Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
A/N: It's back Bitches! Just kidding, I love you guys. But seriously, I'm sorry for the wait. It just wasn't up to the quality that you guys deserve. After that, I just kept on procrastinating, and only now have I been able to actually finish it. I know that there is no excuse for making you wait so long for a full chapter, but please forgive me.
For those that have read this story before, you may find some things changed. Most of those things are little details that I had left out before, or details that I only just decided would make the story better. The biggest change is that I redistributed some of the text. I just cut off some parts from the beginnings of chapters two and three, and put them at the ends of chapters one and two respectively. This is because chapters one and two were a lot shorter than three and four, so I did this to make them have a more equal length.
thor94: Read and find the answers to you questions.
nicky: I don't have anything about the cub in this chapter, even though I had originally planned to, but he just got pushed out by other stuff. He'll be in the story soon though.
Guestabovenicky: Kiba does have some slight feelings for her, but he is just more protective of her, as she is part of his team, and he views her as part of her pack. He also doesn't want her to pick a weak mate, as that would be bad for her and any potential children they have. Don't worry, Kiba will get somebody, and it will happen within the next few chapters.
theeternalguest: Yes, he plays a MUCH bigger part than he seems. You'll find some of it in the next chapter, but most if it is pretty far in the future, but still in the first part.
For best affect, play Orochimaru's theme and Orochimaru's fight during the fight scene.
I know I did get this chapter out pretty quickly after my last update. I thought a maybe should have waited until June to release it, but I just couldn't do that to you guys. Besides, I broke so many promises to you guys that you deserve this chapter early. Biggest chapter yet at 13k+ words, WOO! I don't want to keep you guys waiting any longer, so here it is, the long awaited Chapter 6.
Chapter 6: Need To Be Strong
Naruto woke up, jumping in surprise before remembering that he was back in Konoha, and that his mission was over. He went through his usual routine, which felt odd after not doing it for so long. Despite that, he was ready to go in less than half an hour, and on his way to Kakashi's apartment. Knocking on his sensei's door, he had to wait for a few minutes before Kakashi, stripped to the waste, opened the door. "What, in the name of log, are you doing coming to my place this early?"
"Well, yesterday you left before you could fill out the mission report, and I just wanted to remind you about it when I knew where you would be." Naruto said, annoyed about having to do this.
"Hey, what's taking so long? I'm starting to get d-" Anko yelled, but cut off as she saw that it was Naruto. She blushed slightly, causing both student's and sensei's eye to widen in surprise at the purple haired kunoichi. "What are you staring at!? Just hurry up!" she said, her face turning red from indignation at their responses. She quickly ducked back around corner, and moments later they both heard the bedroom door slam.
"Yeah, well I'll remember to do that, but it would be best if you three were there for this one. This isn't one where we can just write, 'Mission accomplished, all of the newspapers were delivered.' This is a bit more complicated, and I'm gonna need the input of all members of the team, not just from my perspective." Kakashi moved to close the door but remembered something and turned back, "I'll be at the mission hall in an hour... maybe two. You should probably go get Sasuke and Sakura and wait for me there."
Naruto walked away, grumbling about adults and their pastimes. He made his way along the streets of Konoha on his way to Sasuke's place. He drowned out the unveiled insults and whispers that were supposed to be heard twenty feet away, that inevitably followed him everywhere he went. He was almost glad about those. The only times that they were ever quite around him were when they either planned on doing something bad to him, or when something really bad had happened. The day that he walked the streets and wasn't berated openly would be the day that he would truly be afraid. He would have gone to Sakura's place first, as her company was actually more pleasant than Sasuke's, but he doubted that he would be able to get Sakura to go anywhere with him unless Sasuke was there as well. He sighed. His team really had some problems. He doubted that Hinata's team would behave like his.
He took a shortcut through a series of alleys to save time, not that time really needed to be saved. When Kakashi said two hours, he wouldn't be there for at least three. He hadn't gone far before he heard the sound of feet behind him, attempting to mirror his own but failing miserably. He turned around, expecting to see a mugger or one of that ilk following him, but instead saw what appeared to be the end of a blue scarf, which definitely hadn't been there when he had just passed by, lying on the ground and leading behind a dumpster. He sighed, already knowing he would have to repeat his last lesson. Naruto continued down the alley for some time, the uneven footsteps behind him, and eventually he was approaching a branching alley off to the side. When he had almost reached it, he dashed forward and around the corner, and he smiled when he heard the sound of his pursuer speeding up.
When Konohamaru turned the corner, eyes searching for his quarry, he was confused. Naruto was gone, just gone. There wasn't even a place that he could've hid, just an empty alley. Before he could react, he found a kunai at his neck... again. Behind him, he heard Naruto chuckle, "Deja vu. C'mon, what did I tell you the first time? Never give your opponent the advantage." Naruto pushed Konohamaru away, putting the kunai back into his pouch. He started walking away, back towards Sasuke's place. Before he had taken five steps, he found his way blocked by Konohamaru. Naruto unceremoniously grabbed his scarf, picked him up, and flung him they way he had come.
It wasn't long before Naruto was intercepted again. "Listen kid, I don't know what you want, but I do know three things. First, You are definitely persistent, and I like that. Second, you broke your promise to me that you wouldn't bother me again. Third, I actually have important stuff to do right now, and you are blocking my way. That means that you are interfering with official ninja business, which is a crime by the way."
"You're going to teach me!"
"Like hell I am. I don't have time for this. Get lost." Naruto started to walk past, but abruptly stopped and looked down at his right leg, "What are you doing?" Konohamaru had latched onto Naruto's leg.
"I'm not letting go until you agree to teach me."
Naruto kicked Konohamaru off of his leg, sending the kid flying a few feet. While Konohamaru was still lying on the ground, Naruto said, "Fine then, if you're that insistent, Let me give you your first test. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" forty-nine clones suddenly appeared, filling up the narrow alley. In unison, before all jumping away in various directions, they called to him, "If you can find the real me before sunset, I'll teach you!"
By the time that Naruto reached Sasuke's place, Konohamaru had already caused a clone to dispel. 'He might actually be able to do this if I didn't plan on cheating.'
Surprisingly, Kakashi was actually on time, though he was accompanied by Anko who was complaining about being called to a mission this early. They all went into the mission hall together, Anko explaining to Sasuke and Sakura about how she and Kakashi had gotten together and Anko was about to speak of the previous evening when they arrived at the briefing room. "Well, see you guys, I should probably report to the Hokage now." Anko said, walking towards the stairs that led to the Hokage's office in this building.
"Actually, Anko, I'm in here. What I need to speak to you about concerns team seven as well." they heard Hiruzen say from inside the briefing room. They all entered, all the genins surprised that the Hokage would want to hear about their mission. "Team Seven, let me first congratulate you on successfully completing your first A-ranked mission." Hiruzen held up his hand to silence their questions, "I'm the Hokage, I have ways of finding these things out." He turned his eyes onto Anko, "You, should know better. No matter what you think, or what you want, you should never delay a ninja in delivering information like this to the Hokage. Stealing the lead shinobi and, *ahem* fraternizing, with him is completely unprofessional, even if you two are in a relationship." he smiled at the uncharacteristic blush that covered her face, "Again, I have ways of finding things out, and I always know the whereabouts of our most skilled Jonin."
After dismissing the Leaf's Mistress of Torture, he returned his attention to Team Seven, "Now, I may know that you succeeded with this mission, and some of the larger details of what occurred, but I'd prefer if you would each tell me what happened during the mission from your perspectives. Leave nothing out." They each then told about every single thing that they could remember, often times trying to interrupt each other to correct something, but quickly being silenced by Hiruzen. Naruto on his first attempt to stretch the truth, opened his mouth to brag, but as he looked into the eyes of the God of Shinobi he found himself reciting exactly what happened, leaving nothing out, adding nothing that was untruthful, and even telling things that he had completely forgotten about. He may have gotten a bit carried away because before he knew it he was about to tell all of those present about his loss of control and the Kyuubi taking over. Luckily he shut his mouth with an audible click before he said something that he would regret. He looked at Hiruzen with pleading eyes, letting him know that it was something that he really didn't want his teammates to know about yet. He may have been imagining things, but he could have sworn he saw an almost imperceptible nod come from the old shinobi. He continued, stating that he had used a massive burst of chakra from his massive reserve of it to enhance his muscles, which, along with the element of surprise, allowed him to defeat Haku. He continued until he got to the part where they departed the country via the newly constructed bridge, and allowed the rest of them to tell their sides of the story.
After they were all finished, Hiruzen sat there for awhile, a thin trail of smoke rising from the ever-present pipe. After a few minutes he got up and started rifling through some of the various documents and scrolls that were stored in the drawers covering the right side of the room. Finding what he was looking for, he walked back over to the table and laid out a considerably aged scroll. "P.F. 18: Team Hiruzen, consisting of Hiruzen Sarutobi, Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru, completed their first A-rank Mission. Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru all were genin at the time. Their mission was to rescue a group of shinobi that had been ambushed and captured by Kiri during the First Great War. Status: Successful." Rolling that scroll up and setting it aside, he laid out another scroll, "P.F. 31: Team Jiraiya, consisting of Jiraiya, Minato Namikaze, Hiashi Hyuga, and Tokumei Fujin complete their first first A-rank mission, intercepting a small group of Kumo shinobi after a failed infiltration into Konoha. All excluding Jiraiya were genin at the time. Status: Successful." he looked up at team seven, all waiting with baited breath. They were wondering where he was leading with this line of famous names. "Bear with me, I have one more." Hiruzen spoke around his pipe.
He unraveled another scroll, "P.F. 40: Team Minato, consisting of Minato Namikaze, Kakashi Hatake, Rin Nohara, and Obito Uchiha completed their first A-rank mission. The mission was to prevent and distract a small group of Iwa shinobi from backing up a much larger force that was locked in combat with Konoha forces. All excluding Minato were genin at the time. Status: Successful." he rolled up the scroll and set it with the others. All of the genin were wide-eyed and staring at their sensei. He coughed to get their attention, "Technically one more could have been added to that list, but I and my team underneath Hashirama completed it before there was any official ranking of Genin. And now, I suppose that one more should be added, your mission." he stood up and returned the scroll to their respective places along the wall. He pulled another scroll out from the wall, this one new. "There have only been five instances of a single team of three genin and their jonin sensei successfully completing an A-rank mission. Now there are six."
"That is so awesome! I don't know who the rest were but there were two Hokage in that list and the three Sannin! Now we're in it to!" Naruto burst out and started dancing, Sakura and Sasuke just sighing at the blonde's enthusiasm. Sasuke looked up at Kakashi, seeing him in a new light. Maybe his claim of graduating at the age of five might not have been so far fetched. He also recognized the names of an Uchiha and a Hyuga in that list.
"Alright, that's enough for now. Kakashi and I will complete the report, you three may go." he dismissed them with a wave of his hand and a smile for each of them.
Before any of them could leave, Kakashi spoke to them, "You three probably have some questions, so meet me at our training grounds tomorrow. You guys have the rest of the day off, so have fun."
They all three left the building, "So guys, what do you wanna do?" Naruto asked when they were outside. He turned to his two teammates, and they each shrugged.
Sakura was the first to speak up, "You know, it's weird. After so long of having guard duty, and training every day, it just seems odd to have some free time." the other two genin nodded.
Naruto knew that if he were to get out of training Konohamaru, he would need to stay in a place that he wouldn't be looked for. "Seeya guys later, but I need to research some more stuff about Fuinjutsu, so I'm gonna go to the library. Bye!" he ran off, leaving behind two stunned genin that both thought that they must be going crazy. Naruto arrived in less than a minute as the library was pretty close to the mission hall. Konohamaru had so far managed to dispel 10 clones already. He walked into the library and up to the front desk, where a grouchy looking woman sat in a comfortable looking chair with a clipboard on her lap. Very nervously he took out his Ninja Identification card and handed it to her, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I need to look at some scrolls concerning Fuinjutsu." She eyed him up and down before looking at his ID. With a nod, she took out a slip of paper and stamped it, handing it back to Naruto. She instructed him to show the document to the ninja guarding the part of the library that is off-limits to civilians.
He nodded and headed off to where she had indicated, relief evident on his face. He showed his documents to the Chunin that was on guard who didn't look that much older than Naruto. "Okay, these are the scrolls, books, and other documents that are available to genin." he pointed out a relatively small area of the shinobi section. The Chunin and Jonin sections were guarded each by a Jonin, both of whom never let their eyes off of Naruto.
Naruto started looking through the scrolls and books, but was having trouble finding anything that he didn't already know, wasn't completely outdated, or wasn't completely useless and incorrect. After gathering a 'staggering' collection of two scrolls and and a single book on Fuinjutsu and it's many uses, he walked over to the Jonin guarding the Chunin section. "Do you think that I could take a peek in there for just a second, most of the stuff back here is useless crap that I learned in the Academy."
"No can do. Only Chunin or higher are allowed past this point. Come back when you've advanced in rank."
Naruto left the library several hours after entering with only the scant knowledge that was contained within the literature he had in his arms. Konohamaru had been on a streak, but had stopped altogether at about noon. Naruto's guess was that he had been found by Ebisu and was probably being forced to listen to a lecture at the moment. Despite that, Konohamaru had dispelled a total of twenty-three clones already. Naruto knew that it was only a matter of time before Konohamaru was either let away or escaped from the Tokubetsu Jonin. Naruto knew he couldn't go back to his apartment as, if Konohamaru hadn't checked it already, he would some time soon, so he couldn't stay there. He headed for the training grounds where Iruka had given him his headband. He jumped into a nearby tree and hid himself among the branches. Creating two shadow clones so that he could go over all of it at once, he was only halfway through with it when he looked up at the sky to see that it was almost sunset. Konohamaru had dispelled most of the clones, and now there were just Naruto and one other clone left. Dispelling the ones he had used to read the scroll, he made his way to the vault. He knew that it was cheating, but he just didn't have the time to teach anybody at the moment. Hell, he was still a genin himself. The last clone was dispelled as he was on his way there.
Naruto found the place just as the sun was about to leave the horizon. As the light shone upon the seal, he opened it up and as he was entering, he heard a loud exclamation from behind him, "Found you!" Naruto turned around to see Konohamaru sprinting towards him.
"Damn." Naruto cursed. He knew that it was pointless, so he just leaned against the doorway. If he had rushed in and closed the door quickly, he probably could have closed it before Konohamaru reached the wall, but then he didn't want the kid to go and tell somebody else about this place.
Konohamaru just knew that this had to be the real one. All of the others had dispelled instantly when he pointed them out. "I finally found you! Now you're gonna teach me!"
Naruto looked up at the sky and smiled, "Sorry kid, but it looks like your time is up. The sun has already set. Looks like I won't have to teach you after all."
"Nuh-uh, I found you before the sun actually set, and you know it! You're my teacher now, and that's that!"
"Listen Konohamaru, I'd love to argue semantics with you all day, but I have something that I need to get done, so either get lost or follow me." Naruto walked further into the tunnel, taking out a flashlight from his pocket. He heard the footsteps that meant that the kid was following him. He also heard the sound of the door closing and the cry of shock that leaped from Konohamaru's throat. And as he made his back to the door, he also heard Konohamaru's shouts of help and banging fruitlessly against the stone. "Don't worry, I know how to open it up again, but since you've come in this far, I'm not gonna let you leave until I'm finished with my business here. So follow me."
Naruto led the way down the tunnel. Konohamaru stood for a few more seconds staring at the wall, but found no way to leave. When he turned around he saw that Naruto had proceeded without him. He rushed after Naruto, who had taken the cover off of the manhole while he waited. Putting the flashlight between his teeth, he climbed down the ladder. Konohamaru, not wanting to be left behind, climbed down right after. He got to the bottom, and had walked forward a few steps before he was grabbed and pulled roughly from behind, causing him to fall over. "Hey, what's the big idea?" Konohamaru asked as he jumped up and turned around.
Naruto pointed the flashlight ahead and spoke, "That is." Konohamaru turned around and saw the seals crisscrossing the passage forward. He promptly fell flat on his ass, right where he had landed when Naruto had pulled him. Naruto burst out laughing, and again he jumped up, but this time just glared at Naruto.
"Oh, don't give me that look. You and I both know that was hilarious." Konohamaru struggled to keep a smile off of his face, which, combined with his continued attempts at a glare, just made Naruto laugh even harder. "Besides, that's how I reacted when I almost walked into that as well." He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down before he pulled out a scroll and started unraveling it, looking for something. "Aha!" he cried as he pulled out... some fruit? In his hand he held a bag of fruit, which he spilled onto the ground. Grabbing an orange from the pile, he took out a kunai and sliced it open. He let the juices drip down onto the seal on the wall. It suddenly hissed and and turned an angry red. "Well, that's not it." Naruto then picked up a lemon and some cherries. He cut open the lemon and carved out some of the flesh, before shoving the cherries in the larger fruit. He squeezed that over the seal, which brought the same reaction. "Dammit!" Naruto continued this for awhile, trying various fruit, Konohamaru looking on confused as nothing seemed to be happening. Naruto had just finished with some strawberries and bananas, which turned out quite difficult to juice, and turned around to see that he had nothing left. "Well, that sucks. I guess I've got to rethink my options then."
"Um, Naruto-sensei, what were just doing?" Konohamaru asked making Naruto jump and almost hit his head on the ceiling as he had forgotten that the little Sarutobi was still there.
"Don't call me that, I'm not teaching you. I have too much on my plate as it is. But to answer your question, I was trying to open that door over there." He pointed the flashlight so that Konohamaru could see the door on the other side of the ninja wire. "You see, I found this riddle when I... well, all that matters is that I found it." He took out a scroll and showed it to Konohamaru.
When the world is painted red
And your friends are thinking of bed
Look into the soul
Of the Flash's head
"The first two lines are easy. When the world is red and people are thinking of bed is sunset. The Yondaime had the nickname of 'The Yellow Flash' and so I looked into his eyes at sunset, as the eyes are the portals to the soul. At sunset, a beam of light reflected off of the Yondaime's head and lead me here. I had just discovered that beam of light when you first found me, and that's why I was dancing." Naruto explained.
At the end of the light
You must share your might
Watch out for the paper and ink
Or you'll never see another fight
"At the end of the beam of light is the seal on the wall outside that allowed me to open the doorway into this place. I had to put some of my chakra inside of it. Before you even think of trying it though, keep this in mind. I have vast amounts of chakra, almost on par with some of the Kage when they were in their prime. That being said, the amount of chakra that it took from me almost made me pass out. I don't think you even have a tenth of my chakra reserves as you are now, so it would likely kill you if you tried to open it yourself. After I opened it up the first time, it seemed to recognize my chakra and opened almost immediately afterward. The paper and ink is pretty obvious now, I think." he said gesturing towards the seals that were blocking the path forward.
From the union of yellow and red
Orange blood need be bled
Inside you will find
The tools to take our stead
"This part still confuses me. I have no idea what it could mean. I've been scouring for information, but nothing I've read has mentioned any orange blood. Obviously though, the second part of it means that I'll find some cool stuff inside that will make me really strong. I still don't know who the other person in 'our' is." Naruto finished. Only now that he was done did he realize that he had actually just given the boy a lecture. 'Maybe I should be a teacher.'
Konohamaru's head was spinning with all of this information. It took him awhile to sort it all out, but what remained afterwards were three questions. "Um, Naruto-sensei, you never told me who the first person is in 'our'"
Naruto looked at him, "I thought that was obvious. It's the Yondaime. This is his secret vault, and past that door is some sort of treasure trove of his tools of shinobi awesomeness."
Konohamaru's jaw dropped. He gathered his wits and decided to ask the second question. "Don't you think that the yellow, orange, and red could be referring to hair color? I mean, you can get actual blood from someone with red hair, and someone with yellow hair, you, and mix them for this."
Now it was Naruto's jaw's turn to drop, 'He thought of that so quickly? Wow, I'm actually kinda impressed with him.' "Well, the problem with that is that I don't know any redheads, as there aren't very many of them around here."
"Someone in my class is a redhead. Her name is Moegi and she's actually a friend of mine. We could ask her if she could give a little bit of blood."
Naruto's eyes widened. He had also thought of another that might work. Sakura had pink hair, and that is kind of like red, so it might work. "Sure. I'll meet you out front of the academy tomorrow after the classes are over."
"I have one last question Naruto-sensei. Does this mean that you're going to teach me?"
"Sure kid, I'll have to find some extra time to do it, but I find that I'm actually warming up to you." Naruto got up and ruffled Konohamaru's hair. "Now, before we can leave, I need you to promise me something. If you don't accept, I'll refuse to teach you at all. I need you to swear not to tell anybody about this place without my permission, nobody at all. Not your friends, not your sensei, not even Jiji-sama, got it?" Naruto's gaze was piercing, and Konohamaru quickly nodded his head in affirmation. "We shake on it." Naruto bit his thumb and held out his hand, but Konohamaru looked hesitant. At an encouraging gesture from Naruto he copied Naruto and shook hands. "Don't worry, this is just a ninja's blood pact. It means from now on, you and I are brothers, got it Otuoto?"
Konohamaru started to tear up, "Right, Oniisama!"
Naruto was the first at the training grounds, and the rest of his team found him there, soaking wet. Sakura, as always, was the first to speak up, "Hey Naruto, why are you all wet?"
Kakashi, however, responded before Naruto had a chance. "I have a feeling that I know what he was doing. You were trying to walk on the water, weren't you Naruto?"
Naruto nodded before shaking the water off of him, and running over to the rest of his team. "Yeah. I remember seeing you and Zabuza standing on water when we first fought him, and I was trying it. I guessed that it was something like tree climbing, but it's a lot tougher. It started out fine, but then I just started to sink into the water, so I increased the flow. Then water splashed everywhere, so I decreased the flow. So then I sank and crawled out and here we are."
Sasuke just smirked, "Cool story, dobe, but let me try it. It'll be child's play." Sasuke walked over to the water as Kakashi just eye smiled in expectation of what was to come. Sasuke walked out onto the water, and quickly started losing his balance. He tried to keep a fluctuating amount of chakra sent to his feet, but it fluctuated too much and he was now ankle deep in the water, now at a slant with one foot on the surface and the other still under, and now he had propelled himself away from the water, but managed to land in a crouch on the shoreline, panting. "That, *hah*, that was crazy."
"Okay, enough play time. Since you two seem so intent on learning how to do this, I guess I should teach you before you drown yourselves trying to do it yourself. Sakura, why don't you give it a try. I think you'll find that it's a lot easier with you." Sakura nodded before calmly walking out onto the water. In the beginning she almost lost her balance a few times, but eventually she evened out and was standing stock still on the surface of the water. "Ok Sakura, now walk back over to us." she started to take a step but as her foot hit the water she fell straight into the water. She floated to the surface, her head underwater, and only her back above it. Before Naruto could react, Sasuke had rushed over and pulled her out of the water. Seeing that she wasn't breathing, Sasuke started CPR. After the chest compressions, he was about to give her mouth to mouth. He had his mouth inches from her face when she coughed up all of the water in her lungs... right into his face. He sat, stood up, and asked for a towel from Naruto, who just kept snickering. Naruto unsealed a towel from a scroll and handed it to Sasuke. Sakura, meanwhile, seemed to be coughing up a lung, but was otherwise fine. After she stopped coughing, she asked what had happened, was told, and promptly tried to jump into the water again. Kakashi grabbed her and pulled her back to the rest of the group, "Oh, no you don't, Sakura, I'm not gonna let you drown yourself again so that Sasuke will give you mouth-to-mouth. We have some stuff we need to talk about, and then we are going to train." Kakashi led them over to the wooden posts. "Okay, first things first. In compensation for the falsified information and the expanded danger that the three of you faced, the pay for the mission has been increased to that of an S-rank mission, though it will still qualify as an A-rank in your mission histories. Simply take these Certificates of Pay to the shinobi at the mission hall and he will hand you your pay." He handed them all a small note of paper.
Before he could continue though, Naruto started sputtering, "I-I don- how- this is a FUCK-TON of money. I would be able to live off of this for a year. I wouldn't even know where to keep it all."
"What do you mean, just put it in the bank." Sakura said, clearly forgetting who she was talking to.
"I don't have a bank account Sakura. I've never been to the bank before, and they'd probably try to have me thrown out if I went in there.
"Why would they-" Sakura started.
"Don't worry Naruto, I'm sure that Hokage-sama will have someplace safe that he'll let you keep it for now."
This time it was Sasuke who asked the question, "Where have you been keeping the money that you've been getting from previous missions before now if not in the bank?" this surprised those present as he rarely asked questions that didn't have to do with training, and never about his teammate's personal lives. Well, except that one time.
"I've been keeping it in my wallet, duh." Naruto said, pulling out a very fat looking Froggy. "It's a little much on the seams, but he can take it. He's never failed me before."
Again, before Kakashi could move on to the more important stuff, his students decided to extend the subject. "Naruto, I've seen you seal stuff up in a scroll before, so why don't you just seal your money in a scroll? Wouldn't that be much easier?"
"I guess, but what if I get captured during a mission? I'm not the only one out there that is good with seals, and there are plenty of people out there that know how to unseal something from a scroll. If I get caught and they take that scroll, then they've taken every single bit of the money that I own."
"Well, couldn't you just-" Sakura was interrupted for a second time.
"Enough! Naruto, just talk to Hokage-sama. End of discussion, alright?" Sakura crossed her arms and pouted but nodded anyway. "Now, do any of you have any questions that you would like to ask me about the mission or about my past and/or personal life, as I'm sure some of you have a few."
"You used to be in love with Rin, didn't you?" Sakura asked, glad to finish a sentence.
Kakashi, just looked at her for a few seconds, making her a bit uncomfortable, "No, I wasn't. Though she was in love with me, it was Obito that loved her. Next question?"
"If you're as strong as you seem to be, and that seems to be 'very strong', why didn't you become the Godaime Hokage when the Yondaime was killed?" Naruto asked, as this was something that was near and dear to his heart.
"Because, for one thing I was only 14 at the time, and for another, I wasn't actually, and am still not, Hokage material. I'm not the most responsible person, am I?" Naruto nodded his head in understanding. "Next."
"How did you get your Sharingan?" Sasuke asked. As the last loyal Uchiha, it was his duty to keep track of all Sharingan. When he had asked during the mission, Kakashi had just shrugged him off and told him that he should pay more attention to the matters at hand.
"Obito, during a mission, got trapped under a rock and was dying. He obviously didn't have a use for it, I had just lost an eye to an enemy shinobi, more were on their way, and Rin was skilled enough in medical-ninjutsu to attach the eye into my empty socket, so he gave it to me. That good enough for you." At a nod from Sasuke, he looked expectantly at the rest of them. "No more questions? Alright then-"
"Wait, sensei, I just remembered something. I was planning on making a locking seal that would be only able to be opened by certain people, but it needs blood for the seal to be able to recognize the chakra signature. I've already tried it with my blood, but I need to make sure that it will work if multiple people's blood is applied to it. It would really help me if I could get a little blood from each of you. Is that alright with you?"
The rest of his team eyed him warily. This was far from the Naruto that they knew, and this made Kakashi a little suspicious. "Naruto, where was my Icha Icha book the first time that I showed up to training without it, and why was it there?"
"Um, it was in Neesan's trash can, because you didn't think that you needed it anymore now that you were...," Naruto blushed, "...'Together'. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, just wanted to make sure that you weren't an enemy spy trying to steal our blood so that you can do something malicious with it." Naruto nodded in understanding. He took out a vial from a scroll and held it towards Kakashi. Kakashi bit his thumb and squeezed it above the vial, allowing a few drops of blood to fall into it. Naruto put a cap on that vial and stored it back again. He held out another vial towards Sakura who looked at her thumb a bit apprehensively. Naruto, seeing a clear way to convince her, held it out to Sasuke instead. Sasuke emotionlessly mirrored the actions of his sensei. Sakura, not wanting to disappoint Sasuke, bit her thumb, and spit out blood before dripping some of her blood into a vial, and then taking out one of Naruto's special healing seals, that he had distributed among his team, and applied it to her thumb.
"Now, onto more important matters. What do you guys think of entering into the upcoming Chunin Exams?" Needless to say they were all excited and eager to take part in the exams. "Well then, I guess that's settled. The Chunin Exams will be held five months from now, so in that time, we are going to be training a lot. Don't expect any easing up when it comes to the missions though, 'cause we're going to keep those up as well. Now, who wants to learn how to walk on water properly?"
Naruto was thoroughly exhausted, but he had a feeling that his day was about to get much better. He was on his way to the Academy to meet up with Konohamaru. When he reached the place where he had 'learned things', he could see the kid standing out front with a girl about his age with long orange hair tied up into two very large pigtails. He sighed as he approached, but put on a smile anyway. "Hey there Oniisama, this is Moegi!"
"Hey Otuoto, nice to see you convinced her to help out." he walked over to her and held out another vial.
She looked at Konohamaru with confusion. "What is he talking about? What were you supposed to convince me of?"
Naruto face-palmed. He grabbed Konohamaru by his scarf and pulled him aside. "Why didn't you tell her that I needed some of her blood? Also, you said she was a redhead. She has orange hair, not red."
"W-well, I wasn't sure what to tell her. And also, she is a redhead, that's what everybody calls her." Konohamaru felt sad that he had disappointed his new sensei/brother.
Naruto rubbed his forehead above his eyes, "It's alright, I've got this." Naruto walked over to the girl again. "Sorry about that, but he was supposed to explain this to you before we met. Hello, I'm Naruto Uzumaki and as of yesterday I am both Konohamaru's older brother and his sensei. Now I'm willing to teach you as well as him, but there are a few stipulations. One, you must get a third person so that you can have a proper three man squad. Second, you must tell nobody that I am teaching you, except for the third person, whom I trust you will take care of on your own. Third and lastly, I require a few drops of your blood so that I can create a seal that will go on my door. This seal will need a sample of your blood so that you can open it anytime by putting a little of your chakra into it. Got it?"
She looked at him with wide eyes, pondering what he had just said. Konohamaru went over to her and whispered something in her ear. Naruto's ear twitched, but he said nothing. Whatever he had said, this caused her to giggle. "Okay, I'll give you some of my blood, but first, I want you to let me feel your whiskers, they look funny."
Naruto sighed but nodded his head. He moved closer and she felt his whisker marks, causing him to make a slight purring noise in his throat against his will. She jumped back, surprised, but then started giggling. "Okay, so I need you to just bite your thumb like this and squeeze it so that the blood drips into this vial. Don't worry, any blood that I don't use I will destroy, so that it doesn't get into the wrong hands." She looked at her thumb and looked at him, then towards Konohamaru who nodded. She bit her thumb and let a few drops fall into the vial. She instantly stuck the thumb in her mouth and started sucking at it. Naruto took out one of his healing seals, "Okay, hold out your thumb." She reluctantly took it out of her mouth and let him apply the seal. She gasped as her thumb started to tingle and the skin rapidly grew back over the tear she had made with her teeth.
"Now, thank you for this, and welcome to Team Naruto. I'll start your teaching tomorrow, so don't worry. Konohamaru, be a gentleman and escort her home." Konohamaru looked disappointed, but nodded his head. Naruto walked over to him and whispered into his ear, "Don't worry, it's just that I don't want you to be there if something goes wrong, and Ebisu also might get suspicious if he can't find you. I'll share some of the stuff in there with you, so make sure to find one other person for the team." Naruto stood up and beckoned for them to be off before he made his way over to the Vault.
It was approximately one hour after he had left Moegi and Konohamaru, and he was sitting at the bottom of the vault, preparing the mixture of his blood with Moegi's and with Sakura's. He decided he would test it with mixture with Sakura's blood first, as her hair was more red in his opinion. As he dropped the blood onto the seal, it and all of the seals on the walls in the entire tunnel started to glow with a green light. The ink that the seals were made out of started to shift until all of the ones except for the one that he had used to unlock them read open. All of the sudden, the explosive seals shot up and wrapped around the ninja wire that they were attached to. The wire then shot into the wall, into tiny holes that he hadn't noticed before then. The door slid open soundlessly, and he could see now that it was completely dark inside of the vault. He walked over to the door, shaking with excitement. As he entered into the 'Inner Sanctum', as it were, he shone his flashlight around. Inside, covering most of the walls that he could see, were scrolls. It seemed more like a library than a secret vault. On the fourth wall, however, the wall that was to his right, was another door and a desk with several papers on it. There wasn't a single speck of dust to be seen, as if the Vault had been untouched by the passage of time.
As he was looking around, he saw another two seals that were next to the door, one on either side. The one that would be on his left as he was entering said "Off" in the center, and the one to the right said "Open". He cautiously put his hand onto the seal that said "Open", and let out some chakra. The door slid shut, again, without a sound. He then moved over to the second seal and pushed chakra into that, causing several seals that Naruto hadn't noticed on the ceiling to glow with a white light, enough to illuminate the room. He noticed that between two of the shelves was yet another door that he had missed. He walked over to it and opened it. Again activating a seal which lit up the room. Inside he found a training room and armory. On the racks he found several scrolls with hundreds of weapons sealed into them in a very organized pattern. There were training dummies inside of a closet, along with several training weights. Deciding that he would catalog the various weapons later, he went over to the desk in the first room. He opened up one of the drawers to find a scroll. He unraveled it to find some rather interesting designs for experimental seals. Included in these was an experimental seal that, when applied to the body, would seal up chakra, but it could easily be accessed at any time. It was experimental in that it was being combined with weight training seals. He couldn't think of a use for such a seal, and so he put the scroll back into the drawer.
That's when he noticed the letter on the surface of the desk. He picked it up and tore open the envelope. He unfolded it and started reading.
"Hello, and congratulations on getting this far. I expect it's not much of an accomplishment if you're as strong as I hope you are at this point, but congratulations nonetheless. Kushina thought that I was just being silly when I put this letter here, and set up the riddle. If you're reading this and I'm not there with you, then that means that means that me and Kushina are dead. That also probably means that you've got the not-so-little bastard inside of you, as the rest of the Uzumaki's are dead or scattered. Don't worry, we don't have a riddle for the last door, but that doesn't mean you won't know how to open it. All you need is Kurama. Kurama may be willing to help you, but I doubt it, but if you're as strong as I hope you are, you'll be able to make him help you. I wish you the best, and just know that the two of us are watching out for you."
Naruto was shaking. 'I'm not the only Uzumaki out there. I'm not just some worthless nobody, but from a family, maybe not a clan, but still a family that's especially strong enough to contain the the Kyuubi. According to this though, most of them are dead. For all I know, I am the last Uzumaki. But, that also means that I wasn't just randomly chosen to hold him. I was chosen because I'm the only one that could hold him. And yet they still despise me. Why?' Naruto had tears starting to fall, but he wiped them away. 'Who are Kushina and Kurama though? Are they siblings or something? And how would the Yondaime know that I would be the one to open the vault? Maybe it's because there aren't very many blondes out there in the Leaf Village. Whatever, I guess I need to find this Kurama person and get their help. And if they refuse to help me, I can just use this stuff to make them!'
Naruto looked around the room a bit before returning to the scroll he had found in the desk. A potential use for this had just occurred to him. Following the diagrams, he started applying the seal to his body.
Team Seven had been back for an entire month, and Kakashi had noticed something odd. Naruto was starting to show up late to the training, which he had never done in the past. He would often be late for the missions, but never for training, which he took very seriously. Not only that, but instead of getting stronger, he seemed to be getting weaker. In fact, he seemed even worse than when he had first met Naruto. Naruto was tiring out easily, was never able to make as many clones as he used to, and not only that, but seemed to be gaining weight. Kakashi tried to work him harder, not knowing what the problem was, but all that did was make Naruto exhausted even quicker. Naruto also wasn't his usual perky, cheery self. He would often be caught just staring off into space, and he was easily startled, whereas before nobody could sneak up on him. Kakashi asked him about these problems, but whenever he did, Naruto just shrugged him off, saying that he had somewhere else to be.
Hinata was getting worried. Naruto barely talked to her anymore, and he never seemed to initiate their meetings. She would think that he was avoiding her, but he never tried to escape meeting her either. According to Kakashi, he at least seemed to cheer up a bit whenever he saw her, as he was supposedly worse when he wasn't with her. Hinata started thinking that he may be disappointed in her, and believing that she was to blame for his downturn. She gradually regressed into how she was during the Academy days, her stuttering returning. She had started to not wear her bulky jacket some days, mostly when it was hot, but now wore it every single day, only taking it off occasionally. Her confidence was squashed, and her performance as a ninja deteriorated as well. Her family and her teammates began to worry, and Kurenai and Kiba in particular began to blame Naruto.
Sakura had actually grown a bit attached to Naruto during their time as teammates, seeing that he wasn't a complete idiot, and that he actually took being a ninja seriously sometimes. She was concerned as well for her teammate's sudden change in direction, but she had no idea how to fix it, and was often too enamored with Sasuke to even notice him. Naruto had showed up about a week after being back with the locking seal, which he had made with the remnants of Sakura's blood that he had saved, and they all opened it. After copying down the seal, Naruto had destroyed the seal and box that it had been locking.
Sasuke, however, was becoming blinded. He didn't perceive these things as Naruto getting weaker, but him becoming stronger. As the days passed, the two of them gradually grew further apart, and Sasuke's ego just kept growing. Now that he had the Sharingan, and because of Naruto's apparent drop in abilities, any spars between them quickly became replays of Naruto's time in the academy. Naruto couldn't even touch Sasuke, who completely wiped the floor with him. Naruto could still beat Sakura, but that quickly seemed to be changing.
One day, Naruto had showed up to practice when it was already half over. Kakashi, knowing that putting him up against Sasuke would be pointless, set him up against Sakura, hoping that he would finally snap out of this daze he's been in. Not two minutes later, Naruto was lying in the dust with Sakura standing over him, panting. They were all shocked, even Sasuke. Naruto may have been weak compared to him, but he had never once lost when paired with Sakura, not even in the academy. Naruto got up, looking towards Sakura. Looking at their shocked faces, he looked to the ground and stood shaking for a bit. Kakashi walked over and was about to grab Naruto's shoulder, but Naruto dashed off into the forest, heading away from Konoha.
Meanwhile in the T&I holding cells, Mizuki lay strapped to his cot, staring at the ceiling. He was thinking of ways he would repay the debt that he owed the blonde who had taken his arm. He knew that he was going insane in this place, but he didn't care. All that mattered to him now was revenge. He heard a door opening, and the beginnings of a shout in alarm before the thump. He heard jingling keys approaching him, stopping outside of his cell. He heard the door of the cell opening, creaking on it's hinges. "Oh, would you look at that, your hand really is gone. Don't worry, Orochimaru-sama told me that had happened. I bring a gift from him, one that I think you'll appreciate. I'm going to have to remove a bit more of your arm so it can assimilate, and I don't have any sedative, so you'll just have to bear with it. Don't worry, I'll get you out in a second, but I think the procedure will be easier in your current position." Mizuki hadn't moved a muscle this entire time. He finally looked toward his rescuer, and smiled, even as the blade came down on his arm, and the blood spattered onto his teeth.
Naruto ran. He didn't know why they were looking at him with such pity. Nobody had ever looked at him like that before, and he didn't know how to react, so he ran. Naruto ran for what seemed like hours, ran while it started raining, and kept running until he tired and collapsed beneath a tree. He knew he wasn't actually very far from Konoha, as he couldn't really have ran for very long. He say beneath the tree, knowing that the rain would stop soon. Rains like this during lat summer never lasted very long in Hi no Kuni. After it stopped, and he had regained his breath, he looked back towards Konoha. There were always a few streams smoke rising from Konoha, but people refrained from creating large fires as they could easily spread into the forest and a good portion of the buildings which were made from wood. What he saw disturbed him. There was a massive column of smoke rising from the direction of the village. All thoughts other than the need to protect his village left his mind. He released a bit of his chakra and turned down his weights a bit, jumping from tree to tree. He could have cared less about training at this point, as either a building in the village was burning down, or the village was under attack, otherwise the fire would have been put out by the rain.
He had gone for most of the month never using his enhanced hearing, and had forgotten to send chakra to his ears. Because of this, by the time that he heard the crashing in the trees, it was too late. He felt an impact in his gut right before all of the air exploded from his lungs. He was sent flying back and through several tree branches before landing hard on the ground, said branches lying broken underneath him. It took all that Naruto had at that moment not to black out. Fighting against his brains instincts to shut off and heal, he started to get up. This caused him to bring his hand up to his mouth as he coughed. He looked to see blood spattering his hand. 'Not good. Whatever hit me must have caused me to puncture a lung. I need to get up and-' "Hrk!" Naruto choked as he was grabbed around the throat and pulled into the air. His hands went to the one surrounding his throat, trying futilely to make it let go. He opened his eyes and looked at the massive hand around his throat, following it to the grotesquely mutated arm, and then to the face of Mizuki staring back at him with a massive grin and mad eyes.
"The time has finally come for me to show to you just how much weaker you are than me. I'm going to make all of your little friends hurt, burn down your precious village, and then I might let you die. But first, I'm going to break your body, so you can't run away." Suddenly Naruto was let go, but before he touched the ground, he was kneed in the gut. He coughed up blood again, and could see it splatter over Mizuki's chest. Before Naruto could blink he was punched in the face with the monstrous right hand, and was sent flying once again. Naruto, luckily, landed in a bush. He could hear Mizuki coming after him, but he crawled away, finding a dead hollow tree to hide in. He knew he was in trouble. Weakened as he was by his training seals, he was having trouble moving at this point. His entire body hurt, and it felt like there was a little miner picking away at the inside of his skull. All in all, he had taken worse before. Naruto quickly formed the hand sign for snake and released a small burst of chakra, deactivating his training seal. He had also placed several seals onto his body similar to those he used on his medic seals. He activated these as well. He knew that Mizuki had probably sensed the surge in chakra, but he could already feel not only the Fox's chakra, but his own chakra rushing to his injuries. As he was getting up he heard an audible pop as his broken rib snapped back into place.
This time he could hear the hit coming, and managed to dive to the ground before Mizuki punched through the tree, right where Naruto's head would have been. Naruto dashed out of the tree, but he apparently wasn't quite used to his unburdened self yet, and instead ran into another tree a few feet away. Ashe recovered and spun around, he saw that Mizuki had just managed to tear his right hand free from the tree, which was now falling over. "I'll admit, you're not as weak as you once were Mizuki, but then again, neither am I. Don't worry though, I'm not even going to need to use a single shadow clone to defeat you, even with your new arm." Naruto got into a taijutsu stance, one that he had seen in a scroll in The Vault. Raising his fists about level with his chin, palms facing inward, he began bouncing on his feet. He hadn't gotten a good look at the name, but from what he had seen it was mostly just punching the person into submission.
Mizuki never lost his sadistic grin as he charged Naruto yet again. This time though, Naruto was prepared. dodging to the side he got Mizuki in the face with a right hook, causing him to stumble. Mizuki brought his left hand to his jaw, rubbing the stiffness away before turning back to Naruto with his grin. "Good, this wouldn't be any fun if you didn't fight back." Mizuki charged again, anticipating Naruto's moves and blocking the right hook with his left arm. What he didn't expect was for Naruto's own left arm to jab him twice in the stomach before uppercutting Mizuki in the jaw. Mizuki jumped back before Naruto could continue his assault. Mizuki wasn't smiling anymore. "You know, you're actually starting to get annoying." Mizuki charged in, relentlessly attacking Naruto, not providing a single opening for Naruto to take advantage of. That's why Naruto created his own opening. He seemingly left his face open for an attack, and as Mizuki took his chance, Naruto ducked under his attack and started punching Mizuki in the stomach. Mizuki, having all of the breath knocked out of him, couldn't stop Naruto as he pushed Mizuki's arms out of the way and began delivering blow after blow to Mizuki's head. Naruto new that it was time to finish it, so surged chakra into his hand and punched Mizuki in the sternum, causing several ribs to snap, and Mizuki to fly backwards. Hitting a tree, his head snapped backward and caused him to bite his tongue. Mizuki slid to the ground, wondering just what he had done wrong.
Naruto, while Mizuki lay on the ground, got out a flare, firing it off, leaving a trail of red smoke in the air. "Other Konoha-nin will be here any second now, so just sit tight and we'll have you back at T&I before you can blink." Naruto turned to see Mizuki getting up. Naruto got back into his fighting stance, prepared to send Mizuki back onto the ground. What he didn't expect was for Mizuki to begin laughing madly, and for the grotesque arm to begin sprouting strange hollow protrusions out of the forearm. The rest of the arm began turning grayish-brown, spreading until it covered half of his face and a good bit of the skin around his shoulder. The muscles underneath the skin writhed and became thicker, causing Mizuki's form to become even more grotesque. "Well, that's something new." Naruto said snidely as Mizuki's laughing turned into a roar.
Mizuki charged Naruto, who just could not keep up with his new enhanced speed. Naruto was able to send enough chakra to his eyes and muscles that he was able to predict and dodge most of Mizuki's attacks, but he had no opportunity of his own to attack, and he had gotten several scrapes and bruises where Mizuki's attacks had grazed him. Not only that, but he was quickly running low on chakra. The amount of chakra he was sending to his muscles was just too much, and it felt like his muscles were tearing themselves apart. He was being driven backward, and he wasn't given any time to think let alone fight back. Suddenly his back hit a tree. "Shit!" was all he got out before Mizuki slammed his fist into the log that Naruto had substituted himself with, causing it to shatter.
Naruto looked up in time to see Mizuki heading towards him again with surprising speed. "Now!" Mizuki yelled as he cocked back his fist. Chakra suddenly burst from the protrusions, propelling his arm forward and into Naruto's gut. Naruto flew backward, straight through a tree, before hitting the ground and sliding, leaving a trail of wooden debris in his wake.
Naruto's insides were burning horribly. All that he could think at this point was that he must have ruptured something. He couldn't move a muscle, and he heard Mizuki walking towards him. 'I have to get up.' Naruto put his arms underneath and tried to push himself into a sitting position, but couldn't find the strength. 'I can't let him beat me here.' Naruto tried again, this time only managing to flip himself over. 'I have people that are relying on me!' Naruto began crawling away, but felt a foot slam into his back, stopping his movements.
"You see, this is the difference between you and I. Without the fox's powers, you're nothing but a weak, helpless brat that doesn't even deserve the name Shinobi. You know what? I think I'm just gonna end this now. I've waited long enough for revenge. I'll see you in hell, demon!" Mizuki roared as he began to bring his fist down to crush Naruto's skull.
"Naruto!" they both heard the call from nearby. Mizuki diverted his arm so that it hit the ground beside Naruto's head.
"Oh, would ya listen to that. It seems that Iruka has come to play. Seems I'll get to make you suffer a bit longer." Mizuki licked his lips in anticipation.
"Ir-!" Naruto began before he was silenced by Mizuki with a blow to the head, which caused Naruto to bite his tongue. Naruto, dazed, felt Mizuki rummage in Naruto's pack. He opened his eyes to see Mizuki holding a coil of ninja wire, a kunai attached to each end, and another kunai in his other hand.
Mizuki walked back over to Naruto. "I'm going to make you watch this, so sit back and enjoy." Naruto was picked up by the back of the neck and thrown down at the base of a nearby tree, where Mizuki propped him up, before kicking him in the gut again.
Naruto heard the bushes rustling as Mizuki hid behind the tree Naruto was next to, and Iruka approached. He would have warned Iruka, but that last hit to the gut had really made it difficult to breathe. He watched, helpless, as Iruka came into the clearing. "Naruto, there you are. What ha-"
"Go, he's still here!" Naruto managed to rasp out.
"Too late!" Mizuki yelled as he came out from behind the tree and threw the three kunai. Iruka, not being a chunin for nothing, blocked the one that went right for him, dismissing the two that had missed him off to either side. Too late though did he see the wire attached to the two of them, and was pushed back into a tree and bound to it as the kunais' momentum caused them to wrap around the trunk several times. Mizuki walked over to the trapped instructor. "Well, well, looky what we have here. I'm going to enjoy making you hurt!" Mizuki began beating on Iruka. The repeated blows caused blood to spatter around on the ground and nearby foliage. Naruto tried several times in vain to get up, but his body just couldn't handle the strain. He could feel a different burning in his gut now though. He had felt this only twice before. His rage grew with each hit Iruka took. The blows stopped. "Okay, I've had my fun, but now it's time to end this. I really would like to stay and play with the two of you some more, but I really need to get back to my master." Mizuki hefted his monstrosity of an arm as it bulged and a blade inexplicably grew from his forearm and the protrusions regressed back into his body. "Time to die Iruka!" Mizuki brought the blade around towards Iruka's neck.
To those present, the events that followed were like a grotesquely mutated version of deja vu. Naruto stood holding the blade of the axe in his hand, the blade not even reaching his palm. He was wrapped in red chakra, which was just pouring off of him. "Well, would you look at that. It seems that the fox has decided to help you out. This just keeps getting better and better."
Mizuki kept his mad gaze and smile steady as Naruto turned his red slitted eyes on the white haired traitor. His smile turned into a frown as he tried to move his arm, but couldn't manage to move it a centimeter. "Let go you brat! Let go so I can kill you!" Mizuki tugged on his right arm, expecting to rip it from the genin's grasp. What he didn't expect was for the entire arm to come away with a sickening squelch. Mizuki fell to his knees as the pain exploded from his shoulder, and the smell of rotting flesh hit his nose. He managed to look down at where his arm used to be, but saw that not only was his arm gone, but that where he expected to see just a bloody stump where it was ripped from his shoulders, he saw his muscles and bones quickly rotting away. He didn't just see it, but he could feel it as well, the corruption driving deep into his body. He heard the sickening thump of wet flesh hitting the ground as Naruto dropped the useless arm.
Naruto kicked Mizuki in the head, causing him to fly back several feet. "I warned you, didn't I?" Naruto walked towards the broken man as the killing intent and chakra poured off of him. Mizuki tried to crawl backwards, his feet scrabbling against the ground. "I told you what would happen if you hurt someone precious to me." Mizuki had tears pouring down his face as he desperately tried to escape the jinchuuriki coming to kill him. "I'm going to rip your fucking head off!" Naruto grabbed Mizuki's shoulder with one hand, pulling him up until they were face to face. Naruto grabbed Mizuki's neck, squeezing it.
Iruka was watching all of this, stunned. He knew that the Kyuubi was powerful, but this was insane. The amount of chakra coming from Naruto was ungodly. He wasn't paying attention to what was being said until he heard Naruto yell. He saw what Naruto was about to do. He couldn't let Naruto do this, but he had no way to stop it. "Naruto, stop!" It was too late though. Blood splattered everywhere as Naruto tore the head away from the, now limp, body. Naruto dropped both as blood began pouring from the corpse, becoming a massive pool on the ground. It spread to just past Naruto's feet, then stopped. Naruto let out a roar, a roar which shook the entire forest. Iruka must have made a sound, as Naruto suddenly turned his eyes onto the chunin. Iruka had seen horrible things in his time as a ninja, it was part of the job. But what he saw in Naruto's eyes made Iruka truly afraid.
"Naruto-kun!" Hinata burst into the clearing. What she saw terrified her. On one side she saw a bruised, beaten, and bloody Iruka bound to a tree. On the other side she saw a blood-spattered figure wreathed in red chakra, standing above a headless corpse. She was stunned by the sheer amount of killing intent that was directed at her. Only when she could tear her eyes away from the dead body did she see that the figure was Naruto. He was looking directly at her with red slitted eyes. "Naruto-kun." she whispered as he began walking towards her. She instinctively began to take a step back, but stopped herself. Using all of her willpower, she took a step forward, and then another. She shouldn't run from Naruto. Naruto was in pain, and he needed help. She held out her arms toward him. As she approached him, he reached out and grabbed her arm. His claws ripped through the sleeve of her jacket, tearing her skin. She flinched, but continued on her path. She forced herself closer, putting her arm awkwardly between the two of them, as she wrapped her other arm around the genin. She brought her mouth close to his ear and whispered, "Please Naruto-kun, stop this. I'm not here to hurt you, I love you. Please."
Naruto didn't react until he felt a wetness on his cheek that wasn't blood. He loosened his grip and turned his head towards the crying Hyuga. As his rage was swept away along with the fox's chakra, he could feel tears of his own welling up. He only managed to say one word before he passed out. "Sorry."
Naruto woke up several hours later in a hospital bed. The window was open, the curtains were billowing, it was dark outside, and he was alone. He felt a pang in his chest as the events of the day hit him. He couldn't blame Hinata for not staying with him, after what he had done. He lay there for about an hour, unable to go back to sleep, before he heard the door open and shut. He looked up to see the Third walking towards his bed. "Ah, Naruto-kun, it is good to see that you are awake."
"Listen, Jiji-sama, I-"
"No, Naruto, you listen. I heard what has happened, and I know what you're going to ask. You want me to discharge you from duty. I refuse. Even if you hand me a fully documented and notarized resignation, I'll tear it up and burn the ashes. I know you think you hurt Hinata, but trust me, that wasn't you. That was the fox." Hiruzen sighed, finished with his little speech.
"No, Jiji, that's not what I was going to ask." This got the Sandaime's attention. "I need you to give me a mission. I want you to let me train for awhile. I need to stay under the radar, and train. I need to be strong, so that this can never happen again." Hiruzen was surprised. He thought he had known what Naruto was thinking, but something must have changed. "I want you to excuse me from any and all ninja duties concerning other missions and concerning my team. I need to do this alone, and it will be easier for me If they don't interfere. We can put it under the guise of me training for the Chunin Exams, so that nobody will get too suspicious." Naruto was done, but Hiruzen continued to stare blankly at Naruto. "Eh, Jiji, are you alright?" Naruto asked, worried.
"Hahahahahahaha, wow! Even after all of these years, you still manage to surprise me. I thought you would at least figure it out within the year, but this quickly? So, tell me, how long ago did you manage to get into the vault?" Hiruzen said, tears of mirth at the corners of his eyes.
Naruto was dumbfounded. "H-how did you know about the riddle?"
"Naruto, boy, you do realize that not only did I help write the Scroll itself, but that I have memorized every single word in it, and had helped Minato when he put that riddle in there. I also helped him keep it a secret when he was building the vault."
"But, how did you know that I had the riddle myself?"
"Naruto, you'll be hard pressed to find anything that I don't know about the ninja in my service. You'll have to wait to find out how though, as that's a trade secret of the Hokage." Hiruzen tapped the side of his nose, chuckling at Naruto's dumbfounded look.
"So, Jiji, is that a yes then on the mission?" Naruto asked, realizing he hadn't yet received an answer.
"I'll think about it Naruto-kun, and we can talk about it tomorrow after you've told me everything from your perspective, and you yourself have been briefed on the events that you missed. For now though, why don't you get some sleep. It's been a long day." Hiruzen, who hadn't sat down, walked back to the door and left a confused Naruto in a very lumpy hospital bed.
A/N: Okay guys, that's chapter six. What did you think? I think I freaking loved what I came up with there. I know it may seem a bit dark, and completely out of the blue, but I think it turned out really well.
I actually got this chapter out way ahead of schedule. I just got a burst of inspiration coincide with a group of days where I had a lot of free time, and I just pumped it out. I know, there isn't anything about the white fox in this chapter, but trust me, it's coming. It's definitely, positively, absolutely going to be in the next chapter. There's also going to be quite a bit of fluff next chapter, and I'm not just talking about the foxes tail. (feel free to slap me for bad jokes)
Anyway, yeah. For those that never look at my profile, you should know that I have another job now, and that it's a lot better than my last job. For those that want, I have posted a link to what I'm imagining Mizuki's arm to look like in this chapter, in my profile.
Oh, and for those that couldn't guess, Naruto had seen a scroll on boxing.
Until next time, forever yours.