※ 回想記の夢 ・ A Memoir of a Dream ※
by: Fehize
[x]
Heat.
That was the best way to describe the world around them all.
Two figures of nothing but shadows and blurs finally reached their destination; a city that was once filled with splendor and laughter of happy people relaxing. Today, though, as the sun was hidden behind layers of clouds, this once happy resort was now only a mere cry of its past. Everywhere rested nothing but wood scattered among the ground as the haze of both rain and fire mixed with each other. A teenager and a silver haired child stood next to each other, only staring aghast at the horror in front of them. They were trained in the arts of killing and hiding emotion, but even the grotesque scene in front of them made the son of the White Fang widen his eyes.
It was too horrible for words.
An angry sound, something aligned to an angry animal cry, escaped from the blond hair one. It was filled with rage: that sound. Innocent people were harmed in this slaughter! All around they were, fallen. Some even had a pose like as if they were trying to save themselves, but to no avail. Even in death, the bodies that littered around them had no peaceful look upon their faces. Closer towards the border...these people knew that it was an easier place to get invaded into, but they felt safe, surrounded by their springs of hot water.
"T...This is terrible..." came the small mutter from a certain Naruto 'Uzumamein'. His blue eyes narrowed, scanning the area. He was going to get whoever did this to his home! He was a ninja from the Land of Fire, and he was going to protect it! He was, and is! He had...he had to do something. All of this suffering that he witnessed the village people had come into shook him to his very soul.
With a little sound of rustling leaves, Kakashi landed next towards Naruto and gave him a slight glare. On any other time, a certain teenager would have found it odd and funny to see a child glare at someone taller and older than them. "What are you doing!" he mentioned in a hushed voice. "We don't know where those Iwa-nin are, and from the looks of things, everything here has been rather recent! Get up so we can hide, for Kami's sake. You should have learned this while you were a Gennin," came the upset mutter at the end.
Clenching his fists together, Naruto returned the look, but complied with what the young child had said. The words left from the man they had interrogated hanged in his head like a fresh, new mist. What they had learned did not come from the man easily, nor did he give a lot of information, but it was enough for a small grasp of the concept.
From the man, the Iwa-nin coming in were not simply coming in to have a 'simple war' for a bit more land. No, it was a full blown scale invasion with the intent to raze everything towards the ground and take over Konoha and capturing its people! They wanted to prove that they were the strongest out of all of the shinobi villages before moving on and controlling the world! That, in itself, was something that made his blood boil as his eyes keep narrowing and narrowing...
"Minato-sensei!" came a surprised call from Kakashi as two ninjas appeared right in front of both of them. The sudden appearance of them managed to get the teenager to jump up and face both of them. Jiraiya was holding onto many kunai in his fingers by the small loop at the end, looking around the area with his eyes. They finally rested back towards Minato with a little nod of approval.
The golden haired man turned and faced ahead towards both of the younger ninjas, giving them a look that made the daze-like quality around them disappear into a harsh reality. "The Iwa-nin are still in this city. Jiraiya has managed to spot an area where most of them are, but this section of shinobis can't really be the full force of the army." He pulled out a small map and then placed his finger down towards where the town was located on. "This town is actually pretty close towards the interiors of the Fire Nation. That must mean that only the fastest ones managed to make it this far. The majority of them must still be hanging around the northwest border." The man's finger trailed it way up towards the land that just shy of Kusagakure. "We are to get rid of all of the enemy ninjas before they can transverse any closer and attack our shinobi from the rear!"
With that, the golden haired man turned his attention towards the only person that he knew almost nothing about and his student. "Naruto and Kakashi, you are now going to travel with Jiraiya and myself. Once we see some Iwa-nins, you are going to need to place yourselves in positions where you can gather as many ninjas as you can into one spot." With that, he dug into his pocket and pulled out some strange looking kunai and handed it towards Jiraiya. "You will go with them in the background. There is just too few of us to go head on head, so I am going to use it when you throw the kunai over the mass of enemy ninja."
Worry etched itself among the Sannin's face, but Naruto was too busy looking over towards the buildings around them to register that it was the same look that the Ero-Sennin of his time gave to him once in a rare while. "Minato! You might have used the jutsu before on missions, but this is the first time with a kunai implement! I know that you are assured with your own abilities, but-!"
The man shook his head. "It is risky for using a seal which was recently made smaller. But it should work, in theory, and I have no time to practice it. It has to work!"
Tension filled the air as Jiraiya gave a little nod, reluctantly allowing this to continue. What could the older man have done? Whatever the case, Kakashi landed right next towards the opposite side and nodded off towards the distance. "There is more smoke billowing over there, sensei. I think they are about to head off towards the Konoha ninjas."
[x]
Though the city filled with hot springs was cut off from any major city within an hour's pace, it was still too close for comfort. Like earlier, it was a small group of ninjas stalking others in a deadly game of hide and seek. One wrong noise and they would be surrounded with odds against their favor, even with the rain falling down upon them. The grey shadows hid them rather well, but it graced the enemy as well. It was a double-bladed sword, and a group of four had to sharpen it.
Something wasn't right with the boy that looked like Minato.
Jiraiya couldn't place it, but something wasn't right. He clutched onto the handle of the kunai and dashed forwards as his hair flew in the wind, trying to decide some thoughts that tossed in his mind. Yes...something was most certainly not right with that teenager boy... Ignoring that for a mere moment, he looked straight ahead where Mianto had already discovered where the bulk of the ninjas were. He had to make sure that nothing bad happened, especially with a risky and untested new form of a technique. Minato, the one with the sun as hair, was the son he never had, and he would be damned if something happened to him.
The Uzumamein jumped ahead, for it was time for them to attract the attention of the Iwa-nin for a few, crucial moments. Jiraiya could feel the sweat begin to slowly form as he saw the teenager race off and made a single symbol of the ram before copies poofed into existence. Then, those said copies transformed into different looking Konoha ninjas. The action seemed to give the other three a small step back in surprise as Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was a Jounin ninjutsu, and a forbidden one at that. Not only that, this teen had just made about fifty of them without breaking a sweat!
"Now!" cried out the teenager as a hoard of them rushed forwards. Kakashi, the small one that was under Minato's team, ran forward with a white sword pulled out next to him. Everything seemed to flash in a moment of a few heartbeats and he raced towards the front as well. Minato was already ahead, throwing normal kunai around the Iwa-nins, trying to make them round about in a group.
One of the brown headed enemy ninjas made some very quick seals and then aimed them at all of them, but everyone narrowly managed to dodge. However, there were many hanging around - at least thirty of them - with their own chakra to use against the four of them. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Jiraiya called out, summoning forth a rather large frog and then bringing it forwards.
In almost a single sound, with kunai and shuriken flying about everywhere, the dissipating noises of the clones filled the air. There were just too many enemies to handle like this!
"Jiraiya! NOW!" erupted the cry in the background, muffled by the noises of metal clashing on metal.
With pinpoint accuracy, the man threw it over the heads of the Iwa-nins. Then, once it reached the center...!
There was a slight flicker of that golden light that he had seen before with the 'test' seals, but this...!
His eyes couldn't even register what was going on. A HUGE explosion of light and sound filled his senses as he felt himself being thrown back into the trees. Dust flew into the air; so fine that it seemed like it got pulverized by something powerful. Before the man could even distinguish what was going on, another explosion rocked the ground, leaving for coughing by the two smaller children as well as himself. Placing his hand in front of his face, he glanced onwards to try to see through the dust. What the hell just happened!
Finally, he could see a figure standing in the middle. Like a For-bringer of Death, the slightly hunched over form stood alone in a wall of brown and green 'fog'. The blue eyes were open, wide and burning into the surrounding. Adding to the effect was that there was a ten foot wide creator around him, but at the rim were the horrible, disfigured remains of what used to be thirty-three ninjas.
Minato collapsed.
"SENSEI!" cried out Kakashi as the man who was his teacher's teacher cried out 'MINATO!'
[x]
There was no time for them to rush towards. Through some miraculous way, a low of enemies were defeated, but there were still five hanging around. Every one of them were stunned, some by fear and other by awe. The ones that had gathered their wits together first knew that whatever had just happened, they had to act soon.
Kill them.
Naruto gasped as he grabbed his stomach, dropping his kunai. It clattered upon the ground before resting by his foot.
Destroy them.
He kneeled over in pain, yelling out loud. Around him were the figures of Jiraiya and Kakashi, protecting both of the fallen blondes. Whatever else was going on was no longer in Naruto's focus. All he could tell was the ground below him that his eyes were watching while the rest of him was filled with pain.
After what seemed forever, the pain subsided, leaving only a mental echo. Panting, the golden haired teen tried to force himself up, but his legs refused to get off the ground for a moment.
"-mein! Uzumamein! Hey, you alright there?" came the voice of Jiraiya. Meekly moving his head over to face the voice, he gave a little nod before passing out upon the floor.
"Something IS not right with that boy..." was the last words he heard until his eyesight was nothing more than inky blackness.
[x]
White. That was the first color that he managed to once again recognize. Moaning a bit, the teenager slowly plopped himself towards a sitting position. Luckily, it seemed as if he was no longer in pain from...whatever had affected him earlier. The sound of curtains flapped by in the background. Though only a few, brief glances at the scenery, he could already guess that he was at the Konoha Hospital. "Uhh..." he whistled out, plopping his hair back down towards a pillow that he knew was behind him.
Suddenly, a head popped up over his own. It was Minato, and the hair hanging at the sides of his face hovered over Naruto's head. A small, caring smile that one would give to a buddy went across the adult's face. "Hey, Naruto. Good to see you awake."
"What happened?"
Minato resumed to the position that he was earlier, which was actually in a seat next to the bedding that Naruto was in. On top of that, the adult man was also wearing the normal hospital clothing, and his headband was not restraining the golden hair. It left for a halo of a look around his head. "You know..." he began, lifting his finger to point at the hair that was Naruto's head. "Jiraiya was right. We do have the same hair style."
"What happened to the ninjas! And...And what are you doing here, too?" Now, Naruto was confused. Just when he had thought he might have been back home for a few tenths of a second!
The older man turned his face towards a slightly more serious approach, looking out the window. "Konoha..." He kept his gaze out there as the teenager fidgeted slightly underneath the covers. "Iwahakure has claimed war against Konohagakure, and vise versa. Due to us preventing the enemy ninja from attacking our shinobi from the rear, we managed to push back them towards their own borders, but it'll be only a matter of time until they go at it again."
Naruto was silent for a moment, thinking about what Mianto had said. "And you're here at the hospital because...?" What was the strongest ninja in the entire Land of Fire - no, of all time - doing in a hospital? It seemed so...weird. Not only that, but the information of Konoha at war was slowly sinking in.
"Apparently, I need a little bit more practice with my new jutsu to stop wasting so much chakra that I pass out. That, and I also combined it with a move that was larger than normal. So, I was sent here to make sure I was alright, and when I heard you were around, decided to check on you as well. Rin and Obito wish to say hi as well."
There was something not quite right here. Naruto pressed forwards once again, tilting his head slightly and looking Minato straight in the eyes. "I mean, what are you doing in my hospital room?"
Minato took a look right back. Several moments passed before Naruto pulled away. Something about the man's gaze seemed to stir him a bit in a hard to explain sense. It was hard to keep eye contact with eyes like that! Yet, the man still looked at the teenager, taking in the hair style towards the three marks on each side of the cheek. It was as if he was searching for something, but came up with nothing. The blond teen found it hard to try to place what might have been going in Minato's head. "Jiraiya..." the man began, still looking at the teenager. There was yet another pause. Something was making the future Yondaime hesitate. "Jiraiya wants to know why your eyes turned red with slits while you were in spasms of pain. He claims it is something not associated with a bloodline limit…"
Naruto froze at his position. Outside, birds were singing at a prospect of a new day, gently flying by with almost no care in the world. One small sparrow flew by the window and hopped around on its foot, as if trying to hear the conversation that was surely to follow.
[x]
-instert a deleted rant about PERSONAL hatred to Uchihas. lawl.-
But...good for everyone here - more or less - I don't tend to bash characters in a story ((unless it's a humor comic or fic...which this is not)). So, don't expect Naruto to have a sudden change in personality and have a three paragraph mental monologue on how he loaths Sasuke. 'Cause he doesn't. He wants to save or rescue him. -sighs-
