisingly accurate rendition of 'Macho Man' while spectators cringed at the sight.
'I thought the Village People were gay, but this is too much.'
He turned to walk away, but Kiba forcibly dragged Naruto to join the group. He was forced to sit through Shino singing 'La Cucaracha', Ino singing 'Like a Virgin' and Neji singing classical Italian opera surprising well.
He was about to sneak off and escape when a microphone was thrust into his arms and he was gently pushed towards the stage. Naruto sighed.
'Might as well sing and get this over with, then
Be for you, Be for me: Ueda Yuji, Horie Yui, Kuwatani Natsuko (Translation by Kaworu S.)
I'm aching for something
Because I just realized it
In a town where everyone rushes about
I tried walking a little slower
The wish I can't tell, I want to make it with you
Sometimes when I want to cry, I close my eyes and think TRY
But you're here, and I wish for love
At any time, I want your heart to be by my side
That's why I'm here, I'm looking for love
If we're together, we'll change tears into kindness
The dream will surely come true
Those around Naruto had the same thought running through their minds. 'Was Naruto always this talented?' Indeed, his voice effortlessly conveyed his pain and loneliness to all those within hearing range.
Where you were, what you were doing
I'm always thinking about you
I'm taking the blue sky of today
To make the color of our commemoration
My voice won't say the prayer even though I want to be there
Even with broken hearts, people grow strong and oppressive, WHY
You're here, and I wish for love
A miracle that will only go on for us
And I'm here, looking for love
From now on, together we start walking
To the endless future
Tenten was idly milling about, somewhat bored when she heard Naruto's voice drift over from the karaoke machine. She stopped and listened, Naruto's soft dulcet tones penetrating deep into her core.
'Is this how you truly feel, Naruto?'
Forever, you'll be here wishing for love
The only one for me is you
I'm over there, looking for love
For an instant a depressing moment shines
Surely just for us.
There was a silence as all of the women, as well as some of the men wiped tears from their eyes before the audience erupted in cheers. Hell, he sang it better than the original artists themselves did. Refusing to sing again, Naruto moved on, leaving Kiba to howl a rough rendition of 'Who Let the Dogs Out?' while Akamaru whined and covered his ears with his paws.
As time went along, the party became rowdier and rowdier, partly due to the sake flowing from the bar. After Anko had used her snakes to hold him in place while she and Kurenai gave him a double lap dance, Naruto decided to head out to get some fresh air.
Tenten was nursing a saucer of sake while looking over the party. She was with her idol, Tsunade of the Legendary Sannin, which would usually send Tenten into a squeal of fangirl frenzy, but seeing her idol shit-faced drunk put a damper on the excitement.
She looked up and noticed Naruto walking out the door, unnoticed by the others. She downed her remaining saucer and decided to follow the blond.
Tenten followed Naruto to the training ground and saw Naruto pull out his hilts. She watched, transfixed as light and dark burst from the hilts before settling into the familiar zanbato and wakizashi. A black and white chain blurred into existence, connecting the two blades. Tenten resisted the urge to droll at the sight of the beautiful weaponry.
She then watched as Naruto jumped around, swinging his sword with reckless abandon, destroying the training ground in the process.
'What incredible power… but still…'
"Geez, your form sucks."
Naruto spun around glaring at the bun-haired kunoichi.
"What do you want? Did you come here just to insult me and make fun of me?"
Tenten started to back down, but she quickly bounced back.
"I was just going for a walk, and I happened to see you practicing. With the way you fight, I could beat you in three moves."
"Oh yeah? Bring it."
Naruto settled down into a fighting stance while Tenten pulled out three kunai.
Naruto jumped forward, swinging at Naruto with the zanbato. Tenten leaped into the air, hurling a kunai at Naruto, who blocked it with his zanbato.
"ONE!"
Naruto smirked. Three moves? There was no way that could be possible.
"TWO!
Naruto's eyes widened as Tenten's second kunai caught the chain, pinning his weapon to the ground.
'Tch, good move, but it's not over yet…'
With a burst of light the kunai was blown from the chain, freeing his weapons.
"THREE!"
Naruto gulped as he felt the cold steel of Tenten's remaining kunai resting against his neck.
"I give up."
Tenten cheered while Naruto sighed. The two slumped down on the cool evening grass.
"I can't believe that I was beaten by a girl."
Tenten's eyes flashed dangerously.
"What was that?"
Naruto nervously began to sweat.
"Uhh, nothing… I was just talking to myself… aha aha aha…"
Naruto put his hand behind his head and laughed in what he hoped was an innocent manner.
"Good, because I thought I heard you say something about women being weaker than men."
"Erm… anyways, you said that there were flaws in my form, and you… well… kicked my ass to prove your point. So could you show me what I did wrong?"
"Naruto, it would take a long time to fix your swordsmanship, and wielding two different blades makes things that much harder. I have specialized in weapons since my academy days, so learning how to use those blades wouldn't be too difficult for me, but you need to learn the basics in order to develop any proficiency, which could take years. Remember, the only reason you managed to beat Hiashi-sama with your blades was because you caught him by surprise."
Naruto visibly drooped, which Tenten immediately picked up. She decided to soften up.
"Hey, tell you what. I'm free tomorrow, so if you meet me here tomorrow at 9 in the morning, I can show you some of the basics and get you started in terms of improving your swordsmanship."
"Really?"
"Yeah, just make sure you're here on time and ready to train, or I'm going to make sure that you won't be a very happy person tomorrow."
Naruto silently nodded. He didn't know what Tenten would do to him for being late, but he didn't want to find out, either.
"Naruto…"
"Yeah?"
"Well… I was wondering… What's it like to die?"
Naruto stared at Tenten, his piercing blue eyes never breaking contact with Tenten's brown eyes. Tenten squirmed nervously.
"You know, they say that as shinobi, we must be emotionless on the battlefield, but death is something that we all think about when we're idle, not doing anything. Each time we go out on a mission, we know that it may be our last, but still, somebody has to do them. It's rather insensitive and selfish to be asking you, so if you don't want to say anything, I understand."
Naruto continued to look at Tenten, this time with a rather curious eye. Finally, after what seemed an eternity to Tenten, Naruto spoke.
"Death is… peaceful. It's a feeling that you belong, that nothing can hurt you. The afterlife… is a nice place; it's a place I can spend an eternity in."
"Oh… thank you…"
After a moment of silence, Tenten stood up.
"Well, you can stay here longer if you want; I think it's time for me to head back to the others."
With that, she walked off into the distance as Naruto's eyes followed her, subconsciously drifting down to watch her swaying hips and her shapely-
"DON'T YOU DARE STARE AT MY ASS, YOU STUPID HENTAI!"
'Damn.'
Naruto whirled around, red-faced at nearly being caught. It wouldn't be a good thing if Tenten beat him to death before he could face Kyuubi.
'She's scarier than Tsunade-baachan… but she has a kinder side as well.'