Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or make a profit from this. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and Shonen Jump.
So this is late sorry about that I have been busy, but with this chapter I also managed to complete a one-shot two days ago, it's on my profile please check it out if you haven't yet :)
Anyways here is chapter 14!
Two days had passed since the group had arrived in the guild city of Suna and since Naruto had officially started his training with the Great Sage Jiraiya. So far however they had barely started on improving his strength and stamina and hadn't even began on his nature chakra training, this however didn't mean Naruto wasn't improving, no, Jiraiya was taking every measure to make sure Naruto's strength would increase in as little time as possible.
This brings us to the blond one himself who currently was doing push-ups which normally would be a walk in the park for Naruto but this particular regiment seemed to be giving him a hard time. Having weights wrapped all around his body and having an over 60 pound toad sitting on his back was probably where his struggles were coming from... also the fact that he was doing them with one hand.
"D—Damn it! How much longer do I have to continue this!?" Naruto yelled out between breaths, sweat dripping down his face.
"Until you're no longer having any difficulties," Jiraiya stated simply, not once taking his eyes away from the girls walking around outside. Suna was a desert so some of the young girls would dress a little more... revealing because of the heat.
"You damn pervert," Naruto muttered under his breath.
Elsewhere certain pink haired girl was also starting her training. Jiraiya had found out rather quickly that she was the Senju Princess and also that she had talent with the light element of chakra, something only a Senju can do. This light element had been making her healing capabilities stronger, which is how she saved Naruto's life from Sasori's poison and also how she was capable of doing her holy light ability that would blind her enemies.
Once Jiraiya found out about that he had Valen take her to their library, he was sure they had some books on the Senju bloodline and with it some abilities they could be capable of doing. Needless to say Jiraiya was right and young Sakura Haruno found herself studying the books with Valen helping out as well.
Kakashi, Sai and Kurama weren't wasting any time either as they were sparring with each other. Kakashi got to learn Sai's combat style and also learned that Sai fought with a very unique weapon of choice, at first glance it looks like small rod but upon pressing a concealed button a spear head pops out on each side. Yes Sai uses a double bladed spear to fight and as Kakashi was just now finding out he fights extremely well with it, better than most knight captains Kakashi assumed.
When he wasn't sparring with Sai, Kakashi was practicing Kurama's fire controlling abilities with him. After seeing what he was able to do in his fight with Deidara he knew he couldn't let such potential be wasted. He almost started to wonder why Naruto hadn't tried teaching him more but brushed the thought away when he remembered that Naruto didn't really grasp spells too well, let alone fire which isn't even his prime element.
"Naruto," Jiraiya started, "your father was much stronger at your age. If you are serious about getting stronger yourself then quit complaining."
That got through to Naruto; he knew this training wouldn't be easy so it was time for him to start trying eve harder.
"Can you tell me about him?" Naruto asked while still doing push-ups.
Jiraiya thought for a moment before responding, "Tell you what, you learn Nature chakra, and I will tell you everything I know about him."
Naruto nodded and started pushing himself even further, new found determination now flowing through him.
Jiraiya noticed his speed pick up and took it as a sign of acceptance. He looked back out the window with a new thought.
'Minato, let's see if your son can learn as quickly as you.'
"SHANNARO!"
It had been another two days of training and at this moment Valen found himself hiding behind a tree, why? Because a certain pink haired princess was expressing her... frustration because she couldn't seem to use the new ability she has been trying to learn.
"Sakura perhaps you should try calming down a bit?" Valen said from behind a tree.
"Shut up Valen!" She yelled back. "Why can't I get this ability to work!?"
"Take it easy, I'm sure you will get the hang of it eventually."
Sakura sighed, she knew he was right yet she still couldn't help but feel a little disappointed in herself.
"You know, if Naruto manages to master Nature chakra he will be strong enough on his own so you don't have to push yourself lik—"
"NO!"
Valen stopped talking after her outburst; he looked at her with confusion.
"I can't just rely on him to do everything… I want to help him and not be a burden! These Akatsuki are after me… so I have to get stronger so I can stand up to them, just like Naruto."
Valen looked at her; he was proud of her answer and decided it was time to really get their training into gear.
"All right then, if you are serious then we need to kick it up a notch. From here on out we get serious!"
Sakura nodded, "Right! Naruto won't be the only one getting stronger!"
Sakura and Valen were returning to the main hall of the guild after a tiring day of training, well tiring for Sakura since Valen really pushed her past her limits.
As they entered they saw Jiraiya and Naruto walking in with bags in their hands.
"Naruto?" Sakura notices the bags, "what is with the bags, are you going somewhere?"
"Jiraiya says I am finally ready to start working on the actual Nature chakra now," Naruto says with a grin.
Jiraiya stepped towards them, "That's right; it's high time he starts on it, although he could still use some more improvement physically."
"Ah shut up Ero-Sennin!"
Jiraiya laughs, "Anyways, in order for him to learn Nature chakra I have to take him to the depths of the guild and we have to stay there until he finishes. I don't know how long it will take for him to learn which is why we have these bags," Jiraiya says as he holds up the bags showing clothes and supplies.
"Wait so you don't know how long you will be gone?" Sakura asks.
"Hehe nope sorry Sakura-Chan, but don't worry I will definitely master this in record time!" Naruto replies while giving his grin and a thumbs up.
Jiraiya nudges Naruto and walks past him, "Come on Naruto, we need to save as much time as possible."
Naruto nods and quickly follows Jiraiya until Sakura stops him by hugging him from behind.
"Naruto… come back stronger ok?"
Naruto turns around to face her, "Of course, you get stronger too all right?"
Sakura nods with a smile on her face, "Hell yeah, I'm not gonna let myself fall behind!"
"By the way, we should hug like that more often hehe—OW!"
Sakura elbowed him in the ribs, "Baka! You really know how to ruin the mood don't you!?"
"Sakura-Chan, your strength is still as monstrous as ever."
"What was that!?"
"N—Nothing!"
Naruto sheepishly scratches the back of his head before turning back towards Jiraiya.
"Guess I better get going, say bye to Kakashi and Sai for me will ya?" Naruto says as he follows Jiraiya down the steps, "and don't worry about Kurama I already said bye to him!" Naruto's voice was barely able to be heard from way below.
'Baka…'
Elsewhere Orochimaru was approaching a hidden hideout deep in a forest; with him was Sasuke who had been restrained and asleep the whole way thanks to a drug his assistant had created.
As he came upon the entrance a man with glasses and silver hair tied back in a ponytail came walking out and bowed in front of Orochimaru.
"Lord Orochimaru," the man started, "welcome back, I take it things went well?" he asked upon seeing the raven haired male tied up at Orochimaru's side.
Orochimaru smirked, "Ah Kabuto, yes things went fine although he did put up a much better fight then I had anticipated."
Kabuto saw his torn attire and some of his wounds, "I can see that, should I put him in the cells?"
"Yes take him to a cell where he will be alone, he should be waking up sometime tomorrow."
"Will this work? Do you think Naruto will come?"
"He will, once he finds out I am sure he come and when he does I will take his ability."
"Of course, the Namikaze blood in him will allow you full control of Nature chakra, even greater than your old comrade's ability to use it."
They continued to walk down the halls of his hideout as they continued their conversation,
"Jiraiya may excel in Nature chakra, but the Namikaze's invented it and this gives them an even greater control over it then a normal person who wishes to learn it. Once Naruto comes here I will take that ability by force!" Orochimaru laughed.
"I suppose we should thank Danzo for passing along the information that he is a Namikaze," Kabuto said.
"Heh Danzo thinks he is the one in control, but once my plan succeeds I will be the strongest, greater than Danzo and greater than the Akatsuki."
"Of course Lord Orochimaru, when the time comes they will be awed by your power."
"Kabuto, once Sasuke is awake let me know, I have some things to ask him," Orochimaru said as he walked down a different corridor from Kabuto. "I will be resting till then."
"Yes Lord Orochimaru, I will have him locked away in the meantime."
"Karin, this is crazy!"
Karin, Suigetsu and Juugo stood outside the gates of Konoha with supplies at their side. Ever since Karin had woken up in the hospital and told everyone about what had happened they haven't seemed to do anything for Sasuke. Tsunade realized that Danzo appeared to be aware of the situation and he seemed to be waiting for a moment for the Queen to send some of her best knights away from the capital just to retrieve the Knight Captain.
Needless to say Karin did not like the idea of no one trying to save Sasuke.
"Shut up Suigetsu!" Karin screamed. "The Queen can't send anyone so obviously I'll need to get help from somewhere else."
Juugo walked towards Karin, "I'm coming with you, I can't sit by while the Captain is in trouble."
"J—Juugo you to?" Suigetsu stammered.
Juugo nodded and followed Karin out of the gates, Suigetsu soon ran towards them as well.
"Tch fine whatever, I guess I have to come too, not that I care about the Captain anyways," Suigetsu said while looking away.
"Shame, it would be a lot quieter without you," Karin replied as they continued walking.
Juugo spoke up, "By the way, who are we going to for help?"
Karin looked back at Juugo, "We're going to find Naruto Uzumaki."
Valen continued to help Sakura learn her light abilities and Kakashi, Kurama and Sai continued to spar with each other in preparation for fighting the Akatsuki. During all of their training they failed to notice two people approach them.
"You guys seem to be training hard."
Everyone looked toward the voice and found a young red-haired man about 20 years old. He was wearing a dark red trench coat with a dark brown leather vest underneath with matching leather pants and black boots.
To his side was a beautiful woman with long indigo hair and pearl colored eyes. She wore a medium length white dress with dark blue pants underneath. She was sticking closely to the red haired man's side.
"Ah Lord Gaara, it's good to see you," Valen said as he bowed.
"No need for that," Gaara motioned for him to stop bowing.
"Lady Hinata, it's good to see you as well."
"Likewise," Hinata smiled and then looked at everyone, "who are these people Valen?"
The others came up to them and introduced themselves, they filled them in on why they were training and Valen told them about Jiraiya taking Naruto to train in Nature chakra.
"Naruto?" Hinata asked, she remembered a Knight named Naruto from a few years ago.
"Yes, his name is Naruto Uzumaki, blond with whisker marks, you can't miss him." Valen replied.
Sakura spoke up next, "do you know him miss um…"
"You can just call me Hinata," she smiled, "and yes, I do believe he is the same Knight who helped me a long time ago. Gaara-Kun I told you about him remember?"
Gaara nodded, "Indeed you did, I will have to have a talk with him later and properly thank him for saving my wife."
Hinata blushed, "I wasn't your wife at the time, and we actually hadn't even met."
Gaara smirked, "Still, I may not have met you if it wasn't for him."
"So Gaara, what is it that you came here for?" Kakashi asked.
"Kakashi was it?" Gaara asked and Kakashi nodded, "you seem to have a lot of power, in fact all of you do." He pointed at each of them.
"What do you mean?" Sai asked.
"Gaara has this ability to sense the power stored inside of someone," Hinata replied.
"Sense the ability within someone?" Sakura asked, "But how is that possible?"
Gaara looked away with his eyes closed and fists clenched.
"It's something he doesn't like to talk about," Hinata said as she rested her hand on Gaara's shoulder.
Gaara regained his composure, "It's fine, anyways I came to talk to Jiraiya but since he isn't here I guess I will have to wait."
"I'll tell him you stopped by," Valen waved as they walked off.
Once they were far away from the other Hinata spoke up to Gaara.
"So what did you think?"
"They all have great untapped power but two of them really caught my attention."
"Who?"
"The girl with pink hair and the little fox, the girl's potential power is huge and her magical affinity is different than anything I have felt."
"What about the fox?"
"There is something inside of him as well, it reminds of something but I can't quite remember what. Whatever it is though it is very different from the rest and very powerful."
"I see."
"The other two seem to have a lot of power, Kakashi is almost at his peak however but it is still powerful. As for the other man with pale skin, his power was nothing enormous but it is still better than the average person, but there is something off about him."
"What do you mean?"
"I can't quite explain it but… it's almost like there is two separate chakra's in him."
"That's strange, I don't think I ever read about something like that back at my families archive."
"Well it doesn't matter now," Gaara grabbed her hand, "come, let's head back to the guild. I bet Temari and Kankurou are pissed I left them without warning."
"Come on Naruto, concentrate!"
Naruto was trying his best to form the Nature chakra around his body but was making little progress.
"Gah this is just so annoying!"
"Listen if you want to get stronger to help your friend like you said then you are going to have to try even harder."
Naruto sighed, "You're right, I have to do this!"
"Ok good now get back in the spot and concentrate even harder; you should have a knack for this."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Just shut up and continue, you aren't the only one working here, I have to run this machine off of my Nature energy as well and it can get very tiring."
"Okay! Let's do this!"
'Tch this kid has too much energy…'
There was nothing but darkness in every direction he looked, no sounds no smells… nothing.
'Where the hell am I?' Sasuke thought as he looked around. In the distance he noticed some people two kids about 14 years old were talking to a taller man.
'Wait that's… my father?' Sasuke looked at the kids afterwards. 'That's me and Naruto.'
He looked around where he was standing and realized that he recognized this; it was one of his memories.
'T—This is when…'
"What do you mean!?"
Sasuke heard his younger self scream at his father.
"Sasuke you heard me…"
Naruto put his hand on Sasuke shoulder but Sasuke smacked it away.
"This doesn't make any sense! He… Itachi can't be dead!"
"I'm afraid it's true."
A new man was standing at the doorway.
"C—Commandant Danzo! I wasn't expecting you," Fugaku said as he bowed.
"Please its fine, no need to bow in a time like this; you have my condolences for Itachi's death."
"You're lying! Itachi is not dead!"
Danzo walked up to Sasuke, "You must be Sasuke, your brother talked a lot about you. He worked diligently under my command. I can assure he died a hero."
Sasuke clenched his fist, he just couldn't believe the man he most believed in his whole life was now dead.
"C—Can I see him?"
"Unfortunately… we couldn't recover his body."
Sasuke ran out of the house shoving right past Danzo and the knights with him.
"Sasuke wait!" his father called out.
"Don't worry, I'll go after him." Naruto assured him as he took off after Sasuke.
A few moments passed till they found themselves on a bridge on the outskirts of Konoha.
"Sasuke…"
"It's not fair!"
Naruto didn't know how to respond, he grew up without a family, the only person he even had that was close was Sasuke being like his brother and Iruka who took him in who was like a father figure. Still Itachi was someone Naruto looked up to as well, having grown up side by side with Sasuke all three of them were close.
"Why did he have to die… out of all of the knights why him!"
"I'm sure your brother wouldn't want you thinking like that."
"Shut up! What do you know!? You don't even have a family!"
The next few moments passed with silence until Naruto spoke up.
"It's true… I didn't know my family."
Sasuke continued to listen.
"But I grew up with you and your family, and even had Iruka with me so sometimes I wonder if maybe this is what having a family is like… you and Itachi were both like the brothers I never had."
Sasuke turned around and saw tears coming out of Naruto's eyes as well.
"Don't assume I don't know what it feels like! Your brother meant a lot to me as well!"
Sasuke was stunned; he hadn't even considered it like that. Seeing Naruto like this right now brought the realization that his best friend was also feeling pain from his brother's death.
"Heh… you're right, I guess I over reacted."
"No you didn't, it's normal to feel upset when someone… close to you dies."
"Danzo did say he died a hero, I guess this gives me more of a reason to become an even greater knight than my brother, to continue his legacy."
"Eh speaking of him, something about that Danzo guy freaks me out; did you notice he was wearing a lot of bandages now?"
"Yeah… but that doesn't matter, what matters is us becoming knights and to continue that dream we had to make this world a better place."
Naruto smiled, "You're right… you know I'm still going to become a better knight than you."
"Dobe."
"Teme!"
Sasuke Uchiha watched as both younger versions of himself and Naruto disappeared.
"Itachi…"
"How amusing."
Sasuke darted his head up and turned around quickly only to see a man with black hair sitting down on a rock looking at the ground, with him was the Uchiha Great Shield his family is known for.
Sasuke glared at the man, not once letting his guard down, "Who are you?"
The man turned his head towards Sasuke and smiled.
"Madara Uchiha."
Thanks for reading this chapter and check out my new one-shot of you haven't yet.
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