11. Return Home
Three months after the death of Chiyo, Sakumo Hatake and his subordinates were arriving back at the village.
Things had changed on the front with the Hidden Sand Village since Chiyo's death.
For starters, the Hidden Sand Village had ceased to attack anyone from the Hidden Leaf Village outside of the Land of Rain, which had quickly become the location of the heavy fighting of the war.
Everything seemed to truly change after Chiyo's body was returned to the village. Within the following week, a Fourth Kazekage was named by the Sand Council… Ebizo.
Though furious over his sister's death, Ebizo had placed his village above his personal feelings and had placed orders that no Sand shinobi were to enter the Land of Rivers until new orders were given. They had lost too many people on that front already.
With the Hidden Sand Village no longer actively fighting the Hidden Leaf Village, things had begun to change even more greatly. The Hidden Rock Village was likely the village most affected due to the fact that they had to deal with constant attacks from Sand and Leaf.
Sakumo shook his head as he thought of everything that had happened. Though his subordinates had captured Tetsukaze, Karura, and Shikaze in the fight three months earlier, the three shinobi had managed to get away before Sakumo could properly take them captive. The only good aspect of the last assault seemed to be the Leaf village obtaining the ten puppets of Monzaemon Chikamatsu, though they lacked puppeteers to use them.
From a strategical standpoint, Sakumo acknowledged the other good aspects of the final assault. Those particular aspects were obviously the death of Chiyo and five hundred Sand ninja. He refused to suggest that they were actually good results.
The White Fang glanced at the enigma that was Naruto Uzumaki out of the corner of his eye.
He felt that he would never be able to understand the boy. He saw the boy argue with Mikoto like a hated enemy at the start of their deployment, and by the end of it, he was very close friends with the Uchiha. In addition to that, he had shown that he was stronger than any of Sakumo's other subordinates, despite only holding the rank of chunin.
"Everyone, you are dismissed." Sakumo said as they walked through the gates. Before anyone could go their separate ways, he added, "Naruto, wait. You need to come with me to see Lord Hokage."
"Is something wrong, Captain?" Naruto asked, alarmed by Sakumo's words. Meeting with the Hokage had been nice in his own time, but it most certainly was not a good thing now that he was in the past. Normal people did not meet with the Hokage. It was one thing for the leader of a mission to do so, but Naruto was a mere chunin.
"You faced the Kazekage in battle and defeated the jinchuriki of the One-Tails. Do you really have to ask?" Mikoto said as she rolled her eyes. "I'll catch up with you later. I won't let you slack off on your training while we're back."
"Yes, he needs that. After all, he never works hard." Kushina said with a little sarcasm in her words. She mock glared at Minato when he chuckled.
"Now, now, let's go." Sakumo said as he placed a hand on the blond's shoulder.
Three hours later, only Hiruzen Sarutobi and Naruto Uzumaki were sitting in the former's office. Sakumo had just finished his debriefing and had left.
"Naruto, you seem to be making waves in the ninja world already. I've heard stories of how you fought the new Kazekage, and though you failed to defeat him or even fight at his level, you did completely remove him from the battle. You then proceeded to intervene in a battle between two jinchuriki and subdue both of them without suffering any injuries." Sarutobi said as he looked at the blond carefully.
"I'm surprised you know about my fight with Ebizo." Naruto said as he looked at the Hokage. "I did lead him away from the battlefield after all."
"I have ways of observing my shinobi from a distance." Sarutobi said cryptically, though Naruto understood how. "I saw you transport Ebizo away from the area, but my attention was diverted to Kushina's fight with the One-Tail jinchuriki and Sakumo's fight with Chiyo. I seem to have completely missed your fight with the One-Tail jinchuriki though."
Naruto nodded slowly. "What do you want to know, Lord Hokage?"
"To start off, I would like to know how you teleported Ebizo away from the fight. I'd also like to know how you managed to intervene in a fight between two jinchuriki, suppress the influence of their tailed beasts, and come out of it all without a scratch." Sarutobi stated.
"The jutsu that I used to teleport Ebizo is based off of the Reverse Summoning Jutsu. I used to be able to summon shadow clones using a scroll, so I decided to attempt to replicate it using seal arrays. It was not a total failure, but it was not a total success either." Naruto explained. "As for my defeat of the two jinchuriki… I used one of these on Kushina and made one from scratch in the middle of the fight to use on the One-Tail." As he said the last part, Naruto placed a Tailed Beast Chakra Suppression Seal on the Hokage's desk.
'That seal array… it is familiar.' Sarutobi thought upon seeing it. The way that it was made had all the signs of one of his students.
"How effective are these seal tags?" Sarutobi asked.
"At my level, I doubt that I could make them strong enough to suppress any more than three tails." Naruto confessed.
Sarutobi took the seal and looked it over carefully. "I will have to take this seal so I can study it carefully."
"I understand, Lord Hokage." Naruto said. He did not feel like admitting that he had nine more of them in his hip pouch at that moment.
"That's good to hear. Now, we need to discuss your rank." Sarutobi said, his voice becoming even more serious- if that was even possible.
"What do you mean, Lord Hokage?" Naruto asked, though he had suspicions of what it was about.
"Sakumo reported that you, Mikoto Uchiha and Minato Namikaze were the most powerful shinobi in his camp other than him. Despite being a chunin, you are stronger than every jonin subordinate of Sakumo's. How did you fail to outright defeat Minato in your test all those months ago?" Sarutobi asked seriously.
"For starters, the test match was the day after I woke up from a month long coma. I was not at one hundred percent yet." Naruto said as he met the Hokage's eyes. "Also, I'm not willing to use my full powers against a comrade. Furthermore, I did not really have any offensive jutsu prior to you giving me those scrolls after I became a chunin."
Sarutobi sighed as he nodded in understanding. "I seem to have overlooked the fact that you were weakened at that time."
"I'm glad you did. Things were easier as a chunin. People underestimated me." Naruto admitted.
"That's good." Sarutobi said. "You don't need to be a chunin any further, though. In five months, you may take part in the Jonin Evaluation Exams."
"Why do we have such a long wait until then?" Naruto asked curiously. It did not make much sense to him.
"Not everyone is ready for it, not yet anyways. Some of the chunin in our ranks are close to being strong enough to be considered jonin, but they still need a push. The five months between your return and the evaluation is intended for training."
"Of course it is." Naruto said with a small laugh. Training was the life bread of a ninja. They usually trained more than they did missions, after all. Usually being the exception of war and fan girls that never voluntarily train.
"I managed to get you some new wind jutsu scrolls." Sarutobi said as he withdrew seven jutsu scrolls from his desk. "They will come at a price though."
A sense of dread filled Naruto. "What is this… price… Lord Hokage?"
"I want answers. If you agree to answer all of my questions, then I will give you these scrolls. And to make it even fairer to you, you don't have to answer my questions until you become a jonin, though putting it off would be a bad idea for you. I hear that your Captain dislikes slacking off." Sarutobi said as he interlocked his fingers and placed his arms, elbows down, onto the desk.
Naruto was unsure whether to cringe more at answering the Hokage's questions or Mikoto giving him a beat down of his life.
Sighing, Naruto said, I… I agree, Lord Hokage. I will answer all of your questions. I'd like to add one more stipulation to our agreement though."
"Oh?" Sarutobi asked, surprised.
"Seven scrolls for answers to any questions you could possibly ask… that's not exactly a fair deal. I want information as well. To be more precise, I want information on Madara Uchiha." Naruto said.
The Third Hokage's eyes widened at Naruto's statement. He agreed that the deal was a bit unfair, even with the addition request. That did not make things simple though. To hear that Naruto wanted information on one of the co-founders made Sarutobi a bit uneasy.
"I need to know why." Sarutobi stated.
"You'll know the answer to that after I become a jonin." Naruto said as he met his leader's eyes. "I won't leave the village until I am re-deployed, and you could always kill me if you don't like my answers."
"You have nerve, Uzumaki. I like that about you. It seems that you don't feel fear. You know who I am… why I am renowned… and yet, you speak to me like I am any other man." Sarutobi said with a small smile.
"You are any other man. The only difference is that you could kill me three hundred ninety-four and half ways by the time I make it from the door to your desk." Naruto said with a shrug.
"A half?" Sarutobi asked curiously.
"In the blink of an eye, you could no doubt half-kill me." Naruto said with a nod. "So do we have a deal, Lord Hokage?"
"We do. I will give you the information that we have over Madara Uchiha… but I will not hand over it just yet. In three months I'll give the information to you. It will be a bit difficult to compile and copy. He was the greatest rogue ninja of our village, so Hashirama-sensei and Tobirama-sensei were careful about the storage of the information." Sarutobi said with a nod.
"Thank you. You won't regret it." Naruto said as he grabbed the seven scrolls from the desk.
"I hope not. Now, there is still one order of business to discuss." Sarutobi said, catching Naruto off guard. "I received a message from the head of the Uchiha clan earlier today. He is… worried… about your relationship with Mikoto Uchiha."
That certainly threw Naruto off.
"Mikoto Uchiha was set to marry Fugaku Uchiha due to various factors. It was suggested by her clan elders that she go through with it, though she did have a small level of freedom to choose. A few days ago, Mikoto sent a message canceling the engagement." Sarutobi said.
'Oh shit….' Naruto thought as he realized exactly who Mikoto was. If he was the reason that the engagement was broken off, then that made Mikoto Sasuke's mother.
"The clan head seems to think there is a romantic relationship between you and Mikoto." Sarutobi said. "Is there?"
"No, we are not involved… not yet, at least." Naruto said, surprising the Hokage. "I like her, and I think she likes me, but we were in the field and she was my Captain. It would have been inappropriate to tell her how I felt."
'Not that I have much experience in the type of thing. Sakura rejected me every time, and eventually gave a false confession to manipulate me. And Hinata liked me, I think, but I never had any interest in her that way.' Naruto thought.
"That's good of you. Just keep in mind that Fugaku will not take her being with a non-Uchiha well." Sarutobi said. "Now, I believe that I have meddled in your personal life enough. You may take your leave. I look forward to seeing how you do in the evaluation in five months."
"Thank you." Naruto said before he rose to his feet and left.
Author's Note: I'm sure none of you expected this chapter up so soon since I said that I'd take a break from it and work on another fic for a little while. I decided to do one last chapter before I do that. The main reason is that I am still having trouble deciding on what I am going to write. Also, as a reminder, check my profile on a regular basis. I normally have one new poll up every day.