Looking down through the morning haze the gates of Konoha rose above the trees. Two years of exile had finally come to an end for the three of us. I glanced to my left at Naruto and Tenten, my friends and companions in our banishment. We had gotten up before the rest of our group to have a private homecoming. Haku had noticed my absence from the bedroll we now shared and had quickly followed us, not that we really minded. She had almost become one of us, a rock of stability in our quickly swirling lives. It helped that she was our age. I then looked to my right to see the object of my thoughts. Her pale skin shone like glazed porcelain in the early morning light, etching her face in sharp relief. Haku was wearing a plain white kimono with no ornaments to be seen except for the Mist hunter ninja mask that she had tied to her left hip.
"Two year…" Tenten softly whispered. "I wonder how they remember us."
"However it is they'll be wrong memories." Naruto said. I smiled at that. We had changed much since we had left. Naruto didn't wear that horrid blue and orange jumpsuit anymore. Now a black, skin tight tee with the Uzumaki swirl in bright orange on the back, with loose, baggy pants, of a dark red color, silver, fingerless gloves, and black shinobi sandals, adorned his 5'6" frame. Tenten wore a loose white shirt that billowed in the wind, it's sleeves came down to her hands with a small frill of lace at the ends. A light yellowy, cream colored pants completed her outfit, tied up with a belt that held a scroll at the back of her waist. My own outfit had changed a lot as well. Instead of wearing drab grays tees with blue pants all the time I now wore a simple metal mesh vest, left open to show off the muscles I have built over the last two years from the learning of kenjutsu, and kyujutsu (1). A black pair of pants was held up with a belt of light brown leather. On my right hip was a double holster for a kunai and a dagger, complimented with a double scroll holster on my left. Over my shoulder was another belt, this one carrying the sheath of my sword. The sheath was an interesting piece of work that had caught my attention a few towns back, it was made out of a plain brown leather, unadorned except for strips of steel running down the edges so the sword wouldn't cut the leather apart. The part that had caught my attention was the fact that the leather only extended a half inch past the metal, leaving an opening running the length of the blade, exposing the blade to view.
"How about we give them a new memory to have as a grounding point for reference?" I asked curios as to how the village would react to having three of its most disliked people back inside its walls.
Naruto gave a predatory grin. "Sounds great."
Our companions had just passed us by the time we had finished our preparations so we attached ourselves to the end of the group. Naruto lead us with a two tailed fox lazily wrapped around his neck like a red scarf, in a reminder of what its summoner was. On his left and a half step behind him Tenten walked with a full sized snow leopard wearing battle armor walking on her left. I walked a half step behind Naruto on his right, the genjutsu causing seals that had covered the scars that I had acquired in my quest to master the sword, the seals that I had painted on myself over the long months of exile, and my false right hand, gone, showing all to the world. Haku walked directly behind Naruto with her hunter nin mask on, and Zabuza decided that he wanted to be part of the show and had fallen in line behind Haku.
At first upon entering the village we received no recognition, but as we delved deeper into the village we began to be noticed, until it got to the point where, as we passed through the market, all traffic on the road ceased. The crowds stood at the sides of the road, what they were doing prior to our return was completely forgotten. I smiled. Not only did we get a welcome, but we also got criers, marching before us, parting the crowds for our passage. Not that it was a warm welcome. Not at all, it was much more along the lines of, "Oh my god, the demon is back, along with those two henchmen of its." Silence reigned throughout the village as the news of our return spread and more and more people lined the street to see for themselves the return of the demon trio. The two guests to our parade confused and frightened the civilians, especially sense the large man with the huge sword wore a slashed Mist headband.
It wasn't until we arrived at the Hokage tower that the sounds of life returned to the village if largely subdued. We entered the building, leaving the populace behind us, and crossed the floor, unchallenged by the secretary, to climb the stairs, heading for the Third's office. Upon entering we stood at attention as our sensei's announced us.
"Team Seven, reporting in. Mission accomplished."
"Team Eight, reporting in. Mission accomplished."
"Team Eleven, reporting for duty, after two years of beurocratic insanity."
We all looked at Anko at that one. While many of us agreed with her it was still startling to hear her say it. Sarutobi took it in stride though, acknowledging us all with a simple nod.
"Teams Seven and Eight, you will be awarded A rank mission pay as the mission you took jumped to that level with the encountering of multiple chunin level and a jonin level opponents. You are dismissed." They bowed their heads and left us with the Hokage.
"Team Eleven, you will also be awarded A rank mission pay as you were the ones that eliminated the threat." He sat looking at us, sucking on his pipe for a moment before sighing and placing his pipe aside.
"What happened to you that you brought The Bloody Demon of the Mist and his apprentice back with you. One a missing nin and the other almost unknown and together they have a grand total of 1.5 million ryo in bounties on their heads, and yet they are here standing before me why?"
Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, chuckling nervously for a moment before responding.
"Well you see sir," Anko and Sarutobi both raised an eyebrow at Naruto's newfound level of respect. "We fell in with them for awhile and they helped us in the time we were gone."
I blinked at the extremely abbreviated version of events. It was hard to believe that anyone would believe that story especially not the renown 'God of Shinobi.' I wasn't let down.
"I believe that may cover the basics, what exactly happened to bring you five together and where were you five months ago when Sasuke Uchiha recovered?" the Third asked, knitting his fingers together in a thinking posture as he leaned on his desk.
Before Naruto could open his mouth to start talking, Zabuza placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder, completely covering it, and asked a question in return.
"Is this room, secure?"
Sarutobi looked intrigued that he was asked this, and after closing his eyes to concentrate for a minute, he nodded.
"Is he the last of the Namikazi?" Zabuza demanded to know.
"I am not at the liberty to tell right now who his parents are, but if you were training him for the last two years, then perhaps soon." Sarutobi said, neatly dodging the question. I was intrigued by this but held my tongue as it would be unwise to ask a question that would pique Naruto's interest for he wouldn't stop searching for an answer until he was dead, exhausted all leads, or got his answer. I had found out just how hard it was to keep a secret from him at Whirlpool about my summons, and had finally given up as it wasn't worth the energy to keep him from finding out.
Zabuza didn't like this answer but decided that it was in his best interest to postpone his query. After all, it is unwise to pick a fight with the 'God of Shinobi' without substantial back up, of which he had none. However he had little time to fume at his inability to satisfy his curiosity as he was addressed by the Hokage's next comment.
"You know that if you wish to stay here you will need to become a Konoha shinobi. After all we can't have a missing nin wondering around Konoha, it would make us look bad to the world, and ruffle more than a few feathers because of the way you went rouge."
I smirked at this. Few attacked their own kage, and only an extremely minute number of those live to tell the tale, while the kage still lived. Zabuza was one of those few. He told no one the details but something went wrong in the plan, whether it was a traitor or an unexpected ally to the Mizukage, and he was forced to give up the coup de eta. But not before his coconspirators had slaughtered the Daimyo of the Land of Water. Most of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist were in on the plot and now most of them were missing nin.
Zabzua, while didn't like the idea knew that the old man was speaking the truth, growled out an acknowledgment.
"What do I have to do?"
Sarutobi smiled and, opening a drawer in his desk, pulled out to copies of a packet of papers. Handing one to Zabuza and one to Haku, he then pulled out two Leaf headbands.
"Fill these out. We will have a spar to test your skills in a moment."
For the next minute the scratching of the pens was all that was heard in the office. Naruto rapidly grew bored with this and took out a rubber ball to work on the Resengan. I noticed this and remembered when we had learned it.
Flashback
"Hey guys look at this!" Naruto called excitedly from where he was going through scrolls. We had just come back from Whirlpool and were sorting out the scrolls until Naruto had called us over. Haku was with Zabuza as he had requested her presence.
"What is it?" Tenten asked, she looked over his shoulder at the scroll rather than wait for an answer though, not that one seemed forthcoming.
I got to where they were and started reading the scroll. What was on it took my breath away in shock.
My name is Minato Namikazi, Forth Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, the infamous Yellow Flash. I was tasked by my predecessor, the Professor Third Hokage, God of Shinobi, Hiruzen Sarutobi, to write down the makings of the Jutsu I have created.
The Resengan
Take a filled water balloon, and swirl the water inside to the point where the balloon pops using nothing but your chakra.
Once you have mastered the water balloon, do the same with a rubber ball.
When you have mastered both previous steps, do the same with pure chakra manipulation.
At that point Naruto had dropped the scroll and ran off to our tents in search of the scolls we had sealed everything in when we had been kicked out of Leaf. Tenten scrambled after him to make sure that everything was put back right, so we could find whatever we needed next time we went searching. I picked up the fallen scroll.
'He wrote Jutsu, as in plural. Did he put the Flying Thunder God in here as well?'
I took a breath, my body trembling with eagerness, before I further unfurled the scroll.
There it was. The Flying Thunder God Jutsu. Easily the deadliest jutsu to be made ever, with over a thousand kills to its credit in just a little over two months. The only jutsu to be credited with ending a war with bloodshed.
The Flying Thunder God Jutsu is an elemental manipulation jutsu of the highest caliber. To successfully recreate this jutsu one must have two things. One must be well intuned with one's base element. One must also have a specialized kunai or other form of a marker to use as a base for the jutsu.
I looked down at my hand and holding it away from the scroll ignited the air around it using my chakra.
'One down. One to make.'
With that I sped off back to Whirlpool to make myself a marker, leaving a note for Haku.
Found epic jutsu, off to practice.
Flashback end
I fingered the dagger that rested on my left hip. Hidden from view was its black blade inscribed with the seal that had turned red in response to the element I had used to create my own version of the Flying Thunder God Jutsu. Seeing as how I had made it off said jutsu and how one couldn't use said jutsu unless your elemental type was lightning, I had named mine the Flying Fire God Jutsu. I hadn't gone on to the second step of Resengan training as, while we had a large number of water balloons for pranking we had only a dozen or so rubber balls.
I started watching Haku as she filled out the papers, her pen quickly flowing across the page. Her penmanship, like herself, was beautiful and graceful. Noticing that I was watching her, a small smile graced her lips. Shortly she finished and handed back the papers to Sarutobi. Noting how slowly Zabuza was going through the paper work, Haku spoke up.
"Hokage-sama, perhaps it would be best to start the testing now. Zabuza isn't anywhere near as fast of hand as I am."
Zabuza grunted an affirmative to this so Hiruzen stood and walked over to us before engulfing us all in a body flicker. I stumbled upon landing, looking around, I noticed that Naruto and Tenten did so to. Yeah we knew the technique, but that was their first time someone else had taken them, and I've never been set on my feet before.
Around us stood one of the largest caves I had seen, it's walls had been smoothed out to a height of about ten feet, then continued, naturally rough, to an easy fifty feet above our heads. End to end the cave stretched about a half mile and was more than a quarter mile wide at its widest point. Many tunnels connected to the cavern we were in, but they all stood quiet, no traffic flowed through this place.
"You are allowed to do anything, as even I can't damage these walls. Minato created the seals that stop the damage and no one can figure out how he did it. You may name your opponents. I would like to see you three fight as well." The old kage said, before putting his pipe back in his mouth.
'I thought he left his pipe on his desk. Wait we can name our opponents? Who should I pick?'
I distantly heard Zabuza call out Kakashi, saying he needs a rematch. For the third time he was defeated, though there were several times when it looked like Zabuza would win.
"Haku-san, your next. Who would you like to fight?" Sarutobi asked, puffing away at his pipe.
"I would like to face someone of mid-chunin strength. I've never really had to fight much as Zabuza-sama took care of that. However his training regime is brutal and I think I can handle a skilled opponent."
He nodded and, within a minute, Iruka-sensei appeared in the cave.
"Hokage-sama, you summoned me?"
"Yes, I require you to test this young ladies strength, and then I wish for you to get reacquainted with some students of yours."
That was when Naruto noticed Iruka's appearance. He turned into a missile and crashed into Iruka.
"Iruka-sensei, I'm back!" His voice was somewhat muffled by Iruka's shirt.
"Hey, Naruto. It's good to see you to, but Hokage-sama has given me a task, so please, wait a bit."
"Ok, don't take it easy on her, it just pisses her off, and when she's pissed off, she gets scary." He said the last part in a conspiratorial whisper, that wasn't toned down enough.
"You do know I can hear you, right?"
Naruto's eyes widened and he ran behind me, seeking to use me as a shield.
Haku shook her head as she stepped out to face Iruka. She settled into a relaxed stance with her feet slightly wider than her shoulders, feet facing forward, with both knees slightly bent. She then slid her right foot slightly back so she was heel to toe, while she brought her left hand up to form the combat sign, holding her right hand at her thigh. I noticed the glint of metal in her hand and realized that she was holding senbon needles between her fingers. Iruka settled into the academy basic stance much to our surprise.
"When you're ready." Iruka said.
"Very well then."
With that her arm blurred as she cast the needles at him. Iruka ducked and charged her, engaging Haku in a taijutsu match. After a short while, Haku started using one hand to sign for her trump card, Demonic Ice Mirrors Jutsu. Iruka stoped when the mirrors formed around him only to be forced back into motion as Haku started throwing needles at him. Suddenly light filled the dome and one of the mirrors shattered as a lighting coated kunai shot through. Slowly the entire dome collapsed, revealing Iruka panting slightly, and Haku staring at him, curiosity shining in her eyes.
"Hokage-sama, I wish to forfeit this match. He defeated my trump card, nothing else I have stands up to it."
Sarutobi nodded and motioned Iruka over to Naruto, who started talking to him, catching up on the two years of absence. He then turned to Tenten and me.
"Which one of you would like to go next?"
"I would Hokage-sama," Tenten said, "But I don't know anyone well enough to pick an opponent."
"You're still a long range fighter right?"
"Yes sir."
He puffed on his pipe for a bit well he thought before calling out.
"Bear-san, you have a challenger."
Suddenly a giant of a man appeared via the Body Flicker. He easily stood at 6'6 and his shoulders were probably around fifty inches around. He really was a bear of a man, built for strength, his body not showing the signs of speed that one saw in most ninja.
"Yes sir." With that he adopted a crouched position, looking like a coiled spring, ready to launch himself across the floor.
Tenten stood before him, about twenty yards away, with her right foot, pointing towards Bear, her body angled out at a forty five as her left foot was directly perpendicular to her right. Her right hand rested against her thigh, a kunai held in a loose grasp, her left hand holding another kunai behind her back.
"Begin."
Immediately both moved, Bear charging across the twenty yards only to be forced off his path as the two kunai embedded themselves into the floor. He saw her with more knives in her hands and started running through hand signs, finishing as he touched the floor.
"Stone Armor Jutsu."
Just as the earth engulfed his body another pair of kunai glanced off the stone. Immediately afterwards the stone shattered as Bear charged, only to jump aside as more knives split the air where he had been not a second before. Again, he ran through signs as he moved through the air, to finish as he landed.
"Stone Wall Jutsu."
The wall blocked the knives. Suddenly he jumped to the side, staying behind the wall, just before a lightning wrapped kunai smashed a fist sized hole through the wall where he had been hiding. Apparently Tenten didn't know what direction he had dodged to as suddenly she ran at the wall and jumped to the top using it as a spring board to get higher into the air to keep distance between herself and her opponent. He must have heard the tap of her foot on the top of the wall as his head snapped up to follow her movement before replicating it. Right as Tenten finished her flip to face the ground, his fist smashed into her chest sending her flying away. When she hit the ground more than thirty yards away, she rolled for a good ten yards before coming to a stop. Bear landed lightly on the balls of his feet, his arms hanging loose at his sides, reaching down to his ankles because of his crouched position. A minute passed before, he relaxed and turned. After taking a couple of steps, his body tensed up before falling over. Tenten stood, arm outstretched after her through, her shirt torn from the ground and splattered with the blood that was dripping out of her mouth.
"Whatever happened to 'don't turn your back on an enemy until you know their dead? Eric-kun, your right about them thinking a still enemy is a dead enemy."
I rolled my eyes at this, "How often am I wrong about these things?"
She started walking over to the fallen man shaking her head at my words. "You know the answer to that is rarely." Haku joined her at the body of Bear and delicately plucked the needles from his neck.
"Anko-san, take him to the medics." Sarutobi said, a slight smile showing on his lips.
"Yes sir." A double body flicker took her to the body and then off to the medical wing of the ANBU hq.
"Eric-kun, would you care to go next?" Sarutobi's voice pierced my revere. I glanced over to where Naruto was and saw he was thoroughly engrossed in his conversation with Iruka-sensei.
"Yes I think I will. I wish to face the Sword Master of the Leaf. "
A look of surprise crossed the old man's face before he motioned with his hand and a lady walked out of the shadows of the tunnel behind him. A muted off white battle kimono covered her body, with slits up the side of the legs to allow for greater movement of the legs, running up to just above her hips, showing pants of the same color. At her waist an unadorned black leather belt held her katana. Her face was covered by an ANBU mask adorned with a stylized cat face.
"So a brat of a kid wants to challenge me. Any limits you would like to impose?"
"No killing moves, and no intentional maiming, everything else goes."
She nodded and settled into a rather basic stance, with her right foot back, both hands on the katana, and her shoulders slightly turned to her right. A typical earthen stance. I grinned, this would be fun. I crouched slightly across from her, my left hand pulling my dagger out slightly, while my right reached up to my sword and started easing it out of the sheath.
"Begin."
I darted out at her singing my sword out in a double overhand blow, intending to either break the blade or crush her defense. With a clang our swords met over her head, and I noted I had managed neither, though her arms did shake a little from holding back the blow. After a moment we both jumped back from the other and we started circling each other. I was amused when she abandoned the earthen pose and adopted a more water like pose, rather ironic for her cat mask.
'This will be fun.' A rather disturbing grin settled on my face as I pulled out my dagger and rushed her again, engaging her with both blades. Rather than block, she started to parry my strikes as my strength was slightly more than hers and it would tire her out ridiculously fast to stop the full power of my swings. We danced for a full minute before breaking apart again.
"You know, you're not half bad, but I've had enough of this. Prepare to lose. "
With that she disappeared from my vision. My eyes widened as my bloodline screamed a warning to me as she swung her sword in a downward strike at my head from behind. I managed to get my sword in the way, holding it like I was about to sheath it, while thrusting back with my dagger, forcing her to jump backwards to avoid the blade. Pivoting on my right foot I brought my sword around to slice only air as she once again disappeared. Grunting I slammed my dagger into its sheath before calling on my bloodline to make myself another sword.
"What the hell?" Her voice shook with disbelief and fear, as she stood in awe of the act I had just committed.
"It's called the Metalsinger bloodline girl. Now get back here and let's fight." I called out, turning to face her again.
She stood for a moment before reaching up her right sleeve and pulling out a kunai. This she gripped in a reverse hold before springing at me, going faster than she had at any time in the fight previously. She got close and engaged me in a fight at speeds that not even Zabuza could hit. Not even ten seconds passed before she slipped inside my guard and bashed my head with the hilt of her katana. I stumbled back a step before snarling as my berserker rage took over. I then attacked her with a furry that she was surprised to see. I quickly pushed her across the floor as she was forced to employed both weapons to keep me from landing a hit. Shortly I wound up pressing her against the wall of the cavern. Feeling the wall at her back she jumped up onto it ass I lunged at her. Seeing her on the wall I jumped at her and we continued the fight on the wall. Over the course of the next hour we fought in every corner of the cave, dancing around our audience, across the walls, on the ceiling, until we came to a stop nearby where we had started.
"I haven't been pressed this hard sense I was a genin apprentice under Hayate Gekkou. You're pretty good kid." She panted, her sword held at the ready in front of her and the kunai at her side. Both held nicks in the blade from clashing with my sword, and were in such a condition that I would be amazed if they held up for much longer, but it looked like they would get a break as I was just in bad condition as she was. My calves ached from exertion and my lungs burned for air. While I wasn't near as fast as her, I had trained my reflexes up to the point where it didn't matter. My strength was just barely over hers but she could use chakra to negate that. My body had been pushed to its limits and was about to give out, like my berserker rage had seeing that neither of us had landed a blow on the other, outside of the hit that had put me in that state.
"That was a good fight kid, maybe sometime we'll actually find out which one of us is better, but right now I'm to tiered to care, I'm running on less than two hours of sleep in the last three days, so some other time alright?"
I nodded and sheathed my sword and pulled the other one back inside my body, turning back to my friends. Suddenly my bloodline screamed at me again and I pivoted, bringing up my arm to block the downward swing, to see the end of her sword break off and go skidding across the floor.
"You owe me a sword bastard."
"You should be glad it lasted as long as it did," I countered. "Every other sword I have faced with one that I have made has broken within five minutes. Where did you get that sword anyway?"
"The Tiger Claw Smithy, why?"
I held out my hand and she handed the broken hilt to me. Taking the sword I started unwrapping the leather around the grip. After unwrapping the hilt I turned the sword looking for John's mark. Near the cross guard I found it and next to it was my own mark. I smiled at this. The only sword I had smithed here in Leaf, had found its way into the hands of the Sword Master of Leaf. It was a major ego booster.
"That explains a lot."
With that I cast the broken sword down and walked away.
"Wait. What explains a lot? What about my sword? You owe me a new one."
I turned my head and spoke over my shoulder, "Come by the Tiger Claw Smithy and there'll be a new one for you in a couple of days."
I walked off, ignoring her protests. Haku greeted me as I got back to my friends were.
"You did well, Erik-kun."
"I guess."
I sat down, leaning against the wall to rest, as Hiruzen walked over to Naruto and Iruka to test Naruto. Suddenly a voice echoed out of the tunnel to our left.
"I'll fight the gaki."
"Jiraiya-kun, it's good to see you again."
"It's good to see you to Sensei. We'll talk business later; I want to see how well Naruto can fight after two years under the wing of the Bloody Demon of the Mist."
"Very well. Naruto, it's time for your match."
"Alright Old Man."
Naruto got up from where he had been talking to Iruka at and walked out a ways from the rest of us, assuming a brawlers stance, legs bent with toes pointing outwards, arms loosely clenched at his sides.
"Let's fight!"
"Aren't you eager? Maybe I should cool your temper down a little."
Jiraiya smirked at him, more than confident that he could win this in a minute.
"Begin."
Both shot out as if from a canon, and clashed in an intense taijutsu match that neither seemed to be winning. Jiraiya wasn't smiling anymore. Suddenly Jiraiya broke off the fist fest and ran trough a string of signs in a second. I didn't hear the name of the jutsu but his white hair grew enormous and wrapped Naruto head to toe.
"Summoning Jutsu!" Naruto called, and with a poof of smoke, a large, black fox with four tails appeared.
I blinked. He had just used the summoning jutsu without hand signs or a blood sacrifice. (2) That was something I haven't even tried to do. Fuck that, not even Zabuza did that!
"Naruto you will never cease to amaze me." I murmured, to feel Haku nod her head in agreement.
Jiraiya had by this time summoned a large toad to fight the fox, but they were standing there, not moving from the spot they had been summoned, except for the tails of the fox moving in a nonexistent wind.
Suddenly the tails shot forward, seeking to grab the toads limbs to restrain it. The toad jumped over the tails, soaring over the fox. It then dispelled directly over the fox, letting Jiraiya dive bomb on Naruto with a Resengan in his hand. Naruto quickly pulled out a clone and made a Resengan as well to face the one that Jiraiya had. For a moment nothing happened, upon the impact of the two, then with a great keening sound Naruto's gave out, shoving him down into the fox, resulting in the dispelling of the beast.
Naruto lay in a creator, with Jiraiya standing over him, a Resengan whirling in his hand, ready to hit Naruto with it should he moved.
"In the twenty seconds that lasted Naruto used more than ten times the amount of chakra I did in less than one one hundredth the amount of time I used it in. And yet he can keep going if he feals the need to." I shook my head, this boy was insane.
I closed my eyes and ears to the sounds of the continued fight as hundreds of Narutos dogpiled the sannin. After a few more minutes Haku poked my side, bringing me out of my meditation.
"Hokage-sama would like to speak to us in his office."
I looked around to find the cavern empty except for us. I sighed and, after grabbing Haku, used the Body Flicker to take us to the Hokage office.
"Now that you're all here I would like to say something." Hiruzen said, once again puffing on his pipe. "You three learned a lot during your travels and have made me proud to call you shinobi of the Leaf. In two weeks time you will be joining your fellow genin to represent us in the Chunin Exams. Train hard, and do us proud. You are dismissed."
(1) Sword techniques and bow techniques, respectively.
(2) Like a container that holds a liquid in it has the liquid still in it after it is pored out, so to is the body with chakra. The blood especially holds a large amount of untapped chakra. Blood, coupled with a seal, can be used instead of chakra and hand signs to make any nin- or gen-jutsu.
