Thank you so much for the support and interest in the story. So for it has over 500 reviews, 1,000 favorite and 1,100 follows. The popularity of this exceeded all my expectations so thank you for reading. As many of you know, I often ask for reviews and have been fortunate enough to get many. I love positive feedback but also enjoy the constructive criticism, which greatly helps my writing. I personally believe that my writing has greatly improved since my first story on the site. I take into consideration all criticism, whether it be on the plot, story, grammar or my writing style. However I DO NOT appreciate reviews that are overly critical such as one of the recent ones I've received that go, "You should die" and so on. This kind of reviews are just not helpful at all and just cross a line. I mean honestly, its a fan fiction story that I write for fun so if one of you readers don't enjoy the story, feel free to tell me why but those kind of reviews that cross the line are just not appreciated, thanks!
Now regarding the chapter! I got this one out quicker then usual and its still fairly long. Its definitely more of a setup chapter and finishing up the mission Naruto just went on. AFter this chapter I plan on definitely starting to pick up the plot. I feel like I've addressed many of the smaller details so I can move on to the actual plot of the story. SO please don't be too critical of the chapter, I understand not too much goes on I'm just setting things up for the next chapter. Also for those of you who are concerned about Naruto's entire personality changing, ITS NOT. He is just not as insane or homicidal towards people he somewhat cares about, which aren't very many people as of now.
PLEASE REVIEW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!
Naruto was relieved to finally have arrived back in the village so that he could catch up on some much needed rest. Their team had made it back to the village in a day and a half, a little longer than the time it took to get to the location of their mission. He was currently walking the streets of the village, not having anything in particular to do.
The journey back to Konoha had been rather terrible for the young Uzumaki. One issue was he had been unable to catch up on any sleep. Naruto had been woken up early two days in a row in order to make it back to the village as fast as possible. Shino thought it would be best to get away from the scene of the battle in case Kumo were to send another team. Naruto had put his mask back on again for the journey despite Ino's wishes. There was no chance anyone else was seeing him without his mask on besides maybe Tsunade and Jiraiya.
The whole 'fast as possible' aspect didn't bode well for Naruto. His left arm wis still in a sling while his chest wound constantly provided him with shooting pains. Ino said the injury would be barely noticeable in a couple days. She was correct about the injury healing quickly as they were beginning to fade away but it still provided him with an occasional jolt of pain.
Ino was a completely different topic for the new swordsman. While recovering in the hotel he had an…. interesting discussion with the girl. They had discussed serious matters, but also joked around. And by 'they joked around' Naruto meant Ino joked around. Well, he believed it was joking around. He wasn't really sure what to make of their discussion, or Ino for that matter.
She was gorgeous, that much was blatantly obvious to him. He had been removed from any form of society for almost three years, which in turn meant he hadn't seen any women in three years. The idea of having a relationship and interacting with the opposite sex hadn't really crossed his mind while he was in Kushimaru's cave.
Looking back on it, the only real interest he ever really took in a girl was his precious 'Sakura-chan'. As he thought about his past adoration of Sakura he realized what a waste of time it had been. All the declarations of love, all the dates he asked her out on, all the time spent thinking about her were all pointless. What caused him to be so attracted to her he will never know. It's not like she ever really acknowledge him as more than a friend. Saying she had even considered him a friend was a stretch.
Now Naruto was by no means in love with Ino, he couldn't even consider them as friends. He simply found her to be attractive, but he had no plans of repeating the same mistake of wasting time on someone who would clearly not return his interest. Naruto was going to take a wild guess that a homicidal, bitter and socially awkward guy that wears a mask constantly and hadn't been back in the village for over three years wasn't exactly up Ino's ally.
Regardless of her opinion of him, Naruto wasn't interested in having a relationship with someone. First off, it was highly unlikely that he would be able to maintain one with a girl due to his secrecy and lack of conversation skills. The second issue, and the most blatantly obvious reason was that there was no way in hell he'd be able to find a girl who would actually want to go out with him.
But he did enjoy talking with Ino. She made him laugh but was also sly. She managed to get information out of him despite Naruto being adamant on keeping information about himself a secret. There was also the small factor that she had essentially saved his life. It was possible that the fox may have been able to heal him but according to Ino it was having trouble doing so.
She defiantly seemed to have improved from her genin days. Naruto remembered her and Sakura's fight during the chunin exams, which was simply brutal to watch. It was clear that neither had been anywhere close to chunin level. She had now become a skilled medic, perhaps training under Tsunade. She probably progressed in her clan techniques. Her abilities didn't seem to favor a frontline fighter, he guessed she would be better suited to be an interrogator with her clan techniques. However she had definitely progressed from being that useless fangirl from her genin days.
Naruto neared the Hokage's office while on his stroll. While thinking about his early shinobi career, he realized he was technically still a genin. Naruto hated the fact that some people who he was clearly stronger than could give him orders. Ino was a clear example of this, there was no doubt in his mind that he could easily defeat Ino, yet she could give him orders.
He began to debate whether or not he should go have a chat with Tsunade. He could possibly get her to promote him. He didn't see why she wouldn't, he had fought Kakashi and performed well. Not to mention he just fought off an entire Kumo squad consisting of two high jonin. It was evident that he had the skills required. If Shino was a jonin there was no reason he couldn't be.
There was also the matter of her telling all the other Konoha twelve about him being a jinchuriki. He had recently heard that his old class is referred to as the Konoha eleven nowadays, he assumed due to his own disappearance. With his absence that left the eight other genin who graduated in his class, plus team Gai made eleven. As he thought about his fleeing of the village, he began to picture how easily their graduating class could be the Konoha eleven with Sasuke gone rather than himself. Sasuke and him were so close to having their roles reversed. Granted he had returned to the village and there's no telling what changes Sasuke would have gone through alongside Orochimaru. He guessed Sasuke would still be an asshole, probably an evil revenge driven asshole, but still an asshole.
Quickly forgetting about Sasuke, Naruto returned his focus to Tsunade's telling of his secret. At this point he didn't really care if they knew he was a jinchuriki. If his old 'friends' or in better terms acquaintances ever found out that the masked swordsman was indeed Naruto, they'd probably already consider him a monster regardless of the fox.
Naruto didn't have anything else to do today. He couldn't train due his injuries so he figured he might as well get some answers from Tsunade. He began walking towards the front entrance but started to think that wasn't the best idea. If he went in the normal way there was no chance he'd see Tsunade. He was pretty positive that no one in the village would allow the infamous masked swordsman of Konoha to go meet their Hokage.
He thought about all his previous visits to the Hokage's office. He smirked under his mask at the thought of his younger day with the Third Hokage. Most of the time he spent in the Hokage's office was because of some form of trouble he'd gotten in. Tsunade hadn't been the Hokage for too long before he departed the village. He did remember that on a few occasions his old perverted sensei would appear on a window ledge in the Hokage's office.
Naruto walked to the side of the building and noticed an open window. He figured he might as well jump on to it and hope it led to the correct office. . He channeled chakra into his legs and pushed off landing on the ledge of the window.
Unfortunately for Naruto, the second he landed he noticed a kunai flying straight for his head. With both feet on the window ledge, Naruto pulled Nuibari from his back and deflected the deadly weapon.
0o0
It wasn't unusual for a ninja to appear in Tsunade's window. In fact her idiotic teammate Jiraiya simply refused to use the door and would only enter her office through the window. She could sense Jiraiya's chakra when he landed on the window so when she sensed a foreign chakra signature she prepared for combat. After all who in the village besides Jiraiya would think it was ok to just land in the Hokage's office.
She instinctually turned and fired a kunai at full strength towards the perpetrator who sat on her window sill. She regretted this action immediately after she saw who was on the window. She held her breath fearing that she could have potentially killed Naruto. She released her breath once she saw the masked boy deflect the projectile with his blade.
"You idiot, I could have killed you! Why are you jumping through the Hokage's window!?"
Naruto let out a sigh of relief, glad to not have another injury to deal with. The amount of strength and speed behind that throw could have severely injured him had he not deflected it.
"Well I figured there was no way the receptionist would let me through and I remembered seeing Jiraiya do it before so I figured it was a good idea."
Tsunade groaned at Naruto's response. That pervert Jiraiya was defiantly not a good mentor. She hadn't seen Naruto since his return to from his mission. Since Shino was the jonin commander he was the only one required to give the mission report to the Hokage. Shino had told her about their teams mission and she had to say she was impressed.
Naruto had fought off four Kumo shinobi single-handedly. She knew of the two jonin, C and Samui. C was well-renowned for being Kumo's best medic and sensory shinobi. He was credited with being one of Kumo's best ninja while Samui was an elite swordsman. However, she was somewhat concerned with the fact that he had fought the enemy alone.
Part of sending Naruto out on the mission was to test his ability to work with others, which Shino claimed would be difficult to do. Apparently his fighting style revolved mostly around silent killing. This method of attack would be useful if al members of the team could also use it. Unfortunately for Naruto, no Konoha shinobi had ever used silent killing until now.
Shino described the fight from his perspective. She was particularly intrigued by a certain jutsu Shino mentioned. Apparently Naruto had cast a technique that negated all enemy ninjutsu. Someone who possessed that ability would unquestionably be a force to be reckoned with. Naruto had also used the Black Rain technique, which she had already seen the aftermath of. Shino hadn't seen Naruto use his sword during the battle due to the mist. He had also informed her on his injuries.
Naruto had always been a quick healer during his genin days because of the fox. According to Shino, the injuries Naruto had suffered where severe. The bug user stated that they required intensive medical care from Ino. Tsunade had been curious about the wounds and had just recently sent an ANBU to inform Ino that the Hokage wanted to see her.
Tsunade had trained Ino for around a year and half on medical jutsu. The girl was definitely skilled as a medical ninja but she was no Sakura. Ino had been close to Sakura in skill before resigning from Tsunade's tutelage. She had said that she only wanted to know enough to heal her comrades during mission. Tsunade understood completely and was fine with her abandoning medical training. After all, Ino had already become just as skilled as most medics who served at the hospital.
Tsunade trusted Ino's opinions when it came to medical diagnostics, having taught her everything she knew. Tsunade figured she might get more information about the injuries that had apparently not been healed by the Kyuubi from Ino. She could tell from the sling on his arm that his injuries must have been pretty bad.
"If you pick up anymore of Jiraiya's stupid traits I'm going to have to start pounding you as well."
Said Tsunade in a threatening tone.
Naruto smirked under his mask at her statement. He then leapt into the office and walked to the front of her desk. Tsunade's gaze followed the Naruto as he walked in front of her.
"Well what do you want Naruto, I've got work to do and Ino will be arriving soon."
It wasn't that Tsunade didn't want to talk to Naruto, infact she was inwardly thrilled that he had stopped by. It was just that she had a lot of work on her plate, plus she did schedule a meeting with Ino.
Naruto was a little curious about Tsunade's meeting with Ino and what it could be about. He pushed those thoughts aside though and decided to focus on the two reasons he came to talk to the Hokage.
"I've got two things I'd like to discuss with you, if you don't mind."
Tsunade kept her gaze on Naruto, inwardly debating whether she had time before Ino arrived.
"Ino will be coming soon, will they be quick? If not we can always talk later Naruto."
"They should be quick but it will depend on your answers. I personally believe that they don't' require too much discussion, just answers. "
Tsunade decided she might as well just have the discussion now about whatever was on Naruto's mind. After all, Ino could wait a few minutes if need be.
"Very well, go ahead then."
"The first matter that I wanted to address is my rank. I think we both know I'm way past the skill level of a genin."
Tsunade was a little surprised that Naruto had brought this up. She knew that he was by no means a genin level shinobi, he definitely had the skill level of a jonin. She was just curious about his motives for addressing the topic. From what she had gathered from Naruto since his return, it seemed as if he wasn't too focused on obtaining a promotion or his rank. He also didn't seem to like working with others so she guessed it wasn't because he wanted to be the leader of a team.
"Whats with the sudden interest in your rank if you don't mind me asking. I wouldn't have guessed you'd be so interested in getting a promotion."
"I'm not, I just don't like the idea of people who are weaker then me bossing me around."
There it was. That motive made sense to Tsunade. She guessed that maybe Ino or Shino had given him orders during their mission. This new Naruto didn't seem too eager to follow orders. He probably ignore one and with Ino or Shino pulled the rank card.
"I see…. and what rank do you think you should be?"
Tsunade wanted to hear Naruto's own assessment of his skills.
"Well I believe that I'm jonin level in terms of personal abilities. My fight with Kakashi and last mission back that statement up, however I will admit that I don't exactly work well with others."
Tsunade agreed with his opinion of his own skills. Naruto had definitely become a force to be reckoned with, but he had next to no ability to work alongside an ally. She didn't exactly know what rank to put Naruto at since it was generally a given that jonin were able to work with others. Konoha shinobi work in teams since the first time they become genin. This made them natureals at working together. Naruto on the other hand hadn't worked with others in over three years.
"Unfortunately, one of the key factors in becoming a jonin is teamwork….."
Naruto cringed under his mask. He was stronger then most of the shinobi in the village and he still couldn't become a jonin! He knew teamwork was important but to keep him at benin just because he lacked the trait was ridiculous. Teamwork sure as hell hadn't done anything for him the last mission.
Tsunade put her hand up signaling Naruto to stop his cringing. She could see him tense up at his previous words. Tsunade didn't want Naruto to be a Jonin. That would put him in a position of leadership over other ninja, which she didn't believe Naruto was ready for in the slightest. She did however have a ranking in mind for Naruto., tokubetsu jonin (special jonin).
Tokubetsu jonin were shinobi who had jonin level abilities with a specific skill. An example of this was Ibiki who had jonin level skill in interrogation. Tsunade didn't exactly know what Naruto's special skill was but she supposed it could be combat. He pretty much lacked any other qualities of a shinobi besides combat ability. He didn't work well with others, he wasn't a leader, he didn't communicate with his comesades, he wasn't very well liked amongst other shinobi, he just simply fought.
"I'm going to promote you to tokubetsu jonin with a speciality in combat."
Tsunade saw Naruto release the tension in his body. She assumed he was happy. Of course she couldn't tell due to that accursed mask.
Naruto had a large smile on under his mask. He was genuinely happy from his promotion and was somewhat surprised that Tsunade had actually raised his rank. He wasn't really sure what a tokubetsu jonin did, but it had jonin in the name. He guessed it had to be a relatively high-ranking, high enough to prevent weaklings from bossing him around.
"So what exactly does this position mean for me. Am I still treated as a jonin?"
"You will be treated as a jonin, you will have the same amount of pay and respect that come with being an actual jonin. The only difference is I won't be sending you out as a leader of a team. I'm sure you can understand my reasons for doing so. You will be sent out for missions in which require a great deal of fighting. Idealy we will only have to send you and one other person with you for them. We will avoid sending you on missions that have politics or social events within them. I think we can both agree your not the most…. social person anymore."
Naruto nodded his head, agreeing and approving of what Tsunade had said. He was more than happy with what his new rank required of him. Only having to engage in combat sounded great to him.
"You said you had one other thing to discuss?"
Naruto quickly removed the thoughts of his new promotion to that of his other topic.
"Yes I had one other matter I wanted to talk to you about. While on my mission Ino told me she knew of me being a jinchuriki. She later told me that you had told my entire class of this."
Tsunade's facial expression turned serious. She had informed Naruto's entire graduating class as well as well as team Gai about his tenant.
"I'm not mad about it or anything, I'm just curious about why you chose to do so."
Tsunade was somewhat relieved that Naruto wasn't angry at her. She felt as if their relationship was at least improving and this could have potentially been a setback. She let out a sigh before beginning her response.
"A few days after you left Sasuke began telling Sakura and a few others about the red chakra clock that had enveloped you. He said the chakra felt evil and that you had become animalistic. Rather then let people come up with their own negative opinions I decided to inform them about you being a jinchuriki."
Naruto nodded his head, approving of the reason. Once again, he really didn't mind the fact that people knew he was a jinchuriki. That matter didn't really affect as of now since barely anyone knew that the masked swordsman who had arrived in Konoha was actually Naruto.
"Well… thats all I really wanted to talk about, thanks for taking the time to do so."
Said Naruto while scratching the back of his head awkwardly with his only good hand. Tsunade smiled at the statement and gave him a nod in return.
"Anytime Naruto, just don't use the window again."
"I don't know about that, going thing the window seems to make things more interesting."
Tsunade let out a hostile growl.
"What did you say you scrawny brat!"
Naruto let out a chuckle at her reaction before he heard the door cracked open.
"Tsunade-sama Ino is here to…HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET IN HERE!"
Screamed Shizune as she pointed at the masked man. Tsunade let out yet another sigh, this day had got more and more troublesome.
"It's fine Shizune we were having discussion."
"But I didn't even see him come through the building!"
"He pulled a Jiraiya."
Shizune immediately understood what Tsunade had said, signifying that he had appeared in the window. Soon Ino Yamanaka appeared behind Shizune and was surprised to see Naruto standing there. Tsunade saw Ino appear and prepared to usher Shizune away.
"It's not a problem Shizune, now do you mind leaving us."
Shizune bowed and left the room, but not before giving Naruto a glare.
0o0
Ino had been walking through the city streets, hoping to bump into a friend or find something in a shop that caught her eye until an ANBU agent appeared. The ninja had told her that Tsunade wished to see her immediately. She made her way to the Hokage building where she saw Shizune, who led her to Tsunade's office. Both Shizune and herself were surprised to see the masked swordsman in Tsunades office. Of course Ino had known that the masked man was Naruto.
"Umm, Tsunade-sama would you like me to come by later?"
"No now is fine I was just finishing up my discussion with.."
Before Tsunade could finish up Naruto interrupted her.
"She knows who I am."
"Sh…She does?
"Not only do I know who he is I got to see him without that stupid mask on."
Responded Ino proudly with a grin on her face.
"For the last time Ino, it is not stupid!"
Groaned Naruto. On the way back from the mission to the boarder of the land of Fire Naruto and Ino trailed behind Shino. They had talked a bit more. Most of the discussion consisted Ino teasing him about him annoying and stupid his mask was. Ino's real motive was to get him to stop wearing it. This had continued for around ten minutes before Naruto just stopped arguing with her as a whole. Ino didn't know whether to consider it a victory on her part or if she had simply annoyed him too much. She went with it being a victory on her part.
Of course Naruto considered it the latter. He didn't really want to hear her insult his mask or argue for that matter. He had chuckled quietly at the Yamanaka's behavior, she was definitely an interesting one.
"Someones a little feisty, huh Naruto?"
Said Ino jokingly with a smirk on her face. She loved to rile the young Uzumaki. It was much more fun when he didn't have his mask on because she could see how flustered or angry he got. She could always imagine though!
Naruto sighed under his mask. He simply had no clue how to deal with this girl. She aggravated, teased and flustered him repeatedly. However, she could also hold serious conversations with him and somehow knew the most about him in the village.
Tsunade looked on at the two's interaction with a bit of shock. Ino didn't seem to be intimidated or scared of the new Naruto at all. She also took in the information that Ino was the first to see him without his mask on.
"You saw his actual face Ino!?"
The Yamanaka nodded her head and smiled.
"Indeed I did, I had to remove his mask so that he could get more oxygen into his system."
Tsunade realized that if she needed to remove the mask so he could obtain oxygen, the injuries must have been severe.
"Well that brings me to the actual reasons for you being here. I wanted an account of Naruto's injuries from you, after all you did treat him."
"Well he suffered a deep kunai wound to his stomach as well a fractured humerus from some form of sword. The humerus injury wasn't life threatening, it just needed to be closed up and healed but he did loose a fair amount of blood from it. The real issue was the stomach wound. He lost a lot of blood from the injury and I had a lot of trouble closing it up, I believe his bijuu greatly helped in the process. Most people would have died from the injury. I did manage to close it up but his heart rate was so low from the loss of blood that I took off his mask to get more oxygen into him."
Tsunade had a mixed reaction to this information. On one hand she was impressed at Ino's medical ability. She knew that stomach injuries were nearly almost fatal and was glad she had done such a good job in the field. On the other hand she was concerned that Naruto had apparently been so severely injured.
"With the rate he's healing at, he should be out of the sling and be able to return to active duty tomorrow. I've never seen anyone recover as fast as him."
"Very well Ino. Good job at healing a difficult injury, I'm very impressed. I just wanted a better understanding of the injuries."
"Thank you Hokage-sama."
"Now then unless either of you have anything else, you're free to go."
Ino bowed to the Hokage as a sign of respect. Naruto noticed this and quickly followed suit before departing through the door rather than the window alongside Ino.
Tsunade had a grin on her face. Ino seemed to get along alright with Naruto, which was something very uncommon since his return. Naruto had barely talked with anyone since his return besides herself, Jiraiya and Kakashi. To see him opening up to someone relieved her. She doubted that he'd ever be the same young boy that convinced her to return to the village. One thing was blatantly clear about Naruto, he didn't care about others as much as he use to. It seemed that his whole goal of getting people to accept him was forgotten. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she doubted Naruto would ever recover that goal. However, maybe he could find a few people that he legitimately cared about, it would be a start.
0o0
As Ino and Naruto walked out of the Hokage building she noticed the glares the blonde swordsman was receiving. They made her feel slightly unnerved but Naruto didn't seem to care in the slightest. She knew he could see them, they were pretty hard to miss, especially when at least twenty people were doing so. Once they exited the building she brought it up as they walked down the street. It was now getting dark in Konoha as the streets began to empty.
"You don't seem to have many friends these days, do you Uzumaki?"
Naruto shrugged his shoulders.
"I guess not, I don't really care though I'm use to it. "
This response confused Ino. She remembered him being decent friends with a few kids in her graduating class. He wasn't the most popular by any means but she had seen him hang out with Shikamaru and Choji before.
"Your use to it?"
"Didn't have many friends growing up so I don't mind it nowadays."
Ino remembered Naruto telling her when he was without his mask that people treated him differently because of the fox. He said that parent had kept their kids away from him, which explained his apparent lack of friends growing up.
The street they were on began to split into three different paths. One lead to the clan district where many of Konoha's prominent clans such as the Yamanakas had their compounds. The next lead to where many civilians and shinobi lived. The final path lead to the poorer district of Konoha. The two neared the split in paths before Naruto spoke up.
"We'll be going our separate ways Ino, I guess I'll se you around."
Said Naruto before walking down the path that lead to the poor part of Konoha. He didn't really expect Ino to search him out very much now that their mission had ended. She had her own friends and Naruto didn't mind that.
"See ya! I still have many more questions to ask you Naruto so don't think your going to ignore me since we don't have a mission together!"
Yelled Ino with a sly grin on her face. Naruto didn't respond and just kept walking down his path. Ino was disturbed by this in the slightest. She had felt with Sasuke's rejection for years so this was nothing new to her. She would find out what happened to Naruto, why he left, where he went and why he changed. She began walking down the path to her compound with a smile on her face and a determination to accomplish her new mission.
I'm planning on finally addressing the akatsuki now. I want to do the whole Gaara gets captured arc with Sasori and Deidra with the new Naruto involved along with Sasuke being there. I also want Naruto to talk with Gaara again except with his new personality. Tell me what you guys think about this idea, does it sound fine?
PLEASE REVIEW!
