Disclaimer: why bother, you already know.
A/N: First of all, I would like to say a HUUUUUUUUGE sorry for the looooong wait on chapter 4 but I have three major reasons why:
1.) I'm very busy with school chasing deadlines.
2.) My laptop battery finally gave up on me so I gave eru-chan a rest until it was fixed.
3.) Just when everything is finally fixed, I got stuck on the lazy mode.
Also, I would like to say sorry for the typos. It's a technical error overlooked. I'll try to fix those. To those who commented and still waited for this chapter after a millenium, I give you my utmost ARIGATOU! ^_^
=CHAPTER 4=
THE WORLDS' DILEMMAS
He started walking while looking at the kids' faces and storing them in his photographic memory. He was particularly disturbed by Natsume's eyes, but he just gave the kid a quick look before releasing a yawn and left.
"What did he mean 'another set'?" Naruto scratched his head before opening the door, revealing the answer to his question.
"Where are we anyway?" a guy with a star on his upper left cheek asked.
"Yeah sensei, whe—?" the girl didn't get to finish her question because they heard a knock on the door.
"Come in…" the hokage answered rather lazily.
Naruto and the rest came in followed by a bunch of curious kids, "Oi, granny Tsunade—itai…" Shizune punched him in the head out of nowhere.
"Will you please show respect to the hokage Naruto-kun!" Shizune yelled at him.
"Hai Hai…"
"Ah—Tsubasa-senpai, Misaki Senpai…" Mikan ran to the three people that was beside the table of the Hokage, "…and Noda-sensei too!"
"You know them Mikan?" Naruto asked her.
"They're my friends from Gakuen Alice!" Mikan said while joyfully swinging from Tsubasa's arm, unaware of the murderous glare that Natsume sent in her direction.
"There seems to be more of them than I expected." Tsunade looked at the direction of Naruto, "Naruto, so are they companions?"
"As you can see…" Naruto scratched his head, "so granny Tsunade, you know where they are from?"
"They're students from Gakuen Alice—"
"Yeah, yeah we know that but from what place?" Naruto cut her off.
"Well…" Tsunade explained, "Their place seems to be highly confidential to prevent the outsiders. I was the only person that was told about by their place so that I could help them but this place is not within the walls of Konoha."
"So, from what country are they?" Yamato asked with curiosity
"That also is what I do not know," was Tsunade's reply.
"Wha-what do you mean?"
"Their teacher Noda-kun…" Tsunade pointed to the teacher beside her who nodded in greeting which Yamato nodded back, "…doesn't recognize our map and he said that the places are unfamiliar so therefore, we could not pinpoint their location. However, we have a theory."
Everyone was silent, even Naruto, as Tsunade continued to explain the situation of the strange visitors.
"Have you all heard about the Secluded Village?"
"Se-secluded Village?" Naruto couldn't control his curiosity anymore.
"I've heard of those," Yamato butted in, "but I thought they're just myths…some sort of urban legend?"
"Urban Legend?" now Naruto is confused while Mikan and the rest just looked at each other, "why is that?"
"It's a tiny village, isolated away from the other countries and is not shown in the map because their place is strictly kept in secret." Yamato started to explain, "The one and only information that we've know about that place is that they are supposed to be located between boundaries of the countries, kept well-hidden making sure that nobody could discover their place. Not even the tiniest clues about the place's specific location are found that is why most people would believe the tale as a myth so they assume that no such place existed."
"Now I understand Yamato-sensei…" Naruto looked at the kids, "Is that where you came from Mikan-chan?"
"A-ano…" Mikan clearly didn't understand what they are talking about. She was sure that the academy is secluded but it's not a village, "we-well…"
"—it's sort of like that." Noda intercepted, he knew that they were here because of his alice and the people here doesn't know about that. He decided to just go along and maybe he then could find a way to return back to the academy, "but we're kind of unfamiliar with your place so…"
Noda looked at the direction of the two Junior-high students and gave them a meaningful smile.
"Right…" Tsubasa got the message, "we're really not very familiar since we do not go out very much…"
"Now that you've mentioned it…" the two upperclassmen panicked because of Mikan's statement, afraid that she might accidentally spill the beans about Noda's Alice, "I haven't went out of the academy for a while and—"
"Yeah…that is why we are not familiar with this place!" Misaki intercepted to prevent Mikan from saying anything that might arouse suspicion.
"That might be our problem" Tsunade finally identified their problem and she started looking for papers, "country boundaries are a very dangerous place. Places like that are deadly."
"So that means we can't go back?" Sumire was worried.
"Tch." Everyone looked at Natsume's sudden remark, "its all teacher's fault." He looked at the direction of their teacher before talking a step towards the door.
"Hey red-eyes!" Naruto was taken aback by the attitude of Natsume towards the teacher, "where do you think you're going?"
"Until everything else is fixed, I'm going out to take a walk," Natsume opened the door and before leaving, he looked at everybody with a deadly glare, "I'm bored with this place."
Everything went silent after he left.
"So…uh, ano…" Kokoro finally spoke after the long silence, "how are we going to—"
"I'm already working on it." Tsunade took out a folder and started flipping some papers, "Shizune!"
"Ha-hai!" Tsizune approached the Hokage.
"Go tell Shikamaru to bring with him all the available chuunins that he can get here in my office." Tsunade closed the folder that she was reading and made a serious face, "together with Naruto and Yamato, we will send them to a mission to bring these kids safely back to the village."
"Bu-but I thought that the secluded village is supposed to be kept secret…" Tsizune looked at Tsunade with doubt, "I doubt that they would allow such—"
"There could always be an exemption." Noda looked at her with a kind smile, "as long as you keep our information confidential…"
"Rest assured it will be." Tsunade looked at Noda then back to Tsizune, "Now, go!"
"Hai! Right away." With that, Tsizune left.
Everyone looked at the closed door for a while before letting out a sigh.
"He's so scary…"
"Who is that kid?"
"Do Sasuke have a brother?"
"Are you stupid? Their entire clan was murdered."
"But still that scary look…"
"Tch, I'm in this mess because of that stupid teacher." The stare Natsume was giving off while walking down the streets of Konoha can make the pits of hell look heavenly in comparison. Everyone who looked at him could faint with terror.
Natsume eyes was facing the ground all the time and he only looked up when he bumped into something big, hard and…alive."
"Hey kid!" turns out he bumped into one of those street thugs whose only hobby is to bully those who looked inferior to him, "This is my street so don't act so bratty here! Do you know who I am?"
All the time, Natsume was just silent but his hands was already ablaze and was only unnoticed because of the daylight.
"Don't act too cocky kid or else you'll be sorry…" the ugly thug started flexing his fist in front of Natsume, "kid or not, I show no mercy!"
"Well…" Natsume slowly raised his head directly in angle with that of the thug who shivered involuntarily, "same goes for me too…"
The thug who looked directly into his eyes felt like he was looking at a doorway to hell. Those pair of endless swirling red pools seemed to swallow him.
"Now what were you saying old geezer?" his eyes began to literally ignite with fire.
"Ta-ta—" the thug now looks like a cornered mouse, "ta-tasuketeeeeee…!"
He then ran away as fast as he could without looking back, only leaving a trail of smoke behind him.
"Stupid…really stupid…tch." Natsume just shrugged off and slid his now fire-free hand on his pockets and started walking again...until he heard a voice behind him.
"Quite an attitude there…kid."
Natsume paused and swerved. He looked straight into the eyes of a certain shinobi with jet black hair and deep black eyes which, Natsume swore to himself, turned red for a second.
"Who are you anyway?"
"Ne Ne, Granny Tsunade…"
"What is it now brat?" Tsunade looked at Naruto with a now bored expression. They are now waiting for the arrival of Shikamaru and other chuunins.
"Can you tell me more about the people in the Secluded Village?"
"How should I know?" Tsunade just heaved a deep sigh, before pointing at the direction of Mikan and the others, "Why don't you ask them?"
Naruto looked at the direction of the kids who became suddenly interested with Tsunade's Tonton and Ruuka's rabbit playing together.
"You're their teacher right?" Naruto approached Noda, "How can we suppose to help you if we don't even know a thing about you guys?"
The kids stopped being interested in watching the two animals play and looked at their teacher who smiled.
"I guess it can't be helped then," Noda hurriedly evaluated their situation in his mind. He knows that the term 'alice' is not familiar to them and he also doesn't know what type of person they are. So to blend in and not arouse suspicion, the only thing that he could say is, "let's just say that in our academy, we look for children who have…uh…special abilities or skills."
"So your village is an academy?" Tsunade blurted out of curiosity.
"Gakuen Alice is the school right?" Naruto was connecting one and one as two.
"Yeah," Noda glanced at his students with a hope that they would ride along his explanation and not really reveal what they truly are. One thing that he learned about his Alice is that whatever place he goes to, he should not reveal about the academy, "the academy itself is like a village…I guess that little information will not cause any harm to us but the rest about us will remain confidential."
"Okay, I get it." Naruto scratched his head a little and sat down on a chair, "I guess you guys do a lot of ninja training, just like in the Ninja Academy here…"
The kids went silent for a while after hearing Naruto's words. Noda then realized that the place they went to is that of ninjas.
"So what type of school is that Naruto-niisan?" Mikan asked out of the blue.
"Well, let's just say that we also gain our skills and develop our special abilities there."
"Well then blondie…" Sumire was intrigued; she was very particular about getting to know every person's skill, "show it to us! Your Alice that is."
"E-eh?" Naruto scratched his head even more, "alice…? Blondie…?"
"Yeah…I wanna see!" even Mikan was eager.
The rest crowded around Naruto.
"You can create clones too, right?" Kitsuneme remembered the scene not too long ago.
"The kage-bunshin?"
"Whatever, just show us!" Sumire was really interrogating Naruto.
"You made clones earlier right?" Hotaru was busy poking tonton who is sleeping behind Ruuka's rabbit.
"Oh…" realization finally hit Naruto, "well then, stand back."
The kids finally calmed down and stood a few steps back.
"Kagebunshin no jutsu!" several Narutos appeared right in front of them. The kids were in awe and, being unable to see Naruto perform his cloning technique earlier, Tsubasa and Misaki's eyes widened. Even Noda was fascinated.
"Sugoi! Honto ni Sugoi" Mikan then pointed at the direction of Misaki, "Misaki-senpai, do that too! Onegai…"
"E-eh?" Misaki just sweat-dropped but she was also in awe because of the way Naruto forms his clones using weird hand signals so she also agreed to show her alice, "well then…"
Without warning, Misaki's duplicate suddenly appeared in Tsunade's office. Giving Naruto, Tsunade and Yamato a shocked expression.
"Wha—?" Naruto scratched his head.
"She could do Kagebunshin without performing the hand signals?" Yamato commented.
"That's pretty stran—"
"Sugoi!" Naruto butted in before Tsunade could even comment, "You can even do kagebunshin without the hand signals! You guys really have amazing skills…I wonder what type of training you guys do…"
"Y-yeah…" Misaki just heaved a deep sigh.
"I'm the one who is supposed to be asking you that kid." The shinobi's answer to Natsume, "this is the first time I saw you here…"
"Just leave me alone then…" Natsume was starting to leave, ignoring the shinobi.
"Hey kid! I'm not finished yet…" the shinobi stared at Natsume with a deadly piercing stare to show who's in authority.
Natsume stared in his eyes for a while before letting go a sarcastic smirk.
"So…you're the 'Sasuke' they're talking about."
A/N: Finally it's done! Sorry but I have to end it right here because it's getting longer than I expected…
