Disclaimer: Anything and everything Naruto belongs to Kishimoto-sensei; which means characters, places, and all the flippin' awesome Justus are not mine. What do I own? My kickass plot tweaks that make the story better.
Summary:Naru is caught by the Akatsuki while on her Training trip with Jiraiya and is held prisoner for about two months before she escapes. While a captive Itachi is charged with watching her but he's not quite what she suspected and finds herself captivated by the mystery that is Uchiha Itachi. Upon her return to the village she decides to go through everything related to him and the Uchiha's and she finds herself falling in love with the Itachi. Will she be able to bring Sasuke home before he confronts Itachi or with she loses the love of her life?
Rating: Rated "T" for language and possible violent and/or bloody scenes (I mean come on they are ninjas).
Regular speech
'Thought'
Flashback
'Flashback thought'
Bijuu speech
'Bijuu thought'
Chapter 7
The morning Naru and Sakura arrived at 8am showed up at training ground 7 to find Shizune, a ticked off Tsunade, and an amused Jiraiya.
"What took you guys so long?" Tsunade asked "You're an hour late."
"We ran into Ino and Hinata, so we decided to have a girls' morning out." Naru said "It's not like Kakashi-sensei was going to be on time."
"We didn't know you were going to be here," Sakura explained nervously, knowing Tsunade's temper. "We're sorry Tsunade-sama."
"I'm not. It's their own fault for showing up on time." Naru said, causing Tsunade to crack her knuckles and Jiraiya to laugh. However she was saved from a beating by Kakashi's arrival.
"Yo!" Kakashi greeted, as he looked at the group.
"It's about time Hatake." Tsunade gritted out.
"Well you see…" Kakashi stated lazily before he got cut off by Tsunade.
"Can it with the excuses. You job it to access their skills, you may use whatever means necessary, set your own time limit." Tsunade instructed.
"Hai Hokage-sama." Kakashi said turning to the two teens. "Okay this is going to be real simple. I'm giving you the bell test, same thing apply as when you were twelve, however it's a 24 limit this time."
"Okay let's go!' Naru said summoning five clones, four of which attacked Kakashi who easily defeated them.
"I never said start, you still hot-headed." Kakashi said.
"Not quite." Naru said grabbing her clones hand, "I just wanted to get the bells the way I should have thought of when I was 12."
"What's that?" Kakashi asked, Naru clone poofed only to appear at Kakashi side.
"Kamarimi" Naru as she held up the bells causing everyone to sweat dropped.
"Why hasn't anyone else every thought of that?" Tsunade groaned. "I mean tons of genin have been given the bell test, myself and the fourth included."
"Well, Naruto once again you have managed to shock us with your ingenuity once again." Kakashi said.
"I can't take the credit for the idea." Naru said as she tossed the bells back to Kakashi "Someone else gave me the idea when I was telling them about the genin test. I face palmed when he suggested it." Everyone saw how her features softened at the memory of this person, and all were curious who pulled that kind of reaction from her (of course Jiraiya had his assumptions). "So are we gonna get this test on the road or what?" Naru asked snapping back to herself.
"Alright, start." Kakashi said as he vanished on a puff of smoke.
"Where is he?" Naru asked as Sakura looked around.
"Below!" Sakura shouted as she punched the ground causing it to crumble. 'Note to self: dodge punch when Sakura is really upset.' Naru thought.
"Jiraiya what rank would you say Naru is at right now?" Tsunade asked after watching the match for a few hours.
"She is at the point where if she goods out in a spar she can match me for a few hours before I start to overpower her." Jiraiya replied. "So I'd say she is ready for a chuunin promotion and with a couple months experience she'll be ready to become a jounin for this village as well."
"What do you mean in this village as well?" Tsunade asked.
"Remember that agreement you made with the Sand Siblings as part of the Allegiance Agreement?" Jiraiya asked.
"They get to adopt Naru and as such she is also an honorary member of Suna, working as an ambassador when necessary. Yes I remember." Tsunade said "Isn't that why Gaara was election as Kazekage by the Suna council?"
"That and neither of his siblings would take the position because Naru convinced Gaara he was born to protect Suna." Jiraiya said "Anyway Gaara deemed that as a Jinchuriki and the one to help him 'see the light' she deserved to be on his personal guard, which consists of high-jounin and ANBU."
"Why wasn't I informed of this?" Tsunade asked "You should have told me."
"It was a Suna matter and did not concern Konoha." Jiraiya stated simply.
"What if the Kages were under attack she would have to pick a side." Tsunade stressed.
"We both know she would never pick a side she has vowed to herself to protect everyone precious to her." Jiraiya said "Now back to her skills. I think if you were to start her training now she would be ready to take over by the time she reaches 18, if you wanted."
"Really?" Tsunade asked. "I will think about it, but her training would have to be in secret because those stuffy old coots would try to block us at every move. Now one more question."
"What?" Jiraiya asked raising his brow.
"Who was she talking about?" Tsunade asked "I know you saw that look."
"She won't tell me." Jiraiya said "Every time I brought up her being in love or having a crush, she denied it. I think she believes herself when she says that. She really doesn't know her features soften when she speaks about whoever it is."
"Don't give me that. I know you at least have an assumption of who it is." Tsunade said.
"You're right I do but I also know ignorance is bliss, Hime." Jiraiya said solemnly.
"Are you telling me to drop this?" Tsunade said.
"I'm saying that even an assumption won't help anyone." Jiraiya said.
After several more hours Sakura and Naru get the bells from Kakashi (we all know how). Naru and Sakura were waiting for Tsunade's evaluation as she had just finished speaking with Kakashi.
"Naru, did you come up with that Taijutsu style on your own or was it something Jiraiya-sama taught you?" Kakashi asked as he joined the two girls.
"I learned it on my own mostly," Naru said "It's a combination of two different styles which took a while to combine. However once I did it made it kind of unpredictable."
"Which styles did you combine, I thought I recognized some of those moves?" Kakashi asked curiously.
"Well on style was an Uzumaki Clan technique that could be used with my kenjutsu." Naru said.
"You have a clan?" Sakura said
"Yeah, I was surprised as well." Naru said "I kinda remembered hearing about my clan in the academy but then Iruka-sensei told us it had been wiped out during the Second Shinobi war so I just pushed the thought away."
"Now that you mention it I do remember that." Sakura said "Something like them being more powerful than the Senju or Uchiha clan so they were feared by all their enemies, which caused Iwa and Kumo to join forces and wipe out the whole clan."
"Yeah that's the one. Well it would turn out some people escaped and are scattered around the elemental continent. Making me one of the last Uzumakis' which is kinda cool." Naru said. "Anyway back to my taijutsu, once I was proficient in the Uzumaki style; which is primarily defensive, Ero-sennin decided I should try and combine an offensive style with it because I'm not really a defensive fighter."
"Isn't that almost impossible to do because both styles have to balance out?" Sakura asked.
"Yeah," Naru said "Ero-sennin said he had to put a lot of thought into it but he said he finally found one that would work. It took almost five months before I could even try combining them because I had to completely teach the style to myself, because Ero-sennin had only ever seen it done and took more speed than he could use."
"Really, a style Jiraiya-sama can't use?" Kakashi asked intrigued "Which would that be?"
"The Fourth Hokage's personal style." Naru said shocking Kakashi.
"So that's why I recognized some of the moves." Kakashi murmured.
"Why's that, Kaki-sensei?" Naruto asked, even Sakura looked interested in learning something about their old sensei.
"The Fourth Hokage was my sensei." Kakashi told them.
"That's so cool!" Naru shouted "He has totally been my hero since I was little." Just then Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Shizune (who was holding a wiggling Tonton) walked over, stopping all farther conversation about the Fourth.
"Alright, based on my observations of this match, I am reinstating you three as a team. However instead of teacher and students you will all be equals. The leader will be Kakashi and you shall all be part of Team Kakashi." Tsunade said. "your first mission shall be in a week. Now, Naru in regards to your promotion…*dramatic pause*… I want you to pick up your chuunin vest and uniform in three days' time. Congratulations Brat!"
"Yes!" Naru shouted jumping up in the air.
"You're all dismissed!" Tsunade said "Gaki remember I want you at the T&I dept. at 10am tomorrow morning to see Inoichi."
"Hai, baachan!" Naru said as Team Kakashi went to celebrate.
Bet you didn't see that connection to Suna coming. So next chapter is Inoichi's mind search, what could possibly happen? Also Naru's plan to get Sasuke back is revealed.
Author's Note: I have over 25 chapters of this story already written but I am only uploading 2 chapters at a time at random intervals because even though I write my stories for me I am open to awesome ideas like the one i just got from yukihime88 and am willingto fit some into the story. So this is basically a note for her saying I'm going to put your idea in the story very soon.
So, yukihime88, thank you for the awesome idea! :)
