Immortal's Daughter
Chapter 14: Fourth year
Koomahana
This has some minor grammer and spelling corrections :)
By the way, I've done a lot of these past two chapters on my phone, so if there's an incorrect word, Let me know, I might've tapped the wrong one when i was writing it up
other then that, I hope you like it! :D
Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine; you want the real stuff get off this site
Thoughts
Paragraphs are flashbacks
…
…
Accepted Advanced Class Participants Semester one
Year 4:
Shikamaru Nara
Shino Aburame
Sakura Haruno
Sasuke Uchiha
Ami Nanami
Hinata Hyūga
Naruto Uzumaki
Ino Yamanaka
Umeko Yamanaka
Riko Yamauchi
She won her placement again? Ami thought, her eyes growing dark with determination, I won't lose now! I refuse to be beaten! She turned away only to freeze as she caught sight of her crush, glaring up at the board with gritted teeth. Ami smirked because she knew that now there was no way Sakura would ever get Sasuke's approval, because now he was determined to surpass her. There was no way Sasuke would ever approve of a girl smarter than him, he was the Uchiha clan heir, he needed to be smarter and stronger than the woman he married.
"Sasuke-kun," Ami called with a peaceful smile, drawing the boy's attention to her imminently, "Looks like she continues to keep her spot. If you'd like I can—"
"I'm not going to study with you," Sasuke snapped coldly, turning on his heal and walking away, "I have better things to do!"
I'm sure, Ami thought with a smile, but it won't be long before you get stuck, then you'll ask for my help.
After all, Ami was the only one who could beat Sakura in their Physical Ed
…
…
Sakura slapped a piece of paper to the north side of the highest point on building number five. She knew she was given hundreds of the pieces of paper to stick to multiple places on the buildings and then apply the precis amount of chakra to make the ink on the paper become absorbed into the building and disappear from view. She looked down at the ground and smiled as she saw Kiba working on the first floors of the buildings, he was taking it easy because they were on their very last batch of buildings to 'tag'. Ino had asked her father if there was a genjutsu that would prevent anyone from seeing her, after confirming that there was one but refusing to teach it to her, Ino had gone to the library. She got the scroll containing the information they needed, how no one knew, and proceed to spend the following month practicing the minor genjutsu. That had been six months ago. And every day sense then, right after school they would each gather their respective amount of papers from Naruto and go to their assigned lot of buildings to paper up before the end of the day. Because the few hours they had to work with, their project had been extended by a total of three months. Shikamaru was right with the expected time frame of seven months and Naruto was wrong with the number of buildings they could do in three months. Then again, out of everyone in their group, he was the one with the most amount of time to spend on the project.
"Hay Sakura," she looked up at the top of the roof, starring curiously at the hidden form of her blonde friend. "Shikamaru wants to see us, I think we're done." Sakura's grin was a mile wide and her eyes shone like freshly shined jewels.
"I'm almost done," Sakura answered softly, "give me a few more minutes, I still have the south side to do."
"I'm done, I'll get that end," Ino offered
"Do you have any extra pieces?" Sakura asked curiously. Out of all of them, Ino was the most conservative of the seals. Because of her sensing ability, she instinctively knew how close or how far to place each paper with the seals. Hinata wasn't so different with her Byakugan; more often then not it was Ino and Hinata who had left overs.
"No, not today," Ino answered, Sakura snickered and quickly slapped on another piece of paper before running down the side of the building to her next station. She hit the four corners and then the four centers of each corner before smacking one right in the middle of the section.
"Not bad Sakura-Chan," Ino whispered, "evenly spaced and still within range of each other. Plus the 'hide-me' seal takes effect almost imminently with you, the rest of us have to wait for it to fade before we can move on." Ino was still miffed that they had to hide the seals with their bodies before moving on, they couldn't afford anyone to see the seals and no one could know about them just yet.
"I'd rather the seals over lap then to have a blind spot," Sakura answered as she flipped over the roof rail, and landed beside her friend. "Let's go!" they were surprisingly faster across the roofs without having to hide from their elders, the advantage of the concealment genjutsu seemed endless to them.
…
…
Shikamaru leaned back from his work, examining the patch of earth before him. To his left was a laid out map of the western side of the village beside a map of the geography. He stretched out his shoulders and examined the rest of the five-by-five perfectly round circle. Chōji sat to his left and Shino was to his right, both were responsible for the north and south sections of the little earthen village. As it turned out, they both had earth natures as well and the three of them were getting better and better at using their elements to their advantage. With their abilities combined with Naruto's seals they were able to make up a miniature version of their village. The seals they were placing all over their village were sensor types of seals, designed to support a full three-hundred and sixty degrees of their very center, combined with a 'hide-me' seal and a minor genjutsu to hide them as well. Naruto assured them that there were more protective layers to the seal then they thought and that he'll tell them when they reveal their project to the Hokage.
"Hay Shikamaru," he turned at the soft voice and smirked as the genjutsu slipped off his female friends like water on a duck's back. "Are we done already?" Sakura asked, nearly bouncing in place, Shikamaru didn't blame her they had nearly lost their placements in the advanced class for this project; he knew she couldn't wait to be done.
"We've got the more populated area's taken care of," Shikamaru agreed with a smile, "now it's just the east side."
"Do you know if Hinata was able to convince her dad about the seals?" Ino asked as she hurried over and examined their work with a smile, "Darn it still a blank square."
"Most clan pounds will continue being blank squares since we can't get in them," Shikamaru replied with a smile, "anyways, the seals will still work on the clan compound walls, we just make sure they're strong enough."
"And not to get caught," Sakura added, "although I'm glad Hinata took care of her own clan compound, I don't think any of us could survive an encounter with her clansmen."
"Sakura-chan, did you forget that each of us dealt with our own respective clan compounds?" Chōji asked as he leaned back on his palms, "man this harder than I thought."
"At least we're almost done," Sakura countered, "and hay, you had Ino and Shikamaru help you!"
"We helped him," Chōji smiled back
"And they helped me," Ino snickered, "now that was funny. I wish I had that on camera for that."
"What? You did yours already? Not fair!" Sakura whined at the blonde, "I wanted to help!"
"You were busy with the shopping district," Ino smiled at her, "Come on, we better let Hinata and Naruto know about our sides."
"Hold up for a sec," Shikamaru said as he stretched his arms and stiffly rose to his feet. Sakura and Ino glanced at each other before following him over to the untouched eastern side, Shikamaru crouched and let his chakra flow into the seal stationed just in front of him. with a jolt the earth in front of him snapped up into place, taking on the forms of the forest and buildings of the eastern side. Shikamaru blinked at the almost complete picture of the eastern side and quickly looked back and forth at the map on the ground beside him and the detail of three-D map in front of him.
"Wow," Sakura and Ino whispered together, stopping behind Shikamaru as Shino and Chōji crawled over to look themselves.
"Now that's detail," Shino said in a voice of admiration, "Why? Because they included the trees." The others blinked and looked back at the rest of the map, together they all groaned. Chōji flopped on the ground beside his friend, burying his face in his arms and Shikamaru leaned back against Ino's legs, head braced on her knuckles because she was bracing herself on her knees.
"We have to put those things on the trees?" Sakura asked in misery, "just how many are going on the trees?"
"Only one," the group all blinked and turned at the soft voice. Together Hinata and Naruto touched ground, Kiba close behind them. "He found out that trees only need one seal on their trunk," Hinata smiled at them as she approached, "pretty neat right?"
"Yeah but… we have to go back through the rest of the village now," Ino sighed, "And here I thought we were done~"
"Don't worry Ino," Naruto smirked at her, "You guys are done. I can handle the rest," they each looked at him with a raised eyebrow, silently asking how he could handle every tree in the village. "What? I handled the eastern forest by myself didn't I?"
"Only because I handled all the buildings," Hinata smiled, "Plus Kiba was able to help us out from time to time."
"Not to mention that Hinata can sneak out and Naruto doesn't have a curfew," Kiba grumbled, "Seriously, have you even gone home in the past month?"
"Oi! I have too gone home!" Naruto snapped at him
"Oh yeah? When?" Kiba asked, butting his head against the blonde's
"Both of you stop it," Shikamaru said as he sat up straight, staring pointedly at the three-D map, "I just got an idea…" Sakura smiled at Shikamaru before looking at Ino
"How about a sleep over?" Sakura asked, Ino blinked dumbly for a moment before squealing loudly and wrapping her arms around Sakura's neck, "Hinata, you too right?"
"I don't see why not," Hinata agreed with a smile, already understanding what was going on
"Great," Shikamaru smirked back at Sakura before looking down at Chōji then over at Shino. "I can ask if Chōji can stay the night, my dad would be too lazy to check, my mom is the real concern."
"We can say we went out training," Chōji said as he rolled over and looked up at his friend, "that worked last time."
"Yeah, because we were training," Shikamaru sighed
"She didn't know that," Chōji smiled
"Naruto you're a bad influence!" Ino barked, "Chōji never would've suggested that before he met you!"
"You're welcome," Naruto smiled at her, completely unfazed by the insult
"Naruto will not have a problem sneaking out of his house too meet us," Kiba drawled unimpressed with now common knowledge, "Shino and I are the real suckers. My mom literally dose rounds, half the time I think she's a sleep doing it and then there's a kunai stuck to the wall over my head."
"It might be safer if you just stay home," Shikamaru sighed, with a smile, "Shino you might as well stay home too"
"I will find a way to meet you here," Shino replied calmly, his voice held no room for argument, making the girls giggle at his stubbornness.
"Alright then," Sakura smiled at them, "How's ten sound?"
"Like curfew," Sakura stilled as there was a loud thump behind her, she could nearly feel the cold breath of the man standing behind her. Slowly Sakura and Ino separated and turned frightened eyes towards the man standing behind them, the bone mask of a mouse was the first thing Ino saw and that was it. The blonde screamed shrilly and jumped back, pushing Sakura away and tripping over Chōji as she tried to scramble away from the animal she hates most.
"Look out!" Kiba shouted
"Oh no!" Shikamaru shouted at the same time, he tried to jump to his feet and grab Ino before she landed on their little stone village but he knew he wouldn't make in time. No one moved as Ino fell in slow motion, her eyes widening as she realized just where she was going to land. Just before she made contact with their tallest building, wind howled and formed a protective barrier over the little village. For a silent moment Ino was suspended then she was turned and gently disposed on the other side of the village, away from the rat masked man. Shikamaru snapped around in time to stare wide-eyed at Sakura. She had her left hand braced in front of her close to her chest and her right was flung out towards the stone mini-village, beneath her left palm was a small triangular almost tornado looking spinning air current, keeping her suspended in the air. Then she lost concentration and the two wind currents ceased to exist while Sakura went face first into the dirt, coughing and hacking as if someone had just punched her in the stomach.
"Sakura!" Ino shouted, her friends jumped forward to surround the pinket, but Shino, Naruto and Kiba were restrained by other Anbu agents appearing from the shadows of the forest that surrounded them. Ino yelped as another agent grabbed her wrist and twisted it behind herself, threatening to dislocate her shoulder.
"Let go of me!" Ino snapped, watching with teary eyes as Chōji snapped up while Shikamaru dived toward and snatched Sakura away from the closest man. "That hurts!" Ino yelped as the man restraining her pull a little more on her arm.
"Hay! Let go of her!" Naruto shouted, nearly breaking his restrainer's hold, "your hurting her!"
"He's right Cobra," the man in the rat mask agreed, "lighten up." The man's hold loosened but not enough to let Ino put her feet flat on the ground comfortably.
"This isn't necessary," Hinata spoke evenly, starring at her would be restrainer. "We aren't breaking any laws."
"Lets have lord Hokage decide that," Cobra drawled
"No!" everyone shouted, only to flinch as their respective restrainers tightened their hold
"P...pres~sent," the Anbu agent with the rat mask stared down at Sakura
"Present? Like a birthday present?" He questioned and she weakly nodded against Shikamaru's shoulder. "For who?" The rat masked man asked as he crouched to look into Sakura's eyes, "who would want a perfect map of the village?"
"Lord Hokage," Shikamaru sighed in answer, "we created this for lord Hokage."
"His birthday is coming up and we wanted to do something nice for him," Chōji whispered as he slowly pulled his feet under him do he could sit beside his best friend. "He did create the advanced class so we thought that we should make him something that was created by all of our combined skills we got from the specialized training." The group of Anbu starred at the group of children, as if they weren't seeing them but were thinking of the pros and cons of the mini-village.
"Who created the seals?" Rat-mask asked as he turned to examine the other children curiously.
"I did," Naruto answered, silence filled the little clearing as Naruto glared heatedly at the apparent leader.
"Who placed them?" He asked
"I did," Hinata answered coldly
"All of us," Shikamaru corrected easily
"Who made the village?" He asked, turning his hidden face towards Shikamaru, already knowing that appeared to be the leader of the small group.
"Shikamaru and me," Chōji answered softly, flinching when the Rat-face turned towards him
"And?" He asked patiently, Chōji opened his mouth to say 'no one else' but another voice interrupted.
"Me," Chōji snapped around at the voice, eyes widening as Shino stood defiantly in front of the agent holding his right wrist. "I helped," Shino repeated evenly.
"I-I did too," Kiba spoke up, Akamaru barked from inside his jacket; he wasn't scared of the Anbu agents, he was scared of what his mother was going to do when she found out—there was a reason he didn't sneak out at night.
"No, you nearly blew it up," Naruto countered dryly
"Shut up!" Kiba hissed, glaring at him "don't sweat the details."
"Cobra, release ," rat-mask sighed, "they're not a threat." Cobra hesitated but did so, Ino imminently dosed him in a bucket of ice-cold water
"That was for trying to break my arm!" Ino snapped at him
"You brat," he hissed, she could nearly see his eyes flash red behind his mask, she lowered herself into a her family's Taijutsu stance.
"Call of your friend," Rat-face ordered Shikamaru, he raised an eyebrow when he received a snort in response
"No one tells Ino Yamanaka what to do other than her father," Shikamaru drawled, "and that's on a good day."
"Today is not a good day," Chōji grumbled watching Ino and the agent carefully
"Ino Yamanaka?" the agent closest to Hinata repeated, "As the Yamanaka clan heir?"
"The one and only," Ino replied coldly, a smirk on her face as she heard Sakura cough and push herself out of Shikamaru's lap
"I'm fine now," Sakura whispered, leaning into Shikamaru's hold as he scratched the spot between her shoulder blades, trying to make her feel a little more comfortable
"Ah, then that means this group is…" the woman trailed off as she examined each them closely, "Ah~ the famed genius three, the tridents of the Advanced Class." Everyone but Ino looked at her strangely, Ino countered to three before she huffed and dropped her stance, she turned around and put one hand on her hip.
"What?" Ino questioned dumbly, "What are you talking about?"
"The three top students of the third years have remained the top three students since their first year," the woman explained, "Shikamaru Nara, Shino Aburame and Sakura Haruno. Not once in the past three years have these three lost their places, not even in the quarter examines."
"So… we're called the tridents?" Shikamaru asked with a disgruntled look, "that's… dumb."
"I believe we are called that because in all of the quarter exams our places have yet to be moved or wavered," Shino explained.
"Ah!" Naruto gasped, his eyes brightening as he seemed to realize something, "Does this mean we're off the hook?!"
"No," Rat-mask drawled
Everyone groaned and bowed their heads
"We'll help you," the woman said, a smile in her voice. It took a moment but Naruto was suddenly cheering loudly, he even grabbed Hinata and spun her around for a moment before she feinted and he was forced to hand her over to Kiba and Shino.
…
…
Hiruzen smiled as several members of his Anbu lead him through the halls of his tower. He knew this particular group had been taking on an unusual amount of sick and vacation days. He knew they were up to some thing he just didn't know what.
"We're almost there lord Hokage," Hawk said softly as they took a turn down another hall. Hiruzen could hear the amusment in his voice and he could almost imagine the man as he was when he was a child, always hyper and bouncing around as if a ton of sugar was poured down his throat.
"I can't help but wonder just were we're going," Hiruzen smiled back, "I've noticed we're quite close to the academy." He noticed how Cobra and Sapphire glanced at each other as they walked; he hummed just to see their reactions and was pleasantly surprised to see sapphire stiffen.
"We're here Lord Hokage," Hawk said, his voice trembling with amusment. Hiruzen hummed as she stopped in front of the door, his eyebrow raised at the familiar name of 'Info. Station 1', he didn't recall there being such a room but he wasn't surprised that his most rambunctious Anbu Unit would create one for him. "Shall we go in sir?" Hawk asked, gesturing for him to open the door, if not for his hat, Hiruzen was sure that they would've snickered at his eyebrows disappearing into his hairline. Considering he was mostly bald, he wouldn't be surprised they'd start rolling on the floor laughing. Holding back a chuckle at his on amusment, Hiruzen stepped forward and opened the door, old habits let him let go of the door and consequently avoid the bucket of water that fell from above.
"NARUTO!" two female voices roared, followed by a familiar boyish scream, Hiruzen chuckled as he entered the room, careful to avoid the bucket and puddle of water. Inside he found the red room painted bright red and decorated with yellow and white streamers, candles, a table full of presents, a table with a semi-large cake with the candles forming the numbers 'seventy-six' and a large curtain hiding something in the center of the room. Just before the large curtain stood eight familiar children: Ino had Naruto in a headlock, Sakura was scolding him gently, Hinata was watching with a fond smile, Shikamaru looked like he was thinking sleeping on his feet, Chōji was happily eating away on his favorite chips, Shino was standing close to the window with a bug in hand and Kiba was laughing from his seat on the wall with Akamaru stationed at his feet.
"My, my," Hiruzen chuckled as he walked further into the room, letting his dark eyes wonder over the beautifully decorated room, although admittedly it looked as if the children made all of the decorations with paper and clue. "How beautiful," Hiruzen turned to the children with a fond smile, "I did you do this all by yourself?"
"Jiji!" Naruto shouted, flying out of Ino's hold and straight into Hiruzen's laughing arms, "We all worked really hard for your present Jiji! It took us nearly the whole year to finish it!"
"Idiot!" Ino whined, slapping a hand to her face, "you're not supposed to tell him about it yet!" Naruto just laughed at her, even going so far as sticking his tong out at her, Sakura snickered and Ino gave a very unimpressed look.
"Per-perhaps… we should start?" Hinata asked softly, her cheeks pinkening as everyone turned to look at her
"That's a great Idea Hinata-chan," Sakura smiled at her, "hay lord Hokage, is your son in the village?"
"I should hope so," Hiruzen answered with a chuckle, "I haven't sent him out on any missions."
"That's great!" Sakura clapped her hands and turned to the Anbu agent trying to sneak into the nearest corner to hide from them, "ne~ Cobra-san, could pretty please go get him please?" the man stilled and turned very slowly to look back at her, for a moment it appeared as if he was glaring at her and Hiruzen was just about to reprimand him for it when the man's head collided with the wall. Hiruzen stared dumbly as the ever calm man repeatedly smacked his forehead on the wall four times before he headed out of the room, Hiruzen turned to look at Hawk expectantly.
"For some reason," Hawk started, "He can't deny her anything she asks." Hiruzen chuckled in amusement as Sakura and Ino cheered for Cobra's success.
…
…
Azuma had a bad feeling all day and as the day came and went and night was suddenly thrust upon him, his feeling steadily grew worse. His bad feeling seemed to be amplified when the ever famed Cobra appeared in his classroom door way, when the man said that his father wanted him ASAP, Azuma disappeared from his classroom and ran for everything he was worth to the Kage building. He had just lost his little brother and his sister-in-law, he wasn't about to lose his father as well, not when that old man and him were all that little Konohamaru had left. Azuma first ran to the office Hiruzen was in the most often, seeing it empty and dark, Azuma quickly sprinted through the room to reach the receptionist's desk on the other side. She stuttered out the direction his father went and he quickly followed, when he hit a cross road he stopped and thought he should go left but then a loud scream echoed down the hall from his right and he quickly followed with a new found urgency.
"Dad!" Azuma shouted as he slammed open the door he thought the scream came from, he was instantly dosed in what he could only hope to be water. Inside he found a nicely decorated room with a curtain hiding something in the center, a group of children, his very amused looking father and a few relaxed Anbu longing around the room.
"Naruto! Get a way!" Ino screamed shrilly, Azuma looked at her dully, realizing that it was her scream he heard. Naruto was holding a little black spider out to her with a mischievous grin, Ino meanwhile was standing on a chair in the corner, looking as if she was willing to climb the corner without chakra if it meant getting away from the creepy looking thing.
"Naruto-san please be nice," Azuma turned at the polite voice and saw Sakura standing on a stool near the table that housed the cake and other small foods, she had one knife in hand that was smeared white with the frosting of the cake, she was holding out one plate with a nicely sized cut of cake out to Sapphire. Hinata stood close by on a stool herself, handing a plate of food out to Cobra, a shy smile on her soft pink cheeks.
"What's going on?" Azuma asked as he walked further into the room, kicking the blue bucket into the hallway and away from the mischievous brat in the room. The children each looked at him, some more curious than others, and his father greeted him with a warm smile.
"Azume-sensei?" Sakura called curiously, "What are you doing here Sensei?"
"Aren't you supposed to be grading someone's homework or something?" Naruto asked as he handed the spider over to Shino and hurried over to Sakura so he could get his share of the cake too. Azume blinked and then glared at the blonde, he marched over and grabbed the blonde up by the scruff of his neck. "Ah! Put me down!"
"You little brat," Azuma drawled in annoyance, "You skipped school today!"
"So?!" Naruto asked loudly as he flayed his feet around
"Naruto-san! Stop kicking! You'll get dirt in the food," Sakura said hurriedly, trying her best to cover the food before her worries were confirmed.
"Not just you either," Azuma lowered Naruto to the floor but didn't let go of him, he turned a disappointed look onto Sakura and Hinata, both shrank back. "You two did as well," he turned to look at the other children who were steadily and sullenly walking back towards him, "so did you four! I mean five!" Azuma quickly corrected himself when he saw Ino carefully slide down the wall and into Sapphire's arms so she could stand on the floor without the worry of an ugly spider crawling near her.
"It was with love," Sakura said softly, blinking big green eyes at Azuma
"Don't give me that cheesy line!" Azuma barked
"Now, now Azuma calm down," Hiruzen chuckled, "here have some cake." Azmua stared at his father dumbly, not quite believing that he was actually condoning skipping school.
"Father," Azuma drawled in disbelieve
"Father?!" Azuma glanced down at the children in curiosity; they were all staring up at him in surprise, as if they couldn't believe what they just heard.
"You're Jiji's son?" Naruto asked, he actually sounded insulted by the information
"Got a problem with it?" Azuma asked, a tone of warning filling his voice
"Nope," Sakura smiled as Ino slapped a hand over Naruto's mouth, preventing him from saying anything, "Somehow I'm not surprised."
"Ah, now that I think about it," Shikamaru spoke up, "His last name is Sarutobi too."
"Very good you two," Hiruzen smiled and crouched in front of them, a smile at Ino had her releasing Naruto, "now I have a question for you all."
"What is it lord Hokage?" the children asked as they crowed around him with curious looks
"Can I open my presents now?" Hiruzen asked, the children all shared curious looks before turning to look at Ino and Sakura expectantly
"Okay," Sakura smiled
"Ah, but you have to save ours for last," Ino added quickly, smile brightening as Hiruzen dropped his head in disappointment.
"You have to see everyone else's presents first, lord Hokage," Hinata smiled, "or else you won't see how much work everyone put in to make them."
"Oi, not all of us made ours," Cobra drawled
"That's cause you're cheap!" Naruto shot back
"That was mean Naruto-san," Sakura huffed at him, only for her eyes to land on the clock on the wall behind the blonde. "Ah! Lord Hokage, it's late. I'm sorry but I have to get home before my mother starts to worry."
"It's not a problem Sakura-chan," Hiruzen smiled, "Do be safe."
"Always Lord Hokage," Sakura smiled and hurried away, waving over her shoulder at the others while she was at it
"Bye Sakura-chan," Naruto sighed, looking dejected with her early leaving. Hiruzen chuckled and patted the boy's head affectionately as he rose to his full height and steadily walked towards the gift table. Hawk produced a chair and let him take a seat at the table, Naruto quickly took his place at his right side and Azuma stood on his left, the rest of the children each gathered around to watch Hiruzen's face as he opened the presents and admired each one of them. He didn't notice how Ino skittered out of view and ducked behind the large curtain to check on their present, she was there for a little while before she let out a startled shout. The other children were instantly there by her side, Naruto, Kiba, Chōji and Shino bared Hiruzen's path as Hinata and Shikamaru both dived behind the curtain for Ino.
"Lord Hokage we've got trouble!" Ino said as she fought her way out from behind the curtain, "One of the clan compounds is evacuating!"
"Sorry to ruin the surprise!" Hinata shouted as they jerked on the curtain and tore it down from the ceiling, revealing their present. Naruto and the boys each hurried over and pulled themselves up onto their tippy-toes to see the problem. Near the center of the little earthen village, a large empty square was filled with little gray lights, some blinked out and some scattered out of the towards the edges of the squares, towards the center of the square a bright red dot moved here and there through the square, blinking out only to blink into life a little further away.
"Hay, which compound is that?" Naruto asked, looking at Shikamaru
"I think that's the Uchiha one," he answered with a slight frown, "What are with all the dots Naruto? You didn't say anything about that…" the children didn't see Hiruzen give a silent command to the Anbu in the room nor did they notice said team disappear.
"Oh yeah, the dots are a symbol of the people," Naruto answered, "I used gray dots for the police force because that's like their favorite color. Yellow dots are the civilians, those who's chakra signatures are below a certain point, green is for genins, their chakra signatures are slightly different from a civilians, blue is for chunins and orange for Jonins."
"And what is that red dot for?" Hiruzen asked curiously, feeling as if there was a block of ice settling in his stomach
"Oh, that was Cobra's idea," Naruto smiled at Hiruzen, "he wondered how we would be able to tell the difference between allies and enemies so I made a second seal that's a part of the main seal on the bed rock of this village." Naruto answered as he pointed down at the little earth village, "of course I had to clear everything away to do it but I was able to fix my mistake!"
"Huh? When did you do that?" Shikamaru asked curiously, "I didn't notice a difference with the village…"
"Of course not," Naruto pouted, "once I fixed the seal I re-erected the buildings with the seals I gave you guys to use for them."
"You re-built the stone village by yourself?" Ino asked incredulous, "I thought only those with earth chakra could use the seals?"
"That's kind of true," Naruto mumbled, "but I created the seals so clearly they'd do what I want. Plus I'm not the only one who had advantage over it either, you do to."
"Huh?" Ino stared blankly at Naruto, not understanding what he said
"Remember Ino? I couldn't figure out how to make the seals sense people's emotions," Naruto huffed at her, "Remember? You offered up your blood as ink for the seals to see if that would work."
"Wait, that worked?" Ino asked in surprise
"Uh-huh, that's why you knew something was wrong," Naruto bobbed his head
"Oh I get it," Shikamaru smiled at Naruto. "Since all the seals around the village respond to this one and since this seal is made with Ino's blood, she automatically knew what was going on around the village. That's why she knew something was wrong with that compound."
"Yeah, neat side-effect right?" Naruto smiled brightly
"Don't talk about me like I'm a disease!" Ino barked with a glare
"Naw, more like a poison," Naruto grinned only to yelp as the girl lunged for him
These children, Hiruzen thought, staring wide eyed at the fighting blondes and their giggling friends, they will be truly terrifying when they grow up… he can only pray they remain loyal to the village and not tempted by darkness. His eyes traveled to large map, taking in the beautiful details of the trees and buildings, as if he were standing in the clouds looking down on his village. The only key to it being a map was the fact that all the buildings and trees were transparent, meaning the person watching over the little village could use it to detect enemy forces and guild their shinobi to those exact locations. Even noticed that there was another effect the map had that wasn't present before, it appeared that those in the academy class were given a light green color and those in the advanced course were given a bright sky blue color, differentiating them from the darker blue of the chunins. In fact, he even saw a few little black dots in the shinobi retirement sector, as if the retired shinobi were represented as black dots.
Hiruzen smiled warmly at the group of children
"This is a wonderful present," Hiruzen told them, drawing their attention, "I could never ask for anything more from you."
…
…
Thoughts are helpful
Opinions are wonderful
Helpful criticisms lovely! Just don't cripple me okay?
Please no cursing!
And don't forget to rate and review!
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