Disclaimer: I don't own the Narutoverse, it all belongs to people who are a lot richer then me. I'm borrowing it for some fun.
"Damn that Ero-Sennin." Naruto muttered to himself. He was sitting in a hotel room in a village a few miles away from Konoha. Along the way the older man had started to explain about their mission to find an old lady. His old team mate, Tsuradi or something like that. Naruto hadn't really been paying all that much attention. He was too excited with thinking of the new technique Ero-Sannin had promised to teach him.
"New technique my ass." Naruto growled again. "He runs of with the first girl he sees and only tells me to focus on molding my chakra. Like that would help."
For the past half of an hour, Naruto had been sitting alone on one of the beds in the room, doing nothing but molding chakra. His right arm was still in the sling and he couldn't touch it at all; even the pressing together of his hands to aid him in the molding caused spikes of pain to shoot through his arm. He couldn't even make seals to form a Kage Bunshin so he could have some company!
'And all that was because Ero-Sennin had to go chasing after some random, but extremely pretty, woman. Stupid perverts. I know what he was really planning!'
- knock knock-
Naruto looked up in surprise as someone suddenly knocked on the door.
'What the? He got rejected already? That's gotta be a record.'
Slowly Naruto got up and moved towards the door.
"Yeah, yeah, shut up already. I'm opening the door for you so stop complaining!"
But instead of the humorous and old face of Jiraiya, Naruto was greeted by the face of someone else.
A face that looked like it was frozen in an emotionless state, looking down on Naruto with eyes that didn't show any emotion. Eyes that are red as blood, with 3 small dots shown around the iris of the eye.
"Hello Naruto-kun."
'Those eyes! They're the same Sharingan as Sasuke's!'
"Are you sure this kid's the Kyuubi?" someone behind the older-looking-Sasuke asked. As he moved into focus, Naruto could see the strange blue-skinned man with a large thing wrapped in bandages on his back. For some reason, he reminded Naruto of Zabuza.
"He looks like a mess. From what I hear, aren't guys like him supposed to be tough? Then how'd his arm end up like that?"
"Naruto-kun, we would like you to come with us." The Sharingan-user suddenly said.
"What?" Out of instinct, Naruto took a step back and braced himself for a fight. He put his right arm in front of him, temporarily forgetting he couldn't use it.
"Please, come out of the room."
Even against his will, as if he was being controlled by something else, Naruto felt himself move forward a few steps.
"We can't have him running around now can we?" The large blue man said with a chuckle as he lifted the large thing off his back. As soon as he had lifted it, he swung the large object towards Naruto. Although he had jumped back as soon as the hand had even started to move, he barely evaded the smash.
'He's fast!' Naruto thought. 'I need to use the red chakra if I even want to stand a chance!' He quickly tried to channel the red charka, but without summoning it with a handseal or asking the fox directly it was much more difficult then normal. He couldn't make seals and if he would try to ask the fox he'd be unable to move for a second or 2. 'And it looks like this guy isn't going to give me any free time!' Naruto thought as his enemy rushed at him again.
At the same time, the Sharingan-user suddenly spoke up, although his voice wasn't aimed at either his partner, or Naruto.
"It's been a long time, Sasuke."
And from behind then, from somewhere Naruto couldn't even see, a voice that he knew very well answered.
"Uchiha Itachi"
"Well, well," Itachi's partner suddenly spoke, "This is really an interesting day. This is the 2nd time I've seen another Sharingan today."
"I will KILL you!" Sasuke continued.
And suddenly, Naruto was reminded of what Sasuke had said before; about the man he had to kill, how that man was his brother.
'Uchiha Itachi? The same name as Sasuke! This guy must be him! Sasuke's brother!'
"Hey, the same Sharingan as you and he seems to be familiar with you Itachi-san. Who is he?" the large blue man asked as he looked over his shoulder.
"He is my younger brother."
"Oh? I heard that you had wiped out the entire Uchiha clan. You let one live?"
'I was right! He IS Sasuke's brother!'
"WAAHRG!" without any prior warning, Sasuke rushed at Itachi, pulling out a kunai as he went. Naruto took it as his cue to move as well.
He rushed at the shark-like man with everything he had; jumping up just before he reached him. Sending his leg out, he aimed for a kick to the man's chin. But his opponent simply blocked the kick with his empty hand and returned with one of his own. It sent Naruto flying back through the hallway and crashed him into a wall.
At the same time, Sasuke's attacks were all being parried or evaded with Itachi seemingly not even having to try. A kick from him, mirroring his partner, also sent Sasuke flying back into a wall. But the corridor ended a lot quicker on Sasuke's end then it did on Naruto's.
Even after the distance he had traveled through the hallway, the impact with the wall hurt Naruto a lot more then he had thought.
'This guy is strong and fast!'
As he looked up, he saw the large and blunt bandage-pack being pointed at him. His opponent stood and looked at him with a savage smile on his face.
"You have spirit kid, I like that. But with your arm like that and your level of skill you won't even be able to scratch me. So how about I give you a little advice; I'll have a handicap. It'll be more fun that way! Now listen, 'cause I'll only say this once. When you're facing an enemy like me, who uses a long weapon, there's an easy way of predicting where the weapon will strike long before it reaches you. Most weapons can't change directions independent of their wielder's movements. So if you want to read it, all you have to do is look at your enemy's wrist; it'll show you the movements well before the weapon itself reaches you."
"What?"
On the other side of the hallway, releasing all his anger into one attack, Sasuke charged at his brother with the strongest Chidori he could muster. The intensity of his attack caused his own skin to burn at places. He was running at his brother with everything he had, slammed the attack towards his heart, the heart that was so devoid of emotion, that had caused Sasuke so much pain. He aimed to kill with his entire being.
But Itachi simply caught the wrist of his little brother as soon as it was within the reach of his arm and twisted it sideways to release the Chidori. It destroyed the wall right next to them, along with 2 other walls behind it.
With another twist of his hand Itachi broke his little brother's wrist, causing the younger Uchiha to scream out in pain.
At the same time as Naruto heard Sasuke scream in pain, he saw the large bundle of bandages being lifted for yet another strike. He only just managed to jump to the right to evade the attack, but some of the debris from the attack still cut into his legs and arms.
'Not good, I need to summon the toad-boss or something.' Naruto thought as he forced some more chakra towards his hands. 'Maybe, if I force it, I can use seals, I only need it for one attack!' he could feel Kyuubi's chakra beginning to flow through his system, enhancing his fighting abilities. In a second he'd become just as strong as he had been when he fought against Neji, then he could use it to summon Gamabunta.
As he evaded yet another strike from the bandaged weapon, all the chakra suddenly left Naruto.
"Huh? What happened?"
"Looks like you were planning something big," the taunting voice of the blue-skinned man came, "I didn't like the feeling of that chakra, so I got rid of it. You see, my Samehada can eat chakra!"
"But now playtime is over." He continued. "You're coming with us now!" He raised his large weapon to strike, Naruto could see that Sasuke was being held up to a wall by his neck on the other side, but he was powerless to save him. He could do nothing as the white bandages came closer and closer…
But the impact never came. As Naruto slowly opened his eyes to see what was happening, he was looking at the back of a large red frog in battle armor, blocking the attack with both paws. A second later he also noticed that Ero-Sennin was standing behind the large blue-skinned man.
"You guys don't seem to know a lot about Me." the white-haired ninja said with a look of confidence. "I'm better at getting girls then they are at getting me. Even though it may not look like it, it's one of my many specialties."
"I, Jiraiya," he continued, "am the epitome of manliness! I will fall for no feminine wiles!!! Because when you're someone like me, you only have to flash your sexiness to have the ladies falling at your feet."
Silence suddenly ruled over the demolished corridor.
"OH YEAH?" Naruto suddenly yelled from behind the frog. "That girl just WINKED at you and you were chasing right after her! So stop trying to look cool and classy Ero-Sennin!"
"WILL YOU STOP CALLING ME THAT IN PUBLIC!" Jiraiya yelled in return.
"Whatever, we need to deal with these guys right now!"
"Heh, aren't you an amusing duo." Itachi's partner interrupted. "You are one of the legendary Sannin, the great Jiraiya aren't you? You like beautiful woman, but we didn't think that something so simple would keep you away for very long. And it looks like you already dispelled the Genjutsu we placed on her."
"Uchiha Itachi and Hoshikage Kisame, you used the Sharingan to cast a genjutsu on this woman so you could draw me away huh? Not a very manly way of doing things."
Naruto suddenly saw that he had the same woman who Jiraiya had been chasing after sitting behind him. But for some reason her clothes were different now and she looked less attractive as well.
"As I thought, you really ARE after Naruto."
"I see," Itachi said without any emotion, "I was wondering how Kakashi knew about us, but it's clear now that you were his source of information. You are correct, 'to abduct Naruto-kun' are the orders we received from our organization, Akatsuki"
'What?' Naruto was locked in surprise. 'These guys are after me? And did he say he already met Kakashi-sensei? No way!'
"You will not get Naruto." Jiraiya stated.
"And why would that be?" Itachi calmly asked from one side of the corridor.
"Because, right here, right now, you two are going to die by my hand."
"Will we now?" Itachi asked. He suddenly picked Sasuke up by his neck again and slammed him against the wall. "Will you risk the chance of my little brother, the last of the famous Sharingan that belongs to Konoha, dieing?"
At the same time, Kisame pulled his Samehada free from the Toad's grip, made a maneuver far quicker then anything he did against Naruto and ripped the summoned being to shreds. Before the smoke had even cleared properly Kisame was already running past Jiraiya.
"You think I'll let you do something like that?" Jiraiya's hands were flashing through seals as Kisame was nearing his partner.
On the wall, Itachi was merely looking at his little brother, but the second that their eyes made contact, Sasuke suddenly started screaming and trashing about.
"Heh heh," Kisame was laughing his strange laugh again as he stood next to Itachi, "Really Itachi-san, you have no mercy at all. But I'd advice you against using that technique so many times in a single day."
"YOU BASTARDS!" Naruto yelled as he charged towards the two, cloaked men. He didn't even manage to make two steps before the entire hallway around him completely changed.
"Ninja technique: Toad mouth bind! Naruto, don't move!" Jiraiya suddenly ordered him. 'Don't worry; this is a technique of mine. And as for you two, Itachi and Kisame… it's over for you two; you're already inside my stomach."
Itachi was still holding Sasuke pressed against the walls, even though they too had been turned to represent the inside of a stomach. Suddenly, the walls grew around Sasuke, forcing Itachi to let go or be digested himself. He turned around instantly, not showing any concern at all as he spoke to his partner.
"Kisame, let's go" both men started running towards the former location of the door, but the stomach had consumed even that.
"You're not getting away. No one escapes from here on out."
But they didn't listen to his words, instead running around a corner and moving towards a wall. Jiraiya made some movements with his fingers before he suddenly stood up in with a look of amazement and surprise on his face.
As he and Naruto also ran around the corner they could see what had surprised Jiraiya so much. A large hole had been shaped in the wall, even through the strong flesh of the stomach, and there were massive black flames still burning on the edge of the hole. Flames unlike anything Naruto had ever seen before.
"Don't get closer like an idiot; you don't know what sort of power it might have." Jiraiya warned him as he saw Naruto getting closer and closer to the flames. He pulled a scroll out a second later and started writing something on it. Naruto had no idea what he was doing, but it took Ero-Sennin the better part of 10 minutes. Afterwards he suddenly started making seals again, before suddenly using some weird Jutsu Naruto had never heard of before.
"Sealing; highest rank fire seal!"
The black flames were draw onto the scroll, but they didn't burn the paper at all. Instead it was more like the paper absorbed the flames. As soon as the flames were gone, Ero-Sennin grabbed the scroll, rolled it up and closed it down with some rope.
"Well then, now that that's over with: are you all ok?" the old man asked as he dispelled his jutsu. Sasuke became visible again, but as soon as the flash around him was gone, he crashed to the floor. He wasn't conscious anymore after Itachi's last attack, whatever it had been.
"Hey Ero-Sennin!" Naruto called out as he checked up on his friend. "We need to get Sasuke to a hospital. He's not looking too good!"
"What? Let me check for a second." Jiraiya turned around to look at Sasuke, but suddenly a new voice was yelling loudly.
"DYNAMIC ENTRY!"
The shout, emitted by none other then Maito Gai, was accompanied by a strong kick aimed at Jiraiya's face. It managed to hit him bull's eye.
---
Sakura was looking at the messenger shinobi that was standing in her room with surprise. She had just received the worst news she could have possible heard as a shinobi.
"As of this afternoon, 13:00 hours, Team 7, led by the Jounin Hatake Kakashi and consisting of the members Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura, is temporarily disbanded. Both Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Sasuke are currently recovering from serious injuries received from a new enemy invasion. At the same time Uzumaki Naruto is out of the village on a special mission. For this reason, and to ensure that the remaining member, Haruno Sakura, remain a capable and active Shinobi the team has been temporarily disbanded and you are being relocated to serve at the Ninja academy as a replacement other teachers. This is a temporary occupation until the current crisis van be restored. Upon the arrival of Uzumaki Naruto and the recovery of the other team members the team will be reassigned. Be aware that you, as an active shinobi, may still receive missions to complete with other teams. These missions will not take place when you are occupied with the educating of new ninja. That's all." The man repeated.
"So I have to go and serve as the replacement for Mizuki-sensei? But where did Naruto go? Why didn't he tell me he had a special mission? And who injured Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei? Please tell me!"
"I can't." the man said. He did look like he was sorry, although it was a small consolation for Sakura, "I don't know that either. It's all classified as top-secret. You're expected at the academy in 3 days time, at 08:00 hours. Goodbye"
'Oh great. I'm all alone. This isn't going to be fun. I'm going to miss Naruto and Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei. Maybe I can learn something about what happened to them while I'm at the academy! And maybe I can ask some of the teachers there for some advice on how to improve as well!'
As she was thinking of her academy days and the training they had received back then again, she suddenly remembered a big, toothy grin on the face of a goggle-wearing little brat.
"And maybe I'll be teaching Konohamaru's class… That would be trouble." But as the thought entered her head, she couldn't help but give a small smile.
---
"Are you sure it's completely ok to leave the village like it is?" After hearing the talk between Ero-Sennin and Fuzzy-brows' Sensei Naruto still didn't understand what had been happening, but he knew that Kakashi-sensei was defeated and the village had been weakened severely as well.
"Right now, we're the only chance of returning Konoha to its former strength." Jiraiya said without even looking back at his student. "Our mission is to find the 3rd of the Legendary Sannin, my other teammate besides Orochimaru, and the best medic ninja in the world. If she comes back to Konoha, she can heal Sasuke, Kakashi and even the Old Man himself, along with a lot of other Shinobi that were injured. With her power in the village, the other countries will hesitate to attack as well. She's one of the best in the field of medics, but she also has a dangerously short fuse, ridiculous strength and doesn't like being bugged."
"Is she really that strong?" Naruto asked in awe. But somewhere, another thought entered his mind. 'She sounds kinda like an older Sakura-chan…'
"But how are we going to get there then, Ero-Sennin? If she's as great a ninja as you say, there's no way we'll be able to find her is there?"
"Don't underestimate me! I too am a member of the Legendary Sannin. If anyone can find her, it's me. But enough of that; let me tell you about that Jutsu I was going to teach you along the way. It's a special A-rank close-combat type Ninjutsu, designed specifically to destroy an enemy from a point where they're too close to evade the attack. It can't be blocked at all, so all you need to do is get close to the enemy."
"You serious? That sounds AWESOME!" Naruto yelled as he started jumping around in ecstasy. "But, wait a second." He suddenly said as he looked at his arm.
"What?"
"I heard something about my fight with Gaara. I used some super-powerful close-range attack that totally destroyed his defense. Can't I just keep on using that instead? From what they told me it's really powerful."
"Yes I heard of that attack as well." Jiraiya said. Naruto's face seemed too lit up as if Christmas had come early. "However, I can't teach you that attack, because I don't know what it is or how it works. But none the less, you shouldn't use that attack anymore if you can help it."
"Wha? Why not?"
"You are even more stupid then I had thought. You think you can just pull of an attack you don't even know in the middle of a fight? I'm amazed you could do it last time, but you shouldn't push your luck. And besides that, if you keep fighting like that every time you meet a strong opponent, I'd say you have only 3 fights left in you. You can't keep blowing up parts of yourself just because you need to do a strong attack. That's what this jutsu is for. Think that it's a 2nd attack you can use, just so you surprise your opponents."
"Awesome! I'm so going to kick everyone's ass!"
"Maybe, but there's more to fighting then just knowing the best and most powerful techniques, you should know that. It's about strategy; analyzing your opponent's abilities, reading your enemies moves, timing your attacks and feeling your way through the battle. All of those thinks are what make a shinobi strong. If you have that, even a shinobi with the weakest of jutsu's can defeat someone who knows all the jutsu in the world. And you really need to work on using your head in a fight brat. From what I heard and saw, you do things without thinking ahead. That's a brawler, not a shinobi. That's what makes a shinobi into some of the greatest fighters in the world. We have the ability to THINK when we're fighting and trick our opponents when battling. That's our greatest strength and most powerful advantage."
Naruto looked sheepishly at the old man, a silly and ashamed grin on his face.
"But that's all stuff we can work on later, for now I'll start teaching you in this special technique that was developed by no-one other then the 4th Hokage. And it took him 3 years to create it! You're going to be spending most of our journey working on it; it's training time!"
A/N:
And that's the chapter for this month.
I would like to thank Zehpyr-Tai-Ji as always for his work as a beta and the many discussions we had on various subjects concerning the plot and this chapter.
Also, I would like to clear up some confusion that started from the last chapter, without spoiling TOO much. I only revered to Sasuke, Itachi and Kakashi with that last line, no-one else. The latest person revealed in the manga (that people have been asking about) won't be in this story (at least not the same way he's in the manga).
As always, please review and tell me what you think.