Disclaimer: Ok, if I owned Naruto and/or Charmed, why would I be writing fanfiction about them? I don't own them.
A/N: You guys miss me? I know I missed writing... But as Zankou was so fond of saying, it's good to be back.
A/N: Yes, the new cover pic is a drawing of Matthew. Thanks to Bluble, who drew it for me! You rock.
Team 7, the Halliwell brothers, Haku, and Zabuza had spent 3 days running back to the Leaf Village. Matthew had spent the entire journey trying to convince his brothers to return home, and was slowly making progress.
"You two know that mom will be worried sick when she notices that you guys have been gone for so long," Matthew says as they approach the gate. He was slowly losing patience at Wyatt's stubbornness.
"Why would she?" Wyatt retorts, also losing patience at his twin's attempt to get rid of them, "I mean, she has no problem with you here after you explained everything to her."
"Yeah but see, I told her where I was going and I explained the circumstances to her," Matthew shoots back, "You probably didn't even tell her you were going demon-hunting." Wyatt and Chris looked uncomfortable at this, so Matthew pressed on.
"Oh, you didn't did you?" Matthew says as his face splits into an evil grin that reminded Kakashi of a certain purple-haired snake kunoichi. "Wow, it would be a shame if someone were to tell her about how you went hunting Upper-Level demons, and then followed me to the Elemental Nations."
All color drained from Wyatt's face as he spoke in a hoarse whisper, "Y-you wouldn't dare. That's cruel."
Matthew's smile was colder than Haku's ice as he orbed out. Wyatt just stood there stunned until Chris spoke just two words.
"Run Wyatt"
Wyatt grabbed Chris and orbed faster than even Kakashi's Sharingan could follow. Moments later, Matthew orbed back in laughing so hard tears were coming out of his eyes.
"Oh man, that was priceless!" He said as he calmed down a bit, "Oh he's gonna hate me forever!"
"I don't understand," Zabuza said while looking quizzically at Matthew, "what about your mother is so scary."
Matthew instantly became serious as he looked Zabuza right in the eye.
"Take the woman with the worst temper you know," Matthew said, sounding a little frightened, "and times that bad temper by 50. Now take my power and times that by 50. Combine those two together, and you'll understand why my mother is a force to be frightened of."
All the shinobi looked a little scared before shivering as they continued on their way.
As they entered the gate, they passed through the Sensing Barrier that surrounded the Leaf. When they passed through, 6 blips appeared in the Sensing Ball located at the Barrier Team headquarters. The lead sensor activated his radio and contacted the two guards stationed at the gate.
"Kotetsu, Izumo, there are six people entering the village at your gate. Can you confirm?"
"That's right," Kotetsu says, not really looking. Izumo, however, is.
"Hang on," he says, suddenly on alert, "did you say six? There are seven approaching the gate."
"Stop them!" the lead sensor commanded, "We're sending the interception team to apprehend them!"
Kotetsu and Izumo sprang from their post, rushing at the group and stopping in front of them with kunai drawn.
"What's going on here?" Kakashi demanded at seeing two of his comrades draw weapons on him and his students.
"Sorry Kakashi," Izumo said, "but someone in this group isn't showing up on the sensing barrier. We're to detain you here until the interception team arrives."
Izumo began forming hand-signs, and then spit out a clear, syrupy substance that flowed toward the surprised and slightly angered shinobi. Before it could reach them, however, it was stopped by Matthew's out-stretched hand.
"Yeah, no," Matthew says, holding back the liquid, much to the surprise of Izumo and Kotetsu, "I don't mind waiting, but I do mind having someone spit some slimy, goopy mess at me."
At that moment, the interception squad arrived, consisting of several ANBU and a man who Kakashi recognized as a member of the Hyuga clan. He had his Byakugan activated and was scanning the group.
"No one here is under a transformation," he reported to the captain, "but that one is hiding his chakra levels." He said, pointing to Matthew.
"What?" Matthew said, "No I'm not!"
"You three," the captain said, pointing to Matthew, Zabuza, and Haku, "are coming with us to T&I. The rest of you may proceed into the village."
Zabuza gripped his sword and Haku prepared some senbon, ready to fight. Matthew, however, remained calm.
"Nothing strange happened today," he said while staring intently at the interception team, his eyes glowing gold, "everything has been dull and boring. You were never called out, and you never saw anyone suspicious. Go back to your headquarters."
The interception team had a glazed look in their eyes as they walked back to their headquarters. Matthew then looked at Izumo and Kotetsu and told them the same thing. They also had a glazed look in their eyes as they walked back to their guard station. Matthew's eyes returned to their bluish-green and he let out a sigh of relief.
"Phew, glad that worked," he said, causing the rest of the group to sweat-drop, "I wasn't sure if that would get past their mental shields. Anyway, can we orb? It'd be faster, and we wouldn't make anyone else suspicious of us."
"Alright fine," Kakashi said, finally giving up. Matthew had been pestering to let him orb them since they left the Land of Waves, but Kakashi had said no. He didn't want either him or his students to fall out of shape because Matthew orbed them everywhere. Needless to say, his decision had been complained about almost the whole way here.
Punching the air in victory, Matthew told everyone to hold onto each other and then focused on the Hokage's office within seconds, they found themselves staring at the old man who was looking at "paper-work" and had yet to notice them. He looked up in alarm however, when Kakashi cleared his throat.
"Kakashi, Naruto!" the Third exclaimed as he quickly stashed the orange-covered book he was reading, "How did you get in here?"
"That would be my doing Lord Hokage," Matthew said as he stepped forward. Hiruzen gave the boy a cautious look, remembering the power the boy possessed.
"Ah Matthew," he said, adopting a warm smile, "how good to see you again my boy."
Matthew raised an eye-brow at this but said nothing. Kakashi, however, was confused.
"You two have met before?" he asked, mostly to the Hokage. At their mutual nod, he continued, "When?"
"We met during a certain…incident, involving Naruto," Hiruzen said un-comfortably.
"We met after I saved Naruto from a group of villagers who were planning on killing him when he was 10," Matthew said bluntly. Naruto and Hiruzen winced at this, both remembering the horrible night.
It wasn't all bad. Naruto thought. It was also the night I met Matthew and made my first friend.
Matthew smiled after picking up Naruto's thoughts before turning back to look at Hiruzen with a curious look on his face.
"By the way," he asked, "whatever happened to those villagers?"
Hiruzen chuckled a little before replying, "Oh them? They were immediately banished from the Leaf Village."
"Forgive me Lord Hokage," Kakashi interrupted, "but I believe we've gotten off track here."
"True," Hiruzen admitted, "please give me your full report."
And so Kakashi told him the story of how Tazuna lied to them, how they fought with Zabuza, Matthew's arrival, the second fight with Zabuza, Matthew and his brothers killing Gato, and finally the return home.
"Very well then," Hiruzen said after the story was finished, "now my only question is this: why are you two here?" He asked, looking at Haku and Zabuza.
"We were hoping to find sanctuary in the Leaf," Zabuza explained, "in exchange for information on the Land of Water and the Village Hidden in the Mist itself."
Hiruzen was torn. He was reluctant to allow an S-ranked missing-nin to live in his village, not to mention one who had such a bloody reputation, but the offer of information was too good to pass up. Finally, he made a decision.
"Alright," he began, "we'll offer you sanctuary in exchange for your information. However, you will be put on probation and any "mess-ups" will result in your execution. You will be ranked jonin and will be partnered with Kakashi. Kakashi, it's your job to keep an eye on him."
Both men inwardly groaned, but nodded at the Hokage. Haku then spoke up.
"What about me?" he asked. Hiruzen wasn't sure what to do with the ice-user until Zabuza spoke up.
"Lord Hokage, while Haku may be a fierce fighter, he doesn't have it in his heart to kill," Zabuza began, "therefore, I recommend him to be trained as a medical ninja. His knowledge of medical herbs is terrific and he knows the human body better than anyone."
"Ok then, if that's what he wants to do," Hiruzen said while looking at Haku. Haku pondered this for a moment before coming to a decision.
"I'll do it."
"Excellent," Hiruzen said before standing up, "I'll just have to call a meeting with the councils to arrange citizenships for you two."
"Um, make that three sir," Matthew said, earning surprised looks from everyone, "What?"
"You want to become a citizen of the Leaf?" Hiruzen asked, slightly shocked. He'd always figured Matthew hated the Leaf Village due to the treatment Naruto had received as a young child.
"Not only that, but I want to be put into the ninja program as well," Matthew said, daring the Hokage to disagree. Hiruzen for his part, was uneasy.
"I don't know if that can be done-" he started to say before being cut off.
"What is it with you people and thinking I care what you think?" Matthew said with ice, "Let me make one thing clear: I pretty much hate almost everyone in this village for their sick treatment of Naruto. I had to stop my family, the most powerful witches in the world, from coming over here and crushing the damn place! Now, the only reason I did that was because Naruto loves it here. My job is to protect him, and if that means I have to put up with these people and become a ninja, then there isn't a force in heaven, earth, or hell that will stop me!"
Everyone was slightly taken aback by Matthew's speech. Naruto had tears in his eyes, but quickly wiped them away. Sasuke was reminded a little of his older brother, before he killed their clan of course. Sakura was thinking of how perfect Sasuke was and was trying to think of a way to get him to go out with her. Kakashi remembering how Matthew had taken out Zabuza with ease, and believed that he could have his family wipe out the Leaf. Zabuza and Haku were nodding in approval. Hiruzen, however, just smiled.
Well he's certainly got the "big brother" role down. He thought to himself before addressing Matthew.
"Ok then Matthew," he said rising, "let's go make you a ninja, shall we?"
Matthew waited for his turn in front of the councils. Zabuza and Haku had gone in first, and from what Matthew was sensing, they were almost done. He was proven right when the two walked out several minutes later.
"Bunch of morons," Zabuza was saying, shaking his head, "think that the world revolves around them."
"How'd it go?" Matthew asked. He caught vague thoughts from the meeting, but the barriers in place had been a pain in the ass to get through.
"We were both cleared as full citizens of the Village Hidden in the Leaves," Haku stated happily, "and we have an assessment tomorrow to see where we place as shinobi in terms of skills. I then have my entrance exam into the medical team academy."
"Cool," Matthew replied, genuinely happy for the two. He had a certain respect for them that didn't exist for anyone else so far in the Elemental Countries, except for Kakashi and possibly the Third Hokage. "Any advice you wanna give before I go in there?"
"The civilian side of the council think themselves far too important," Zabuza cautioned, "they will try to make you feel small or insignificant. Don't let them. The shinobi side is far more rational. If you earn their respect, then you will be fine."
"Be wary of that Danzo fellow though," Haku said in a quiet voice, "I don't trust him. He pushed for both Zabuza and I to be recruited into his ROOT program, whatever that is."
"Alright," Matthew said, "thanks guys."
"Matthew?" The Third said, sticking his head out the door, "We are ready for you."
"Good luck," Haku said as he walked through the door.
The first thing Matthew noticed was the huge arena-like seating of the councils. One side of the room had a banner with the kanji for "Civilian" while the other had a banner with the kanji for "Shinobi". Standing in the center, Matthew could think of only one thing to say.
"Um, hi?"
"State your name boy," one of the civilians commanded.
"Matthew," Matthew replied, not wanting to give his full name, or any other information that he didn't absolutely have to.
"Your full name brat!" another civilian demanded.
Matthew sighed and closed his eyes. He quickly scanned all of the minds in the room and found out that they were using a customary trick. The shinobi side allowed the civilians to bully him a little, and their initial assessment of him would be based on how he reacted to it.
Smart strategy. He had to admit, it was seemed very effective. He was snapped out of his thinking when a voice screamed out at him.
"Answer us!" the same civilian as before yelled, almost turning blue in the face.
"I don't think I will," Matthew responded coolly, "Since I have walked into this room you have done nothing but yell and scream at me. I am not a member of this village, so therefore you have no power over me. This meeting was called due to my desire to become a member of this village, but I'm seriously reconsidering that at the moment."
Trying to diffuse the situation, Tsume Inuzuka spoke up.
"Why do you want to become a member and shinobi of this village?" she asked, trying to keep him from antagonizing the civilian council further.
"Mostly out of convenience," Matthew replied, shrugging his shoulders, "I need to be able to protect my charge, and this is the easiest ways to do that and avoid further complications."
"And who would your charge be?" Shikaku Nara asked.
"Simple," Matthew replied, preparing for the backlash he was about to receive, "my charge is the one and only Naruto Uzumaki."
There was a stunned silence for a moment before many of the civilians cried out in outrage.
"Why protect that filth?!"
"Do not speak of the demon here!"
"He obviously deceived you with his demon tricks!"
Matthew became more and more angry as he heard the shouts and accusations fired at him, and the hatred and slander directed at Naruto.
"ENOUGH!" Both he and the Third shouted simultaneously, unleashing a blast of magic and chakra respectively. The civilians instantly quieted down, though they were still sending murderous glances at Matthew.
"This meeting is for the sole purpose of deciding if we should grant Matthew citizenship!" The Third shouted, "What is the ruling?"
There were numerous shouts of "no", "he should be executed", and "hell no", until Matthew spoke up.
"Fine," he said before smirking, "then I'll take my blood-line somewhere else."
This caused a hush to go through both sides until one old man with bandages covering his right eye and his arm in a sling spoke up.
"What bloodline?" he asked, wondering if he should be placed into his ROOT program so that he could be controlled.
"Simple Danzo," Matthew replied, shocking everyone, "the same bloodline keeping Mr. Yamanaka from reading my mind, and the one I used to read all of your minds. Why don't you ask Mr. Hyuga?"
Everyone looked at Hiashi, who scanned the boy with his Byakugan activated. Finally, he spoke in a shocked tone.
"He has no chakra network."
This earned a surprised gasp from both councils. After all, everyone had a chakra network, it was necessary to transport chakra through the body, and you needed chakra to live. Just who was this kid?
"Take a closer look Mr. Hyuga," Matthew encouraged, wanting them to see his other energy.
Hiashi focused and his eyes showed him that this newcomer did have an energy inside him, but it was different to chakra.
"What is this?" he asked Matthew, sending him a puzzling look.
"That ladies and gentlemen," Matthew began, "is my magic. Magic is like chakra except infinitely more powerful. With it, I can do things you people have only dreamed off."
"May we see an example?" Shikaku asked, interested to see what this "magic" could do. After all, all of them had seen cheap magicians use magic to do amazing things, only for it to turn out to be tricks and illusions.
Matthew looked thoughtful for a moment as he pondered which of his powers to show off. Smirking, he raised both of his hands into the air and telekinetically raised all of the assembled into the air. Without warning, he dropped them all, only to freeze the civilian council before they hit their seats. With the shinobi looking at him in awe, Matthew decided for one more push. He blasted the doors leading out of the council room to smithereens, and unfroze the civilian council.
Everyone was silent for a moment as they all thought about the display of power they had just been presented with. Danzo, meanwhile, was trying to influence Matthew to join him with his Sharingan, but it was having no effect.
Naughty, naughty Danzo. Danzo heard in his head. He recognized the voice as Matthew's but the boy wasn't even looking at him. Remember, I don't have a chakra system, so there's no chakra for you to manipulate my brain with. But that doesn't mean I can't sense you trying!
Danzo paled a little as he realized the child was right. Thinking quickly, he tried to influence the thoughts of the other council members, but found that he was being blocked.
Yeah, no. He heard in his head again. This child was starting to annoy him! I'm not going to let you make these people into your puppets, and I won't let you control me! Seeing he was going to have to do this the old fashioned way, Danzo spoke up.
"I believe that he will make a fine addition to the leaf," he began, much to everyone's surprise, "however, I believe that he should be placed in my ROOT program in order to ensure his loyalty."
There were some murmurs of agreement until Hiruzen spoke up.
"No Danzo," he said firmly as he glared at his former team-mate, "he will stay out of your clutches. In order to ensure his loyalty, we must earn his trust, and that is something done best by first trusting him. He will become a normal citizen of the Leaf, and a standard Leaf shinobi. We will have his assessment tomorrow."
"Um, question?" Matthew asked, raising his hand, "May I be on the same team as Naruto? It will make my job easier, and I can look after Sasuke too."
Any protests the civilians were about to make were shot down by that last sentence. They would do anything to protect their precious Uchiha.
"Approved," Hiruzen stated, nodding at the young witch, "Matthew will report to training ground 7 tomorrow, and will be granted full citizenship for the Village Hidden in the Leaves. This meeting is adjourned."
A/N: I know there wasn't a whole lot of action in this chapter. I apologize for that, but I needed a filler between now and the beginning of the chunin exams. Also, keep an eye out for my next story, Crossing Worlds.
