10. Return Home

Five months had passed since the Battle of Bloody Rivers had been fought, and the survivors of the aforementioned battle had just arrived back at the Hidden Leaf Village about an hour earlier.

Two men were sitting in an office with a single desk between them. One man looked to be in his sixties, though he could not have been any older than fifty. The other man was nearly twenty years younger.

The names of the two men were Hiruzen Sarutobi and Sakumo Hatake.

Removing the pipe from his mouth, Sarutobi looked into the younger man's eyes. "Tell me, Sakumo… how did it happen?"

Sakumo took a deep breath. "You want to know about the Battle of Blood Rivers."

There was no question in Sakumo's words.

"Yes, I do," Sarutobi replied simply. "Your written report seemed… farfetched."

"It wasn't," Sakumo said firmly. "The chunin level sensors that were sent to aid us were incapable of seeing past a rather high ranking genjutsu. Only someone of my skill was able to see through it. It was because of that that we were unprepared for the assault by a thousand Sand ninja."

"Surely you overestimate," Sarutobi said with narrowed eyes. "You wouldn't be sitting here before me if a thousand Sand ninja attacked you."

"The heir of the Yamanaka clan was certain that the count was more than nine hundred but less than twelve hundred. I'm sure that his count was accurate," Sakumo said dryly. "I came up with a plan quickly. The plans that we had prepared fell through because of their swapped strategies and larger than expected forces. One of my special jonin added onto the plan by sending some wind style shadow clones to assault their forces."

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow at that explanation. He knew that Sakumo only had one special jonin stationed to his camp.

"That attack actually took out about a tenth of their forces, so we switched to using long ranged ninjutsu while they recovered and continued to charge," Sakumo continued, unfazed. "We quickly engaged them in a free-for-all type of battle. I lost focus on most of my men at that point, but I did see something interesting."

Sarutobi leaned forward in interest.

"Naruto Uzumaki put himself between a barrage of poison needles and Kushina Uzumaki," Sakumo said, looking the older man in the eyes. "I learned three things when that happened."

Sarutobi looked surprised for a second, but he was a master of keeping his calm. "What did you learn?"

"First off, I learned that Naruto is a true Leaf shinobi and would gladly put his life at risk to aid a comrade," Sakumo said. His eyes narrowed and his voice became dangerous as he continued. "Secondly, I learned that Kushina Uzumaki is a jinchuriki. The Nine-Tails is the only possible tailed beast she can contain too. That reminds me… why in the hell did you not tell me that a jinchuriki was in my fucking army?"

"Sakumo, you weren't supposed to find out," Sarutobi said as he leaned back in his chair. "No one was supposed to know."

Sakumo's eyes still held coldness to them as he spoke again. "The third thing that I learned is that Naruto Uzumaki is an army killer."

Sarutobi's eyes widened at that proclamation. An 'army killer' was a term used by the top brass of the village. It described an individual like Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and the Sannin. Alone, they could deal with an entire army. It made them invaluable.

"Naruto told me that he used the Wind Style: Wind Dragon Jutsu at one percent of its true power in training. Apparently, he did not want to destroy the training grounds," Sakumo said with a small laugh. "He used it at one hundred percent of its true power during the Battle of Bloody Rivers. Did you hear the reason they called that battle by that name? It's because his jutsu stained the ground with the enemy's blood. When we left, the ground still had a red tint to it."

Sarutobi frowned at that. He had seen the jutsu when Naruto had practiced it. To know that it was so seriously underpowered… that was worrisome indeed.

"Naruto suffered from chakra exhaustion after killing well over three hundred Sand shinobi from it. The very large dose of poison that he was hit with only helped incapacitate him," Sakumo said as he folded his hands on the desk before him. "There is no doubt about it. He is a true army killer. I forbid him from using the jutsu at full power again until it is perfected though. His body was injured as a result of the massive amount of chakra that was released from his body so quickly."

"That's good," Sarutobi said as he opened a folder on his desk. "It seems that your report was completely accurate after all, which makes things complicated."

"Don't have him watched again," Sakumo said seriously, surprising Sarutobi again. "He is loyal. I'll vouch for him. Hell, I'll keep an eye on him if you want me to. I do not want him to be the subject of ANBU watchers again though. That will only make him suspicious of you."

Sarutobi slowly nodded. "Very well then… if he betrays us, it is on you."

"He won't," Sakumo said with a small smile.

Minato Namikaze entered the chain link gate that stood before the third training ground. His sandals left low cracking sounds as he walked upon the dry ground.

His eyes were trained on the blond in the center of the training ground.

Naruto seemed to have his eyes shut, and chakra was slowly leaking out of his body, enveloping him. Suddenly, the chakra stopped and began to flow to his right hand. After several moments, dense, blue chakra covered his right hand in a shroud.

And then, the chakra dissipated.

"Shit, why can't I pull it off?" Naruto asked aloud.

"Think fast," Minato called out.

Naruto turned just in time to see a water balloon flying at him. It was clear that Minato had thrown it at him. With that in mind, Naruto caught the balloon with both hands, careful not to pop it in the process.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto asked curiously. "I thought you'd be within your girlfriend."

Minato chuckled in response. "You, my friend, are ridiculous. My girlfriend is… wait for it… a girl. And girls like to go shopping when they've been away for a while. Thus, Kushina and Mikoto are occupied." He folded his arms in front of him as he looked at Naruto with his usual smile. "And we, being the guys that we are, must do what is habitual as well."

"Training," Naruto said with a grin of his own.

"Training," Minato agreed as he unfolded his arms and removed another water balloon from a seal at his hip. "I'm going to teach you to use my most prized creation, the Rasengan."

Naruto eyes widened considerably at that. He had considered the possibility, but he had dismissed it all the same.

"Are you serious?" Naruto asked.

"Quite," Minato replied. "Jiraiya-sensei mastered the jutsu the day that Lord Hokage declared war. It's only fair that I offer the jutsu to my best friend now that my teacher has learned it."

"Why didn't you offer it sooner then?" Naruto asked with a light hearted laugh.

"We had responsibilities in the Land of Rivers. That's why no one trained why they were there," Minato explained. "Besides, I doubt you'll master it anytime soon."

Naruto rolled his eyes at the last part.

"Now, the Rasengan is a three-part jutsu. The first part is rotation. This step is mastered by popping a water balloon with chakra," Minato explained.

Pop!

Minato's eyes widened as the water balloon in Naruto's hand suddenly exploded, spraying water all around him. The older blond's face and shirt were wet.

The older blond suddenly cocked his head sideways with a smirk plastered to his face. "You, my friend, are being ridiculous," Naruto said, quoting his friend's earlier words.

Minato rolled his eyes, though he was secretly impressed.

'Things will be interesting, it seems,' Minato thought as he prepared to start Naruto on the next step.