"It's so frustrating." Yelled Sasuke after his another attempt to make balloon burst into pieces using solely his chakra to do so.
"Yet I can do that without any troubles." Said Naruto as he picked up one and focused his chakra on the object in his hand, which moments later burst into countless smaller and bigger pieces. "You need to make your chakra more chaotic, you have it too organized and it is only stretching the ball, instead of forcing it to burst into pieces."
"What do you mean by too organized?" Asked Sasuke narrowing his eyes and looking at his blonde friend.
"Look at the ball in my hand." Said Naruto as he slowly formed Rasengan there, he was doing slow enough so that Sasuke could see how it was being created, while he couldn't copy it with his Sharingan, he was able to see how it was donee. "There is no pattern in how chakra moves in it, it's just random. It just move in every single direction inside of the ball."
"I see." Said Sasuke and tried it again. This time trying to make his chakra as chaotic as possible and the balloon started warping in all possible directions at the same time, sign of chakra being more chaotic than organized.
"You are going in a right direction." Said Naruto when he saw the balloon warping in all directions. "But still you have a long road before you reach your target and that is only first step. I finished it in one day, but I abused Kage Bunshin to do it and I have much more chakra and it is way denser than normal, so you won't struggle as much as I did."
o-0-O-0-o
"Suiton – Suiryudan" was heard all over the training ground as Naruto finished running through the chain of handseals and in front of him formed large dragon head made out of water. Once it was complete, it charged at designed target, that is large boulder twenty meters away from Naruto. When it crashed into it, it almost completely obliterated it as the force of impact was so huge and it left it in dozens, if not hundreds of pieces. But also this boulder was heavily damaged by previous attacks that repeatedly crashed into it for last few days and other people that were in the area got used to sound of water hitting the stone.
Naruto looked at the results panting heavily, it was exhausting trying to do it multiple times in a row as he was doing it now. He was trying to completely master it to the level of his ancestors from Uzumaki clan and Senju Tobirama, who were able to do it only with three handseals and it was extremely tiring for him to get it done. He was down to fifteen signs, getting here was relatively easy as he quickly was able to cut them in half, however once he get beyond that point it was getting harder and harder with each sign. Last one took him over fifty repetition of this jutsu to get it done.
"It's so exhausting." Sighed Naruto as he sat on the ground, trying to regain his breath. It looked like he reached his limit for today, but it was still impressive amount of repetition of jutsu, over fifty if he remembered correctly, he lost count after thirty or so as they were boring.
"Normal shinobi would be dead by now." Said Kakashi once he saw that Naruto was done for now "You propably burned more chakra during this training than I use through whole week as you are launching one A-rank jutsu after another without any break between them. While it is a good method for training it isn't perfect one. I had similar problem when working on Raikiri, which is perfected version of my first original jutsu Chidori. While through your route I could get to the desired effect, I would spend few more months, if not years and I would be propably exhausted and frustrated at the end of training. Instead I focused on my mastery of pure Raiton chakra without any changes of shape or anything, just pure chakra."
"But I already know the master exercise of Suiton manipulation." Said Naruto looking at his sensei.
"Can you do it instantly?" Asked Kakashi with raised eyebrow looking at his student. "As the faster you do it, the better mastery of the element."
"No" Said Naruto "It usually takes me some time to do it."
"Than that explains the problem." Said Kakashi "You need to do it faster, way faster as it will also help you with all Suiton jutsu."
"I guess you are right." Said Naruto looking at him, opening his palm and focusing moisture from the air above it, trying to form the sphere made out of the water. It was hard exercise and unless someone had a lot of chakra, it was as well extremely exhausting as gathering particles from the air and getting water out of plans was an extremely taxing thing to do. After all there was a reason why only Uzumaki and Senju clan members were able to finish this exercise and master it completely as they had copious amounts of chakra, yet even most of them was exhausted after few hours of working on it.
o-0-O-0-o
"This is not good, not at all." Said Jiraiya when he read a message from one of his spies. It looked like Orochimaru was on the move and planned to attack during the exams, question was who was his target. But guessing possible targets wasn't the hardest things to do as there could be possibly only two matching his criteria Senju Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke as they had Kekkei Genkai that he wanted. Respectively Mokuton and Sharingan and since he craved for power, those two would match his set of desired criteria, both of them incredibly powerful and both of them incredibly rare. "Looks like it is the time to recall back Crow and Shark, and get them to give proper and more advanced training to Naruto and Sasuke."
Jiraiya pondered his options for a moment, until he decided it was the time to consult his sensei as he needed to accept this move and he headed towards Hokage tower where he should be sorting through his usual paperwork.
o-0-O-0-o
Jiraiya was right as the moment he entered the office of the Hokage he saw that his sensei was digging out of the papers that were surrounding him from all sides.
"We have a problem." Said Jiraiya without any introductions "Orochimaru is going to attack during the exam and there are only two possible targets for his attack and we both know them. I want to recall Crow and Shark as we know enough about Akatsuki and they will be more useful as teachers for Naruto and Sasuke or as ANBU tasked with the protection of the exam."
"You might be right." Said Hokage looking at Jiraiya "As I would like to keep Crow outside of the village for as long as possible we need him here and now. Recall them to the village and tell them to meet Naruto and prepare them for the exam."
"As you wish." Said Jiraiya jumping out through the window and running outside of the village as he needed to get to the River to leave the message in next drop off point they were going to check and place a book with an phrase that was an order for recall.
o-0-O-0-o
Uchiha Itachi was sitting in a small cafe reading a book when certain words got his attention, ones that were a certain phrase. 'When the tree leaves dance, one shall find flames. The fire's shadow will illuminate the village, and once again, tree leaves shall bud anew.' It was almost an innocent looking sentence, while in truth it was a code ordering Itachi to return to Konoha, along with Kisame.
"Looks like we need to head home." Itachi said looking at Kisame and showing him those words. He didn't expect being called so soon, but he guessed a thing or two changed and they decided they needed an Uchiha as a warrior, rather than as a spy.
"Indeed we need." Agreed sharkman as he also was one of spies recruited by Jiraiya and he had perfect cover for the job, nobody would suspect a thing about him being a spy as he was wanted by Kiri for killing few people and stealing Samehada. "I wonder who send this message as not many know who we are."
"Don't know" Shrugged off Itachi "We will see soon as I have a feeling about who did this."
Kisame only nodded and left the cafe, followed by Itachi, they needed to check one of drop off points where they were leaving messages for Jiraiya-sama to collect and to pass further onto Hokage and highest leadership of Konoha. It was serviced by two ANBU that were only leaving and receiving messages, unaware who was the one that was using those drop off points. They were placed in innocent looking places so that nobody who knew for what he was looking for was able to locate them easily. At least without detailed informations about it placement and how to open it.
Itachi leaped onto the branch of tree that was growing in front of cafe in which they were, followed by Kisame as they dived deeper into the forests surrounding the town in which they stopped to rest and eat something. Being in Akatsuki had one advantage, you didn't need to care about money as they had plenty of it from various S-rank missions that they carried out for various countries that didn't have their own shinobi to do that or weren't able to pay for shinobi from one of the great five.
They ran for few moments until they landed in front of hollow in tree trunk, that looked like it was nothing special yet it was special. Itachi put his hand inside searching for scroll or piece of paper that should be there and should be containing their new orders. He found a piece of paper which he removed from it, straightened and opened to see the content of it. It was covered in small and neat writing of Jiraiya-sama who was they master of spies of Konohagakure no Sato.
"Look for a Trident with a Fan of second founder to find what you seek. Founders need to unite and protect each other. Your brothers are in danger, train them and protect them. Snake is on the move." Was written on that piece of paper and it didn't make too much sense, that is for the most of people who would saw it, while for Itachi it made a lot of sense as he knew who was the one they were to find. When he read it he whistled loudly as he didn't expect to be told to look for this person. And second part of it was even more worrying as he didn't really like what he was asked to do as he knew who was moving to attack Konoha, only half blind and deaf person wouldn't be able to guess that, as not many hated Konoha with so much passion.
"What is it Itachi?" Asked Kisame when he noticed loud whistle of his partner.
"Not what, but whom we need to find." Said Itachi with a little of respect visible in his voice "One of my students and propably one that I had the most fun teaching, not to mention that he is my blood brother."
"Who is it?" Asked Kisame
"Senju Naruto." Explained Itachi "From what I know he is outside of Konoha in one of the training fields preparing for chunin exams, for which he doesn't need to prepare as he has enough power to beat most chunin without breaking sweat."
"Interesting person." Said Kisame
"Indeed" Agreed Itachi "And we need to protect and train him and Sasuke as Hebi-teme is on the move and might attack them."
"Samehada loves his chakra." Chuckled Kisame "I don't have a problem with doing that as it will be a fun mission to do."
o-0-O-0-o
"Dragon prepare teams that are going to help with the security of the second stage of chunin exams." Said Hokage looking at ANBU Commander "I want teams suited for assault and one of trackers. Prepare plans for evacuation of the whole exam, if S-rank criminal is spotted."
"Hai" Nodded Dragon "It will be done as you wish."
"Good" Said aged leader and looked at second shinobi that was standing in front of his desk, Nara Shikaku "I want you to create plans of defending the village, assuming we will be attacked by Suna, Kusa, Oto and Ame. Assume that other Kage will side with us, send a message to Kiri and ask them to send whole Swordsmen group here and ten squads of Sharks to help with the protection of the stadium and Konoha during finals, inform them that we expect enemy to attack. Do not name him, but hint Suna."
"Hai" Said scarred jonin commander, he was usually lazy and easy going, but that wasn't true when he had a task to be done. As not doing it usually was a worse option that doing it, so than he was fully focused on task and hand and committed his whole energy to get it done.
"Jiraiya" Said Hokage looking at the resident sage of Konoha "Try to get as much data on Orochimaru as possible, what forces he has and who is going to be his ally in this enterprise of his. I want it as late as two weeks from the beginning of third stage."
"It will be done." Said Jiraiya "My spies are already working on it and I also got a lot of data from Kiri and Kumo as they were approached by Orochimaru who was trying to get them to support him. I believe that from Kumo he retreated a little burned and from Kiri with melted arm."
"Good" Said Hokage trying to contain his laugher as he imagined Orochimaru with melted arm.
o-0-O-0-o
"How sure you are about this?" Asked Ibiki
"Pretty sure." Replied Inoichi "Only someone really close to her could influence her in such way as only person close to her would have time for something that sophisticated."
"So she has her mind warped by someone that hates Naruto." Said Ibiki "That makes things interesting, assuming she doesn't harbor any hatred aimed at Naruto she isn't guilty."
"From what I saw." Said Inoichi "She doesn't have, but I didn't scan her mind carefully. I only looked for obvious signs and I was trying to see general shape of things."
"Mayhe we should ask Mebuki about what she knows." Suggested Anko "We can assume that we won't get anything useful from Sakura without breaking her and we can't do that, but nothing is said about Mebuki."
"That might be a good idea." Said Ibiki "It is obvious that she has some part in it as we have agreement between her and Aoi, but question is, is she the one behind the whole plot or only the paw that is controlling other."
"I know that you think about Danzo." Said Inoichi looking at Ibiki as all of them were considering what to do with their problem "But he doesn't have anything to gain here, for me it looks like she is the mind behind the whole plot. Danzo would never use lousy nukenin, he would use something much better. And as we know that he doesn't agree with Hokage-sama on everything, but we are sure he is loyal to Konoha and killing Naruto is the most stupid thing he could do as he is the only wielder of Mokuton that can pass it onto his children."
"Okay" Said Ibiki "Inoichi try to fix what you can in Sakura mind and get as much from Mebuki as you can, Anko try to get as much as you can from Mebuki. You can damage her to some extent, but nothing crippling or maiming."
"Spoilsport" Muttered Anko and added louder "I will do that. Ask any specific questions or general ones?"
"Focus on Sakura, Naruto and why she hates Naruto so much." Said Ibiki "Especially the last part."
o-0-O-0-o
Inoichi liked his job inside of T&I, but sometimes it was so damn frustrating as they could spend hours upon hours while attempting to break through the shields of one person and to no effect. Yet it looked like today was his lucky day, he easily managed to get through Mebuki shields and now it was the time to see her mind and what was inside of it.
He landed in room colored in neutral colors, which meant it was or at least should be a healthy mind, although that wasn't always true as some only looked like healthy from the outside and inside they were completely rotten and were falling apart. Inoichi sighed and looked around for memories and much to his surprise found a thing that he didn't expect to find, that is barriers protecting them. He pulled out of her mind and looked at Anko who stood nearby.
"She has some powerful barriers around her memories." Said Inoichi looking at Anko "Do you have any toxin that would weaken her neural system? I can break without doing that, but it is going to exhaust me and I would need help of other Yamanaka to punch a hole through them."
"I have something." Said Anko as she pulled out small vial with toxin, it was tinted green, but other than that it didn't have any color. "It will weaken her whole body severely, it won't kill her, but will make her weak, really weak and she shouldn't be able to fight you."
"Good" Said Inoichi keeping Mebuki head in his hand as he waited for Anko to inject the poison into his target bloodstream, thus allowing to let him work on her.
"It should start working momentarily." Said Anko as she finished injecting it into the bloodstream "It is used by snakes to catch their prey so it needs to work quickly to be useful for them."
"Let's try this again." Said Inoichi focusing on Mebuki mind and once again entering it. This time he didn't spend that much time entering it as toxin started working and first effects of it became visible. He focused on her memories and this time getting to them was easy, really easy which meant those barriers were made by her mind trying to protect what was the most precious to it as they fell when toxin started working. It meant that she couldn't have help from shinobi and she was doing that mostly on her own, not with help from Danzo or other person that was trying to gain something.
He focused on her image of Naruto and her memories connected with him, trying to find what could be a reason for her hate aimed at that particular blonde as he himself liked that kid as he saw him often inside of Nara compound playing with Shikaku or Shikamaru shogi, which for him was a little of a strange sight as he didn't expect to see someone being willing to play with Nara in shogi.
"Interesting" Mused Inoichi watching those memories of Mebuki that related to Naruto and her image of him. "As I suspected she hates him because of the Fox sealed inside of him, but that isn't the only reason for her hate of him. Spending several hundred thousand to get three nukenin on him and influencing her own daughter to try to kill him. No, there is something fishy going on, really fishy."
Knowing what he already know Inoichi focused on other thing that might be a lead for him, that is how announcement of Naruto being a Senju affected her as he suspected that a thing or two were connected with it. He knew he hit a jackpot the moment he saw first memories and her thoughts about that council meeting when Hokage announced who Naruto was and announced that Senju seat was one again filled.
"So she hates him mostly because of her falling position because of him being a Senju." Thought Inoichi watching those memories and seeing her thoughts, some of them were rather disturbing and dark. As he was used to seeing weird things inside of minds of those that he interrogated, those were on completely different level and directed at something different. "Now hiring nukenin and influencing her daughter to do her biding would make sense as her gains would be huge, assuming she was able to carry out her plan. Wait, she isn't the only one."
As Inoichi was watching those memories he saw more people connected with this whole mess and as he suspected they were ones that were losing the most from Naruto claiming his clan and seat held by it. Which meant more people to catch and more annoying interrogations. Inoichi didn't even need to watch more for the moment. He pulled out of her mind and looked at Ibiki who joined them.
"Good that you are here." Inoichi said looking at his friend and Commander of T&I "Few more to catch."
"Who?" Ibiki asked with raised eyebrow
"Two more from civilian council, cousin of Mebuki and as you do that grab their shinobi bodyguards as they should report about her plots." Inoichi replied "Also ask Danzo if he has anything of importance about our dear friend here."
"Hokage-sama won't like those news." Said Ibiki and snapped his finger, momentarily in front of him stood three ANBU Captains. "You heard who you need to catch. Get them here and I don't care where they are, I want them here in fifteen minutes. If you need to get them from the middle of the main street get them."
"Hai" All of them said and vanished from sight. Knowing well that this wasn't looking good and was only getting worse as Hokage was going to be furious. And that the council would be pissed off as they didn't like what shinobi were recently doing.
o-0-O-0-o
"Since you managed to pop the balloon your next task is to do the same with those balls." Explained Kakashi as he showed Sasuke full bag of small rubber balls. "It is a harder task as the material is tougher than that of balloons and there is only air inside of those balls, instead of water. You need to increase amount of chakra you are outputting to do the task and thus it is harder as you need to have better control over it and you need to make it denser than previously."
"It seems easy." Said last Uchiha looking at those balls and thinking how to get it done as he remembered previous step and it seemed rather similar to that one. But when in previous one he focused on rotation, this one seemed to be focused on sheer power of this jutsu.
"If you understood first step and you know what to do it is easy." Said Kakashi "But sensei spent over two years working on this step when he was developing this jutsu for the first time."
Sasuke only nodded and focused on the ball that he grabbed with his right hand, slowly increasing output of chakra he was putting into the ball. It took some time but soon it started deforming and changing shape, which was a good sign as it meant he was going in a right direction. However between going in a right direction and getting the expected result was two completely different things.
o-0-O-0-o
"I honestly didn't expect you to be so good with nature manipulation." Said Asuma as he watched genin that were almost done with their respective exercises and learned jutsu they wanted to learn. It was a rather interesting thing as those things were technically already on chunin level, but most of them managed to learn couple of D-rank jutsu from their element and one or two of C-rank which should give them plenty of tools during the exam as not many genin expected to against enemies that knew such jutsu. "Since in three weeks time we are going back to Konoha, it is time to talk about the shape of the exam and technically we shouldn't be telling you this part, but we will tell you what to expect from each stage and how you can tackle."
"First task is data gathering exercise as you receive sheet with question that is created by someone from ANBU, Hokage or other high ranking ninja. Those questions technically are impossible to answer for anybody that is on genin level. But in the room are placed fake examinees that know the answers, but also some of you might know the answer to those questions. Which means that you need to cheat somehow, but obvious attempts are going to be shot down by the proctors. Which are looking for every such attempt."
"Bothersome." Muttered Shikamaru "It basically means that we need to somehow work together to get this exam done as troubling it is."
"That's the gist of it." Said Kakashi "Next stage is bloody. It is survival exercise that is carried out inside of one of training fields, we usually use Forty-four or Sixty-one."
"Forest of Death" Said Naruto remembering the unofficial, yet very true name of the Forty-four "Very, very pleasant training ground. Everything there tries to kill ans eat you." When Naruto said that every genin was a little pale as they didn't expect it to be so dangerous.
"But this year Kiri is responsible for this task of the exam." Said Kakashi "So we propably don't need to worry about animals and plants inside of it being dangerous, but they are only an obstacle. Each team receive one part of set of something and need to get missing pieces from other teams and do that in set amount of time, and deliver it to some place where the stage finishes."
"So we need to find other teams with missing pieces of set, kill them, do not get killed in the process and get to that place where it ends?" Asked Sasuke who was sharpening his sword, which already was sharp, but you never could have a sword that was too sharp.
"Yes" Said Kakashi "A good idea would be for you to team up and work as a single unit, three teams working together have a higher chance of survival in the area than ones that are working on their own. After that stage there are preliminaries for finals which are held some time after the stage, it changes from the exam to exam, but it is between four to six weeks of break. During that time you train with whoever you want in preparations for your fights as the finals are series of one on one fights in front of Kage of the village."
"This year there is Gokage summit during finals." Said Naruto "All of them will be there, along with advisors and bodyguards."
"As I was going to say, Kage and proctors decide who should be promoted to the rank of chunin and who shouldn't, their judgment is final and nothing can change it." Said Kakashi "Those that proceed to the finals are the best of the best of their village and clan. You can expect forbidden jutsu, hidden jutsu, all kinds of famous jutsu and so on as participants train under the best of the best."
o-0-O-0-o
Haruno Isoroku was walking through the street of Konohagakure no Sato with his wife and youngest son when around them landed masked ANBU with weapons pointed at them.
"Do not move." Said one with Neko mask as she signaled for ones behind to catch their target. "You are under arrest for plotting against Konohagakure and Hokage-sama."
"I'm innocent." Shouted Isoroku as he saw small crows gathering around and watching the scene.
"You will explain that when you will be interrogated." Said Neko and looked at two ANBU that stood behind the group. "Take them to T&I."
"You will release them at once." Said shinobi in chunin flak jacket that appeared on the building above the street and was looking at Neko.
"Good" Said Neko and snapped her fingers, when she did that eight more ANBU appeared behind those ninja. Each of them placed kunai or other weapon at the throats of those ninja. "You are also taken for questioning. You will explain yourself to Ibiki-sama."
o-0-O-0-o
Naruto was sitting on top of tree stump and was deep in meditation when he felt source of chakra that he didn't have an opportunity to meet for last two years. It was moving with one way bigger towards his position, when he detected them he remembered the time when he last saw Itachi before the downfall of Uchiha and that message passed to him by a monkey with certain scroll with ANBU equipment for those two so they could sneak inside of Konoha without answering uncomfortable questions.
When he felt them stop moving Naruto opened his eyes and looked in direction where they should be and he was right as red on black cloaks were rather easy to find between browns and greens of the forest. He quietly whistled in certain pattern that was known only to ANBU and waited for reaction from Itachi who nodded and jumped onto the ground getting closer to Naruto.
"We are shadows of the tree..." Started Naruto looking at Itachi as he knew that most of people that were attempting to Henge into him would fail on it. He also pointed his katana at Itachi awaiting his reply.
"We protect it from there and without us it would fall..." Said Itachi reciting second part of motto of ANBU.
"We are ANBU first to arrive, last to leave. Always faithful to the village and Hokage." Finished Naruto looking at Itachi and slowly withdrawing swords he had at their throats for the safety sake. You could never be too safe in such situations as some ninja were killed as they were reckless.
"What had we sworn?" Asked Itachi looking at Naruto and revealing tattoo on his forearm.
"To treat each other as brothers in all, but blood." Said Naruto as he revealed matching tattoo "Not to raise weapon against each other unless in training or during friendly tournament and to protect each other during battle."
"Good to see you." Said Itachi as he looked at Naruto "Where is Sasuke?"
"Somewhere in those forests." Shrugged off Naruto "Kakashi helps him with Chidori or more properly with creation something similar to it."
o-0-O-0-o
A/N – Itachi is showing himself and he is going to cause quite a lot of chaos really soon as he will reveal what happened during that night inside of the Uchiha district. Situation with Sakura is getting more interesting and it will take some time to reveal it fully as they have almost all of the necessary pieces, but are missing just one and it will take them some time to get it.
I hope this line break will be visible as I'm losing ideas for what is going to work on everywhere else I use various things and I don't have any issues with them being shown properly.
Since 4th of July was yesterday and most of my readers are from US, I will spoil you a little and today will be uploaded three chapters. Two of Uchiha Siblings and one of Hokage's Heir where action is getting more crazy and crazy.