Key
Normal – Self-explanatory
Italics – Thinking, emphasis and/or flashbacks/chapter names.
Bold – Techniques, Demons/Summons, and/or title
Disclaimer: You all know the story.
And now, here's a section I like to call: From Me To You
Here's a note to everyone, a note I like to believe is very important to know. First, this story is an alternative universe – emphasis on the "alternative universe" – or an "AU". So this means while it might have elements and some events that happened in the original Naruto in it, this is not a retelling of the original Naruto, or else that would be pointless. This means I will not follow any of any events I don't want to follow or even what's RECENTLY happening in Naruto. Why? Because I just don't like some things they did the manga! And frankly, it will just be too long and tedious to retrocon things. This doesn't mean things will not change. Maybe this will make the same path of the anime. I'm hoping it does. Some things I will have to bring back, of course. So yeah. Tobi was Madara in Naruto's future (EMPHASIS ON NARUTO'S FUTURE), Naruto doesn't know any of the Bijuu's name, there was no Nine-Tailed Mode, none of that happened! However, some events, techniques, and plot devices will return in some shape and form with the other characters. And yeah, wanted to get that out the way.
Welcome back to "Stop The Future", again. Lol I hope you guys keep enjoying the story and I'll keep trying to update. It might be slow but I will continue the story. This story's a little too big to quit now. Be patient with me, as sometimes blocks of writing begin with me as I write the next few chapters. Might take a month or two. Alrighty? And with that, let us begin!
The day was as bright as it was chaotic. Nerve-racking. For he knew what was ahead. Two weeks from the Chunnin Exams starting again. And he knew he would win. He would. But all else in between and around, was a storm brewing inside the clouds.
But that was in two weeks – this was now and he knew one thing was for right now.
And that was he should focus on this fight.
He knew he shouldn't thinking so much about the Chunnin Exams when he still had Ero-sensei on his ass, trying to slam his face into the ground. He moved out of the man's way and tried attacking back, mixing up a flurry of elbow strikes to the man's abdomen and chest area. Jiraiya grunted, and then cemented a middle kick into Naruto's stomach. The boy slid back, absentmindedly holding his stomach for a second, before going back on the assault. This was a full-contact spar, coupled with taijutsu, ninjutsu and everything else but the kitchen sink. Jiraiya said no holding back and he did as best as he could to not show off anything to hurt or kill the older man.
Naruto leaped back, on top of a tree branch and threw a plethora of kunai to the older man. Jiraiya flashed in between each kunai dagger and appear right in front of Naruto with a fist, only the old man punched out a wooden log instead. The log was blown out of the tree, while the man jumped off the branch and went back down to the grassy lawn, while using his senses to find the yellow headed boy. The man, much to his chagrin and amazement, seen the ground from underneath him give out as the robust Naruto Uzumaki popped out the ground with an uppercut. Jiraiya jumped back and completely kicked away the boy, only for him to become a plume of smoke. He expected that.
The only thing he didn't expect was another Naruto to burst from the ground he stopped upon and then another when he jumped away, and so forth. Jiraiya watched all the Naruto clones pop from the undergrounds, looking to uppercut the Toad Sannin. Jiraiya dodged gracefully with the first clones, as they were evenly spaced and seemingly slow, but the more he dodged, the more the clones seemed to increase in numbers and speed. When in the hell did Naruto make these many clones in the battle? It's like he just thought them and they just spawned underground ready for him!
The real Naruto watched the clones all miss – as he expected – Jiraiya from a high spot, while he summoned chakra into his palms. The Rasengan sparked to life in his hand shortly, spiraling with no problem, as he made the one-handed seal for "Ram". Naruto disappeared briefly in a flurry of leaves – no doubt the work of Shunshin – and warped right near Jiraiya's side with the Rasengan still in tact. Jiraiya's eyes bugged out of their eye sockets as his body was nearly bisected by the powerful ball, before dissolving to flames. The work of the Katon Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Fire Release Shadow Clone Technique). The Fire Release Shadow Clone's flames latched onto the Naruto, only to disappear with the smoke that came from Naruto's destroyed shadow clone.
Another clone, Jiraiya thought to himself with both amusement and apprehension. The amusement in how the boy was proving to be, even if they were just sparring. The apprehension in wondering where the boy was. Jiraiya grunted out, reflecting to himself that Naruto was a master at the Kage Bunshin and then adept in hiding or using his clones to make his escape. It might have been a total waste to waste massive amounts of chakra for anyone... anyone but the living definition of a Dirac Sea of chakra, Naruto himself.
Naruto's style was clone this, clone that, use them to get my stupid butt out of trouble, use them to help me train heaps with, everything had to do with clones! So, it shouldn't been a surprise the boy did all of that, and looked like he could still fight.
However, the boy still had to work on his stepping. Jiraiya's ears heard even the slightest of movement in the trees about and knew where the boy was, shooting out to the tree. Naruto was there this time, no clones, no underground surprises either. Jiraiya and Naruto held both of their grounds, neither giving the other the chance to move or prepare a newer move for the other. Naruto held for a while, but Jiraiya, a 50-year old man still in his prime, practically lifted the boy out his shoes with one arm and threw him fiercely out the tree. Naruto, like he knew, bounced off and flip in the air to regain his bearings and then landed on the ground. Suddenly without a warning, he pounced back, the Rasengan already formed in his right hand's palm.
Jiraiya grinned, and formed his own Rasengan, before lunging towards his student. 'Let's have a good old Rasengan vs Rasengan power struggle, shall we, brat?'
The two chakra maelstrom orbs clashed like two sonic booms going off at the same time: loud and heard throughout the campsite they stayed at. Ripples of white and blue chakra came off of the two of them, as both of them struggled for control. Jiraiya's orb however soon reigned supremacy between the two or seemed like it at first, until he actually seen Naruto's Rasengan expand in size and volume. That title of 'Dirac Sea Of Chakra' was definitely showing again. Quickly pulling back his now empty hands and body, he watched Naruto drive down the ball of chakra to the ground like a mini-explosion. He watched in fascination and winced at the ball cracking the ground underneath it. A nice sizable dirt hole made its way into the ground. Many layers of the ground was stripped away by the path of the Rasengan.
Jiraiya no longer took any more heed of Naruto's Rasengan's damage and instead decided to restart the battle by kicking the recovering Naruto in the back. It worked, as the boy tumbled away, with no smoke or any trace of disappearing. He got back up to his feet, as the older ninja stalked him in his back and went for the neck. Naruto moved swiftly out the way, showing he wasn't much slowed down by his former kick, nor was he in any shape or form tired from all the ninjutsu he used. He then threw three single kunai at Jiraiya, to all he missed and was still in Jiraiya's vicinity. Jiraiya did not step up his speed at all, even though he probably could have easily grabbed and kicked away the boy again. This wasn't a real battle, just a spar.
A spar soon to turn deadly, he thought as he heard a "hissing" sound under his feet, and realized Naruto missed for a reason. Three hissing explosion tags sat proudly on the kunai dagger's handles, ready to go off as Naruto jumped back and prepared the proper hand seal. Jiraiya grunted; clever little brat, he thought as he pumped a little more chakra in his feet and jumped high and far away from the blast radius of the impending explosion. Naruto let it off, blowing another few dirt-filled holes into the ground and destroyed anything trapped in the three small explosions. In a heartbeat, Jiraiya sensed the boy appear out of thin air behind him and stood almost lazily as Naruto placed a kunai at his neck.
"I win, Ero-sensei!" Naruto said cheerfully, while Jiraiya smiled as well.
However that smile became a devious smirk. "Yeah right, I got this one in the bag, boy!" If Naruto didn't know Jiraiya could also use shadow clones to make his escape, he knew now. As soon as the clone's smoke practically blindsided Naruto, he was stuck with Jiraiya's next technique.
Dark brown tar-like mud slipped under the feet of the 13-year old boy, and kept in place as he struggled. "No, I win, boy." Jiraiya lethargically said, as he laid his kunai straight above the jugular vein of the boy.
He pouted as Naruto conceded to his master. "Using the technique I'm so far struggling on? Man, you are a real jerk, Ero-sensei!"
"I'm a ninja – ninjas don't give a fuck, remember?" Jiraiya grinned out.
"Well, that was an interesting battle, you two." A voice rang out from above.
Both turned – Naruto only turned his head as his feet were still stuck in the adhesive chakra-infused mud – to the source of the voice and was please to find one lovely Kurenai Yuuhi looked down at them with a smile on her face. "So this is what my student's been up these past two weeks. Looks like you're gonna be a force to be reckoned with in the exams, huh, Naruto?"
Stop The Future
Chapter 21, Last Minute Studying
"So, Yuuhi-san, to what do I own the visit for?" Jiraiya smiled at the lovely woman, who sat down on the log with a sweating Naruto, who decided to strip off his jacket and sport his black tanktop. The boy wordlessly fanned himself while drinking water from his green canteen. Meanwhile, Jiraiya acted the perfect gentleman. Genjutsu was never his best subject; much like Naruto he sucked at getting out them as much as he sucked doing them. Kurenai was a genjutsu mistress and if he acted even once like his normal self, she would instead put a triple-layered genjutsu on his ass.
"I decided to personally check on my student, while at the same time wondering if I can drag him off to Konoha." Kurenai said, also taking a sip of water from her own canteen. Jiraiya wished he was that canteen just then, resisting the urge to drool each time she took a gulp of water.
"What for, sensei? Me and Ero-sensei here is training pretty hard-" He got a slap in back of his head quickly. "Ow! What the hell, Ero-sensei?" He got another slap. "What's your problem?"
"My problem is stop calling that, you little swine!" Jiraiya barked back. He smiled back amiably back at the woman while nervously chuckling and rubbing his head. "Sorry about that. That boy and his nicknames, hahaha..."
Kurenai grinned a little, while patiently smiling back. "It's no problem." 'Though I know why he said it, Jiraiya-sama...' She held back a disapproving stare.
"Anyway, if you wanna take him off my hands for a few days and teach him some things before the exams, be my guest." Good riddance too! That brat was more trouble than he was worth. One more of that "Ero-sensei" or "Ero-sennin" shit he was pulling and Kurenai would get whiff of his... off-duty hobbies.
"Aww, really?" Naruto pouted childishly at the two adults. "But I still need help with that technique, Ero-sensei!"
"Stop calling me that, dammit!" Jiraiya yelled back, desperately trying to get Naruto shut his trap.
"What technique?" Kurenai ignored the 'Ero-sensei' comment again.
"Oh, it's something I got Naruto to work on, by himself if I might add–" Jiraiya glared back at the boy, who stuck his tongue out childishly. "–So I don't think you need to worry about it."
"Maybe I can help, Naruto-kun? Besides, I think Hinata-chan would really like it if you join back with us at least for the last two weeks." Kurenai tried persuading the boy. That boy was a clueless as they came when girls were involved. Not like she was a matchmaker, sure, but she was kinda rooting for Naruto and Hinata to get together once Naruto cleaned up his act.
"Hinata's out already?" Naruto blinked and Jiraiya groaned loudly to himself. The brat was so damn busy bugging him about newer techniques he didn't even keep tabs on his little girlfriend in the Leaf right? That Hinata girl was a good looker too. A few more years and the "Hyuuga" figure would come to her. Oh, he could think of the material now!
"She's been out since two days, Naruto. I just decided to get the whole team together so we can learn and go over a few things before the exams, at least to help you and Shino." Kurenai evenly said, shaking her head on how crazy of a training regime Naruto might have that he didn't see Hinata more often than he should have. Kiba and Sakura had even came to seen what and how she was doing in the hospital before her leave.
"Huh. Sounds good! I wouldn't mind. Plus, I can show Shino and Hinata all the cool stuff I learned over the month!" Naruto declared loudly, pumping his fist up.
Kurenai chuckled lightly. "I bet they would be pleased Naruto, both in seeing you and your progress in training. Just try not to overdo it. You and Shino do have matches coming up in the exams a week from now."
"Right, right, Kurenai-sensei." Naruto waved her off, inwardly not believing that three weeks had already passed like a blur. "I wouldn't try to overdo it."
"Seeing on how you tried to kill me a few times this month, brat, I'd say you always try to overdo it." Jiraiya lazily said, while leaning inside his tent. He glanced to Naruto's pretty teacher, sneaking in a lecherous eye at her and uttered back at him with, "Yuuhi-san is right – like I have been telling you all this time. Save that stuff for the Chunnin Exams. All you're doing is wasting chakra and daylight."
"Pfft, I got much chakra to burn." Naruto cockily said.
"Yes, but the body can become taxed still, Naruto." Kurenai shook her head, hiding back a small smile. Naruto's energy has always become infectious after a while being around him. "Bet you haven't been getting much sleep with all that energy, eh?"
Jiraiya answered for Naruto. "You kidding me? The brat stays up all night, trying to configure out techniques and stuff he doesn't think I know about." Judging from Naruto's then sheepish grin, he knew he was right on the money. He shook his head exasperatedly. "The living definition of a freaking machine. He doesn't get sleep at all."
"That's not good. You're probably gonna need a day or two of rest time, Naruto." Kurenai said out loud, a small frown on her face. "Supposed all that one day just come crashing down on you. Nothing, not even your 'tenant', can help you with that."
He waved her off. "Eh. Rest is boring and I get easily bored with a lot of things. Training definitely occupies my mind on things."
"Silly brat. I bet you got all those – whatchu call it – 'blood clones' doing other work as we speak, right?" Naruto did nothing to deny this. Jiraiya continued talking. "Hmph. They all probably at home working on those other projects you got going along." Kurenai looked silently at Naruto as Jiraiya easily said this.
All Naruto did was offer her a shrug. "I didn't have them there right as soon as the preliminary rounds ended, just up to about last week, right after I visited Hinata in the hospital."
"All that information at once is gonna turn your brain into a pile of slag, Naruto," Kurenai frowningly said. "There's a reason why the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is a forbidden technique now."
"I seriously doubt it. A major headache, yeah, but to kill me? Now that's just not how I'm planning to go out." Naruto grinned, joking back at the two. The two of his masters shook their heads, both saying under their breaths, 'What am I going to do with you, Naruto/brat?'
"Hey, hey. Maybe I do need to cool out with the shadow clones, but dammit, that technique is way too good for someone like me!" Naruto declared with one of his fox-like grins.
Jiraiya was the first to come out of the small silence with a "Whatever kid" muttered under his breath. Jiraiya again shook his head. He then turned back to Naruto's teacher. "Please take this blond headache off my hands, Yuuhi-san. I would greatly appreciate it." The look he gave her truly made her feel his pain and nodded.
"Sick of my presence, Ero-sensei?" Naruto stuck his tongue out at the other man childish.
"Yes." The Toad Sannin deadpanned. "What did I say about calling me anything with the 'ero-' prefix?"
"Ero-sensei, sooooo, what about the technique?" Naruto promptly ignored him.
"I'll be nice enough to ignore that 'ero' crap and just allow you to get some pointers from your teacher. Besides I need the break and..." Jiraiya walked inside his tent and came out with a scroll. He sat down and started reading it. "Sarutobi-sensei sent me this a day ago via a messenger nin. He wanted to see you when you got in the village, boy." He handed Naruto the scroll and let him read it.
He watched as Naruto's face scrunched up with a quick seriousness on his face and nodded at the toad sage before holding the unfolded scroll firmly in his hand. As he probably already knew, it had information about Orochimaru and what he was doing during this invasion. Sarutobi already had feelers around it, paying attention to Orochimaru and his accomplices. According to one of the Third Hokage's spies, Kabuto Yakushi and Baki – sensei of that sand team – was going to have a meeting as soon as tonight. Sarutobi-sensei's spy would have no back up at all in dealing with this and was only slated to get info and hightail it after.
While Kurenai looked over at first Naruto with confusion and then at Jiraiya, the Sannin shook his head and muttered to her something along the lines of "Sarutobi-sama will fill you in on the details." It was as good as it was gonna get with a serious Jiraiya-sama, so she stopped her mouth completely.
"So whatchu gonna do when I leave for Konoha again?" Naruto asked the older man.
"I'll be around. In fact, the first thing you gotta do is go to the Sandaime anyway when you get there, so I'll accompany you two to Konohagakure and then leave out back to here." Naruto nodded. "So you better pack your stuff kid. What time did you wanna leave out here, Yuuhi-san?"
Kurenai politely smiled at the Toad Sannin. "What time is it? 11? In about a hour we can leave, so Naruto can get all his stuff packed and we can leave to the Hokage Tower."
"Sounds good, guys." Naruto said, smiling at them. "Guessing it'll be good to go back."
"Hell yeah." Jiraiya muttered. "It seems the spirits have smiled upon me on this day."
With Sakura and Kiba
"Come on, Kiba. Fight harder, already! You afraid to throw punches at me or something?" Sakura goaded the boy on, as she readjusted her newer black fingerless gloves.
"Doctors did say for me to take it easy, Sakura." Kiba frowned at her fierceness. She was never so damn excited like this. "Goddamn, did you get stronger or something over the month? Your punches feel a helluva stronger."
She smirked as she chased down her "Mutt-kun". "Just me applying a little chakra in my punches. Saw something in my books a while back. I decided to apply to my own fighting."
"Feels like you're hitting me with bricks!" Kiba took another slug at her, to which he missed and got a kick to his side. He skidded, while ignoring the feeling to hold his side desperately. "Goddamn, why does that feel like a sledgehammer?" He muttered to himself.
"Geez, for a boy, you sure complain a lot about a girl kicking your butt." The voice said from the sidelines of their battlefield. He glared heatedly at the source.
Kiba growled. "Ah, shut it, Tenten! Nobody wants your input already! You should be down here fighting too, since, you know, you lost to the laziest damn ninja in the world." He then smirked at the girl. "Maybe you need it more than me."
The girl with the two buns in her hair did not take that comment with easy stride. Instead, Tenten took the time out to growl back at him. "Maybe I should come down there and show you how much I can mess you up worse than Lee!"
"I'd like to see you try it!" Kiba stopped in his tracks and yelled back the girl. What he didn't take into account was that he was still in a taijutsu spar with Sakura, and promptly got punched in his gut to a far away tree. He almost hit it, his head laying down at the feet of the tree. When he popped up, rubbing the spot he got hit in, he yelled at Sakura. "Hey, what the hell? I was talking to her!"
"You were also battling me mutt, or did you forget?" Sakura cracked her knuckles with a devilish smirk on her rosy lips. "Never take your eyes off your opponent."
"You asshole! You knew I was doing something too." Kiba snapped back at her. "I'ma kick your ass for that!"
"Then show me what you got then." Sakura cockily said to him.
"Oh-ho, I'll show you, pinkie." Kiba grinned back at her.
"Come on, sweetie, let's continue." Sakura not-so-sweetly said.
"Yes, dear." Kiba said back in the same tone.
"Ah, young love." Tenten wistfully said while dramatically holding her hands over her heart. "'Tis a sight of beauty!"
"Don't think I forgot about you, Ms. Throw-A-Lot-Of-Shit. I'll kick your ass if you're willing to spar right after me and Sakura." Kiba pointed at the weapon mistress.
"Focus on your match, Kiba-kun, or do you want a repeat of what just happened?" Tenten shot back with a smirk.
Kiba unintelligibly made a sound, until he realized what she meant and had a split second to dodge Sakura's charging punch attack after she practically flew towards him. "Oh shit!" He did dodge though, and tried kicking back the girl, only for her to dodge it easily and flip back accordingly. He then race towards her, skating across the smooth grass at his top speed without using much chakra. It seemed to be as fast as Sakura could run. If he used the Four Legs Techniques, it would be a different story, but for now Sakura seem to match his speed without it. However, he knew no matter how faster Sakura almost seemed to be, his stamina was much higher than hers. And his strength was as well.
Just, with that newer chakra stuff she was doing, it seem she could pummel him into nowhere. He managed to swipe at her, clawing like at an animal to her face and gut. However, the short-haired girl matched him with a punch in his head and gut. Seriously what the hell was she hitting him with in those black gloves of her or what? And then he realized, dumbly he said to himself, that she applied chakra into her punches. Chakra-laced punches hurt much more than a normal punch. He should know since he always seem to do powered up attacks when he used his Four Legs Technique. Regardless of any more thinking, Kiba decided to keep his distance, and just throw projectiles as much as he could, opting to stay far the hell away from Sakura.
It seemed to be working, for a while, until she practically teleported in front of him and decided to continue her assault on him. Sheesh! Since when did she get all fierce and shit with this. She was attacking him like a mad beast. The really messed part of him liked this, while all the other sides of him screamed in alarm, both at that side and the fact Sakura was coming completely from the side of him again.
"You know what? Screw this! You wanna punch at me? I'll drill right through it! Tsuuga!" Kiba yelled, becoming a mini-typhoon as he spun to Sakura. The girl clicked her tongue and jumped away, watching out for Kiba completely. The drill stopped in its tracks and Kiba returned to his normal form with a smirk. "Why play punching bag with you all day when I can just spin all over the place?"
"You know, maybe taijutsu alone is a little boring." She put her hand on her hips, with something of a pout on her face. Then, an evil smirk made its way up her face. "How about we go all out and include ninjutsu in the mix?"
"Now you're talking!" The dog boy smirked cockily. "Let's get- Whoa!" His sentence was left unfinished as Sakura threw her fire attack at him. That fire needle thing again. Kiba dodged skillfully, now finding himself at the side of Sakura. "You like to play dirty and sneaky huh?"
"Oh course! I'm a ninja, remember?"
"Oh sorry, I forgot about that. Lemme apologize with a fire release technique of my own." Kiba grinned.
Sakura copied his expression. "Bring it, dog boy."
"If you insist, pinkie."
Both of them inhaled greatly and then shouted out, "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!"
From each side, two medium sized balls, well over the size of Tenten, Sakura and Kiba combined, clashed into each other, both fighting for supremacy. The two fires died down and both Sakura and Kiba disappeared in a flash. They both slammed their fist in each other faces, hacked up a little pain and jumped back before doing the same thing again one more time.
Tenten grinned at the furious fight and grabbed a kunai. She loudly declared, "You know what, guys? I think I'm ready to join the fray!" She then cocked her foot back and thought with some silliness. "Blame Lee-kun and Gai-sensei for this one. Dynamic Entry!"
Launching an almost perfect copy of Lee and Gai-sensei's signature "surprise attack" kick, she flew into the battle field where Sakura and Kiba were battling it out. Much to her own amusement, Sakura heard it and dodged the move but Kiba didn't and got kicked in his face. Hard. He practically flew to the neighboring tree, slamming his back against it.
Sakura laughed at the dog boy, while Tenten only smirked. "So sorry, Kiba-kun. I guess you didn't hear me coming."
"Lee-san and Gai-sensei does that move? Haha, remind me to never run into that." Sakura said, a little relieved that that move didn't connect to her face or else she'll be try to pick it up off the floor.
"Yeah, haha, Neji shares Kiba's experience oh so much." Tenten giggled and then yelled out to the now recovering Kiba. "How are you doing over there, Kiba-kun?"
Speaking of said boy, he groaned loudly and rubbed his face while wildly declaring. "You stupid assholes! I oughta kick your asses for that shit! What's up with hitting me when I'm not paying attention?"
"We're ninjas. We're always supposed to be aware of our surroundings, Kiba." Tenten disputed back with a grin. "If you're afraid two girls gonna kick your ass then maybe you should sit down, eh?"
Instead of influencing her more, Kiba took in account that he could use ninjutsu, and slipped onto his fours, while chakra poured out of him. His dog decided to come finally help out its master and yipped on his back, as he yelled out the familiar words "Juujin Bunshin!" out loud. The two Kiba's now stared at the girls with feral faces and sharpened teeth. "Maybe you should sit down instead. It's time I get a little serious."
"Bring it, mutt boys." Both of the girl declared and all four, with a smirk, pounced at each other.
Nara Clan House
"No." "Too rigid." "Really?" "Are you even trying, Shika?"
He groaned every time his father had something to say about his apparently piss-poor taijutsu. He knew it wasn't that great before but he didn't think it was that deplorable. All this made him want to crawl up in some hole and die.
It's been almost a month, with only two weeks now from here to the Chunnin Exams and it seemed this had been the most part of their concentrated training. His father was drilling as much information into his head as he could before the exams started up again.
All he could say it sucked more than it started.
His father insisted he work on his taijutsu a little more even though he was sure taijutsu wasn't quite in his game plan. The Nara Clan's taijutsu style was a style that was almost like they thought most of the time – get in, finish the job, and cleanly walk out as much as you could. Fast swipes from their fists, their blades and their kicks were how they fought. Shikamaru could get to love that; fast and clean is what he liked.
However every time he tried the family taijutsu, he always seemed to drag his damn heels into the mud with him and old man Shikaku picked it up as "he wasn't trying hard enough", which he resisted to act like Ino and yell at him denials of such. He was trying damn hard, but he felt too slow sometimes, which was ironic really seeing as the Nara Clan were always being hailed as "geniuses". He scoffed at that notion.
Old man Shikaku reassured him though that he would "drill this into his head as much as he could" before the exams started up again and that was in two weeks. Two damn weeks of pain.
Now why couldn't this have came as natural as it came when he learned those two newer techniques from the older man? Or even when it came to better dispel genjutsu?
He groaned out, "Why do I suck so much at this...?"
"Because you never try to actually fight someone instead of just staying in the shadows, Shika." Shikaku frowned a little. "And that attitude is just gonna get someone killed if you keep trying to protect your own neck. And there's gonna be an instance in your life where there will be no shadows to fight with."
Shikamaru held back a snide retort and instead uttered, "Yeah I get it. I still need to practice my piss-poor taijutsu, old man."
Shikaku smiled a small smile. "I never said it was piss-poor."
"You did before." The kid deadpanned back.
The man had the decency to cough. "Yes, I suppose I did before but you're making leaps, you little brat. In a week or by the time the exams begin again, you'll probably be comfortable in this newer style. It takes a while since all you've been fed is that Academy style of fighting for years now but we've been doing this for about a while, so I think you'll get it." Shikaku kept up his reassuring small smile up. Shikamaru was almost as inclined to replicate it and shoot it back towards his father.
However he still moaned out, "Can we do something easier though?"
"Eh. What? You wanna learn ninjutsu? I taught one of the family techniques that wasn't too secret and locked up before and I taught you the Kage Shuriken no Jutsu (Shadow Shuriken Technique); what more do you want now?" Shikaku was already turning to get into the house. No doubt the man was thinking about leaving to the house for his troublesome habits. Shikamaru knew how to stop that right away. It was time for some payback.
"I thought you said I needed to learn how to fight outside the shadows, old man," Shikamaru said with a smirk on his face as he twisted those words back into his favor.
It seemed to be working, as the man stiffed for a minute but his back straightened. "I ain't gotta do that now brat – focus on your taijutsu reps before pestering me about ninjutsu and shit." He turned his head and body to the entrance of the clan house, not knowing a thing about what Shikamaru's next was going to be.
"I know you're trying to get some alcohol from that place in the house that you don't think anyone knows about." Shikaku stopped in his tracks again, and turned to his son again with a look of worry on his face. "I know about it, and I'll tell 'you-know-who' about it as well."
"Your threatening me with your mother? That's just low, Shika," the man muttered out loud to himself, "Who taught you that crap, you bastard?"
"Do it or I'll tell Mom that you haven't cut down on your drinking at all and you're skipping out on my training. And then you'll be in the shitter faster than you can say 'Sake'." Checkmate, Shikamaru smiled evilly to himself. The old man will submit to whatever demands he had. If he was going to train, he would do something more easier than all this crap.
The man slumped greatly, as if he just had his spine ripped out by his own bastard of a son. Seriously, he should show him something with his Shadow Neck-Binding Technique right about now. He sighed greatly and exclaimed loudly, "Fine! Let's do some of that shit before I get into more trouble with your mother. She already yelled at me for being late for your practice yesterday – I don't need this on my high tab."
"Good." Shikamaru was satisfied. If he was gonna train, he wouldn't do this taijutsu crap – save that for tomorrow.
Shikaku gripped the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb and pinched it lightly. "Fuck, Shika, I don't have much to teach besides it being too secret for you to learn now... so I guess I can go ahead and teach you some other stuff I know. Maybe a fire technique or something."
"Fire techniques? You know them? How come you never use them?" Shikamaru rose an eyebrow at his father.
"Are you on the major of my A-to-S-Rank missions, brat? No? Well, shut the hell up! Anyway," Shikaku scratched under his arm slowly, "I think I know about what I'm going to teach you about brat. This way I can kill two birds with one stone and get you to learn other moves that aren't just family techniques."
So this is what he meant when he wanted him to learn how to not always fight inside the shadows. Shikamaru nodded, "Alright – what are we going to learn then?"
"You know your elemental affinity yet, brat?" His father asked and the boy did not hold back his groan of exasperation.
With The Sandaime
"Ah, you're finally here, Naruto-kun, Kurenai-chan." The old man Sarutobi smiled as he seen the two walked up to his desk.
"You wanted to see me, Sarutobi-sama?" The man frowned and rose an eyebrow as Naruto addressed him in a formal manner. Kurenai also picked up the manner but again decided to leave Naruto to his own business.
"Have you read the scroll, Naruto?"
The boy nodded. "All afternoon until I got here, actually. So what new info we got on him?"
"A lot. The man's planning to have a meeting with two of his best agents or at least that's what Hayate-san came up with." Sarutobi brought forth a pipe to his mouth and smoke freely in front of them. He noticed a small wrinkle in Kurenai's nose and small frown was placed on her youthful face, and he did his best to not crack a smile in this serious talk. "Kabuto Yakushi and Baki Of The Sand is meeting together to speak upon the invasion they are planning."
"Pardon me, Hokage-sama, but I must interject. What we talking about here? Who's meeting who and why does Kabuto Yakushi sound so familiar?" She let out her small frustration of not knowing what the hell was going on and why Jiraiya-sama, Naruto and even Hokage-sama were being all hush-hush about this. And something else frightened her. "And what's this about some 'invasion'?"
Sarutobi looked at her with a mysterious flicker of... mischief and amusement perhaps inside his coal black eyes, and then gave Naruto the same look. "Hmm, so I see Naruto-kun has forgotten to tell people about this, huh?"
"Oh I didn't forget, old man. I just thought this info was a need-to-know basis..." Naruto sheepishly rubbed his head as Sarutobi gave him a kind and relieved smile after that. He also added in, with more amusement for the old man, "Plus I was kinda too busy training and stuff with Ero-sensei."
That brought a laugh to the old man's face. "'Ero-sensei' huh? What a fitting name..." 'It seems Naruto-kun's better than I thought before. Perhaps he is truly growing strong, strong enough to be recommended into the ANBU? He already shows traits of such belonging to a chunnin and even ANBU. I will have to see more though.'
Sarutobi however cut the chatter in his head and his laughter with clearing his throat as he turned to Naruto's sensei. "I am sorry, Kurenai but I could not come forth and make this knowledge quite public as of yet. Only Naruto, Jiraiya, a few others and my ANBU know officially, but I am sure Kakashi has also figured out as well since he still has ties to the ANBU and I'm sure my advisers also know of such." A serious tone replaced his apologetic voice. "This knowledge will not leave this room. If you do tell anyone else or speak this even publicly without consent from me or Jiraiya, you will be severely punished."
A wince came to Kurenai's expression as she felt a small wave of killer intent pass over her. It was enough to make her completely agree. "Yes sir."
He noticed her expression and grimly thought, 'I'm getting too old for this. Hurry up Naruto-kun and take my position before I completely die of old age.' He quickly made the hand seals for a technique and whispered to himself, "Kage Sekai Oto Kekkai (Shadow World Sound Barrier)."
A invisible bubble erupted in front of them, blocking the sounds of the outside world from them and theirs from it. If one were to look towards them while the bubble was in place, no one would find anything out of place until they actually got near. "This ninjutsu is a soundproof technique that can block out both sounds from the world around them and block the world's ears from our words. You can speak as freely as you can."
Kurenai nodded, taking that as a signal to speak her mind. "What's going on, sir?"
"Orochimaru," he said simply. "The man's thirst for revenge on this place is fueling the invasion and the Sand is in on it. He's leading both their armies and his own with the Sound."
"How? What? Why? We have no problems with Sunagakure, so why all the trouble? How did you figure this out?" Kurenai exclaimed, while watching the man slowly look over at the boy with them. Then she quickly put two into two and fixed him an astonished look. "How, Naruto?"
"It wasn't intentional, I assure you." Naruto waved his hands. "I already had Ero-sensei blast me with a wave of questions before, asking about a lot of shit. I'll just give you the small story. You remember when you took me to see the Hokage when I made that S-rank technique, right? The Blood Clone Technique? Yeah, I made a clone and sent him out on recon, tasked with looking for a scroll in the Forest Of Death. It was then he found out that Team 7 was being attacked."
"That was Orochimaru, right? But how would you have know that was him? What if it wasn't him?" Kurenai asked the boy again, much to Naruto's snort of annoyance. Sarutobi understood, as he asked Naruto the same thing about a month ago too.
He however explained patiently to her. "I didn't, not at first. However when my clone was fighting him, he definitely let him know he was Orochimaru alright. Plus, it felt like him, you know? I know about Orochimaru – it's not a secret that he's a missing ninja of this village; he's still in the textbooks as a boogeyman of this village. Everything about him, from his moves to his movement, screamed "snake", so yeah, it was him. You could feel that arrogance and pride practically rolling off him." Naruto scoffed. "My clone only got him because he completely didn't take us as a threat at all. Anyway, after we survived, he slithered away. Sasuke's team was long gone and he had nothing else to be there for. He couldn't quite kill my clone without alerting the whole forest of his presence anyway, and he wasn't there to fight truly."
Kurenai slowly nodded, as smartly as she could as she recovered herself from the shock she fell into as Naruto finished his story. He wasn't know for exaggerating or lying – not that he was above it, but he wouldn't do it if he was telling a story like this. Naruto wasn't dumb at all. And strangely, she felt like she could actually believe him. The boy came up with a complex and almost impossible technique like before, so he was well above the level of genin. He could probably become a chunnin in the next two weeks too if he showed his hidden genius to the judges too. However for him to just... stumble into Orochimaru like that, it was crazy. And what was this about Orochimaru and Team 7 now.
Instead of sticking Naruto with the questions, she turned to her lord for the questions. "Hokage-sama, why was Orochimaru after Sasuke's team?"
Sarutobi gave a look that made her feel like he was congratulating her for figuring it out the next question to this conversation. "Because he was after Sasuke-kun."
"Is he after the Sharingan, sir?" She dreaded the answer.
Sarutobi paused and slowly nodded. "It is highly possible he is. Maybe he's also trying to get Sasuke to join his cause."
"Which is stupid if you ask me!" Naruto yelled out. Sarutobi chuckled, as he was quickly reminded Naruto was still a kid inside all that "true ninja" side of him.
"So what do we do, Hokage-sama?" Kurenai asked again. He could tell she felt nervous about the whole thing and was about to give her a talk of reassurance before a newer visitor came into the chat.
"What we do is stay the way we are now." A voice said from the side of her. She looked with surprise as the Toad Sannin himself stepped into the bubble in which they all were. "We don't need Orochimaru knowing we know about his invasion plans. We already got feelers around the area. We don't need to go cutting some heads up in the night."
"Though it's highly possible Orochimaru already knows of our counter plan, Jiraiya. We always need a 'Plan B'." Sarutobi said neutrally. "Hayate-san will around to keep an eye on them, but we need to be on our toes. They still hold the element of surprise on their side and we still don't know when they will strike. Also if Hayate is compromised, we will definitely lose more people than we can count."
Naruto bit his lip pensively. He wanted to so badly to tell them that Orochimaru was gonna strike with Gaara at the stadium at the semi-finals of the exams, but he could not tell them that he was also from the future now, could he? Well, he could have but he would also be in the nut house tomorrow. "Maybe my clone can keep an eye on them also and help out when need to-"
"Absolutely not!" Jiraiya was the first speak before the Hokage actually put his word in. The man actually sounded serious about this one too. "Baki Of The Sand is definitely a jounin and I don't know about this Kabuto but if he was slick enough to spy on this village for years and gather information about our ninjas for years without slipping up once, he's definitely gonna also be trouble. Plus he's Orochimaru's right hand man, and Orochimaru doesn't give that honor to anyone weak, I know, so you would definitely be out your element here."
It was ironic really, as the man was always talking about Naruto was definitely not what he first seemed at the first glance. For Jiraiya to actually say that sounded very strange. He was not too surprised however when Kurenai nodded and spoke out her words of agreement. "I concur. Naruto, these guys aren't at your level. You may be a great genin, even show some stuff that belong to a chunnin, but we're dealing with an experienced jounin of a nation and a very skilled spy here. This isn't your battle. Let them handle it."
Naruto growled and insisted on speaking some more. "I'm not some type of weakling, guys! I could probably help out if I'm there!"
"No, you're not needed." Jiraiya then gently put his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "You did good, kid. You completely shocked us when you put a sound seal on the snake and tracked his talk all the way until that last feed when he killed the Kazekage," Jiraiya ignored Kurenai's gasps of shock and continued, "Your seal work is good, even better now that I'm helping you with fuuinjutsu but it's not solid. Everything you have now isn't super-high level. You hear me? You're not on their level. You may have lasted against Orochimaru but you said it yourself before – you got lucky finding out Orochimaru and even more with him thinking your clone wasn't much of a threat. If these two see you, they are gonna treat you as a threat definitely, and you wouldn't last against two jounin. If anything goes wrong, ANBU will be on the scene to sort it out. Let them handle it."
Sarutobi watched silently as Naruto growled roughly at his sannin teacher before sighing and speaking with an annoyed tone. "Fine. I'll stay out of this."
Jiraiya smiled at the disappointed boy, not noticing or even mind that the boy was not hiding his glaring away from the man. "Good boy. As a token of my appreciation, I'll teach you a technique or two before the exams start again."
It did nothing to quell Naruto's annoyance and great anger but the boy begrudgingly nodded nonetheless. Sarutobi knew Jiraiya probably dug himself a hole that he himself did not know about but he would not dare interfere. As for his own opinion about Naruto stepping in was crossed. Naruto has already proven he was well above the rank of a mere genin, this was true. He was definitely a good choice for even ANBU but he did to seem to think Jiraiya was right that Naruto was out of his league to take on two jounin... but he was definitely surprising, that Naruto. Naruto wouldn't just keep this down, knowing him. He would have to see, and see if Naruto would make the first move he knew he would.
"So it's agreed then?" Sarutobi spoke out rhetorically. He knew it was already decided. "I gave Hayate-san a version of your sound seal, Naruto. What you explained before, you can even talk inwardly to the person who has the tag, so Hayate-san will be feeding me information personally without the need to put it on paper." Sarutobi showed the three in front of him the seal upon his hand. "I'll keep you'll posted but for now, you are dismissed."
He then released the technique and all three quickly left after. He would have to prepare the Tomegane no Jutsu (Telescope Technique) tonight. Just to see what Naruto was going to do. If he knew well, Naruto wouldn't disappoint.
With Naruto and Kurenai
Long gone was Jiraiya and it was several hours after even the meeting as Kurenai and Naruto finished up with their practice with their team. Now both of them were alone at the training grounds, with Kurenai looking over at her student.
"It's been a while since you came to practice with us, Naruto. Shino definitely missed the challenge and I was sure Hinata-chan was happy to see you, maybe more than Shino." Kurenai went in to imply the "Hinata" part a little more than he would like. It was her little way, now and than, to tell him 'Hey, stupid! Hinata likes you!'
"Yeah," He chuckled it off nervously. "Nice to see them too." He did enjoy seeing them though. It's been a while since him and Shino had a spar, and he figured it was better to fight someone sometimes who was roughly your equal than someone who could kick your ass all around, i.e Jiraiya.
"You wanted to say something else?" Kurenai noted his tone.
"Yeah, can you help me with this technique, give me some pointers on what am I do right and what I'm not doing right on this technique?" He watched his teacher wordlessly nod. "'Kay..." He prepared the necessarily hand seals and announced his technique. "Doton: Yomi Numa (Earth Release: Swamp Of The Underworld)!"
Kurenai watched silently, as the grassy lawn they stood near become a small puddle of dark mud. Impassively, though a bit curious, she stared at the puddle for a few seconds, before looking at her student and uncharacteristically shrugged at him. "What's wrong with it?"
"Ero-sensei's version is much different than my version." He frowned at the puddle.
"What do you mean? You mean the size of it? Well, why not add more chakra then?" Kurenai tried to help. He shook his head, but decided against just telling her what's wrong, and instead decided to show her.
Naruto quietly did what she suggested. The pool of darkness expanded upon the grass without so much trouble. He then picked up a spare twig on the ground, at the base of some tree, and threw it to the black tar. However, unlike tar, the twig did not sink the thing under. Instead, it floated in the darkness, like it was water.
"Is this the problem? The fact that it's floating on the mud?"
"Yeah." Naruto looked down to the mud again. "Any reason why it should?"
"Hmm..." She gave the pool another look and decided to throw a spare small rock into it, also watching it float, despite the heaver weight of the rock compared to the twig. "This technique doesn't have any volume to it. All you can seem to do is expand how big it is, but it has no volume, no concentration if you will."
"So, you want me to concentrate more on it?" Naruto tried to find the meaning in her words.
She shook her head as she clicked her tongue. "More like, focus more chakra on a certain part of it. Maybe? Sorry, I don't know too much about this technique."
He stared at the pool and dispelled the technique again. Next, he again tried again, and slammed his hands on the ground. "Doton: Yomi Numa!" He watched the liquid bubble again, and concentrated on make the pool as small as he could, but pushed more of his chakra in the puddle's center. Then, he flicked another twig right to its center, and with a small smile, watched as the twig started to become swallowed up.
Kurenai smiled as well. "There you go. One of your problems are solved."
"One?" Naruto questioned.
She nodded again. "Yeah. While that definitely can swallow anything you throw in there, human-sized targets wouldn't be even fazed."
"Yeah, probably not." He frowned. "So, make it bigger and make the center point bigger too." He knew he had to undo the technique to try again, so he did and once again making the tar pool. He poured more chakra to expand the pool, while also increasing the area he concentrated more of his chakra to. This time the pool did expand correctly, however it still was not as big as Jiraiya's but it didn't quite matter if he was just gonna take out a human-sized target at least.
Kurenai looked onto the sides of the pool and then the center. She watched again, neutrally and focusing on the so-called 'swamp'. "Did it work?"
"Only one way to find out." Naruto snapped his fingers, and a shadow clone came into existence, right on the swamp. "Let's see if my clone sinks." Naruto looked onto the swamp, hoping it did the trick...
...Only to find the clone did not even sink, only standing in swamp like it was just some normal water. The clone blinked himself, and then asked his summoner, "Um, boss, is this thing going to kill me or what?"
"No," Naruto sighed, rubbing his yellow locks with his hand. "Are you even stuck?"
The clone frowned and then tried to raise his foot gingerly. He did with ease. "Um, sorry boss. I'm not."
Naruto groaned annoyingly. "Ah dammit. I understand if you got an affinity to one element, learning others take more time, but this is just plain depressing, and earth isn't even wind's opposite."
"I disagree. You got a lot of progress on this technique, in a short time. If it was really a problem, it'll take months for you to learn this. And this was all without clones, right?" Kurenai asked.
Naruto huffed, still miffed. "Yeah, 'cause Ero-sensei doesn't want me using them to learn this faster."
Kurenai still smiled encouragingly. "Still good progress for you though. I'll bet you'll learn this before the start of the exams in two weeks."
Naruto laughed. "Yeah, thanks sens-" And Naruto paused, a serious expression passing over him for a minute, as he stood froze.
Kurenai looked at him with concern. "Naruto? What's wrong? You look like you seen a ghost."
He gave her a grin of reassurance. "Nah, sensei. I'm cool. Haha. Listen, I'm tired and I think I'm gonna leave out to my house. I'll see ya tomorrow!"
"Um okay..." Kurenai blinked in confusion, as Naruto used the Body Flicker Technique to make his way. "Huh. I don't think I taught him that move... Hmm, he seemed worried about something. Maybe he's just getting cold feet about the exams... Nah. Or maybe he's really tired." She also doubted the second thought.
Maybe he simply was bummed about everything that happened today. She knew he wanted to help out with the Invasion, but like Jiraiya-sama had said before, it wasn't his place. Perhaps if she treated him to a technique tomorrow – though she didn't know what as his fighting style was completely different that hers. If anyone was suited to gain her techniques, it would be Hinata instead. The girl's chakra control was incredible, compared to Naruto's and Shino's. Ah, but there was her and her needless thinking. Tonight, she had a date – with her bed! There was no further need to think!
Little did she know or remember what her, Naruto, Jiraiya and Sarutobi discussed today. A few days later after hearing the truth of why he ran off, she would be slamming her head in the wall at her foolishness but for now, there wasn't much of a worry in the world as she went to her home.
With Naruto
He went straight home to his house, quickly taking off his jacket and his shirt. He clutched his chest with his hand and sent a surge of chakra to his chest. The 'receiver' part of his sound seal on his chest glowed blue for a second as he was fed Arashi's message.
Another seal next to the original seal started to glow. This seal was a 'send out' seal, as he called it, with the kanji "語" ("Talk") glowing blue. This version of the Sound Trap Seal was much like what the old man was speaking out before. He could actually contact the other user of the seal by sending thoughts to them. Much like the regular Sound Trap Seal, it only lasted for a while before it ended but it was still a very good technique, handy when he didn't or couldn't speak out loud. "Yeah, I read you, Arashi."
'Prime, I'm in pursuit of Hayate. He looks like he's gonna to going straight to the meeting now. I've been following him about all day. Took me a while to find him after Ero-baka said 'No' to the idea.'
'I got you, Arashi,' he spoke in his head smartly; no point of talking out loud so people could get suspicious. Every village had a rat. If anyone came around, he wasn't gonna explain why he was speaking to himself, he thought. 'Keep on him, but kept your chakra suppressed with the Chakra Suppression Technique when you get near where he's gonna stop at. We don't want anyone know what the hell we're going to be doing if this goes off without any problem. Stay in the shadows and only turn the seals off when you get close.'
'Copy that.' Arashi stopped talking for a second before saying again, 'Prime, he stopped. I'm a few meters behind him, while he's hiding behind some stuff himself to keep himself hidden from Kabuto-teme and Baki.'
'He's at the rendezvous point then. Alright then.' Naruto nodded. 'Ending the link now. Stay hidden and don't do anything until he's actually in trouble.'
'I know what to do, Prime. I got it. Arashi out.' The link ended right after and Naruto sighed, while he rubbed his head with his hand. This woulda been a lot smoother if Ero-baka or Sarutobi-jiji was actually in this, but the two old men had practically said no. He knew he was jumping right into the hornet's nest again and this move was practically a sign of insubordination but this had to be done. He would try to kill Kabuto here, spare Baki as best as he could and even save a fellow ninja in the process.
However, he knew this would be difficult. Kabuto was a toad, sure, but he was tough to kill and Baki wouldn't just understand his cause and join the band. The only thing he might be doing is causing more harm to the Leaf than doing more good.
But... it couldn't be helped.
He sighed and waited until he got more information from his clone. Even if he decided to not go through this, it was now out of his hands and now in the hands of his super-powered clone now.
With Hayate
'This isn't good.' Hayate's face welted up with sweat and trepidation as he nervously went for his sword and clutched it in his hands tightly. He hid behind the building's sidewall, while the other two stood on the balcony talking, seemingly unaware of his presence. He refused the urge to cough from his illness as the two in front of him were chatting away like they were drinking a cup of tea and eating a biscuit. 'These two factions are really serious about destroying Konohagakure. If we didn't get a whiff of what they were up to, we would have never known. Especially since they're gonna use that Gaara kid as their key to the war.'
He was quickly reminded of what Gaara did to the Sound ninja and shuddered slightly. That bloodlust, that hatred for all that lived before him... If he would have done that to his own teammate, there was no telling him what he would have done to someone who was his enemy. It didn't also help he housed a Tailed Beast inside he felt a spike of chakra and knew he was in the shitter when Kabuto and his Sunagakure ally came around to see him and swore to himself. 'I've been compromised!'
A sick feeling passed over him, as he seen a dark light inside the eyes of one of the enemies, Kabuto Yakushi. "Well, well, well. If it isn't one of the Konoha ninjas... Hmm, and even the former proctor of the Chunnin Exams."
"'Former'? Heh." Hayate was already out of his hiding spot. "When you say like that, you make it sound like I died already."
"Oh, you're dead – you just don't know it yet." Kabuto said smoothly, still keeping that confident smirk on his face as he pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose. "And it looks like I gotta dirty my hands with killing a rat. How sad."
Hayate scoffed. "Yeah right. I think I'll sooner die from my sickness before you get to kill me." Despite the big talk, Hayate's mind was definitely not as confident as he was speaking. 'Sunagakure ninja's definitely a wind-type user – most people from there are, while this Kabuto I know next to nothing about. He was smart enough to fool us all for years, and now he was speaking down to me like he knew he was going to kill me.'
Hayate was a reasonable, sensible ninja. Death was apart of their everyday life, whether they killed a person or felt Death Himself, so he would not even act like he couldn't die here because he was just a catalyst. Whatever happened here, war would break out soon after. Regardless of what they did to him here, Hokage-sama would know. He applied some chakra to the seal on his hand and spoke in his head. 'Hokage-sama, I've been compromised. However, our suspicions were right – the jinchurriki is the key-'
"Argh!" Hayate yelled, clutching his chest as he struggled to stay up from the invisible attack. He swore when he remembered who was Kabuto's ally – a potential wind user who could play at any range he wanted.
"Kabuto-san, please, let me take care of this enemy. As a shinobi loyal to his village and loyal to his allies, I must lend aid to Otogakure. Consider this a sign of trust between the Sand and the Sound." Baki insisted, as he seriously eyed Hayate with an expression that promised death. "There's no need to get any blood on your hands – it's only one mouse."
Hayate growled, as he completely recovered from the last invisible wind attack. The cut wasn't deep at all, which he was both surprised and relived about. He knew it was a warning shot. If he wanted to run, he could, but he wouldn't get far, the Sunagakure ninja had told him. It had been just an annoyingly painful attack, but it didn't behead him away. Other than probably sensing the chakra, he couldn't quite see Baki's blasts of wind at all, or actually freaking dodge them if they were as fast the last one was.
"Hmph, do my job for me, Baki? I almost couldn't but..." Kabuto smiled evilly at the Konoha nin. "Why not? Clean up this problem here and head back to where you're staying at. We'll catch up later. I got some other business to attend to anyway." And with that Kabuto slowly jumped away from the battle that was soon to take place.
Hayate swore and sent a small surge of chakra into his hand's seal. Not once mouthing anything, he sent his thoughts to his leader, 'Hokage-sama, one of the targets is getting away but I am proceeding to engage against another.' He did not wait for the approval of the Hokage, as he followed right after the sand ninja.
Baki and Hayate quickly jumped up to the rooftop, with Hayate gripping to his blade as close to himself as he could. As soon as they landed there, they both jumped back from each other. He was trying hard to not sweat visible bullets in front of the dark skinned opponent in front of him. 'Invisible attacks I can only sense, but not see or dodge fast enough and I'm out of most options without being close range. I guess I'm just gonna have to get in on him!'
He broke at his fastest speed ever to Baki, which seemed to surprise the man before yelling out, "Konoha-Ryu: Mikazuki no Mai (Leaf Style: Dance Of The Crescent Moon)!"
One Hayate became three, as they all assaulted Baki together – two from each of Baki's side and one above him. The one in the air – the real Hayate – only attacked though, coming down with a strike that could take out weaker men, but all it seemed to do is just amuse Baki, despite the older man being stuck with a blade in his shoulder. "Interesting. That is the Mikazuki no Mai, right? A very advanced technique for someone whose so young. I was wrong about you Leaf nin – you are all very strong."
The man deeply chuckled then. "This is very interesting indeed. If I didn't prepare myself for your attack, you could have struck me down. However, you should have know that material blades like your sword can be stopped. Unlike you though," Baki brought forth two fingers in Hayate's view, "A blade of wind cannot be stopped so easily."
Hayate's eyes bugged out. He could sense that immense amount of chakra building up. 'Oh shi-' However, he soon picked up something else at the corner of his eye and watched a sword swoop down to split the two apart. Baki did too, and threw himself out of the way. Hayate had long gone abandoned his sword inside Baki's shoulder.
Baki seemed ticked as he ripped the blade out his shoulder and ignored the small shoulder slice in his jounin vest. "Well then, another sword user it seems? Konoha seems to have some interesting ninjas indeed, especially with someone who look younger than Examiner-san here."
"I don't do much swordplay but I like to think I can swing it a little." The newer figure joked a little, as if his life wasn't in danger.
Hayate looked over at the newer figure. He looked like he belonged in ANBU, almost. The shades on his eyes and the lack of a mask definitely threw that out the window. Not to mention the newcomer was younger him – the newcomer looked like a boy playing ninja or something! Now he knew they made 'em younger these days but this was just plain weird!
"Hey kid," Hayate coughed loudly. "Go tell Hokage-sama what happened tonight, and about the joint invasion of Sand and the Sound. I'll take care of this guy."
"No can do, Hayate-san." The boy said with a honest voice, and gave him an even more honest smile.
Ignoring the boy actually knew his name the best way he could, Hayate shook his head at the boy and coughed lightly. "You're kinda out of your element, kid. Even I'm having some trouble with this guy."
The boy frowned while quickly doing hand seals. He also muttered, "Shit, does everybody not see underneath the underneath or something? I'll show you! Fuuton: Shinkuudan!" In a second, a compressed spear of wind made its way out the mouth of the black haired boy, which made Baki momentarily regret ever saying bad about Leaf Nin. The spear itself looked like it could rip anything in its pathway in half.
Quickly pulling out a stronger attack, the attack he was going to use earlier, he screamed out, "Kaze no Yaiba (Blade of Wind)!" His move, much to his happiness, cut through the huge spear like butter and even absorbed most of it to make it stronger, though he moved straight out the way if it didn't. The invisible longsword attack didn't do its job however in cutting off the head of the child. Instead it soared into the air until the open dark sky absorbed the air again.
Hayate looked at the Blade of Wind technique, paling at the chakra it gave off. Whatever that was, he sure as hell did not want to be attack by it at all.
Baki grunted, now noticing both Hayate and the newcomer disappeared from sight before moving quickly out the way at another attack from Hayate came towards him. Hayate seemed pleased to keep slashing and slashing at him with his ninjato.
Baki had enough and decided to crush into the kenjutsu user's defenses. "Fuuton: Yaiba Kaze Ken (Wind Release: Blade Wind Fist)!" Baki delivered a brutal wind-enhanced punch from his fist. In seconds, small versions of the Blade Of Wind technique released from his fist as the sharp chakra blades came and sliced at Hayate's stomach. He had concentrate so much to the point that if Hayate was hit by it, his stomach would be sliced cleanly open for the world to see.
However he didn't get his stomach opened forcefully, nor did he crumple to the pain. The technique hit 'him' sure, but the technique only hit his clone instead, as it fell down with a 'poof' of smoke. Baki growled out in frustration. This was taking a little too long for his tastes. The more exposure to this outside fighting, the more it was likely ANBU would show and he would have to fight his way out of them, which it seemed very unlikely of a chance of him living. He would not allow that to happen. He could not risk it, as he still had obligations to his village.
He also forgot the boy as well, who appeared at his side with his sword, trying to strike at him with a downwards slash. He grabbed the sword in between his palms, kicked the boy in the stomach hard and forced a kunai down the boy's chest. He tried his best to end it quickly with a stab at a major artery as he didn't want the boy to suffer anymore than he could, but when he saw no blood produce and in fact smoke billow back in his face, he frowned and brought his kunai to him again. The boy and the examiner could both use shadow clones and was both kenjutsu users, almost like they were teacher and student. However, the boy was slower and like he admitted before, wasn't as experienced in swordplay like Gekkou-san, which meant if he caught him first, the man would fall too.
He turned most of his attention to the reappearing boy to who he stomped to with a plan in mind. However the boy did not let him get far as he shot out another attack. "Fuuton: Shippuya!" Another wind elemental attack came towards Baki as small bursts of energy came towards him and like the name of the technique suggested, the bursts were shaped much like arrows.
Baki had less of a problem of dodging this attack and appeared in front of the boy's face again. He slammed a fist into the boy's face before watching him tumble back with a small smirk. However it was wiped off his face again when the boy returned to a cloud of smoke. All these clone he used? What child had that many reserves to do two clones and a few wind release techniques without any trouble?
Hayate shouted out his technique, "Katon: Tora no Iki (Fire Release: Breath Of The Tiger)!" With the tiger hand-seal, a concentrated stream of fire shot out his mouth, as he kept himself high over Baki.
Baki knew he didn't have much options. He couldn't reflect the technique or cut through it like the boy's former moves as wind's natural weakness was fire. He did his best to jump out of the way while the fire stream licked the ground of the rooftop. However, the technique did not end as the fire reformed itself in a creature – a "tiger", as the technique was properly named – and this creature could move! Baki tried his best to dodge the tiger but then it exploded into fire and latched onto Baki.
Hayate saw this and smirked to himself while moving in closely with his sword. The kid had been somewhat of a hindrance at first but he served his purposes on helping him. Baki was down and he would take him down and report back to the Hokage.
The kid also came closer to the enemy, also gripping his sword as well.
With his jacket and face taking burns, any ordinary person could tell he had done battle and it wouldn't take much to put two-to-two together. He had to end this quickly, regardless of the noise it probably would cause.
The black-haired looked over at Baki with a suspicious glance and then realized what the man was about to do as he felt wind chakra wrap around his fist.
Baki summoned wind chakra into his right fist and punched his fist into the air. He shouted, "Fuuton: Yaiba no Kaze Senpuu (Wind Release: Blade of Wind Hurricane)!"
In a large scale, a howling small version of a hurricane summoned itself into real life and the move did its best to draw in both Hayate and the boy. Hayate swore to himself and wrapped his arms around the waist of the boy before throwing him back, and while he suffered the damage of the mini-hurricane. Small cuts of the winds of the hurricane sliced through several parts of his body. If this was how the Blade of Wind felt but tenfold, then he would have surely died before if the boy hadn't gotten in their battle.
Not like he wasn't so sure he wasn't gonna die now anyway. He fell to the ground with a loud "thud". He was completely sure the man disappeared right after, seeing now how he failed to get both of them in the attack. The boy ran over to Hayate's prone form, who had cuts throughout every part of his body, some deeper than others.
"Kid," Hayate coughed violently. The coughing had gotten even worse now. That was so not good. "Forget about me; get to the Hokage and tell him about the Sand and Sound's plans. This won't come to any good if you don't just leave me here."
Arashi resisted the urge to sigh as he wordlessly made a few shadow clones to help pick up the larger man. 'I already know – now shut up and let me help you out, dammit.' "Head off to the hospital. I got to tell the Hokage about this." He ordered the clones as they all worked together to pick up the critically injured Hayate Gekkou.
He also resisted the urge to run off after Kabuto. Like the snake he was, he ran off when he had already sank his teeth into his target's skin. He couldn't got straight after him now, as it would no doubt make too much noise.
Well, this had been an eventful night definitely. He would definitely have to tell what happened now.
Jiraiya and Sarutobi looked down at Sarutobi's crystal ball – one had a neutral look with his face, with a hint of approval in his features. The second one had a face of anger and disappointment on his face.
"That damn brat. I told him he was out of his element when fighting that Baki fellow." Jiraiya gritted his teeth in anger. "I'm so gonna hurt him for this."
"Don't think of this as a defeat, Jiraiya." Sarutobi looked down, his eyes following after 'Arashi' as he made his way to the Hokage Tower.
Jiraiya frowned at his old teacher. "How can't I? We just lost any element of surprise we had. Baki's gonna tip Orochimaru off and-"
"And what?" Sarutobi interrupted, still having an even look on his old face. "Would Orochimaru strike early then? He knows his element of surprise is also blown. We would see him a mile coming away... Not like he was exactly subtle before anyway." Sarutobi lit his pipe up and decided to coolly smoke there, pondering about what's to come. "It is commendable however that Naruto was giving trouble to the jounin, even if that jounin wasn't trying to kill him or cause much of a ruckus."
Jiraiya grunted and nodded. Naruto did seem much stronger than he was giving him credit, and it wasn't him that compromised Hayate's position; he even seemed to save the boy from death. Medic ninjas always had problems fixing wind element attacks as it not only inflicted external damage on the body but also internal. Treating him would take hours, but it would be much better than him never coming back and being left on that rooftop. Maybe Naruto should be given some credit after all. He saved the life of a fellow ninja and that was always noble instead of chasing after someone who would eventually get away.
Maybe he didn't need to knock Naruto's block off.
"Hokage-sama, I'm here with some information-" And the clone of Naruto was slammed hard into the wall, dropping the advanced form of the Transformation technique. Okay, maybe he did hit Naruto a little too hard with the way Sarutobi was glaring at him. Geez, when did he become such a Tsunade?
A blonde haired woman in an unspecific, far away casino sneezed uncontrollably. This did nothing to help her in her game, as another amount of her chips were taken away. 'Dammit, I hope I ain't coming down with a cold. This is the third time I sneezed tonight and I lost another 10,000 ryou – it's bad luck, I tell ya!'
End.
A/N: Thought I wouldn't update, huh? Yeah, I did! It took longer than I thought, though. Originally, I thought this would be short but this ended up being much longer than it was intended, so I guess that's good... Sigh. Okay, well then, umm... here you go!
I originally intended no combat, outside the training sessions, in this chapter but that scene came in my head and I had to write it down. 20+ fucking pages of this crap man! Took me nearly a long time to finish it too but here it is.
Alright, so we got a lot to talk about. First, Sakura doesn't know Tsunade's fighting style at all. She just seen something in a book and decided to replicate for her benefit. In fact some ninjas are shown to actually lace their limbs with chakra to enhance their strength, even by a little. Sakura actually starting to get the idea of it. She's not adept in it, and it does take a lot of strength out of her. Now am I planning for Tsunade to take Sakura under her wing? Yeah why not? She's gonna need an extra edge.
Second, Naruto's element is wind, so earth techniques will take some time to learn any earth-related move, especially since Jiraiya doesn't want him to use his clones. This also shows that Naruto isn't capable of doing everything he tries first. However, I am planning for Naruto to learn techniques out his own elemental affinity. You'll know what these other elements are soon enough.
Third, Shikamaru knowing some fire related techniques seem to be a interesting route that I seen not a lot of people take, so yes, he'll know some. Oh shit, I ruined the surprise about his element... Oh well...
Four, yes, Tenten knows Dynamic Entry. It was in the anime, so yeah... and it's just for comedic relief. Sighs of relief for those Tenten fans, I know. Don't worry, she won't be wearing any leotards anytime sooner. Maybe take off Lee's – wolf whistles and cat calls y'all! – but that's about it. Heh.
Fifth, I got plans for Naruto after the Chunnin Exams, whether or not I plan to keep Sarutobi alive in this one. He's got many tracking skills now, so I think he'll be perfect for what I got planned for him. You already know what I got planned for him, so there isn't much else to say.
Other than that, y'all enjoy the chapter? I hope y'all did. I kept Hayate alive – yay? – in the process of them fighting. Will he be important to the story? Not really. Maybe he will be in another chapter or two but nothing much else after that. I probably made some Hayate fans highly happy... me? I don't... really care that much about him. Coughs...
Well then! Up next: Kabuto and Orochimaru discuss this outcome, while the exams start up. The first match up is Rock Lee vs Temari, and next match is Sakura Haruno vs Shikamaru. Cheers to not messing that up. Maybe even some cameos from some characters who desperately need to be in this damn story. Some ass kicking from everybody and more! Until then, fare thee well.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the original techniques from there, not even "Blade Of Wind Hurricane" technique, which appeared in the Naruto: Clash Of Ninja games. I only own my techniques listed lower, nothing more. Hoped you guys enjoyed this chapter!
And now! The technique list!
Fire Release: Breath Of The Tiger (Katon: Tora no Iki) – A concentrate fire stream is shot down to where the enemy stands. While the stream itself can hurt the enemy, the real twist of this technique is the flames – with another hand seal (Ram) – can reshape into an actual flaming tiger. This tiger can move in and attack the opponent, so as long the user is nearby holding the technique. With getting close to the enemy, the tiger explodes into flames again and attack the opponent. The only weakness this technique seem to have is when turning the stream into a tiger, the user must hold the hand seal to keep the tiger from returning to flames again.
Rank: B
Chakra Usage: Medium
Technique Class: Offensive
Type/Classification: Ninjutsu
Hand Seals: Tiger (To make the stream); Ram (To turn the stream into a tiger)
Range: Short-range
Users: Hayate Gekkou
Fire Release Shadow Clone Technique (Katon Kage Bunshin no Jutsu) – This technique fuses the ideas of a fire release technique and the Shadow Clone. First Jiraiya converts chakra into fire and creates a shadow clone with it. This technique acts much like a regular shadow clone, only instead of it becoming smoke when it is 'killed', it explodes into flames and attacks the opponent.
Rank: None
Chakra Usage: High
Technique Class: Supplementary/Offensive
Type/Classification: Ninjutsu
Hand Seals: None
Range: N/A
Shadow World Sound Barrier (Kage Sekai Oto Kekkai) – This technique can completely block out the sounds of the world and it from whomever is placed in the barrier. It is described as an "invisible bubble" that surrounds anything inside its vicinity. No one will see the barrier at all and not notice anything out of place if they are not directly in front of it.
Rank: None
Chakra Usage: High
Technique Class: Supplementary
Type/Classification: Ninjutsu
Hand Seals: Dog → Bird → Dragon → Monkey → Rat → Monkey
Range: Short-range
Users: Hiruzen Sarutobi
Wind Release: Blade Wind Fist (Fuuton: Yaiba Kaze Ken) – The son of its parent technique "Blade Of Wind", this technique takes that technique's chakra and concentrates it one singular punch instead of the "longsword" affect that the other technique has said to have. With a punch, the user cuts into the opponent's targeted area. The concentration is so great the attack is said to be even deadly than the original Blade Of Wind as it concentrates all the blades of wind associated in the technique to one area, easily able to dig into an opponent's body and do both great external and internal damage.
Rank: None
Chakra Usage: High
Technique Class: Offensive
Type/Classification: Ninjutsu/Taijutsu
Hand Seals: None
Range: Short-range
Users: Baki
I do not own any other techniques that came up in this fic that I did not make personally. If it ain't listed, it's not made by me.
Anyway, enough of that. See you all soon enough!