Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the Prince of Persia franchise.
A/N: I guess my Hinata is getting a bit Road To Ninja-ish, must have done that by accident but that's what I'm going for: a Hinata that does not need to lean on Naruto. I should probably apologize about the last chapter, I used 'jiji' to refer to the Sandaime, there is no mysterious grandpa out there. Also, if and when I bash, know that my inspiration is many good fics that have corrupted my judgment and impression of characters; I'll try to keep it semi plausible though. Timelines and facts have been manipulated for the better of my Narutoverse. As for the famed Tsukiyome, I based it on how it was used on Kakashi. The one on Killa Bee seemed to be like a normal genjutsu that could be broken with a chakra burst. Had no inspiration for the fight scenes in this chapter, but did what I could.
THE YONDAIME'S LEGACY
"Morning Sasuke-kun, morning Naruto," the pinkette said upon entering the clearing.
"Hn," was the charismatic reply from Sasuke.
Naruto quirked an eyebrow when he noticed Sakura was content with that, "Hey, Sakura." He said with a smile.
She returned his smile warmly enough, and then went back to staring at Sasuke. Maybe he should have just killed him. When Kakashi arrived a minute before the specified time, the genin were presently surprised, Naruto had been two minutes away from leaving; before sensing the chakra of someone he was sure couldn't be his jounin instructor.
"Yo," Kakashi said casually.
This was unprecedented, the genin were sure that Kakashi purposely came five hours late in order to teach them an hour long team building exercise before giving them a D-rank. The fact that he had arrived so early meant that a six hour long training was indeed in order and all genin present knew it. Sakura yelped her bewilderment at his lack of unpunctuality. Sasuke briefly activated his Sharingan and then plastered on an uneasy smirk. Naruto expressed his glee at finally getting a chance to learn something useful from the Copy Cat Ninja with a subtle air punch.
"Alright," Kakashi said, "It's time for our training."
"So, Kakashi-sensei, what are we gonna learn?" Naruto asked, trying to hide his excitement. "How about that chidori technique?"
"Look I know you wanna learn but it's not as simple as that, Naruto." Kakashi said in that dismissive tone that he'd used a little over a month ago. "Not everyone ca—"
"Then what are you going to teach us?" Naruto interrupted before the lame excuse came, Danzo at least had a believable reason.
*flashback*
"Danzo-sensei," Naruto panted after running through an obstacle course without the resistance seal for the first time. "Can you teach me the Chidori?"
"I can." Danzo said after a moment, "but I will not."
"Why not?" Naruto asked, Danzo was always willing to teach him a new jutsu. "Don't you think I'll need an assassination jutsu one day?"
"You have already been given the most versatile assassination jutsu," Danzo said, the man then withdrew a kunai. "This is the only assassination jutsu that you will need; Kakashi's jutsu is too loud and bright. Your jutsu," the man motioned to the kunai pouches. "is meant to kill the way a ninja was. As my student, I expect you to understand that your other jutsu are a crutch for the type of ninja I expect you to be."
"What kind of ninja is that?" Naruto asked seriously, when Danzo brought up philosophy, it was usually a good idea to pay attention.
"An effective one," Was the mystique reply.
Naruto had been certain he'd become an effective one already, clearly he was the only one that felt that way.
The blond nodded, Danzo's policy was that if he didn't understand immediately then he was expected to figure it out.
*flashback end*
Danzo had told him not try the jutsu so Naruto reconstructed the seals from memory and had tasked his clones for three days to master the jutsu, his clones soon realized that they could not successfully convert their chakra to lightning without dispelling. The original had even worse luck, the jutsu seemed to take a painful amount of chakra, he thought if the creator of the jutsu helped him than he could take it further, clearly that was a futile dream.
But he was seriously considering putting Kakashi on his revenge list, was it so bad to want to be treated like everyone else? He'd known the Kyuubi generated a stigma he could never escape but he'd hoped the fact that Kakashi had been trained by the Yondaime would deflect it in this case. Well Sakura didn't have the Kyuubi and she wasn't exactly learning any new techniques either; the thought did not better his mood.
Kakashi noticed his sensei's son's annoyance; he couldn't fathom how training with Jiraiya had made him so irritable. He wanted his loud mouth knucklehead ninja back.
"I'm going to teach you...how to walk on water."
Naruto nearly smirked, this was his chance to take some of the spotlight away from Sasuke and maybe get Sakura to—the blond frowned immediately as the thought crossed his mind. Their training was being impeded by this man; they should have learnt water walking months ago. Kakashi must have known he knew the technique already or was the opinion he'd generated so low. He had been able to learn and use the Kage Bunshin without any proper chakra control exercises. Maybe Kakashi truly found him too incompetent to learn anything but that did not explain why he didn't feel the same of Sasuke's nearly as terrible chakra control and Sakura had been noted to have amazing chakra control so she should have qualified more than anyone else on the team. Was Sasuke the only reason team 7 existed to Kakashi? But then Sasuke had only started getting special treatment after the second part of the chuunin exams. It made no sense why Kakashi was such an incompetent jounin sensei, he was powerful and had made Sasuke so much stronger as well, he could have done the same for the entire team 7 easily.
"I'm surprised you haven't taught Sasuke that already," Naruto said finally.
Sasuke smirked, "Actually he has."
Naruto's frown became a full-fledged scowl now, the ugly expression did not go unnoticed. The reactions varied, Sasuke's jaw tightened for some reason. Kakashi tensed as if expecting a fight. However, it was Sakura's confused expression that stopped Naruto from immediately walking away.
"Of course you have," Naruto exhaled a detached laugh, a part of him had been sure this was the type of training they would get today from their 'sensei'. He had instantly lost all respect he had left for the man and ninja today. "Tell me, Hatake, why do you seem so dead set on keeping Sakura weaker than everyone." Sakura felt dejected at the insinuation. "I mean I understand me because of the you-know-what but Sakura deserves all this special training that you seem to enjoy showering Sasuke with."
"Naru—" Kakashi began but was interrupted once more.
"Sakura, if you want to learn anything useful," Naruto ranted, "I suggest you find another teacher. Cause clearly all of Hatake's teamwork is a bunch of bu—"
"Naruto!" Kakashi roared.
"What!" Naruto growled back.
"Naruto, Kakashi-sensei is not like that!" Sakura countered more timidly than before.
Naruto saw the hesitation in the girl's eyes, she clearly had not noticed the sabotage, "We almost died on our first real mission. You almost died protecting Sasuke in the forest. Don't you think if Kakashi had taught you anything at all you would have done better?" Naruto added and instantly her wariness for their sensei showed.
"Naruto, come back here." Kakashi called as Naruto began to walk away from the field.
"Doctor said no training for a month Hatake," Naruto said waving his injured arm. "Now you have no excuse not to train those two."
-=-=-==-===-=-=-=-=-=Konoha hospital
Ino was busy all day with her father so Naruto went to visit Hinata instead. The blond had planned on telling Ino about the Kyuubi today. There was no real reason behind this, it had probably been on a whim. He knew exactly how she would react, first she would be confused. After that she would attempt to blame the story on his dwindling sanity. Then she would realize he was serious and become frightened. After that she would scold him for not telling her earlier while simultaneously trying to question him about the event. She would probably make a gag about wanting to see one of his nine tails.
He would have told Hinata tomorrow, with her, he had no idea how she would react. Her personality was hard to decipher from the first few weeks of last month and now it was just as bad. Before she had been shy, passive and completely innocent; then she started being not so silent. Then somewhere towards the end of the month she became a bit confrontational. Before she would have let him get away with saying or doing something inappropriate but now he was sure she would tell him off, then she would apologize. It was an odd experience for him, although she was still shy; it seemed different, then there were moments where she completely came alive: the spar! Then she would retreat into herself and choose random moments to break the behavior: the kiss! He still absently thought about that.
"How's my favourite Hyuuga doing?" Naruto asked upon finding Hinata ready to leave, he couldn't help but instantly notice her broken lip.
Hinata blushed slightly, "I'm your favourite Hyuuga?"
Naruto seemed to ponder it for a moment then shook his head, "Just remembered, you're my second favourite. After all those attacks, Hiashi-chan will always be number one!"
Hinata's amused smile made itself known, it was another way that she differed from Ino. His blond counterpart always laughed or giggled at his jokes. Hinata was more reserved and took more prodding, a giggle was the best he'd gotten.
"You hit like a girl," she teased lightly as a wince escaped her lips.
"You were mumbling that when I brought you in yesterday," Naruto replied, "Thought you were delirious," she shook her head negatively at that. "Looks like that concussion was worse than the doctors thought. I've felt my own attacks, their enough to bruise bones. I don't hit like a girl."
Hinata shook her head, "Hanabi is the girl you hit like. Neji hits way harder than that."
Another change to Hinata, she spoke more often about Neji and her father and their less civil interactions. Apparently there was bad blood between the three, Neji had his fair share to speak about the subject; Naruto preferred not to interfere in family matters.
"True, Neji is a beast." Naruto said rather ominously, he had yet to see all the Hyuuga prodigy could do.
Hinata giggled surprisingly, "So you no longer think I'm the strongest Hyuuga?"
"Uhm…" Naruto struggled for words as he scratched the back of his head. "I said that didn't I?"
Naruto decided to walk the heiress home and they instantly fell into a silence that would hopefully soon become comfortable. It was actually quite soothing to be in the company of someone while having free reign to think as if you were alone.
Their stroll was disturbed when what appeared to be a genin girl sauntered over to Naruto. She got extremely close to the blond short of having him lash out reflexively at the dangerous proximity.
"You're the strongest genin in Konoha aren't you, didn't know you were so cute" She said getting closer and completely rendering Naruto into a blushing mess. "Hey,"
"H—Hi," Naruto struggled to reply.
Jiraiya had warned him about the charms of a kunoichi right before they tried to kill you but Naruto had never taken the man seriously. He had been certain he could handle any attention a girl gave him, his two best friends were girls after all! He was wrong, the genin, Kora she said, had placed her hand on his chest and her face was less than an inch from his face when he came to. He had missed most of the conversation.
"Uhhm," Naruto said blinking, his face felt feverish. "Wh—what did you say?"
"I said, would you like to show me some of your training techniques," Kora said.
"Def—ye—sure." Naruto mumbled, the blond had never had this much intimate physical contact from a girl.
"I don't think that's a good idea, Naruto-kun," Hinata suddenly said.
Kora seemed to suddenly remember the other girl was there and turned to her with a sneer, "I don't believe I was asking you anything, Hyuuga reject."
Naruto's embarrassed smile became an immediate frown; the blond did not appreciate anyone insulting Hinata. It enraged him! But for some reason, like when Neji did it, he could not bring himself to defend her. It had been a quality that Danzo had ingrained into his psyche and he had twisted to his own understanding. Danzo's philosophy was that you only defended others when it served a purpose. Naruto took the man's policy and added his own conditions: You can't protect everyone, it's impossible. Before his interactions with Danzo, Naruto believed he would have defended anyone that he deemed precious or innocent.
Naruto grabbed Hinata's hand and dragged her away from the scene without another word. He was certain Kora would not affect him like that again; she had just become another non entity of his life.
"You seemed to be enjoying yourself," Hinata said at the Hyuuga compound's entrance.
"I was," Naruto replied with a slight smile. "It's very rare that I have that much fun."
Then Hinata did something that Naruto could never have guessed, she faced him and draped her arms around his neck.
"You find this fun?" She asked in a voice that should have been playful but was devoid of emotion.
Naruto gulped and just as he was about to answer, she activated her bloodline. It gave him a start, the bulging veins, the way her eyes focused her stare into what he perceived as a glare. He found it unnerving.
With her bloodline, Hinata instantly noticed Naruto's discomfort. She had always known that the Byakugan wasn't exactly a discreet or appealing dojutsu. Her former self would have been hurt with Naruto's reaction to it, she was only disappointed. The Hyuuga heiress loved her bloodline unconditionally; there was no greater dojutsu in the world after all. She moved her right hand to the sides of Naruto's head and proceeded to ruffle his hair lightly.
"You should cut it," she said, stepping away from him. "It's a bit annoying."
She walked into her compound, watching Naruto stand there simultaneously. She had strongly considered kissing him, the increased thumping of her heart practically begged her to but she couldn't. All she could do was play with his hair and comment on it. The heiress had no idea why she said that, Naruto's hair was her favourite thing about him. She assumed he liked his hair as much as she did, insulting it had seemed fair.
-=-===-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Elsewhere
Hoshigaki Kisame was extremely bored. It was times like this that he regretted not teaming up with a more compassionate partner. Like Kakazu for example, that was a guy. He let Hidan take care of all the fighting without interference, but no, he was stuck with someone who basically just had to look at people to make them stop. Genjutsu or not, Itachi was an intimidating bastard. Like the bastard was doing with the Copy Ninja, completely taking the fun out of this little outing.
"Wh—what is it you want? Is it Sasuke?"
Kisame was too annoyed to care that Kakashi had escaped Itachi's Tsukiyome with his conscious intact.
"No, what we're here for…is the Yondaime's legacy."
Both Itachi and Kisame were surprised to see Kakashi's vitality seemingly return, the ninja prodigy soared back to his feet and raced through hand seals flawlessly.
"I won't let you lay a finger on Naruto!" roared Kakashi as the Raikiri wrapped itself dangerously around his hand.
Itachi's heart was the target, that fact was evident from the way the jutsu had been stopped. Kakashi's fingers and lightning chakra hovered right over his heart while his wrist was trapped in a vice grip. The Copy Ninja was given a moment before falling unconscious, the jutsu dissipated with a powerful kick to the man's chest.
"I can't believe that brat is really the son of the Yellow Flash." Kisame commented.
"Kisame," Itachi said. "We're taking Kakashi with us, get rid of the others."
A kick with a shout of "Severe Leaf Hurricane" halted the ninja Swordsman's advance. The two would only be driven to retreat after Maito Gai's arrival.
=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=Hatake Kakashi's room
Sasuke walked in to find three jounin sensei in his sensei's room. There was also the oddly uncomfortable silence that spread across the room.
"Why is Kakashi asleep?" He asked. "Why is Kakashi-sensei's room full of jounin? What's going on here?"
The silence had been less suspicious than Gai's eloquent reply, "Err… nothing…much."
And then the uncomfortable silence returned long enough for another jounin to barge into the room.
"Hey, is it true that Uchiha Itachi came to the village looking for Naruto?"
Clearly the jounin in the room had been dreading that but Sasuke was already too far gone to notice their reactions, completely consumed by rage. His chance to gain revenge had come, the Uchiha was halfway down the stairs when somebody shouted at him to wait. Not that he heard it, his ears were only telling him how violent the beatings of his heart had recently become. There was also a loud voice in his head spurring him on, telling him that his time come. Even his eyes weren't fully focused, images of his arm through Itachi's chest were too vivid. His time had come! He would find Itachi and destroy him; nothing would stand in his way.
There was of course another voice in his head, a whisper that told him he was racing to his death but he silenced that voice with logic. He was sure that no matter how much stronger Naruto had become, the dobe did not stand a chance by himself against Itachi but if the two of them worked together…today was the day Uchiha Itachi paid!
The Hero of Konoha rushed out of the village he was accused of saving after visiting the Ichiraku ramen stand. He raced towards the town Itachi was in a blind rage, blind enough to barely notice the pale teenager in the path.
"We were just on our way to speak with you, Uchiha Sasuke." The teen said. "How generous of you to meet us halfway."
"Get out of my way!" Growled Sasuke, his fist raised.
The Uchiha was sent back by a powerful kick to the gut, he crumpled to the ground gasping for air. The hit had been unexpected and far stronger than Naruto's.
"My name is Kimimaro," he said towering over the fallen Uchiha.
Sasuke refused to pay attention until another figure stepped into the open, their presence was so overwhelming that he was sure he felt her before he heard her.
Uchiha Mikoto cradled her son like the loving mother she was. Sasuke had been angry that people would desecrate his mother's memory like this only for a second, however, once his Sharingan confirmed this wasn't an illusion and that she was his mother. He proceeded to weep into her arms, hugging her tightly as though she would vanish any moment now.
Mother and son stayed like that long enough for Maito Gai to rush towards them, the man was not particularly skilled in detection but it was testament to Mikoto's genjutsu skills that the jounin didn't even flinch as he veered around them as though it were natural.
"I need you to stay in Konoha, Sasuke-kun." Mikoto said. "You'll be safe there."
"But I have to avenge you…and father." Sasuke said. "And the whole clan!"
"Shh, I need you to forget about revenge." She said lightly. "You can't leave Konoha to go after your brother."
Sasuke chose to keep quiet at that. He wouldn't lie to his mother, but his ambition had only hardened. Then she stood up and told him she had to go and that she would see him again, Sasuke pleaded and begged but she disappeared in what must have been another complex genjutsu before his Sharingan could recognize how.
Uchiha Mikoto had not been privy to the details, she didn't even know who had brought her back from the dead. All she remembered was standing in front of a white haired Konoha ninja wearing glasses and listening to him tell her that Sasuke was planning on deserting the village and that she could see him once more if she dissuaded him from becoming a missing nin and getting himself killed.
"Uchiha Sasuke," Kimimaro finally said after the boy was done scanning the woods. The Edo-tensei had probably been deactivated already. The Sharingan would find no chakra source.
"What," growled the last Uchiha, he wasn't going after Itachi today as a courtesy to his mother but he would soon.
"Orochimaru-sama wanted to show you what he could give you," Kimimaro carefully said. "He is willing to give you all the power you need to kill Itachi."
Sasuke briefly debated running the other boy through with a Chidori, "What power could he possibly give me that I can't gain in Konoha."
Kimimaro would have smirked if he understood how amusingly well Orochimaru's plan had gone. Sasuke was won over easily as he listed off a few names that he wanted returned to him. Orochimaru would have promised him the entire Uchiha clan's revival but the boy only chose a few people. Orochimaru was probably happy with how easy the Uchiha was to manipulate. Finally he asked the question he'd been dreading.
"That's all?" Sasuke asked, disbelieving. He had expected a more binding contract. "Why does a Sannin need my help to kill Itachi? Better yet why does he want Itachi dead?"
"Like I said before, Orochimaru-sama is very generous. He initially intended to kill Itachi as he and other S-ranked ninja are a part of an organization that are a threat to his plans. He is merely giving you a chance to fulfill this for him and of course he would like to run some tests on you."
"Tests?" asked Sasuke, he knew it must have had to do with why Orochimaru wanted him to get close to her but he would do anything to get his family back and destroy Itachi in one go.
"Nothing too difficult, you have his word that you will come out of it unharmed. Both of you." He then began to walk away. "Before I leave, I'd like to hear you repeat to me what has been requested of you."
Sasuke sighed, "I will stay in Konoha for a year and learn all I can. I must also establish a relationship with the Hyuuga heiress Hinata."
-=-=-=-=-==-====-=-=-=-=-=Three hours earlier, at the village gates
"What's this?" Naruto asked as he inspected one of the paper bombs in his weapons' stock.
"It is a paper bomb," Danzo replied. "A better version than the one you've been using."
"Just because it's new doesn't make it better," Naruto said. "These ones take chakra to activate and then set off. My other paper bombs did that in one go."
"Your other paper bombs were recalled and disaster-prone for having an inconsistent timer." Danzo said. "The timer on these ones is entirely up to you."
"At the cost of more chakra," Naruto retorted.
"Kid, you can pay the chakra cost." Jiraiya interjected.
"Yeah yeah, I have a lot of chakra," Naruto said. "I'll make it work."
"Good, your customized tanto will be ready upon your return," Danzo said, "and remember to show appropriate respect to the new hokage no matter what she says or does."
"What could she possibly say? Besides, I have a very high boiling point."
"No, you're very stubborn, there is a difference." Danzo said as he walked away.
Jiraiya and Naruto walked in relative silence, neither of the two had much experience talking with each other without the Sannin bringing up Minato and in the process angering the genin into sulking or completely forcing him to ignore every word out of his mouth.
"So," Jiraiya said. "How long has Danzo been supplying you with weapons."
"Since he started training me," Naruto said. "They were all better up until now."
"If you don't like them then just make your own," Jiraiya said.
"Ok,"
It would be a few hours later when Naruto and Jiraiya finally arrived in the next village. The blond was told to leave Jiraiya alone for a few days.
Later on, Naruto created a clone and used it to help him bring his left hand up into the familiar cross seal, the process was painful but he pulled off in time to crumple to his knees a wheezing mess.
"You need any help?" asked the Uzukage Bunshin.
"Shut up!" Naruto drawled. His chakra felt dangerously low. "Why did it take so much chakra?"
"Probably because of this," The clone said rolling its left wrist around.
Both Naruto and the other clone were astonished to see that. The blonde's left wrist and hand had been maddeningly unusable unless he wanted to cause himself severe pain. The problem was his normal clones had the exact same problem, each of their left wrist was unworkable. This shouldn't have been the case with simple chakra constructs but clearly his mind manifested the defect perfectly. It seemed like this time his chakra was depleted just for the purpose of making a perfectly workable clone.
Naruto stumbled in the direction Jiraiya said he could reach him. It was just in time as fourty minutes later, three massive chakra signatures appeared on the floor of the motel room the duo were staying in.
The functional clone answered the door to find only two people, one was most definitely Uchiha Itachi, S-rank clan killer and a true prodigy. The other…was a beaming blue faced fish like man that had another chakra monster strapped onto to his back. It seemed the Akatsuki had picked up a jinchuriki on their way to him. The perfect clone had expected his bijuu to be at the top of their priority list, second place didn't sit well with him for some odd reason.
"Ok, you're Uchiha Itachi," Naruto said looking between the two. "And you, I have no idea who you are."
The grinning man instantly scowled as Naruto ushered them in. The two S-ranked criminals were slightly perplexed at how calm their target was but then again, this was only their second jinchuriki scout mission.
"Lil brat has a lot of chakra." Kisame said calmly. "but it's all there. None of it is sealed, Samaeheda would be excited."
"Naruto can use the Kage Bunshin," Itachi said, then raised his right hand.
Naruto watched every movement carefully, he even expected it but Itachi's hand disappeared and he was knocked to the ground by what felt like a kick but was nothing more than a slap. He got up and nursed his aching jaw, a tooth was on the ground and he was ashamed to feel a sting in his eyes.
"Oh look, he got up," Kisame chuckled. "Maybe you are the Yondaime's son after all."
As a ninja prodigy, Itachi was rarely perplexed but today had been a day of surprises. Had the Sandaime hokage truly deceived an entire ninja village into believing that Naruto contained the Kyuubi when he didn't? Was it possible that the Yondaime had truly found a way to kill a bijuu and Konoha had used Naruto as a mere tool to maintain morale among the more well-informed shinobi groups? It was underhanded and especially disrespectful to the Yondaime, it had probably been the idea of the advisors. But he needed to be thorough; Obito would accept nothing less than a certainty and he'd rather Konoha lose Uzumaki Naruto than Uchiha Sasuke. His Sharingan activated and trained its focus on the blond.
"Are you the Kyuubi jinchuriki?" Itachi asked.
"Me?" Naruto growled, gesturing to himself. "No I'm not, you bastard, that hurt."
"Kisame," Itachi said. "Naruto-kun is telling the truth, he is not a jinchuriki."
"So you're sure you've never heard of me?" Kisame questioned the blond.
"Err…no, did you ever fight any powerful Leaf ninja?"
"You Konoha ninjas have a very high opinion of yourself, don't you?" Kisame asked Itachi.
The Ninja Swordsman hefted his sword on his shoulder then slowly brought it down towards Naruto's own shoulder, the blond took an involuntary step back.
Kisame scoffed at that, "You're not the Yondaime's son."
"Why? Because I'm an E-rank genin that doesn't wanna fight an S-rank criminal?"
"It's because you're still an E-rank genin," Kisame growled. "Even so if you were truly the Yondaime's brat then you'd have attacked me by now, even if you were doomed to be destroyed."
"Screw you!" Naruto shouted back, stalling for time was now overtaken by anger "I fought the Nidaime hokage! Would your mythical version of me have the guts to do that?"
"Yeah he wo—fought the Nidaime? How old is this kid, Itachi?" Kisame asked.
"It was an Edo-Tensei." Naruto replied, "I know my own strengths fish-face, so no. I won't go around attacking Uchiha Itachi and his sidekick."
"That's it, this brat is annoying me."
Itachi knew what came next, once Kisame was done, Naruto would be ripped into unfamiliar bits of flesh and that would erase the Yondaime's legacy forever. The Konoha ninja in the Uchiha could not allow that to happen.
"No, Kisame," he said. "I shall deal with Naruto-kun."
Naruto backpedalled into the wall and made the mistake of trying to find a spot he could Kawarimi to. His eyes instantly met those of Itachi's transformed Sharingan and the blond was unknowingly sent into the world of Tsukiyome.
Naruto tried muffling his screams, then he tried screaming as loud as he could then he seriously contemplated weeping; later in his life when asked about the last time he shed tears, the blond Uzumaki would lie through his teeth, it was just a genjutsu after all.
"Good, Naruto-kun," Said one of the many Itachi's. "You only have two days, twenty three hours, fifty nine minutes and fifty nine seconds left to go."
Then Naruto began to laugh, it was a mad laugh, one that Itachi had never expected to hear from a victim to his Tsukiyome.
"This is all your genjutsu does, isn't it?" Naruto cackled deliriously, he was exhausted. "It's a beautiful technique, I'm guessing time outside this realm is just a moment but you can torture me for days here. All that information recoil in just a second could induce a coma in anyone else."
"But not you?" Asked Itachi, "Care to share why you think so?"
Naruto composed himself, "Only if you promise to answer a question or two of mine as well."
Once Itachi nodded, Naruto continued, "I can create almost a thousand Kage Bunshin and have each of them work independently for a whole day before dispelling them. Imagine three weeks of that process. Imagine the many ways clones can die, accidental or otherwise, I remember all their pain as if it were my own in an instant. Similar to your genjutsu I think, my mind will just treat it like another string of painful Kage Bunshin memories."
"Is that so?" Itachi said, if the boy was truly capable of handling memories to that extent then his genjutsu shouldn't work. This information did not stop Itachi from trying though, so it was only two days and many hours later that the two spoke again.
"What is your question?"
"Que…questions," Naruto corrected, he'd been wheezing incoherently a moment ago but felt much better now that he wasn't victim to more pain. The cross he had been tied to disintegrated and released him. "There…is a fire jutsu I read about, it's known as Am…Amaterasu, apparently it can only be used by someone with a Sharingan, how is such a restriction possible?"
It would be a while before Naruto's body blinked and all the memories allocated themselves perfectly, he sighed in relief; a part of him had started to doubt whether his theory would work out. In that case he'd hoped that being a clone, the jutsu wouldn't affect him as much as a normal person.
"What happened, did he break the jutsu?" questioned Kisame.
"No…he endured it."
"Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto told a disbelieving Kisame.
"What?"
"You kept calling me 'Yondaime's son'," Naruto said. "I assumed it was because you didn't know my name, thought I'd tell you before you died."
Naruto had timed his speech perfectly, Jiraiya appeared a second later with a woman he'd run off with slung over his shoulder, Naruto did not want to think about why she was unconscious. The blond slinked his way to the bed before a pink substances engulfed the entire room.
-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-Earlier with the real Naruto
Naruto had rushed immediately to the bar Jiraiya had told him to go to should he need to find the man. He wound up leaving almost as instantly as he'd entered. The loud bar seemed to pause if everyone staring at him through the partially open door was any indication. Naruto took a table and attempted to buy some sake before asking about Jiraiya's whereabouts but had to leave because of the barely restrained KI that was trained on him for some reason. He found the answer in five Iwa shinobi in their early teens sitting in the back, glaring at him and clearly calculating how much time it would take to cross the bar and come slit his throat, Naruto decided that sake and maybe Jiraiya could wait.
That had been an hour ago, now he was crouched behind a tree, seconds away from losing his life.
*flashback*
The blond had led the Iwa team into the woods, he could have easily lost them but the warrior within wanted to prove he was still…effective with just one hand. That was the plan before, he heard and dodged a flash bomb. It detonated just as it passed him and by the time Naruto deemed it safe enough open his eyes, four Iwa ninja had Shunshin'd into a circle around him.
"Wha's your name, boy?" slurred the apparent leader, one of the two women in the group.
"I's him, taicho." one of them interjected before he could answer. "The Yellow Flash,"
"Le's end him now." Said another, with the tiger seal ready.
"Wait," the youngest looking girl pleaded. "The Yellow flash is dead, he just looks like him. We can't attack him for that."
"I don't care!"
The group did not even wait for a consensus as two kunai and a fireball roared at the boy. Naruto was glad they had given him enough time to mold chakra, he dodged one kunai and blocked the other in time to kawarimi away from the fireball.
The blond watched from his perch on a branch as the ninja argued about which one of their weapons had killed him. Then one of them had the bright idea of checking the body. Naruto formed a clone to prepare for battle and that was when it hit. The chakra drain brought him to his knees, he was out of chakra and deep down he was certain that he'd just used his last jutsu for the day.
*flashback end*
After realizing that, the clone and original narrowly survived a volley of shuriken, a few smoke bombs later and they were now hiding behind a tree.
"Get back here, Yondaime's son!"
"You need to pay for what your father did, brat!"
Damn it, I can't focus! Naruto thought, failing to keep the fear out of his thoughts, as the shouts got ever so close.
He needed chakra. He still had taijutsu, his kunai pouch was still fully stocked and his ninja-to was already in his right hand. The only problem was his taijutsu worked best with two hands and the hand grasping his ninja-to was shaking uncontrollably. He didn't want to die!
So the blond searched, looking for his courage. Danzo had taught him the art of overcoming fear against KI but back then, Naruto had always known he was never in any real danger. But now he was! He looked at his clone and the fear tripled upon seeing what must have been the same petrified expression on his own face. They couldn't do this!
His strength did not come from chakra did it? "…when you're protecting something precious to you, that's when you truly become strong." That's how Haku had defined it for him and a part of him had truly believed that…at the time. Hadn't he proved that by fighting that Kusa nin in the forest and her snakes for his teammates? But then Haku had died because of it. So, after the idea, Naruto along with Danzo had redefined his understanding of strength. Your precious people could not be protected all the time, it was inconceivable. Precious people could die but the strength of revenge was unlimited. His mother had died and the Yondaime, 'the strongest ninja in the village', couldn't save her and hadn't even been willing to avenge her by sending the Kyuubi to its end. He had sworn an oath to do what his father couldn't. That oath had turned him into, what he thought, was an strong ninja. That was the code he lived by now.
If Ino, Konohamaru, Sakura, the Ichirakus or Hinata died. He would avenge them cruelly as he planned to do for his parents. With Haku's dream, he would have been unwilling to accept their deaths as a possibility. Danzo had showed him that death was a possibility even for people you hold dear, but he was still naïve. He didn't believe that the rules of mortality applied to him.
The blond thought about his reason to live, he found none. His ambition was essentially a suicide mission. He thought he'd accepted that but clearly he wasn't suicidal. Uzumaki Naruto had come to believe that there was a happy ending in store for him, didn't he deserve one? He did not fully accept that he could or would die. There were instances where he feared imminent death but there was always that nagging feeling that told him he would still survive. The Wave mission. The Forest of Death. The failed invasion. Naruto trusted in his ability to not die.
It was the same reason he wasn't fleeing from the scene right now, he believed that somehow, someway, he was meant to survive this. He could survive anything! But that was ridiculous! If his precious people could die, why couldn't he?
Naruto's eyes steeled and his heart rate slowed. He was going to die, there was no way around it. It could be right now, when he fought the masked man, when he would be taking the Kyuubi with him or as random as a stray kunai. Death was inevitable and he dared not fear or ignore it anymore. The blond tightened his hold around his ninja-to. He just needed to kill one of them, then he would be satisfied.
"Cover me," Naruto said to the still frightened clone that hadn't followed the same train of thought he had.
The five shouting ninja barely noticed Naruto appear before them in the clearing. The closest, 21 year old Akuna Ueno, rose his kunai in time to block the blade that had been aiming for his throat. The strength surprised him but did not force him back an inch.
"Decided to face judgement I see." He said smugly.
The Yondaime's son replied by releasing his ninja-to and Ueno's strong grip led him tumbling towards the blonde's drawn kunai. Ueno would have been impaled in the heart had the blond not been forced to dodge an incoming kunai.
Naruto dodged in a roll forwards and swung his kunai wildly at the back of the ninja he'd been fighting. He didn't even concentrate on the satisfying squelch of flesh, his next target was the youngest looking of the group and the second closest. A concentrated pull of chakra and his seals deactivated. The blond shot forward faster than the female Iwa nin could react, his kunai met her heart at the same time that another dug into the back of his shoulder. He heard the clang of kunai to his right and was glad his clone had decided to join the fight.
"You should leave now," the hidden clone projected its semi-ominous voice with amateur ventriloquist skills, "My father is dead and so will most, if not al—"
The message was drowned out by the remaining girl, a brown haired kunoichi's shout, "You bastard! I'm going to end you!"
She rushed Naruto who did well to keep himself facing the remaining three, he was ready to engage her when a kunai came whizzing towards the enraged kunoichi. Naruto pulled the kunai out of his shoulder with a muffled scream and tossed it at the one still on the ground.
Ueno blocked the kunai with great difficulty, the Yondaime's brat, had cut into his back. His every movement stung. He moved to engage the brat again, then he noticed the downed Mikoto, a kunai imbedded in her chest. His girlfriend was dead! The Iwa nin allowed grief to overwhelm him. He only regained his senses when the blond brat fell from the trees, to land right in front of him. Mikoto's murderer!
Naruto rolled to his feet and narrowly dodged a volley of shuriken. The enraged girl was occupied with his clone, who seemed to be toying with her. His clone had forgotten this was a life or death situation. One was dead, the fourth was probably crippled since he hadn't moved and the fifth, was physically their strongest if his bruised ribs had anything to say about it!
Liang Kitori tossed more kunai at the dodging blond, his opponent was skilled for a child. He was sure if they had been the same age, their fight would have been less one sided. Kitori closed the distance between them, brushing passed the dazed Ueno and swung his fist towards the blond's right side.
Naruto brought his right elbow up to block the punch and just as he felt the crunch of what must have been a displaced knuckle, another punch broke through the weak defence brought up by his left arm and straight into his right jaw, sending him tumbling to the ground from the sheer force.
Kitori jumped onto Naruto, straddling him and made the mistake of raising his kunai high in order to add extra force to his attack. He would never complete his downward swing, a kunai crashed into his neck and his death would be short but agonizing.
Naruto would have thanked his clone if it hadn't turned its back on its enemy in order to save him. The memories flashed to him dutifully and Naruto shot back to his feet to face the last real threat.
"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Ueno shouted.
Naruto turned to the shouter, seeing another enraged Iwa nin charging him. Unlike his clone, the blond knew he had to press this advantage. The kunai swipe was sloppy and Naruto simply intercepted it with a kick to the chest and the weapon fell to the ground as its owner followed it soon after.
Naruto reached his ninja-to, blocked thrown shuriken haphazardly and stabbed it into the heart of what he didn't know was a grieving lover. Two shuriken had made it passed his guard, each of which were nestled in his chest. Barely breaking the skin thanks to light armour padding that Danzo had insisted he have sown into his jacket.
"You made a big mistake," she growled. "I'm not just going to kill you now, I'm going to tear you to pieces!"
Naruto believed her; he was in no condition to keep fighting. His body overcame the pain on nothing but pure will power. His face was focused, with small twitches indicating the immense pain he was in but he didn't allow a grimace to form.
She closed the distance between them in a Shunshin, no matter how predictable, Naruto barely tilted his body to the side in time for his shoulder to take the brunt of the attack rather than the shuriken in his chest. The blond fell in a heap.
There was no follow up attack, Naruto groaned and struggled to a knee. She was looking at him with cold fury in her, KI was leaking off her in waves. The blond met her gaze as calmly as he could.
"Any last words?" she asked.
"What…was the girl's…name?" Naruto panted. He hated himself for it but he knew this would cause her to make more mistakes.
She roared, no longer willing to let him suffer but kill him outright. His hand plunged into his kunai pouch a fraction of a second before she did the same.
She swung her kunai towards him but Naruto brought up his forearm in a block to stop her arm almost the same time that he twirled his wrist and clasped his hand around her arm, he swung her over his shoulder with nothing but a twist from his hips and some fancy footwork. He was still kneeling when she hit the ground, in more pain then when he had started, while she was relatively unharmed.
She shot to her feet just as Naruto backtracked. The blond then closed his eyes. To the Iwa nin, Naruto had just given up, but she would never know that an explosive tag had just been clasped around her arm. She should have just thrown a kunai and ended it but she wanted to see him suffer, she knew that clumsy throw was the last trick he had in him.
Naruto heard her footsteps get ever closer, waiting for the distinct bang; he'd expunged the last of his chakra for that tag. The sound never came and it was only when she stood in front of him that his eyes shot open in recollection. The tag he'd just used had only been armed; he still needed to detonate it.
"Any more last words?" she asked, too smugly for a grieving team leader.
It was hopeless. The blond didn't close his eyes as the sixth chakra source entered the clearing; he was very shocked to see the girl in front of him get taken down by a blur.
Blood seeped out of her mouth, the punch she had received had practically shattered the bones that made up her chest cavity and she had died virtually instantly.
"G—Gai sensei?" Naruto queried, he'd felt the chakra presence approaching but had been sure it was more foe than friend.
"Hai, Naruto-kun." Said the green clad jounin, he surveyed the graveyard briefly. "You did very well, they were a very notorious chuunin team."
Naruto nodded and allowed himself to fully relax as Gai dressed his wounds. He did not feel pride swell up in his chest at that. Because he knew he shouldn't have won, the chuunin team had stopped to discuss, they had allowed their emotions to cloud them and most important, the team of Iwagakure chuunin team that had nearly killed him had been drunk.
-=-=-=-==-====-==-=-=-A few days later
Naruto could barely contain his glee, a metre away from him was one of the most powerful techniques in ninja history. It was just a slip of paper that represented the technique but that did not matter, with this slip of paper his skills would triple. This jutsu could make him capable of contending with S-rank nin.
"Are you sure you changed it?" Naruto asked with a look behind at his sensei.
"For the last time, gaki," Jiraiya said, repeating his carefully scripted explanation to why the seal worked now. "Theseal was created in such a way that it would work for you."
"And why can't you use the seal again?"
Jiraiya sighed, he didn't need to bend the truth for this but he was tired of answering the same questions from the suspicious little brat.
"The last seal master who tried to use that seal died from chakra exhaustion and don't get me started on what happened when amateurs tried it, I'm not brave or young enough to risk depriving the world or the ladies of my existence."
"So you're w—" Naruto began only to be interrupted.
"Yes, gaki, now get started already."
Naruto grinned madly, he truly didn't care about the risk and he was sure Jiraiya really know how the seal worked himself, but he did. He just needed to master his calligraphy.
Holding up a handseal, the blond molded chakra and time slowed to a still. The seal in front of him wasn't the only one calling out to him, there were 200 others. No, further away, hundreds of kilometres around him were even more seals calling out to him.
The blond shut those out and concentrated on the 200, the seal called for more chakra and Naruto pumped it out like a tap and suddenly he was back in Konoha, in his parents' bedroom. No, this was too far away. Then he was in the kitchen. Still too far. The blond didn't even have time to observe the room before he was whisked away to the top of the Hokage Monument. Then he was in the hokage's office, face to face with Danzo. His sensei didn't register his presence at all and before Naruto could call out, he was pulled to another location in Konoha. The seals were too far away! He needed to move just one metre from where he had been standing.
The blond found the clearing and willed himself to the nearest seal, the chakra drain this time was significant, he felt it soar through his entire body then slow at his left hand, he forced more chakra through it and the blond felt like he dropped from the sky right next to Jiraiya, the vertigo was insane and the blond was vomiting his breakfast and last night's dinner almost immediately, desperately trying to relay his amazing experience as pieces of chicken decorated the ground.
Jiraiya didn't know what happened, one second the brat was in front of him and the next he disappeared and reappeared right next to him, throwing up.
"What happened?"
"Konoha…hokage…apa…" Naruto was still trying to keep his food down and speak at the same time. "love…again! Again!"
Jiraiya saw the brat lift his right up in another hand seal and acted quickly by knocking him out with a chop to the neck.
-=-=-=-=-===-=-====-=-=-=Seven days later
It was a week of Jiraiya having to knock Naruto out every time he would try to mould chakra to transport himself to the Hiraishin seal. The blonde didn't know if it was getting knocked but the light-headedness from after he used the seal hadn't completely worn off. After the two hundred and sixth time, Naruto submitted and promised not to use the seal until the vertigo from his first try officially wore off. And decided to pursue his thirst for sake, that had was met with more denial.
"You okay, kid" Jiraiya asked for the hundredth time.
Naruto scowled, Jiraiya had kept him at arm's length even after his epiphany, treating him like he would spontaneously combust at any moment.
"I haven't thrown up once today, so yeah" Naruto said, "Why are you being so overprotective?"
For some reason Jiraiya gave a start at that, the man gave a mediocre excuse that Naruto interpreted as "we can't lose our precious jinchuriki,". It kind of made Naruto wonder why they were training him so well since he'd expressed many unpatriotic views about Konoha. It would make more sense to try and convert his views first, rather than give him access to so many high level techniques.
"Can I get some sake after this?" Naruto asked.
Jiraiya laughed, then he realized that his student was serious. The reason Naruto gave was interpreted by Jiraiya as "I'm depressed that you won't let me try the Hiraishin no jutsu and I need to forget it by getting drunk." Naturally, Jiraiya refused to indulge him. That night the duo would meet Tsunade in a bar. Naruto made very good sport of listening to Jiraiya warn him about being nice, he was hoping he could use this as leverage to have another go at the Hiraishin no jutsu.
Tsunade laughed, Naruto continued being invisible, he and the new hokage's apprentice had not been addressed once since the two Sannin had started conversing. The two were in their own little world and as the conversation continued, Naruto found no reason why Danzo had changed his opinion of her. She spoke spitefully about the Sandaime when his death was brought up.
It was at that moment that Naruto decided that he did not like this woman; there was no other Konoha ninja that Naruto respected more than the Sandaime. The man had practically raised him without any real obligation. Like Danzo regularly said, the Sandaime should have turned him into a living weapon from day one but he hadn't. Naruto had wanted to ask the Sandaime about it but felt that he wouldn't like the answer. There were three possible answers, either it was because of the Yondaime; which Naruto hoped wasn't the answer, he got enough of that from Jiraiya. The other reason was because he was a jinchuriki, but that was unlikely; his status as a jinchuriki had not been valued as much as his childhood from the way he'd lived. The final most likely reason was that the Sandaime had actually cared for him; it definitely showed from his actions. It was one of the main reasons he'd never asked for help with his ninja skills before, Naruto had felt indebted to the Sandaime and he had wanted to avoid asking too much.
"Me as hokage?" Tsunade said. "Dying for the village? Hah, that's a fool's bet…"
Naruto listened to her insult the hokage and their deeds. It further cemented his dislike for her and imbued an annoying admiration for Uchiha Sasuke. Sasuke had not broken down, he had not blamed the world or whined about the unfairness of it all, the Uchiha had simply strengthened his resolve and was now a fully functional human being with slightly aimless homicidal tendencies when his brother was brought up. Senju Tsunade was proving Sasuke a better griever by insulting the entire village and anyone who had been willing to die for it.
"I won'—" Tsunade never got to finish her sentence.
Naruto thought he'd discreetly reached for the cup of sake but Jiraiya instantly tore himself from the Sannin world and smacked his hand away.
"Dammit, gaki, how many times do I have to say it, you're not old enough."
"Oh sure," Naruto began. "I'm too young for sake but not too young to enter a brothel and have older women try to make money from me."
"Kid, you're never too young for the charms of a woman." Jiraiya replied whimsically. He loved speaking about this stuff. "I remember my first ti—"
"Who's the brat, Jiraiya?" Tsunade demanded.
"This is Uzumaki Naruto," Jiraiya said with more pride than Naruto expected. "My new student,"
Naruto noticed the instant recognition that flashed across her eyes, it seemed that even outside the village his status as a jinchuriki was too easily accessible. The Sandaime could definitely have handled this portion of his upbringing a little differently. Then she proceeded to smirk.
"So this is your new apprentice," she began, "He's nothing like the last one. He's a fool, funny looking too."
Naruto maintained his tired expression, he never placed great value on what people he didn't like or respect thought of him. That lack of reaction surprised Tsunade if her fading smirk was anything to go by.
"The Yondaime was a once in a generation genius," Jiraiya started. Naruto blocked out the rest of his sensei's rant; he'd heard enough of them, he hated all versions of it.
"…but he's not my apprentice, just a student; and he's supremely talented, not on the level of his father but still amazing how he picks up jutsu."
Tsunade's eyes widened fractionally but she wasn't surprised, it seemed like his heritage was a well shared secret as well. Naruto wondered when exactly he would have been made aware of this, since this was all meant to be classified information.
"So he knows already," she said. "well, brat, what do you think about the position of hokage?"
"Not much," Naruto said, his tone getting angrier. "although the people that became hokage didn't do it by insulting their predecessors. Their respect is well deserved and what you're saying is borderline treasonous. Someone like you isn't worthy of it."
Tsunade smirked, "You wanna take this outside?"
"You're old enough to be my grandmother," Naruto snarled. "So no"
Jiraiya looked at Naruto and soon realized what was going on. The boy was hopping mad, he'd been hiding it well but Jiraiya knew the tell-tale signs of an impending Naruto-outburst. This would not be pretty; he should have stopped Tsunade sooner. The Slug princess' grip shattered the cup in her hand but before she could launch herself at Naruto, Jiraiya's voice broke her out of it.
"I think that's enough, Tsunade," Jiraiya said with a dangerous edge to his voice. "We didn't come here to speak about the past. Naruto, how about you and Shizune go book us some rooms across the street."
Naruto took the money and slipped out of the booth cautiously followed by Shizune, before completely walked away. Naruto's glare met Tsunade's and gave the Sannin a start. To Tsunade, seeing such hate in a child was unprecedented, if he were a little older, she would have actually been wary of his KI. Then he spoke and she felt the utter revulsion he felt for her, it was the same that she felt for the village that had taken her lover and brother from her.
Naruto rarely raised his voice when angered, it was something that Danzo had beat into him. I know you do not understand the term emotional restraint. He would say. But I expect you to at least mask your emotions well when it's called for. But now, he could barely keep his tone even, every part of him was telling him to attack the Slug Sannin but he knew he would die too soon; he wasn't ready to even stand on the same battlefield as her.
"If you discredit the reasons my kaa-san and my tou-san died for again, I will kill you." Naruto spat maliciously. "Maybe not immediately but I will."
Jiraiya was pleasantly, to his knowledge, Naruto never accepted that Minato as his father. The blond genin had even resorted to calling Minato the 'Yondaime'. When did the Yondaime and kaa-san. He would say. Jiraiya would correct him by answering: Your father and mother… But the blond would just grimace at the second word. The Sannin counted this as progress.
The duo continued to their respective rooms without a word to each other. Naruto wouldn't have responded to any conversation either way, he could hardly contain the burning sensation in his chest.
It was an hour later when Naruto was doing his level best to find the Iwa team in the bingo book he'd pleaded from Jiraiya's grasp when Shizune came knocking at his door, talking about how Tsunade was not a bad person and had been kind and dedicated to the village. Naruto kept his mouth shut through it all, expecting to hear something he didn't already know.
"…it was until that day she lost all she had," she said. "dreams, ho—"
"I'm going to stop you right there," Naruto said with a raised hand. "She lost her brother and boyfriend, so what?"
The reply angered Shizune and if he weren't a little boy she would have attacked him, "Excuse me?" she snarled instead.
"So what if she lost people," Naruto said, flipping a page in the book, subconsciously like Kakashi did with his own book. "It does not explain away her cowardly insults. The people she lost were ninja right? How did she expect them to die, in their sleep from old age?"
Shizune fingered a senbon needle, with a small twitch she could render him paralysed but still susceptive to pain. He continued before she could take such action.
"Imagine your father killing your mother before your eyes, and then have him turn on you with the same intent. Imagine if you were forced to kill your father," Naruto said, his tone becoming uneven. "Or imagine having your entire family massacred in a single night? I know people who lived through that. What Tsunade and apparently you appear to be forgetting is that people suffer, people die. It's probably happening right now but that doesn't mean you should breakdown and pretend that you are the only one in the world that it's happening to; you definitely do not go around disrespecting the dead to make yourself feel better or defending someone who has. Close the door on your way out!"
-=-=-==-==-=-=-=-=-A few miles outside the town, a few days later
Yakushi Kabuto had always claimed to be subpar at taijutsu, in truth, he always meant it condescendingly. Kabuto was fast, had perfect form and what he lacked in strength he made up for with his precision in lethal medical ninjutsu. He was jounin level and could use each of the ninja arts easily, genjutsu, ninjutsu, taijutsu, fuinjutsu. It did not matter what the field, he excelled. If he were vain, Kabuto would call himself a very talented shinobi, but besides being a man of many words, Kabuto's actions spoke volumes about his ability.
He had been taking on a legendary ninja and hadn't been ground into dust yet. His ribs were bruised, probably cracked and rehealed countless times. He'd been hit with a jutsu that messed up his nervous system, the Sannin had been pleasantly surprised that he recovered from that and sprang up from the punch he'd received to stand in front of his master.
"You're a skilled medic and it would be a shame to kill you but if you don't stand aside now then I'll kill you too." Tsunade said, rolling her shoulders.
Kabuto stood his ground, his legs were shaking, his wounds had yet to completely heal and more than half his chakra was gone trying to finish the job. He had even forgotten about Tsunade's weakness. Going into the fight, a part of him had thought he would be able win.
"Kabuto," Orochimaru said. "I hope you haven't forgotten."
Tsunade was certain that if Orochimaru had not shown her Dan and Nawaki's revived bodies and inside coffins she might have been tempted to accept his offer, but she knew how the jutsu worked, she knew he had desecrated their graves and it made her blood boil. She paid no heed to their conversation and stalked her way towards the talented medic she'd been trying not to kill. She allowed him to draw a kunai because it wouldn't have made a difference either way.
Kabuto's legs had considered spiriting him away from the dangerous blond before Orochimaru's words. But they steeled immediately afterwards, he grabbed a kunai and sliced his palm open in time to splash the blood across Tsunade's face. The effect was instant and Kabuto capitalized.
A glowing palm touched Tsunade's chest and he kicked her towards the arriving group's smoke bomb. Tsunade disappeared into the smoke.
"Well that's one Sannin down." Kabuto said and swallowed three pills, with Jiraiya here, Orochimaru would enter the battle.
"Kabuto?" Naruto said. "What are you doing here?"
"Can't you see the headband, kid" Jiraiya said. "He's a spy."
"Don't be ridiculous, Jiraiya-sensei. Hey, Kabuto, tell the perverted bastard he's wrong," Naruto joked. Instead of laughs, he got an actual reply.
"I see you're as slow as ever, Naruto," Kabuto said. "no wonder you're no match for Sasuke."
Naruto was starting to think that he'd been a terrible academy student, had he truly been so dense that it was believable for him to not accept simple things like "he's a spy"?
"During the Chuunin exams," he said. "I learned something about you, Naruto."
Kabuto pushed up his glasses, "You lack any ninja ability, you're not a bit like Sasuke."
Naruto furrowed his eyebrows at that. Did people truly enjoy comparing him to Sasuke this much? Sakura had done it and Ino did it on occasion, even he had been victim to the unidentified disorder. Or was Kabuto trying to rile him up? It would have been a sound tactic two months ago.
"You can glare at me all you want," Kabuto said. "You're still just a pint size genin who's in over his head. I admit the power of the dem—"
"Hey! In case you forgot, you're still a genin too!"
Naruto extended his senses, Kabuto's chakra wasn't pint sized at all. If he still found chakra size reliable anymore then Kabuto would be a jounin.
"Stay out of this," then Kabuto tilted his head to the side. ", or die."
Wasn't planning on getting involved, you bastard! Naruto thought after a failed attempt at clenching his left hand.
"Shizune, you'll take four eyes over there," Jiraiya said, then he turned to Naruto. "Protect Tsunade."
"Hai, Jiraiya-sensei" Naruto said as he took his position in front of Tsunade. He was only mildly contemplating letting her get hit by a 'stray' kunai.
Kabuto rushed to his master and with a nod from the man, he ran through the seals and summoned two snakes.
If Naruto didn't respect the Gama-Sennin so much he might have laughed when Gamakichi appeared after his own seals.
"Eh...Naruto?" Jiraiya pleaded but Naruto just waved his left hand.
The massive snakes struck out at the group, Naruto grabbed Tsunade and dodged away with her. Debris exploded everywhere and Naruto wondered how they would fight a summon for the few moments it took Jiraiya to run through hand seals.
Jiraiya's Swamp of the Underworld technique made Naruto feel a little insecure. Not only was the mud large enough to trap two enormous summons but he had done it while metres in the air. Naruto rushed Tsunade away from the battling Sannin and Sannin apprentices. He was annoyed and glad, annoyed because Danzo had told him that his version of the jutsu was acceptable, clearly it wasn't and glad because none of the snakes had tried to eat him this time.
"Hmm," Naruto said, turning his head away from the Sannin fight. "Looks like your apprentice isn't doing so good, has she seen any real combat since you took her?"
Naruto got no reply, even though he was sure the Slug Sannin saw and heard everything that was going on. The blond grimaced when Kabuto punched Shizune hard enough to draw blood.
"Oy!" Naruto called out. "Hasn't anyone ever told you not to hit a lady."
The Otogakure nin rounded on him at that, he pulled out a card.
"Naruto," he said. "As I remember, you were nothing but big talk during the chuunin exam, "don't underestimate me, I don't quit and I don't run, I don't care if I'm a genin the rest of my life, I'll still be hokage." Where's all that big talk now?"
Naruto walked forward towards Kabuto, he was done talking, the soon to be thirteen year old felt unnerved at the way, Kabuto towered over him.
Kabuto's relaxed stance cost him as he narrowly dodged a thrown kunai directly into a powerful kick to the chest that sent tumbling. He didn't have time to contemplate how that had happened before having to roll away from a hail of shuriken.
"It seems you've pick up so—"
Two globules of water threatened to rip Kabuto's head off in time to interrupt his monologue and there wasn't time to think as a fireball followed soon after. Kabuto tunnelled into the ground before the shuriken trailing the jutsu reached the flames and him.
Naruto leapt back in time to dodge Kabuto's ridiculous technique. The blond was panting slightly, having molded chakra too hastily to have controlled it for the fireball jutsu.
"You've gotten better," Kabuto laughed, "but you're still just one genin."
The medic nin would discover just how wrong he was over the next few minutes. His superior ninja skills would be rendered utterly useless in the face of clones that appeared impulsively from every direction and no matter how much he tried he couldn't destroy one without it creating two more replacements for itself.
Kabuto growled as a poof directly behind him stopped his intended kunai swing, the Oto-nin ducked low enough for the ninja-to to miss the back of his neck and destroy the clone in front of him. But the clones were relentless and Kabuto was soon fighting a losing battle of attrition.
Clones trapped Kabuto in a wall of earth and atop the makeshift prison, Naruto rained down a stream of flames and Kabuto disappeared underground once more.
A headache developed in the back of the blonde's head and he couldn't help but imagine Jiraiya scolding him, he looked down and the light-headedness set in. He didn't have much time before the world would completely start spinning. Seven clones appeared at his sides and six of them disappeared in their own thunderous booms, aiming for the spot where Kabuto was rising from.
Kabuto's only warning was the distracting six booms, which he reflexively turned to see the source of. He glimpsed Naruto twirling a kunai, before he noticed the clones around him.
The clones slammed their right hands onto the ground and rocketed Kabuto into the air with a concentrated and small wall of earth.
Naruto flung the kunai right where Kabuto reached the apex of his airlift, the Oto jounin saw it and was completely ready to block it with the kunai he'd just withdrawn. But just as the other kunai got within arms' reach, it transformed into another blond haired Naruto, his right arm reared back and the orb of chakra in it broke through the kunai and slammed straight into Kabuto's chest, there was a strangled cry and the former Konoha genin was blasted away.
Naruto watched and felt Kabuto plummet to the ground, making sure to concentrate only on the diminishing source of chakra especially. Once he was sure it had completely faded, he dispelled all his clones, realising they had been ready to bombard the dead Kabuto with more attacks to make sure.
Naruto gingerly climbed down the wall, being careful not to look down and stumbled his way to where he left Tsunade.
You're kidding me. Naruto frantically searched the surrounding area, he'd been sure to steer the battle away from the Tsunade, Shizune was propped up against a rock but the Sannin was nowhere to be found. Can't believe I lost a Sannin.
"Hey, Shizune," Naruto called to the Sannin's apprentice. "Do you know where Tsunade is? Jiraiya will kill me if he finds out I lost her."
Before Shizune could answer, Naruto's reply came in a three loud poofs metres away where Jiraiya had been fighting Orochimaru. He turned his head and saw the three most illustrious summons in Konoha. Manda, Gamabunta and Katsuyu. Atop each of their heads were their respective summoners.
The blond could clearly hear the summons banter and he was sure the summoners were joinng in.
*flashback*
"You've gotten better," Kabuto laughed, "but you're still just one genin."
*flashback end*
You're wrong, I'm not just one genin. I'm an army. The blond had not even thought about replying to the taunt, that would have surely been one way to do it. He'd been too focused to even speak, too worried he'd make a mistake and die inadvertently.
Naruto lied down on his back and propped himself up on his elbows to watch what he was sure would be the most exciting fight since Kakashi and Zabuza. Or Lee and Neji.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Earlier
Orochimaru was mortified as he watched his most skilled apprentice fall to the ground in a bloody clutter. He had known the Kyuubi brat was strong after watching him defeat Sasuke so effortlessly but he had been sure Kabuto, even with his reflexes disrupted by Tsunade's jutsu could defeat him.
The Snake Sannin didn't have time to think about it before he was forced to dodge an attack that smashed into his summon and sprayed its blood everywhere. It annoyed him to find the calm Tsunade with her fist cratering in the now dead snake's hide and blood and innards covering her all over.
"I'll ask you again, Orochimaru" growled Tsunade as she ran through a familiar set of hand seals, "Did you return their bodies?"
Orochimaru easily realised that she wasn't looking for an actual answer, not that she would like the answer he had to give. He fought through the pain, grimacing slightly and ran through the same seals.
The blond spectator of the battle was awestruck. The legendary Sannin weren't blurs, they simply disappeared from his perception. It was the speed of three S-rank ninja fighting and mostly Tsunade's devastating blows amidst stories tall summons that sent shockwaves all the way to where Naruto and Shizune were watching.
"Can you do that?" Naruto asked Shizune after Tsunade picked up Gamabunta's blade and stabbed it into Manda.
"N—no," came the reply, clearly she had never seen her mistress do anything like this either.
All in all Naruto was certain Tsunade met one criteria for hokage, she was strong and fast. Faster than her fellow Sannin if his sensory ability was anything to go by, but she was slowing.
The anti-climactic ending was Tsunade's lacklustre finale punch that should have rendered Orochimaru a bloody mess rather than sending him stumbling. The snake Sannin ran through seals and sent a powerful wind jutsu that blew enough dust in the air to obscure the vision of even the two people with the best vantage point. When the dust settled, Orochimaru was long gone.
Jiraiya promptly whacked his student across the head when he returned.
"Ow," Naruto growled, "What the hell was that for?"
"Thought I told you to protect Tsunade," Jiraiya replied. "Not leave her alone so you could get in some extra sparring."
Naruto scowled, "Oh I'm sorry, next time a traitor tries to capture her I'll just sit back and doodle."
"That's not what the calligraphy set is for, brat."
The way back to Konoha was silent except for Naruto and Jiraiya's constant bickering or Tsunade's information gathering. So why doesn't he want to be hokage anymore? This would have been fine if she didn't ask the questions as though the subject of the conversation wasn't right next to them.
The next three days was enough for Naruto to completely recover from all his injuries and the fuzziness garnered from his first use of the Hiraishin no jutsu. Jiraiya still forbade the blond from using the seal and it was a testament to Naruto's newfound patience that he didn't just concentrate on the many seals around him and attempt the jutsu. The only thing that held him back was his respect for the Sannin and the fact that he claimed that the worst documented attempted use of the seal, they teleported only half their body.
Once the group entered through the gates, a crowd formed just as quickly as Naruto separated from them.
-=-====-==-=-=-==The hokage tower, the next day
Naruto looked at his fellow chuunin doing the same, then the chuunin vest in his hands. The blond grimaced.
"As of now, the three of you are now chuunin." Tsunade said, then she caught sight of Naruto's expression. "Do you have anything else to say, chuunin Uzumaki?"
*flashback*
Naruto glared. His right hand twitched, ready to reach for his kunai holster. His left found itself ready as well. Both Jiraiya and Danzo had told him to keep his opinions to himself, the chuunin selection is a very complicated and fluctuating system. Danzo had said.
"You three will be the face of the chuunin exams," Tsunade said. "You are also expected to represent your respective clans as clan heirs."
"Excuse me, hokage-sama," Shikamaru said. "but Naruto does not belong to a clan."
"Naruto is the sole heir of the Uzumaki and Nami—"
"That wasn't part of the plan!" Naruto growled.
"Give it up, brat, every chuunin and higher in Konoha became sure of who you are from the moment you used the Rasengan." The hokage smirked, when instead of being angry, Naruto became angry and confused.
"What the hell is that?"
"It's the jutsu you defeated Sasuke with," Shino said.
"The Yondaime's prized ninjutsu," Tsunade added smugly. "They say it took him three years to create it."
Create. Naruto repeated in his head. He had asked Jiraiya to teach him none of the jutsu he'd taught the Yondaime, so technically he hadn't been deceived. An image of the white haired pervert grinning like a mad man flashed in his mind. He'd even emphasized that it wasn't a jutsu he'd taught the Yondaime.
Naruto chuckled, it was funny. But now that he thought about it, his jutsu discrimination contradicted with his goals. It also explained how Jiraiya had been able to reengineer and modify the Hiraishin seal when it required a biological signature to use, he hadn't; Jiraiya had simply given him the exact same seal the Yondaime had probably created. That's why there were many of them in his parent's mansion, that's why the seal responded to him alone.
"Shikamaru, Aburame-san," Naruto said, turning to them. "The Yondaime was my father. He sealed the Kyuubi no Kitsune inside of me instead of killing it and I'm the heir of only the Uzumaki clan."
*flashback end*
None of his fellow new chuunin had displayed any reaction to his declaration. Maybe he should have repeated the part about him housing the Kyuubi. Our blond hero sighed and looked at the annoyed kage.
"Do you have this in orange?" Naruto asked gesturing to the vest.