Chapter Eleven – "Behind Closed Doors"
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Welp, I hit 16k hits. Hopefully I'll get over 20k soon. Sorry for the short chapter though.
A lot of people have commented about how much of a bastard Sarutobi is. Read 'Loyalty Seal' by Zip0 - it's where I got a lot of my inspiration from for Sandaime's personality (though I made Jiraiya more bastard-like than in that fic), though I didn't do an actual loyalty seal. In my opinion an actual loyalty seal would just be too broken (even with the drawbacks Zip0 has in his story). 'FireStorm' by sun-sky-neighbor (sic) actually has loyalty seals that are even more broken, and while the story's entertaining to read, at some point suspension of disbelief just isn't enough.
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Naruto was initially wary about Yamato, and to be truthful, he still was. After all, the man was out of ANBU, and he still didn't use his real name, deceiving the other two members of Team 7 to the point that they didn't even realize Yamato was a codename.
His problem was compounded by Tenzo's own Mokuton trait. Much of the Kyuubi's yokai had been drained from the former bijuu, but was kept in storage as the process of converting it to regular chakra was a slow one, and even the converted chakra still shared traits with its former brethren; the Mokuton actively was repressing the yokai and converted chakra just by Naruto being in Tenzo's presence, and it drained him of his natural stamina, making him sluggish.
Still, it helped him out that he should feel sluggish. For all of his natural talent, Kakashi simply hadn't been that observant of the more subtle things going on around him. Tenzo, coming right out of ANBU, would notice if Naruto's movements tended to be a tad smoother than a rookie genin should be capable of, and would investigate. The Mokuton crippled Naruto to an extent, allowing him to hide his talents through his capabilities being lessened.
Not that Tenzo was a bad teacher, though. He was fairly strict, but he knew how to teach. Presently Naruto was sitting on top of Konoha's natural onsens, one that had yet been converted into a commercial onsen, meditating. Nearby he could hear Tenzo lecturing Sasuke on jutsu theory, while Sakura was going through some of the more esoteric chakra control techniques, such as balancing senbon on her fingertips.
Tenzo, or as he would have to call him, Yamato, had instructed Naruto to practice becoming comfortable on water to better control his chakra. The man had given a rather fitting analogy; while most people's chakra was usually calm and peaceful in downtime, fluctuating rapidly only when a person was in a fight-or-flight situation, Naruto's chakra was like his family name, a raging storm looking to break free of its constraints. In battle, Yamato had said, Naruto needed to have a strong hold on his chakra or else it could backfire on him the first time he tried to do something delicate.
Having been on the hot water for ten minutes now, Naruto figured that he had demonstrated a solid mastery of being able to handle the constantly-shifting surfaces of low-density liquid surfaces, and rose to his feet, intent on getting away from the steamy heat and moisture that pervaded his skin, causing his clothes to become damp.
Yamato had seen him coming, and had quickly ended his conversation with the Uchiha heir. "What can I do for you, Naruto?" The older man asked in that not-quite-gruff voice of his.
"Yamato-sensei," Here Naruto bowed his head slightly in deference and respect, "I believe I have managed to accomplish what you wanted for me as far as water-walking goes. I managed to walk and run around for five minutes and sit for another five."
Yamato strummed his lips, thinking. Indeed, he had watched Naruto a bit out of the side of his eyes, and was pleased with what he had seen. He knew Naruto was a red-blooded male, one who was more temperamental than introverted, and would not stand for more 'boring' stuff unless prodded forward with a carrot first. Thinking it over for a few seconds, he thought about Naruto's namesake; Uzumaki. The Uzumaki clan had long since been vanquished after Whirlpool Country had been taken over by Iwa in the Third Great Shinobi War, but surely the Sandaime would not have given Naruto the name of such a famous clan unless there was a reason for it? Following that logic, Yamato presumed that Naruto most probably had at least some Uzumaki ancestry. Because the Uzumakis were well known for being users of water jutsus, Naruto likely had some alignment to the element of water as well, Kyuubi or not.
"Well, Naruto," Yamato said, "Come with me for a minute." Seeing Naruto perk up, he walked back to the onsen, Naruto following behind. Raising his hands, Yamato put them together in a Tora seal, causing a small amount of water to rise from the onsen, and take form as a duplicate of Yamato. Seeing Naruto wide-eyed, Yamato smiled and began to explain, "The Mizu Bunshin works by infusing a small amount of your chakra into the water, which you can then shapeshift into your clone. It is similar to the Kage Bunshin in the manner that you use chakra to form a shell out of a substance, but Mizu Bunshin requires a fluid to do it. Water is the most common material, and it requires only borderline elemental manipulation to use. Anything beyond that will require practice and familiarization, however."
Naruto let out an incredulous gasp. He hadn't thought to use other fluids with a Mizu Bunshin before. Quickly, he began to brainstorm through various uses for alternate liquids. Yamato was slightly amused at the concentrated look on Naruto's face, and interrupted his thinking. "That said, Mizu Bunshin isn't as powerful as the Kage Bunshin, and with the amount of chakra you have, the generic water-wielding clones won't be really useful, so obviously it's the alternate liquid forms that you will find the greatest use out of." Noticing Sakura over Naruto's shoulders struggling with her senbon, Yamato decided to finish the conversation, "Well, Naruto, I have to help Sakura now. The Mizu Bunshin has the same 'feeling' to shaping it as you would with a Kage Bunshin, so try your best, and ask me if you need any help later on, mmkay?"
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Wooden doors closing behind him as he walked into the Hokage's office, the gnarled old bandage-covered man walked in, cane held rigidly in his left arm to keep himself upright with dignity. Taking a seat without the Sandaime's permission, the lack of courtesy belying just how much influence he had in the village, Danzo decided to open the conversation with a general comment. "I see you gave the ANBU back an interesting person for their training regimen."
Sarutobi saw fit to respond to that, "Yes, Hatake proved to be lacking as a teacher. A good captain, he might have been once, but an instructor it seemed he definitely was not." That it took Kakashi three months to teach his team tree climbing, after a dangerous C-turned-A-Class mission proved it. "Additionally, he lost the only thing that endeared him to being put in as Team 7's jonin-sensei, though he may regain it soon."
"Oh?" Danzo queried. He of course already knew about Kakashi's lost Sharingan eye, but he was willing to scrounge out for any information he could. He and Sarutobi both had their own sort of partnership; Sarutobi would govern Konoha on a day-to-day basis, passing Konoha off as the 'warm, compassionate' village that so endeared itself to potential clients, while Danzo's Root would stick to the shadows and perform the darker missions. It was a system that had worked for decades, and even Minato had reluctantly let Danzo continue his operations when he had become the Yondaime.
Sipping some green tea that he had his secretary bring in, Sarutobi chose his next words well. He didn't bother offering Danzo any of the tea; the other man was far too paranoid to accept a drink from somebody else. Slamming his cup down onto his desk, letting out a brief sigh of satisfaction, Sarutobi continued on, "Since his time out of ANBU, Hatake has gotten sloppy. Lazy. Unmotivated. It is my hope that by putting him back into ANBU, we will once more have the man who was pushing the line between A-Class and S-Class classification, as opposed to somebody who lost to a low A-Class nuke-nin with no distractions around."
Of course, Danzo remembered seeing that report about the mission to Wave. It was rather fortunate that Aoi Konpeki had happened on-scene. "Have you decided how to recompensate Kumo for saving Hatake and Team 7?"
Sarutobi leaned back in his chair, idly rubbing his eyebrows. "Kumo prematurely rejected our invitation to the Chunin Exams this year." As some villages were wont to do sometimes; every hidden village was always invited to Konoha's Chunin Exams, but many of them, such as Iwagakure, would reject them out of hand every time. The Sandaime was to send out the invitations within the next month, and if intelligence proved right, this year Iwa would accept. "Additionally, a Kumo hunter-nin managed to kill the nuke-nin Kagura, so they will send an envoy shortly to claim a bounty." Pouring himself some more tear, he took a sip before proceeding to talk again. "I am quite well aware that Kumo is sorely lacking in documentation of Earth jutsu, something we have in large numbers from the Uchiha during the war against Iwa, and almost no use for. That should also make up for the bounty payment, as money is something we are losing a lot of to bounties these days."
It was true. Over the last few years many more bounties than usual had been turned in. Only a few months ago Rokusho Aoi had been slain and the Raijin returned to Konoha as proof, and it was quite a pretty penny that Konoha had been forced to pay for the artifact and bounty. Additionally, a group of Ame-nins had recently busted one of Orochimaru's bases in Sea Country, and cashed in on Konoha's policy of money for any information on Orochimaru's whereabouts or current doings, along with the documents they had retrieved from that scientist Amachi. A few of Konoha's missions were also being conceded to the continent's three central Hidden Villages, Amegakure, Kusagakure and Takigakure. While Konoha wasn't exactly cash-strapped, they were running low on their reserves, which Sarutobi needed to conserve to rebuild after the invasion.
The other man sat there for a few minutes, and then asked, "What about the Chunin Exams themselves? It's fairly obvious he wants the Sharingan, so he might feel inclined to abduct one right out of the Forest of Death."
Sarutobi was prepared for the question, and handed Danzo a sheaf of papers. "That is most of the information for security during the beginning of the chunin exam season. You'll find the patrol times, the gate procedures, hotel rooms assigned to the visiting genin teams, measures being taken to ensure the genins are who their i.d. says they are, and so forth." Here, he narrowed his eyes to indicate how serious he was. "I want your Root forces to be on full patrol during the exams. Scout out any weak points in the village to shore them up, find any suspicious characters, and locate any points outside Konoha the enemy might mobilize from."
Danzo leafed through the papers, looking over the details. While doing so, he put forward another question that he was curious about, "Have you alerted Suna yet about the invasion?" He was a big stickler for autonomy, and didn't like the idea of Suna ninja possibly coming into Fire Country to defend against Iwa and Oto; allies were too capable of turning on each other, and Suna might find an opening to send in deep-cover agents if they were asked to bring any ninja for the invasion.
"Already have that covered, my friend," Sarutobi responded. "What Suna will be bringing in will be in quality, not quantity. The Yondaime himself will be there." That was self-explanatory. Sasori had killed hundreds of Iwa shinobi in the war, it wouldn't be beyond him to kill another couple hundred more in a single battle. "So will be Kuroisuna no Akira, Kiirosuna no Sabaten, Baki no Yaiba, and a handful of others of Suna's best under the guise of jonin-senseis and bodyguards, as well as the Ichibi jinchuuriki."
That was acceptable to Danzo. Bring in enough high-level men who could each easily make a dent in the larger numbers of the enemy forces. Unless Suna was in on the plot to destroy Konoha as well. If that were the case, however, nothing short of unleashing some of the most powerful, most dangerous kinjutsu that the Leaf had ever recorded would be able to repel two major villages and a minor one. Certainly, however, Danzo wouldn't give his allies any leeway on the issue of trust.
Grabbing the papers the Hokage had proffered him, Danzo pushed his chair out, and stumbled to get up. Making a nod to the Hokage out of respect, he turned, leaving the room, already making plans in his head to set up for a counterattack during the invasion.
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While it was true that Ame was protected against foreigners through the aggressive policy of a closed border, Yahiko still took no chances when it came to the safety of his own family. In public, he was still a bachelor, and Konan was merely one of the ministers who helped run Ame, one who happened to be a childhood friend. Konan took 'lengthy reconnaissance trips' from time to time to hide her away in a concrete underground bunker hidden within the depths of Amegakure. Whenever Konan had her own duties to attend, it was one of their most trusted female friends from the old band that deposed Hanzo that the husband and wife charged with raising and training their children in the hopes that they could one day come into the public eye, capable of fending off any political intrigue or assassination attempt.
Today, he was training his firstborn and oldest son, Sho (Nagato had originally suggested the couple name him Chibi in memory of their old dog – Konan had hit him over the head for even suggesting it), on one of the rare days that he wasn't caught up in work. The ten-year-old, who had taken to being a lanky carrottop much like Yahiko himself, was going through some katas of a rather vanilla taijutsu style common to Ame, and was doing rather proficiently with it.
Executing the next batch of movements in the form, Sho finished with a hard kick, before turning to Yahiko and bowing. The prodigal son then dropped all pretense of seriousness, and as excitement crossed over Sho's face, he gushed out, "Oi! How was that, tou-san?!"
Amusement flickered over Yahiko's otherwise stern face at his son's antics. "That was quite fine, sochi. You did an excellent job." Watching Sho let loose on a burst of energy, Yahiko made a split-second spontaneous decision. Rising up from the kneeling position he had used for observation, he made a query that stopped Sho in his throes of activity. "How would you like to start learning kenjutsu soon?"
Shock froze Sho's face for a few seconds, before he responded in similar form, jabbering out his words quickly, "Would I?! Of course, tou-san! When can we begin?!"
"Not today," Yahiko said, frowning, "But fairly shortly. I will have to fetch some wooden practice equipment, and see what style of sword you work best with." Yahiko himself had used a shinken while fighting as the leader of the rebellion. Given Sho's current size, he thought that his son would work best with a wakizashi or a pair of tantō, both being on the short and light side.
Remembering his manners, Sho calmed down, and then said, "Thank you very much, tou-san." Then, as an add-on, he also said, "With this, I'll be one step closer to defeating Naruto-aniki."
That was unlikely, Yahiko mused. When he had initially had Naruto brought here to Ame, the young Sho latched onto Naruto as an older brother figure after a short while, and had met him again and again as the blond occasionally returned to Ame for official duties. However, the difference between Sho and Naruto was staggering; even if they both had the same potential, Naruto would still be far more dedicated to achieving it. It was simply a matter of will; Naruto had dedicated himself to the lifelong pursuit of peace in the world, and knew well that he would have to sharpen his skills to keep the peace when he became immortal. Naruto had been shunned throughout his whole life, and that had caused a natural drive to succeed and become strong. Sho simply didn't have the same circumstances; growing up in a loving household, if a bit strained by various duties, could never instill the same motivation, never completely push him to his limits.
But Yahiko still had his paternal pride, that desire of a father to see his children succeed and do the best they can, so he merely nodded in response to Sho's response and said, "That you will be, sochi, that you will be."
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Sorry, but I ended up having to split the chapter I originally had planned for into two. I try to keep my chapters between 4-6000 words, with Chapter 3 being the largest at 7000 words. Even though the resulting chapter might have fit in there, I'd still have to split it into two, because the first scene of the next chapter has to be the FIRST scene of a chapter for dramatic effect.
Danzo finally makes his appearance. I'm not cliché enough to make him out as most fanfiction authors like to (and even Kishi to some degree) so enjoy the realism :O.
Please note: the following section of the author's note has a bit of talk about sexual content mixed in with another rant about clichés, so if you're a bit squeamish about reading such things, then skip it.
Hmmm, usually I've done a rant or something in the past for my author notes. This time I think I'll focus on something that's fairly narrow in scope; time travel fics, but more specifically, time travel fics that throw Naruto back as a teenager or adult to a few years before the Kyuubi attack, or the Third Great Shinobi War. Even more specific is how despite Naruto's intervention in the natural timeline, the same couples still have the same exact children. Hizashi and his wife magically have Neji, Hiashi and his wife magically have Hinata and Hana, etc., Minato and whoever (Kushina usually, though some fics like to vary by having someone different as Naruto's mother) magically still have a newborn male child on October 10th. Let me put it this way; in the average human male ejaculation, there are around 80 to 120 million sperm cells, each with their own randomized division of chromosomes, with 53% odds of an X-chromosome. Despite the odds, the children are still somehow the EXACT SAME.
That said, if somebody reads this, and you're doing a time travel plot that goes to shortly before the Kyuubi attack/TGSW, please try to spice it up a bit. Say, something like the newborn Naruto has red hair and green eyes instead of yellow-blonde hair and blue eyes and he has a lighter tan of skin, or a male character (say, Konohamaru) turns out to be female instead of male. About the only thing that really is understandable as a constant is Naruto being born on October 10th for dramatic purposes.
With that mini-rant out of the way...hmmm...something else to filler up this end chapter Author Note. Well, I'll admit that sometimes I go along with clichés, but I like to try and minimize them as much as I can (Sakura bashing) and where possible, subvert them (I'm positively chuckling because I know quite easily just how much I'll subvert a cliché at the end of Part I).
