Naruto blinked rapidly, and then stared down at his bed where Hana Inuzuka was snoring softly. It'd been a hell of a week, and he'd just returned from a hellish mission in the Land of Birds, to solve the mystery of some cursed ghost who was haunting the area. Turned out it was a pretty girl named Toki who had assumed her brother's identity to take revenge on the man who killed him. He liked the sheer spunk the woman showed and agreed to help her. A few days later Hoki was 6 feet under and Naruto was getting a wondrous send off from the grateful daimyo. In fact, he still had the scars.
Moving silently so he didn't wake Hana up, he began the arduous task of sneaking out of the Inuzuka compound, a difficult task considering all the ninken around. He actually managed to make it to the kitchen leading to the back door when a sleepy voice stopped him.
He turned to see a boy with messy brown hair, large canines and a white puppy on top of his head." What are you doing here, Naruto-san," asked the boy sleepily.
Frantically thinking of a response, he was about to answer when the boy suddenly sniffed and growled at him. "You bastard," he yelled. "You have Hana's scent all over you." "See I can explain," he said holding his hands up to stop the boy from doing anything rash. When it was clear that the boy was about to attack, and not wanting to wake up Hana or god forbid, Tsume, he quickly dropped a smoke bomb and vanished in a flash of yellow while Kiba was sputtering from the smoke. "I'll kill you Uzumaki," he silently vowed.
Naruto appeared in his apartment with a grin. 'Make that two genin that want to kill me,' he thought as he raided the pantry for some ramen.
For his own amusement and at Mikoto's request he spied on Sasuke while he was having his true genin exam as a member of Kakashi's team 7. When the raven hair boy mentioned wanting to kill a certain blond, he nearly burst out laughing.
It was now nearly 6 am and time for his weekly spar with Hiruzen.
Making way to the old man's private training field he waited.
Hiruzen arrived a few minutes later, wearing an old fashioned black jumpsuit and large gray gauntlets and carrying a large bo staff.
"You ready Naruto-kun" he asked, bo staff lying slack in his hands and giving him the false appearance of being completely open.
"You know it, Jiji," he boasted, summoning his sword into his hand. There was a loud Clang of metal on metal as Naruto's tanto blocked the impossibly fast strike of Hiruzen's staff. Flipping backwards he launched a flurry of shuriken at the hokage who merely twirled his bo staff to deflect them. The shuriken veered to both sides of the man and burst into smoke, revealing hidden shadow clones who launched shuriken of their own."Shadow shuriken jutsu," yelled three voices and thousands of shuriken soared towards the old man who almost casual went through seals and blocked them with an earth dome. "You'll have to do better than that," he lectured before noticing the blond's smirk. Attached to each of the shuriken was a small exploding tag. They promptly exploded sending the older man flying back. Naruto was about to grin in triumph when the body in front of him burst into smoke, revealing it was a shadow clone.
"Earth Style: Earth Flow River," said a voice from behind him. The ground beneath the blond turned into liquid earth that threatened to drag him down into the ground.
An instant later an earthen dragon's head appeared and began to lob dense balls of earth at him. With a burst of wind chakra he sliced through the dragon head and in a burst of speed escaped from the earth river and punched Hiruzen in the face only for him to turn into a log and belt him in the head with his staff. Naruto exploded and Hiruzen was forced to shield himself from the blast. Naruto appeared behind him and landed a kick to his back, sending him flying. While in the air he formed seals and sent a huge twin headed dragon of fire soaring towards the blond who blocked it with a hastily formed water dragon. The two began rapidly launching jutsu:fireballs crashed against earth shields and spikes of earth were cut apart with blades of wind. Naruto spat a volley of water bullets at the Sandaime who easily dodged them only to receive a punch to the face. They battled back in forth, Naruto's greater speed and strength slowly winning over the Hokage's agility and greater skill until, finally, he landed a devastating elbow to the man's stomach. Hiruzen ignored the pain and grasped the boy's arm and with a firm yank, dislocated the boy's shoulder." Naruto gritted his teeth in pain, and used his other arm to summon a kunai and stab it into the old man's leg causing him to drop his arm and back away enough to heal it. "Very well done Naruto," he praised. "You have finally learned to block out pain and exhaustion and continue fighting as hard as before. I couldn't be prouder of you my boy."
"Thanks, Jiji" he grunted, popping his shoulder back into place.
"You are a worthy successor, and will make a fine hokage. I will make the announcement in a few weeks after I confer with the daimyo. You will officially be the Fifth Hokage Candidate." He laughed, "I'm looking forward to it… the paperwork has been piling up lately."
"Maybe if you weren't always reading those orange books, you'd get it done on time," the blond teased.
A month Later Naruto found himself on the outskirts of Wave Country, cursing his luck.
A few days before, he had been returning from an A-rank mission to kill a Kumo ambassador in grass country, when he ran into a group of peddlers about to be slaughtered by a large group of bandits. Feeling bored and chivalrous Naruto decided to help them and slaughtered the bandits instead. Next thing he knew, however, he was under attack by an unknown group of ninja. He killed them quickly and discovered that one of the peddlers was actually Haruna, princess of the Land of Vegetables and named heir to the throne.
Her land had been taken over by a group called the Criminal Brothers and they were traveling around seeking help. Feeling slightly amazed that he had saved his third beautiful princess in the last eight months, he agreed to help. And he helped them kill the brothers and return control back to Haruna, who not only gave him quite the thank you, but asked him to be her advisor. He left her with a hirashin kunai and promised to come if she ever needed help.
Now he was rushing back to Konoha when he felt an aura of killing intent and quickly dodged a series of shuriken that headed for his head. Summoning his sword he eyed his opponent. It was obviously a man; he was of average height and wore a black cloak with red clouds on it as well as a straw hat. "Naruto Uzumaki," said a familiar monotone voice. "It is time for you to die." Naruto quickly formed seals and sent a dragon of water surging towards the man who blocked it with a water dragon of his own. Naruto gritted his teeth in anger as he threw jutsu after jutsu at the man only for them to be countered effortlessly. Finally, in a burst of speed he landed a punch to the man's face, knocking his hat off and revealing, red tomoe eyes. "Itachi," he cursed and attempted to stab the Uchiha in the chest with his sword only for it to be blocked by the man's own sword. Their blades clashed in insane speeds until Naruto appeared behind Itachi in a burst of speed and punched him in the back of the head, only for him to burst into smoke and explode; sending the blond flying. He followed it up with a series of punches and kicks that slammed the younger ninja into a tree.
Righting himself, Naruto sent a torrent of water towards the Uchiha followed instantly by huge spears of earth and several large balls of fire.
"Itachi was unable to counter these all at once and was forced to dodge sloppily to the left. To his surprised a form shot out of the earth beneath him and hit him with a Rasengan to the stomach sending him careening to the ground but not before he kicked his enemy in the groin and locked eyes with him, "Tsukuyomi."
Naruto instantly found himself in a strange world tinged with red with a giant moon hanging before him.
"That hurt you bastard," he yelled.
"Forgive me, but you did hit me with a Rasengan," said Itachi, nursing his stomach.
"A low powered one! Besides, that's no excuse for a pebble shot."
"No. But I have heard some disturbing rumors about you and my mother. Care to explain, Naruto?"
' Damn you Torune,'the blond cursed. "Uh sure 'Tachi. See what had happened was-"
"Save it, just know that if you break her heart I will send you into the Tsukuyomi for real and spend the next hundred years torturing you slowly with my kunai."
Naruto gulped and nodded rapidly. "So what did you want to talk to me about that required such a rude hello?"
"Sorry, but it had to be convincing on the off chance Zetsu was watching."
"He's not. I checked...so what's up?"
"I have discovered the Akatsuki's true goals. They plan to gather the bijuu and use them to form a weapon to control the elemental nations."
Naruto laughed. "Could you imagine the paperwork?" Turning serious he sighed, "What do you have on their members?"
"I gave a file to one of my Root ANBU. He will deliver it to you when you return to the village."
"Ok. Anything else?"
"Yes. Orochimaru is planning to attack the village."
"What? Didn't you cut off his arm and made him run like an academy student?"
Itachi smirked. "Yes. But apparently he established a village in Rice Country years ago called Otogakure. I'm not quite sure what he has planned but Zetsu did manage to find out it would be during the upcoming chunin exams."
"He's got to know that an upstart village like Oto would have no chance against Konoha alone. Did he get one of the five to help him?"
"Not sure but we should assume he has something planned."
Naruto nodded, "Ok, have Root look into any village that could be helping him. I'll discuss things with Jiji and if necessary take care of the snake myself."
"It may beis prudent of me, but make sure your friend the Mizukage is present at the finals."
Naruto thought about it. "I don't want her involved; this is a Konoha matter and should be handled by us. However, I will ensure whatever team she enters makes it to the finals just in case."
Itachi nodded and was about to cancel the jutsu when Naruto caught his arm. "How are your eyes holding up?"
"Getting worse but I'll be able to manage for a while yet."
"Good. Jiji has made me the official candidate for fifth Hokage, you will be returning home within the next few years. Until then I've kept Shisui's eyes sealed and ready for you."
"Thanks, my friend." He replied and with a thought he canceled the jutsu and the two found themselves in the outside world.
They were about to clasp hands and say goodbye when a loud explosion sounded and a pillar of smoke rose from the east. The two exchanged glances and stealthily made their way towards the smoke.
They found a clearing surrounded by a deep mist. "The Hidden Mist jutsu," commented Itachi.
"Can you see who's in it?"
"The mist obscures my Sharingan; I'd have to get closer."
"So much for the so called supreme bloodline," Naruto teased before closing his eyes and using his sensing ability. "Seven people: one civilian and six shinobi. Three are jonin level and all feel familiar-either allies or former last three are genin except for one whose masking his chakra very well. Let's see…chunin level… wait a minute." Surprised he turned to Itachi, "Your brother's down there. One of the jonin must be Kakashi while the guy masking his signature must be Sai…the Root you sent to protect Sasuke." Itachi looked ready to head there but Naruto stopped him. "Wait. You can't break your cover in front of Kakashi. I'll head down there and intercede if necessary."
With a wave to his friend, he vanished in a swirl of leaves.
Itachi watched him go for a moment before smiling softly. "Thanks Naruto."
Naruto cursed as he silently hopped through the trees towards the clearing.
'Damn it sasuke-chan…don't die on me.'
He reached the clearing just in time to see Kakashi get captured in a water prison…
'Who's holding it…is that…Zabuza? What the hell is he doing here?' He watched for a minute as with teamwork the trio of genin managed to force the mist ninja to release Kakashi. Focusing his sensing ability he began searching for the chakra signature he knew would be close by. 'There she is.'
He appeared silently next to her with the body flicker. "How's it going,Haku-chan?"
The girl jumped but, to her credit, she immediately launched a volley of senbon at him before she realized who he was. "Naruto-kun," she exclaimed happily, leaping to embrace him. He caught her easily and pulled her into a hug.
"I missed you too. Care to tell me what's going on here?" Haku stiffened, then blushed and refused to answer.
"C'mon spill. Last time I checked you guys were in Kiri. Did Mei-chan send you on a mission?"
"Not exactly. Well…you see…technically we are missing-nin." His jaw dropped and she hurried to explain, "You see after the battle with Yagura. Zabuza-sama was injured badly, and by the time he was released Mei-sama had already been chosen as Mizukage. Well, he felt this was unfair and that a woman had no place as leader of a village. So he challenged her for the title and was easily defeated…"
Naruto laughed and after a failed attempt at a stern look she continued. "It probably would have ended there. But Ao-san had a bit too much to drink and told everyone about it. Ashamed,Zabuza-sama decided to leave and gather the money to stage a coup. And naturally I went with him. We wandered for awhile and a month or so ago we were hired by Gato to kill a bridge builder."
Naruto tried vainly to fight the approaching headache… "What a mess." he muttered. "Ok, Haku-chan. It looks like Zabuza is on the ropes so go save him. Tell him I'll be there later to kick his ass for causing all this trouble." She turned to leave when Naruto stopped her and pulled her close and sliding his hands under her chin slid his lips on hers.
"For luck," he whispered, enjoying the sight of her blushing. She bowed lightly to him and headed to save Zabuza from an approaching water dragon. When the two Mist nin left and Kakashi fainted from Chakra exhaustion, he rubbed his head and sighed… "Troublesome."
Yep his luck truly sucked he thought as he sat in Tazuna's living room.
After leaving Haku and unsure if there were any more enemies he had jumped down and revealed himself.
After dealing with the shrieking of the pink haired banshee and the not so subtle vibes of killing intent from Sasuke, he picked up the fallen Kakashi and had Tazuna lead the way to his home. They were met at the door by the bridge builder's incredibly hot daughter.
Just when Naruto thought his luck was taking a turn for the better, he met her son Inari.
Fatalistic brat. The boy had immediately informed them that they were going to die, and spent the next half hour telling them how stupid they were much to the their annoyance.
He had just put Kakashi in the upstairs bedroom and sent the genin to guard the perimeter of the house, when an evil thought hit him. Knowing just the way to get even with the little brat he made his way downstairs."Tsunami-chan I'm ready for the rest of the tour."
Half an hour later. Sasuke felt a strange urge to kill come over him as he listened to the odd sounds coming from the house.
Kakashi woke up the next day and was surprised to Naruto sitting next to him, eating what looked to be a delicious batch of homemade cookies.
"How are you feeling?" he asked munching away.
"I'm fine…what are you doing here?"
"I was just passing through and caught the tail end of the fight…when you passed out I decided to make sure your genin got you somewhere safe." He raised a crooked eye at the injured jonin who had just pulled out an orange book.
"Strange you have the time for porn, considering you just got your ass kicked. I mean how did an S-class ninja like yourself get beat up by someone like Zabuza?"
"So I may be a bit rusty…you gonna stay here while I recover?"
"Nah. I heard what's going on. I figure I'll take care of Gato and Zabuza myself."
"I see…. well that leaves me more time to find out just what Miroku is gonna do with Sango in the hot springs." Giggling perversely he turned his attention back towards his porn.
Naruto sighed and made his way downstairs where Tsunami was whistling and making ramen. Inari looked confused and kept looking around trying to determine the source of his mother's good mood. Naruto grinned and lightly patted the boy's head.
"Is that one for me, Tsunami-chan?" he asked sitting down.
The woman blushed when she noticed his presence. "Yes Naruto-kun…here you go."
The blond dug in heartily and basked in the angry glares Inari was sending his way. Slurping the last drop he let out a contented sigh. "That was delicious, Tsunami-chan," gathering the embarrassed women into a kiss, and after savoring Inari's looks of disgust, he vanished in a swirl of leaves.
After an hour or so of recon he followed one of Gato's thugs to the man's mansion. Sensing no chakra signatures worth any note, he formed about a hundred shadow clones. "Ok guys, you take care of Gato and his goons… if you find anything valuable transfer it to one of our Root storehouses. If you have any trouble just torture the information out of him."
"Sure thing, Boss" said one of the clones. "Where are you headed?"
"I have to go rendezvous with the lovely Haku and kick Zabuza's ass."
Locking on to the strongest chakra signature in miles he leapt towards Zabuza's location.
The man was pacing around a large campfire; stubbornly ignoring whatever it was Haku was telling him.
"But listen, Zabuza-sama. Naruto-kun is here, we should flee," pleaded the pretty girl.
"You should listen to her Zabuza-chan," said the blond appearing out of nowhere.
"Foolish move, coming here brat…" Grabbing his giant sword the mist ninja quickly summoned a dozen water clones. "You cannot take us both on alone."
"Haku-chan won't be fighting. And after I kick your ass, she's gonna drag you back to Kiri where you will beg for Mei-chan's forgiveness." In a burst of speed he cut all of the water clones in half and had kicked Zabuza into a nearby tree. Before the man could recover, he landed a knee into the man's stomach and wrenched his sword from him. Flipping it expertly, he tossed it to Haku's hands who looked torn about what to do with it.
Zabuza recovered and in surprisingly quick movements for a man of his size attempted to engage the blond in taijutsu. The Kiri ninja's strikes were quick and powerful and yet Naruto batted them away as if they were nothing and punched the missing–nin rapidly in the stomach. Zabuza lashed out with his foot to catch the blond with a blow to the crotch, but cursed when the boy puffed into smoke. He formed the Hidden Mist jutsu and cackled as the thick mist set in and obscured his enemy's vision. "Eight vital points' he crowed, "Which one should I use?" He began slowly stalking his opponent…nearly bursting with satisfaction at having found a way to defeat the troublesome blond. "I can see you're trembling," he mocked retrieving Kuburiki Houcho and preparing to slice off the boy's head.
"It's not trembling, its laughter," stated the blond before hitting the shocked swordsman in the stomach with a low powered Rasengan. "I'm a sensor, you idiot. Or have you forgotten that; besides if you are going to perform a silent kill it would be best if you shut. Your. Damn. Mouth." He enunciated each word with a punch to the swordsman's body.
"Give up yet?" he asked calmly. Zabuza merely shrugged off his pain and started forming seals. He formed a huge water dragon that soared towards Naruto. The blond merely grinned and formed his own much larger dragon that overcame the smaller one and slammed into Zabuza's body. The Kiri nin slammed into the ground with a sickening crack.
"Is he dead?" Haku asked tentatively.
"Nah just knocked out. He'll be out for a few hours so we have some time to kill." He grinned, "However should we spend it?"
Haku blushed as the boy pulled her in closer.
A few days later Naruto prepared to leave. Zabuza had been convinced to return to Kiri and, with Gato and his goons dead, there was little threatening the bridge builder anymore. Figuring Sasuke and his team were safe once Kakashi recovered. The blond decided it was time for him to go. He said goodbye to Tsunami and idly looked around for Inari. He found the boy whispering heatedly with Sasuke and shooting the blond evil looks. The two boys had bonded over their mutual disgust with the blond and the things he did with their mothers. They both had decided to achieve vengeance together. When a cold shiver went down Naruto's body and he caught vague snippets of words like "castration" and "burned alive." He decided that discretion was the best part of valor and vanished in a swirl of leaves.
'Yep , Kami definitely hates me,' Naruto decided as he quickly dodged the onslaught of kunai sent after him. Ok, so maybe he had been on a mission in Earth Country to escort some minor nobleman. And just maybe he had run into his old friend from a long ago chunin exam named Kurotsuchi, who had in his opinion grown up nicely. And just maybe said friend had been excited to see him and invited him for a drink to catch up. And in this long string of maybes, perhaps both of them had gotten quite drunk and, at Kurotsuchi's suggestion he might add, decided to make love on her grandfather's desk.
'Still no reason for the old man to overreact and send four squads of ANBU after me,' thought the blond as he deflected the rest of the assorted kunai and shuriken thrown at him with a burst of wind and easily dodged the spikes of earth that attempted to impale him. In a burst of chakra, he caught the ANBU in an area-wide genjutsu and while they moved to dispel it he vanished in a flash of yellow.
"Hmm so both Iwa and Kumo have decided not to send genin to the upcoming but not suspicious. If Orochimaru wants to be able to get as many of his people into key positions as possible then whoever he's working with must have a team in the exams. Probably a ringer team so they can instantly make it to the finals, where the leader of their village will be invited to attend and in close proximity to the hokage," said blond was sitting in his secret office, having a meeting with Fu and Torune.
"Besides Suna and Kiri, all the rest of the candidates are from minor villages like Ame and Grass. None of them have the military strength to go against us besides Kiri and Suna and they are allies," said Fu quietly.
"I'm certain that Mei-chan won't attack us. In fact, I plan on maneuvering it so her team passes the exam, so I can be sure she's here to back us up if necessary. As for Suna, I don't think they will attack us, however relations with them have soured lately as their daimyo keeps sending his missions to us, so we can't overlook the possibility that they would seize an opportunity to kick us while we are down."
"Ok…Fu, form your best stealth team. Their mission will be to capture the team from Oto for questioning. Do it during the second exam, that's where security is leanest. Torune, I want you to recall all active ninja that aren't on S-class assignments and have them stationed at key areas like the orphanage, the academy and the hospital." Naruto turned towards the window, "there's always a chance that this attack is a diversion for another objective. He's always been obsessed with the Sharingan and since Itachi is too strong he may go after one of the two Uchiha left in the village. Mikoto-chan is a jonin and I'll make sure she gets shadowed by the ANBUjust in case. As for Sasuke, I'll have several of my wolves patrolling the Forest of Death. If anything happens they can reverse summon me there in an instant."
"It appears you have thought of everything, Naruto-sama," they said before vanishing to carry out their orders.
'That snake is slippery,'thought the blond,'So what am I missing?'
A few days later Naruto was summoned with the other jonin to a meeting at the Hokage's office. The old man had been furious when he learned of his treacherous former student's plans. Because they didn't know the extent of the Sannin's spies in the village, Naruto advised him to keep the attack a secret for now and to secretly call back Jiraiya and any other ninja he could.
"The Chunnin Exams are one week away, what teams will be nominated?"
One by one the jonin-sensei of the rookie 9 nominated their teams.
'How many from this current bunch will become chunin?' Naruto idly thought before grimacing. With the current state of affairs a better question would be:
How many would survive?
A.N finally finished. The story is about to pick up and things will move faster. I hope you guys enjoyed the bits of humor in this chapter, as things will be quite serious for the next little bit.
As always thanks to those who reviewed and favorited this story and a special thanks to Trowa No Miko who has been the best beta a guy can ask for.\
Some of you asked for the stats of a few ninja so here we go,
Ninjutsu
Taijutsu
Genjutsu
Intelligence
Strength
Speed
Stamina
Hand Seals
Total
Itachi
5
4.5
5
5
4
5
4
5
37.5
Naruto
5
5
5
5
4
5
5
5
39
In case you were wondering in this story the Sandaime is a 36
In canon he's a 34 however his training with Naruto has raised his strength and stamina.
The ages at the end of this
Rookie 9- 13
Naruto- 15
Itachi- 18
'Til next time… Millennion